Can we bring back the roller skating? At central print?

Print featuring Dickens quote: The Printer. Without him, tyrants and humbugs in all countries would have their own way. He is a friend of intelligence and thought, a friend of liberty, of freedom, of law, indeed, the friend of every man who is a friend of order. Of all inventions, of all discoveries in science and art, of all the great results in the wonderful progress of mechanical energy and skill, the printers is the only product of civilization necessary to the existence of free men.

Spotted in one of my favorite bathrooms (in a print shop). A little pep talk for my fellow inky friends.

Tiny metal catchwords locked in a composing stick for letterpress printing.

Doing a bit of writing about catchwords for letterpress printing and pulled together a collection of samples in my shop. Absolutely delightful.

🙋‍♀️

Close up of two sided print showing letterpress printing on one side and an offset printed back side showing the type form used to print it.

Happy Titanic day to all who celebrate. This satirical print was part of a series in 2012ish showcasing my type collection at the time. The broadside is printed with type created prior to 1912, with the back side offset-printed to show a photo of the form. More:
www.starshaped.com/blog/2013/01...

I’ll be bugging you… just got some western ornaments in the shop but I don’t have a specimen to identify if they’re part of a set.

Someone collected images of these somewhere didn’t they?

Mostly… but printing them would take a little effort 😉 Not type high!

Ooh. Those are Mackellar, right?

Close up of spacing material for letterpress printing that shows labels of type foundries cast into it.

Metal type foundries used to cast their names into non-printing spacing material. When I find it in the shop I pull it aside. Barnhart Bros. & Spindler (BB&S) and Western (WTF) were Chicago-based foundries.

Close up of the metal animal faces.

Wood type form for the poster.

A few form shots for the Animals poster.

A large poster with blocky type that features the Melvin quote ‘our animals make us better people. And if we’re better people, the world’s a better place’.

Happy National Pet Day to everyone, and especially astronaut Leland Melvin, who famously snuck his dogs into his official NASA photo. This poster is a combo of wood type and little metal ornament animal faces. #letterpress
www.starshaped.com/postersprint...

Seeing their interactions with Cookie Monster just about exploded my heart.

Type specimen book sitting on top of cases or metal type ornaments.

Another hot Friday night identifying metal type ornaments and ogling my fave specimen book (Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan). #letterpress

Nope. Most function for small card printing and some in this collection were ‘toys for boys’ that also printed.

Palm sized printing press in green.

Itty bitty no. 4 in green!

Small palm sized cast iron printing press.

Itty Bitty no. 3. With hand detailing!

Small, half height type printing press fitting in a palm.

Itty bitty no. 2

Small sigwalt printing press fitting in the palm of a hand.

Who wants to see itty bitty printing presses?

Metal type form for one of the stars.

One of the star type forms.

Close up of print with two of four Chicago stars built from metal type and ornaments. They feature buildings with text ‘community’ and ‘education’.

Happy birthday to the Chicago flag. I recreated it a few years back for a show, turning the stripes and stars into elements of the city.
More here: www.starshaped.com/chicago/fiel...

Indeed it is!

I love the credit thing. Because it feels like such a treat when you haven’t used them in a bit and then suddenly you get a bunch of books all at once. Wee!

Type form image of the print.

And the type!

Close up of print in blue and brown inks on white paper. Says ‘we are all just figuring it out’ in cross stitch-style type with an ornate border.

Latest Print Club print. One of my favorite wonky metal typefaces in the shop. @bowerbox.com can weigh in!

Money CAN buy happiness!

Metal type form with borders around text in the middle that says ‘doing my best’.

Doing my best! #letterpress

Read more here: www.starshaped.com/anopenletter...

‘A lifetime of living with chronic illness makes patients and caregivers the experts regarding their specific condition. You’re a team member, not the captain. Have the courage to say ‘I don’t know.’

‘Without experiencing illness firsthand, it’s impossible to truly and definitively understand what it does to your body and mind. Heartfelt empathy goes a long way.’

‘Don’t assume patients are caregivers are too dumb to understand complex health issues. Don’t assume they’re incapable of handling honest truths about diagnoses.’

‘Pain is real. It’s experienced in different ways by different people and it changes you. It doesn’t automatically make patients drug seekers. 1 standard protocol doesn’t fit all.’

Happy National Doctors Day to the docs that did not inspire my artist book, An Open Letter to Doctors, and not to those that did. Here are 4 of 10 pages of things I want them to know.

Flat card laying on top of letterpress forms used to print it that has the Diane de Prima quote ‘no one way works, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down’.

Printed for @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social years ago. No one way works.