Chandler and Price OS finished ~

Well I can't believe it's been a month already! How time flies. My new press is almost ready for printing. Getting new trucks is the last step! Yeah! The refurbishment was challenging but fun! After a good cleaning the press looked ten pounds lighter. It is now also treadle powered instead of motorized. Maybe someday I'll re-motorize but I wanted a more direct experience with the press. Here are a few more pictures of the process.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8752626@N05/sets/72157624085009643/

Chandler and Price ~

We have recently acquired a 8 x 12 C&P OS platen press.

I'm so thrilled! We found it about an hour drive from us and it was even at ground level! In fact just feet from the garage door. It was pouring rain the day we chose to move it so I was very happy when a friend offered his covered motorcycle trailer for the move. This trailer is nice and low and has a long ramp which made winching it up quite easy. There was a nice break in the rain which gave us the time we needed to get it loaded.

Apparently it was slated to be scrapped and the owner of the building didn't want to see that happen so had decided to just store it in the garage of a rental home. I don't know how long it had been stored there but now it's home. And the cleaning has begun. I have even uncovered original gold pinstriping. I think all of the grease on it has helped preserve it.

I have posted some pictures on Flickr and will post more when the press is all refurbished.

New prop card ~

One day while double checking how the blog was bought up in a general search I came across another Purple Raven Press! I thought I had searched thoroughly for any other press named similarly when I registered the press name over a year ago. It seems a poetry book published by PRP and for sale on the internet brought this other PRP back to the surface of the web. Research at the Library of Congress also had this book in it's online databse. As a result of changing the press name to The Purple Raven Printery new prop cards were needed. A nice project for the first blustery weekend in March. ~

ATF Specimen Book & Catalog 1923 page ~

I picked up this book recently and I was pleasantly surprised to see my city in this book! I'll have to drive by the address and see what is there now.
This is an amazing book. It boggles the mind to think of the time and labor put into it.

Nesting ~

It's been a long winter here (record snowfall) in the Pacific Northwest and I think it will be here a while more. Last spring I brought home an S&L Oldstyle Gordon and a bunch of associated paraphernalia. I have spent the winter going through the type that came with the press. I also aquired a Hamilton type cabinet and about twenty sets of type from that purchase. The type and cabinet were from a third generation local printer. This is about the last of the type they have and are now all offset I believe except for numbering and such. But joy for me! I removed all of the type from the cases to resort it and to refurbish the cabinet. As I was doing this I noticed how much super-fine but heavy dust was on the type that came from the bottom most cases. I was nervous about lead oxide dust until I saw how like new the condition of the type was. Then it ocurred to me, we had a volcano explode in Washington in 1980 (Mt. St. Helens) which left quite a bit of ash layered about. I don't think the type had been disturbed since then!
We also finished a remodel which allowed for a move of all of my creative supplies, furniture and equipment into a room that up until then had been occupied. A huge problem solved! So I have spent a good portion of the last year nesting! It has gone by so fast! I'm very close to being done sorting the type I have aquired, and I have learned so much in the process. I have been putting it all in forms so I can organize it how I want in the cabinet. It's amazing how one's perceptions change. What I thought may have been a slightly boring font suddenly became wonderful after seeing it up close and personal. Little treasures for my nest. ~

So here are some pictures of my place in the world.

I printed out a diagram of a California Job case to sort type on. Very handy.

Three 11 x 17 prints, one of each section, taped together are just about the size of a real case.

Sigwalt No5.

Nolan proof press.

My first larger sized project using type!

Printed on the Nolan. This print is 10 in x 15 in. The text is printed over a woodcut.

The Vandercook 14 and refurbished cabinet.

When the S&L is done I intend to install it to the right of the cabinet. Then I think I will be out of allowed space in my husbands/our shop. ;o)

Finishing the Raven print ~

This is the press setup for the last color, black.

Here is the finished print. ~ "The Raven"



Here is an excerpt from the tale written in 1634 by Giambattista Basile.

-The King, seeing the bright red blood sprinkled upon the white, white marble, heaved a deep sigh and exclaimed, "O heavens! and cannot I have a wife as white and red as this stone, and with hair and eyebrows as black as the feathers of this raven?" And he stood for a while so buried in this thought... -

Progress on Raven print ~

Working on the last block for the Raven print.

The block on the easel will be a dark grey. The one in progress uses the same image transferred to the block as the grey. It will be carved a little bigger on the perimeter, have carving for feathers and will print in black over the grey.