Georgianne Liesch and Jennifer Anne at the Pantograph with finished type. (Michael Ditmer)

Fri., Nov. 6 | George, Jennifer, and David gave an in-depth overview of the process of making wood type at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum. George, whose father ran the type shop at Hamilton and owned his own printing business, now works with apprentice Jennifer to keep the traditional techniques alive. [Read more]

Building printing forms with furniture and reglets. A form on the Cary Graphic Art Collection’s Vandercook SP20. (Val Lucas)

Suzanne Powney: “Printing Expressively with Furniture and Reglet, a Typographic Map”

9 am-noon  friday, october 23

In this workshop, participants were shown that the horizontal beds of a Vandercook proof press and an Albion hand press are ideal for printing wood furniture and reglets—materials not normally thought of as relief surfaces—to create printing forms in the shape of maps and skylines. To inspire us, instructor Suzanne Powney shared pages from her 2015 calendar that used this technique. [Read more]

Left: a page of . Every page has illustrations surrounded by texts. Right: book cover exhibiting burnished design. (Val Lucas)

Kazuko Hioki and Anne Covell’s presentation took us from the Edo period in Japan (1603–1868) to the present day at the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book. Kazuko displayed examples of Japanese books, which were mostly side-sewn folded sheets printed from finely carved woodblocks. Some had embossed and decorated covers created from layers of recycled and dyed paper. [Read more]

Columbian hand press, composing room. (Val Lucas)

Any letterpress enthusiast visiting San Francisco will want to make the effort to visit Arion Press and M&H Type located in the Presidio. Founded in 1974 by publisher-designer Andrew Hoyem, Arion Press produces two to three limited editions per year employing craftsmanship in the fine printing tradition. Augmented by M&H Type, it is a full-service operation creating exquisite works and creative collaborations with many contemporary artists. The Grabhorn Institute is the nonprofit umbrella organization. [Read more]