Almost

It doesn't take long for letterpress to rub off on you.
The Cold Moon Press catalog commission is almost finished. The last of the paper has finally arrived (after some maneuvering on my end), so this week I will finish the printing. And then, as soon as the ink has safely dried, I will begin binding all these little guys. 

I'm almost sad for this project to end. I have had a lot of fun with it, getting to try new techniques and getting more practiced with the ones with which I'm already quite a bit familiar. I'm always learning something new with letterpress and I love that. 

I've even been enjoying the boring bits like finding and ordering materials and supplies: HahnemΓΌhle Ingres antique paper from ArtPaper (and when they're out of stock, from FineArtStore); the heavier stock white Stonehenge paper from ArtPaper; fun and gorgeous end papers from Paper Mojo; Irish waxed linen thread in slate grey from ArtPaper (and when they're out of stock, from Minor Details on Etsy). 

That was really the only problem I found: these awesome suppliers won't necessarily have everything you want at the quantity you need in stock. But there are real people behind these web facades and they are small businesses with a passion for high quality materials. (And I was always able to get a quick and honest response when I needed to know, "Will I be able to get that by next week so I can meet my project deadline?") But with the help of Google, I was able to find an alternative source in a pinch for the rest of the specific materials I needed. Combined their forces, so to speak.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There are birds here

Image
We are now in the full porch-swing of summer, which means Summer Poetry Salons at my beloved Lit House. In celebration of the second salon of the summer on June 24 (tomorrow!), I was given the unbelievably fun task of designing and printing a letterpress broadside for Jamaal May's poem "There Are Birds Here,"  a love song for Detroit. As much I loved this poem on my first reading (and second and third), it was a particularly difficult design challenge. Don't get me wrong — there are so many ways  to illustrate this poem because it is so packed with images. But to illustrate it in a way that actually adds to the text, that builds on the complex foundation set down by the poet — that is the challenge to be met. That is the challenge we always aim to meet at the Literary House Press .   So that means no birds and no buildings. For me, those are the two most obvious, but least important images in this poem. Those details are just the shell around the ...
Read more

"Imago" on Hannibal season finale

Image
While watching the eagerly-awaited season 2 finale of Hannibal (one of my absolute favorite TV shows of the moment), I was happily surprised when a vocabulary lesson emerged mid-conversation between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. — "Do you know what an imago is, Will?" — "It's a flying insect." — "It's the last stage of a transformation." — "When you become who you will be?" — "It's also a term from the dead religion of psychoanalysis. An imago is an image of a loved one, buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives." — "An ideal." — "The concept of an ideal." Of course this term, in both of its definitions, has some great significance for me. It is a word I didn't even know until I stumbled across it in my dictionary browsing and knew immediately that this is the title of my chapbook . It was perfect. So when it snuck up on me again in my favorite TV show, in...
Read more

On the end of a year & a decade: 2019

Image
In this last month of the year, I've had five poems accepted by three different literary journals and two new reviews of my book appear in The Cincinnati Review  and Harbor Review . I also completed the letterpress printing of the Rossetti Prize broadside for American Literary Review , designs for four more digital broadsides , and the initial edits & contributor proofs for Cherry Tree 's sixth issue. Whew! It's been an amazing and overwhelming and utterly fulfilling year ; and I'm riding into the new year on 2019's coattails.  Also featuring the gorgeous handmade scarf that Jehanne Dubrow wove for me this past year. One of my favorite December inventories will always be reflecting on a year's worth of personal accomplishments and progress. By the time the end of the year arrives, it's so easy to forget all that happened just a few short months ago. Making a list has a way of bringing it all into perspective. Here's my roundup for the yea...
Read more