Press work continues on a small scale, with seasonal greetings, courtesy of Ebeneezer Scrooge.  I am still learning the basics of  two-colour registration – and while I am generally pleased with the cover of the card, I was dismayed to see that the green ink had begun to clot. I suspect that this is due to improper sealing of the ink tin.

For the interior message, I tried Franklin Bold, a sans serif typeface that I thought would compliment the cover text and provide a nice contrast to the blackletter I wanted to use for the word “Christmas.”   I had never used this typeface before – and this fit nicely with my plan to proof every set of type that came with my print shop acquisition.

Humbug.

After an unplanned hiatus that lasted nearly two years, I am glad to be working on my press once more. I’m starting with a small project intended to reacquaint me with the press and process. This time, a set of bookmarks (in time for Christmas?!) featuring the wit and wisdom of Wilde, Eagan, and Marx (um, Groucho, that is).

In the long absence from my press room I realise how much I had missed the tranquility and solitude of the work.  Yes, the Devil is in the details – and I continue to wrestle with him – but also present is the comforting ka-chunk of the carriage rolling back into position, the subtle scent of ink when you first open the tin, and the heady feeling you get when your first print rolls off the press.

This little project will serve to calibrate the rollers again – and to teach me about two-colour registration (one of those devils, I mentioned), in preparation for a signature I’m planning for the next Wayzgoose anthology for Grimsby…unless, of course, procrastination kicks in again.

Well, I’ve finished printing my Wayzgoose contribution…and just in time! I just finished the covers for the 50 copies that are destined for the author and printer. They’re nestled, carefully interleaved with scrap paper, waiting for the ink to dry before I fold and compile them into their signatures.

The submission date for the Grimsby Wayzgoose signature is looming – and it seems with each passing day, I’m cranking more desperately. An intensive session on the press this weekend has yielded some good results, and a few hard lessons (more on that later!). For now though, I can report that I’m nearly finished, with only the covers left to print. In the meantime, I’m taking a few moments away from the press to reflect and to take stock.

The project is a little tale called Entre Deux Saisons by Richard St-Laurent, a writer from Val-Joli, Quebec, whom I had the pleasure of meeting only last summer, a few months after I first heard his story read by Carole Trahan on Radio-Canada’s Éspace Musique. It was a cold and windswept morning in March last year, and I was driving through a very bleak-looking countryside east of Ottawa. The ice-huts on the frozen Ottawa River were starting to take on the lopsided tilt typical of the end of winter: the river slowly starting its long thaw. The temperature that morning in March was deceptively cold. The flurries turned to freezing drizzle – and as I drove along the river road, I became convinced that Spring would simply never arrive. With the end of a classical musical piece, Mr. St-Laurent’s tale seemed to match the mood and the moment perfectly.

I was struck by its simple eloquence, the sympathy of the characters – and intrigued by the personification of Spring itself, a liquor-soaked ne’er-do-well whose current hangover imperilled the very arrival of Summer. His crankishness appealed to me on several levels.

I knew that this short, lovely story would make the perfect project for a Wayzgoose submission – and with the assistance of Radio-Canada, I contacted M. St-Laurent to request his permission to print his fable. We exchanged a few emails and I was delighted to have made his acquaintance – and to have his permission to print Entre Deux Saisons.

And so planning – and learning – began in earnest: my house font is Caslon, and I knew I needed a set of French diacritics (ordered from M & H type). Will Reuter (Aliquando Press) shared his knowledge and suggested Strathmore Writing as a good basic commercial paper for a starter project. As for ink, I was thrilled to learn about Caligo SafeWash inks – an environmentally friendlier alternative to rubber-based inks. (My thanks to the folks at Pomegranite Letterpress and Design for this suggestion.) These wash up with soap and water (no solvents!) — an important advantage when your press shares space with a pilot light in the furnace room. I spent a lot of time packing and re-packing the cylinder of my Reprex…learning a lot about hard packing and soft packing. And I learned how to use the roller gauge properly and was able to calibrate the rollers so that they printed evenly, just brushing the type.

For the tale itself, I suggested (perhaps too amibitiously) an edition of 165. This would ensure 115 copies for the Wayzgoose anthology and an addition 50 copies to be shared between M. St-Laurent and myself. Design started in September, with layout and some “dummy” copies developed last October.  I had new cause for cranky as I was bedevilled by setting diacritics that were upside down and backwards; if minding one’s Ps and Qs were tricky, accents aigue and accent graves almost did me in!  And then I was proofing, proofing, proofing!   I had clearly underestimated the time and effort involved in setting and proof-reading texts in a second language!

After far too much time procrastinating, I’ve finally got myself organised to print a little pamphlet for the upcoming Grimsby Wayzgoose (3rd Saturday in April). It’s a lovely little tale entitled Entre Deux Saisons by Richard St-Laurent. It’s written in French, which makes the proofreading and corrections a little more challenging, since the diacritics are inverted!