whimspiration: letterpress workshop

My love for letterpress has been growing over the years and I was finally able to see the real deal in action a few weekends ago. Quality Letterpress is a local shop here in San Diego run by Tim Butler. Tim has nearly 30 years of experience with letterpress and I've been trying to get into one of his classes for nearly a year. I have no need for creative business cards or wedding invitations but if I won the lottery, a real press to quench my hobbyist thirst would definitely be on the menu! QL is one man deep so Tim is a pretty busy guy. When he is able to squeeze in a workshop, there are only 2 spaces per 4 hour class and they fill up fast so I was beyond excited when he offered a last minute class that actually fit my own busy schedule.

The workshop starts with a tour of the shop and some history of the process, the machines and techniques. There are 5 presses from tabletop size to ginormous and drawers upon drawers of type. In fact, Tim recommended having an idea of something you'd like to print before arrival because you could easily spend the entire four hours just looking through drawers.

i'd love a table top this size (hear that santa?!)

this is an original news plate from the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor

treasure map

I decided to create some stationery using my initial and one of my favorite quotes from Jack Kerouac. Since we did everything by hand instead of using a newer method of polymer plates, it took a little trial and error to set things just right but that was part of the fun for me.