Labor Day Weekend 2009

Chris and I went to Tennessee for Labor Day weekend this year. We went to a Vols game and celebrated my mom and sisters birthdays.


A house on the UT campus that I've never really paid attention to but have walked past thousands of times

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

A sea of orange during the Vol Walk--our first sighting of Lane Kiffin!

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

The Pride!

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

My favorite thing in the world! Running through the T!

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

If you look closely you can see Smokey running across the end zone after a touchdown!

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

I never knew that UT had these beautiful gardens on the Ag campus...but of course I never had any reason to go over there, except to look for the body farm!

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

The Vol Navy

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

Celebrating mama and Tracy's birthday on Sunday

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

From Labory Day Weekend 2009--Tennessee

Look at this face

This is Ben. We are visiting his parents this weekend and he got a bath for our visit! Looks like he's saying "oh the things I go through for you"

More letterpress

I did some printing today and took pictures of some of the steps.  Here you can see my hands on the movable type that creates the impression on the paper.  I am adding "furniture" (the pieces of wood) around the type so that I can "lock it up" for printing.

From Letterpress

Putting the chase (the metal frame that holds the type) into the press

From Letterpress

Putting blue ink on the press

From Letterpress

Manually turning the flywheel to test out the press

From Letterpress

I mixed blue and black ink to make navy

From Letterpress

This is a close up of the type.  Each individual letter is a piece of lead.  I worked on the type for several nights this week.  It takes a lot of patience to set this type--this is how entire newspapers used to be printed!  I can also print from magnesium plates if I want to print something like a design for an invitation, etc. (that is much less time consuming, but more expensive)

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

The type in the press with the rollers with ink below it

From Letterpress

A video of me printing!  

It's here!

The move went very smoothly thanks to a mover who knew exactly what he was doing. He is the director and curator of the International Printing Museum

From Letterpress

Chris unloading one of the type chests

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

Mark used a pallet jack to get the press off the trailer and on wheels

From Letterpress

Pushing it around the garage

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

I am trying to confirm this but I believe my press is actually 1250 pounds and was built in 1895!

From Letterpress

Getting ready for the 1500 pound baby

Change of plans...the letterpress is coming TOMORROW (Friday) instead of Saturday. We had a lot left to do to the garage so tonight we hung the drywall. The garage we have is just a one car garage that is purely for storage--it's not anything special. We took out all the old, moldy insulation and hung drywall. All of the stuff on the right has got to find a new home, also.

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

Chris let me drill some of the screws so that I could say I helped:)  I was unsure of using this thing...

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

I told Chris is was kind of like getting a nursery ready for a baby thats coming earlier than expected.  He said it was a pretty bad nursery!  Good enough for my 1500 pound baby, though!

Sneak peeks of my new baby

My friend Erin, the current owner of the letterpress, sent me some pictures of the press this morning.  I have to share!

From Letterpress

From Letterpress

This is a picture of a chest of type

From Letterpress

A drawer of type.  Each drawer is one font and each little compartment is one letter

From Letterpress

A close up of the type 

From Letterpress

These are some pictures of our wedding invites, inserts, programs and menus....all printed on this press!!!  These were not made by hand setting type like you see above.  A photopolymer plate was made from a digital image and pressed into the paper.  I found the best calligrapher EVER in Massachusetts, Maria Thomas at Pendragon.  She wrote out our invitations and then I had the plate created to press from and here they are.  They were my favorite thing from our wedding (besides Chris, of course!)  Check out more of her amazing products on her online store, Maria Thomas Online.

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

From Professional Pre-wedding pictures and wedding ceremony pictures

An exciting announcement!

Many of you know of my love of letterpress.  It started while planning our wedding.  I really fell in love with it and with the help of a friend, we ended up printing our own invitations, programs, menus, etc on a letterpress.  

That friend has recently had a baby and is ready to pass on this beautiful machine to another owner....and that owner would be me!  I am thrilled beyond belief.  The move will not be easy as the press weighs about 1500 pounds.  I am also inheriting a chest full of type so that I will be ready to print!  For those of you that do not know, letterpress is an extremely old form of printing with moveable type.  Early newspapers were printed this way as well as the Gutenberg Bibles .   The process is very slow and labor intensive, hence the expense of letterpress goods, but I love it and hope someday to make a side job out of it.  

Chris and I went to the International Printing Museum a few weeks ago and took some pictures of presses.  Letterpresses are no longer made and about 25 years ago was almost a complete lost art.  It has had a resurgence in the past few years, but is very limited by accessibility to the presses.

This is a picture similar to the press I am getting

From International Printing Museum

This is a Heidelberg Windmill press

From International Printing Museum

A room full of type chests

From International Printing Museum

This press is similar to the one Benjamin Franklin used

From International Printing Museum

A room full of presses

From International Printing Museum