Some Breathing Room?

It's time to share the shop. Here's what's happening as the semester draws to a close:

We have a guest! Printer Jim Dissette, Washington College alumnus and Sophie Kerr Prize winner now lives in the Print Shop during the day. He arrived earlier this week with an ambitious goal: to design and print a book in 10 days. One Story magazine, which publishes one story each month, has chosen "Beanball" by Ron Carlson as its 100th story. Because we Lit House junkies recently hung out with the magazine's editor, Hannah Tinti, for a week when she was our first Mary Wood Fellow, The Literary House asked Jim to come down and print 100 copies for a fine letterpress book edition of the story to celebrate the landmark.
Jim estimated that this job will require around 360,000 impressions - that is, he has to turn the lever for the Vandercook cylinder press 360,000 times before the job is done. Mac and I have elected to lend him a hand.

President Tipson loved the holiday cards the Advanced Workshop printed last year, so much so that we've got the job again this year. We're printing 2,500 cards and envelopes, but with two different colors on the fronts of the cards and a colophon on the backs, we're facing down 10,000 impressions. Each card passes through a platen press three times, and each envelope once.

And finally, in the Advanced Workshop, we still have to finish our Project #2. Last night, Lindsay trooped along and printed the quote on 348 sheets of paper. The next steps are to print our cover image and colophon. We have to get this job done before Jim needs the Vandercook to start printing "Beanball."

Last night we had three presses running at once! Lindsay ran the Vandercook, Marian ran the motorized platen press, and I ran the treadle platen press. Mac popped in and helped, too. It was a great relief for Mike, who has spent the past week and a half wrestling with the motorized platen press. It needed a new belt, but now the pulley and motor system needs to be readjusted, and it required a lot of fiddling and banging. Thanks to Mike, it finally works, but it makes a ferocious rattling roar when it's on.

If only all this excitement wasn't tempered by looming exams.