learning letterpress

In the fall of 2019, I signed up for the print sampler class at SNAP, back in a previous building, the one on Jasper ave. I remember walking through the doors and past the flat lay cabinet on the right, only to look left and see what I now know as racks of letterpress furniture. It was like a step back in time and as if I knew what everything was meant for while also not having a clue how it all fit together. I was in awe. That meant that I had to think about it, and look at all of the machinery for another several years before hiring an expert to help me decode it all. This was Dawn Woolsey, and the time was now.

Lori with dawn woolsey in the snap workshop, letterpress division

Dawn showed up with a nineteen-page instructions set including the history of letterpress and several decades’ worth of design experience and hundreds of hours on the vandercook and challenge presses. She taught me to set type, prepare ink, calibrate the rollers, do the makeready, align the paper, and pull a print without smudging. (Did I miss anything?!) It’s the kind of work that I found myself both in a state of flow at and completely exhausted by afterward. As in, best time ever.

Video description: Dawn showing how to tighten a type line in the makeready.

Our Makeready

Video description: Dawn prepares the print surface and inks the type by tripping the rollers.

several sheets of letterpressed kitchen idoms printed and drying on a table

A newer iteration of the letterpress setup and furniture storage area