Page 13 - Allisons Magazine Issue #91

like stencils, on the press to perform What makes a visit most satisfying in
what printers call “pressure printing.” your eyes? What type of printshop
!e di"erences in paper thickness create makes you most excited?
areas of high and low pressure, which !ere are so many reasons a shop
allow you to create imagery and shapes visit can be great. It might be in an
that would otherwise be impossible. incredible setting, like Menagerie Press
It produces frosty, expressionistic in Terlingua, Texas, in the shadow of
results, which are uncommon in the Chisos Mountains; or it might
letterpress printing. have incomparable resources, like the
Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type
You have a lot of inkwipe prints on Collection in Austin, Texas; or it might
your Instagram. Can you talk about just have cool, forward-thinking, and
what these are? indefatigable people like Striped Light
!ese are experimental prints that are in Knoxville, Tennessee. It can be the
made on the letterpress, but they aren’t place. It can be the type and presses. It
made in the traditional way. Instead of can be the people. But when all three of
using movable type and setting a forme, those things come together, that’s when
inking it, and making a print, the rollers it’s magic.
are inked and then sheets of paper are
passed directly through the rollers. !e kind of shop that makes me most
Normally, this kind of operation would excited, though, is one that has an
simply be used to take extra ink o" the imitable vision or style, like Popolo Press
press or to help clean it at the end of the in Montreal, because I can’t wait to be
day. But the resulting inkwipe sheets are submerged in that creative pool. To learn more about Chris and his printer pilgrimages,
so compelling and beautiful, with layers check out his video at americanlifestylemag.com/video

© Brandy Barker of ink and solvent, that they’re hard to What personality traits make you
throw away. C IQQF ƂV HQT VJKU V[RG QH YQTM!
What about your personality makes with so many people is emotionally
“ I BELIEVE THE FUTURE OF Technically, they’re monotypes made it challenging? and physically exhausting. Sometimes I
!is is an insightful question. I think
with ink and solvent. But I like to
need a little while to recharge, and I’ll
LETTERPRESS PRINTING call them letterpress prints, because that I’m good at mirroring people’s just #nd myself sitting in the car in total
personalities, and that allows me to
it starts a conversation about what
silence, doing absolutely nothing.
ISN’T ABOUT FOLLOWING modern letterpress printing is. I believe relate to them in a way that makes them
A STAID COURSE, AND IT the future of letterpress printing isn’t comfortable. If they’re quiet, I recognize Have you formed lasting friendships
ISN’T ABOUT PRODUCING about following a staid course, and it that and approach them quietly; if during this trip?
isn’t about producing a product that
they’re bombastic, I can dial things up a
So many. I can honestly say that I’m
A PRODUCT THAT LOOKS looks like a novelty. It’s about using the bit and make them feel at home. I also still in close contact with more than 75
LIKE A NOVELTY. IT’S tools available to you, including the assess immediately if they approach the percent of the people I’ve met along the
ABOUT USING THE TOOLS machines themselves, in a creative way. world in a visceral way, an academic way. One of the things that I’ve enjoyed
AVAILABLE TO YOU, A student at Virginia Commonwealth way, an emotional way, and so on. !at’s most is how printing brings people
important, because once you realize
University asked me, “Do you think
together, so the friends I’ve made aren’t
INCLUDING THE MACHINES that you’re painting with a letterpress?” what their motivations and predilections just similar people with similar interests
THEMSELVES, IN A And, although I’d never thought of it are, you can learn more from them or aesthetics—they’re of all ages, in
CREATIVE WAY. that way before, it seemed like an apt and ask better questions. !e greatest all di"erent circumstances, making all
characterization. Since that time, I’ve challenge probably comes from the di"erent kinds of work.
seen all kinds of parallels with abstract fact that I do need a lot of time alone, For more info, visit itinerantprinter.com
expressionist painting. but I rarely get it. Constant interaction

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