I enjoyed the letterpress workshop today and found it beneficial to learn about the history of the machines Hamilton owns as well as the various techniques associated with the old tools. I had no idea how expensive letterpresses were, but it makes sense considering they are no longer manufactured.
I also liked the fun facts about phrases such as “out of sorts” or “uppercase” and “lowercase.” Also, the terminology associated with body parts was interesting and actually helped me understand how everything fit together.
As far as actually organizing the letters my group wanted to use, it was a little tricky at first but flowed smoothly after we got the hang of it. I cannot imagine, however, creating a whole novel via letterpress. Proofreading must have been tedious yet essential. Our group also has the option of cutting around the text we print and pasting it onto our final project; it would be a lot more difficult if we had to consider alignment for our manuscript.
I am looking forward to actually printing the text next class!
