Letterpress of our dreams

We finally acquired a letterpress, after years of dreaming and assuming we would never have the space or money to acquire one. We got incredibly lucky when a local dude close to retirement decided he didn’t need one for his printing business anymore, and we just so happened to spot it on the local online marketplace. It was for an extremely reasonable price, in perfect condition, and he was even willing to deliver for $50. We oculdn’t be luckier— though I was definitely anxious about it surviving the ride on the truck, which seemed to be actively disintegrating under his feet as he lowered it into our alley.

Just as lucky, we had just happened to finally clean up the garage the month before and install a heat source for winter. It felt like the stars aligned in a big way. We decided to test it for the first time on reprinting booklet covers for my broom zine with a type I found on ebay- two brooms tied with ribbons, seemingly from an old newspaper. It was a beautiful Sunday, printing covers and making hot ham and rolls on the new wood stove.

I am very lucky that my partner Tom studied letterpress in college and is able to show me how it works!

I spent maple sugar season at my sugar shack writing and revising my zine, Plain Living II & Plain Living I, which are works I began around 2012 when I started urban homesteading for the first time as a diy punk in chicago, Il. It was a fun project to work on while tending to my maple taps, and even more fun to be able to print more covers by hand. The hunt for good letterpress pieces is like foraging on eBay. I was very happy with the results and I look forward to experimenting more with the letterpress over the next few years (until we die, because I am never moving this piece of equipment again!)