Spending the last two class periods doing the letterpress workshop helped me appreciate the artistry that goes into using a letterpress. Before the workshop, I had viewed the letterpress as an old tool that had mainly been used to print text in black ink and not as a tool that could be used to design images as well. Actually using the letterpress helped me learn about the planning and design process. An artist must determine where on the page the letters will physically appear and then adjust the spacers and furniture on the machine accordingly. A decision must be made about how deeply the letters should make an impression on the page. For example, when we printed our text with three sheets backing the page rather than two, the letters made deeper indents on the paper. The artist must also determine how dark they want the ink to appear on the page and vary the number of sheets used to back the piece of paper being printed on accordingly. One especially interesting aspect of the design process is the fact that only one color can be used on the press at one time. The artist must determine how they want the colors layered on their paper and then run each sheet of paper through the press color by color.

The process of creating a book with the letterpress must have been an enormous undertaking. Setting each letter into its proper place was difficult and time consuming for one sentence and the idea of having to create an entire page of text seems daunting. Although using the letterpress was fun, I think that it would be more enjoyable to use the press for the creation of cards and posters rather than for books or newspapers. This workshop introduced me to new uses of the letterpress that I was not aware of before and it was a very enjoyable experience overall.