Printing Bookmarks for Outbound Train: Part II, by Renea Winchester
If you’re new to my blog please read part one of this story here.
It wasn’t enough to sew the bookmarks, I quickly realized they missed something crucial, a way of identifying the book title. So I enlisted the help of Jeff Marley, knower of all things Heritage Arts. The Heritage Arts Center -located in Bryson City, North Carolina on Southwestern Community College’s Swain Campus- is filled with hidden resources. Known for housing a phenomenal pottery studio, many locals do not realize the Heritage Arts Center also offers printmaking classes. Today I’m pleased to write about one of the printing presses located there, the Challenge Proof Press.
Jeff took one look at my sewn-bookmark and in less than a minute sketched a prototype on a scrap piece of paper. His concept blew anything I could imagine off-world. We would print a tag complete with custom-blended ink.
Y’all !
[image error]Individual Letters are selected from California Job Cases
Just the thought of touching a printing press gave me chills. The Heritage Arts Center houses two rolling print presses circa 1960s. Think back to when newspapers (and basically ALL forms of printed communication) were first “laid out” by teams of typesetters who literally selected every single letter and formed every single word which they “set” in the confines of a composing stick creating words BACKWARDS, before sending to press.
Jeff, who is wise in the ways of typesetting quickly realized the process overwhelmed me. I didn’t even know which font to select from the type case. The Heritage Arts Center has many California Job Cases filled with a variety of fonts including the Cherokee language. Read about the Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper here. Jeff grabbed several trays and placed them on the desk, a process that in-and-of-itself made me nervous because if the trays dropped, catastrophe!
After determining the best font, we used a California Job Case sheet, a key-chart that helps a modern-day typesetter locate appropriate letters within the tray.
[image error]Behold: Outbound Train by Renea Winchester
With the wording NIART DNUOBTUO (Outbound Train) placed, I stepped aside and watched Jeff’s knowledge of the press began to shine. One simply can’t just place the letters onto the metal bed, you must secure them using wooden blocks, and in this case, wedge tiny slivers of metal (leading spacers) in place, and then secure everything with a tool. Trust me, when the mighty ink roller presses paper across those metal letters, the letters must hold.
[image error]Jeff Blending the Ink
God gifts some folk with an eye for color. Those who don’t need a color wheel to blend the absolute perfect shade. Jeff has that gift. After we talked about an ink color, Jeff scooped two globs from a jar and began blending. Friends, here is where I got a little worried. To my untrained eye, I thought the ink would be dark as pitch. There was a heap of black on the blending table, but like a baker making bread, Jeff folded the ink, pressed and turned it, working it like dough until the color was nothing short of perfection.
I almost cried.
[image error]Paper Cutting
Relying again upon his expertise, Jeff selected the appropriate-weighted paper which would accept the ink. We then cut the cards using a paper cutter weighing about 400-500 pounds. The blade sliced the paper like butter.
Then he applied ink to the press, flipped the switch and I watched ink disperse evenly
[image error]The Press Distributing Ink
across the rollers. Soon, the silver rollers took on the rich maroon color. Apologies for the blurry image, there are a lot of moving parts in a printing press.
With the lettering and blocks in place, and the rollers ink ready, it was time to feed paper through the rollers. Falling into a rhythm, one must press a foot pedal with their left foot, feed paper under the clip, crank the roller toward the right, watch the machine press ink onto the paper, retrieve the finished product, and crank the roller back in place ready for another card. This techniques is repeated and quickly comes as easily as breathing.
Friends, this process is nothing short of sacred. Kinkos or Vista Print cannot, ever, compare.
[image error]We collected the tags, placed them on drying racks and as you can see, attached to the bookmarks, they are complete and especially lovely with the train “charms” gifted to me by a fantastic reader.
I don’t think it’s possible for me to press any more love into a handmade bookmark, do you?
Firefly Southern Fiction will release Outbound Train, April 1, 2020. Those who pre-order through their bookstore, or medium of choice, will receive a bookmark by emailing their receipt to reneawrites (@) gmail.com. Remember to remove the parenthesis ( ) when sending the email. It is placed here to prevent my email from being spammed.
