I'm back! And with a different workspace.... my favourite father-in-law gave me an early birthday present of an Adana letterpress, which I am over the moon with BUT being the mother of 3 under-fives means I have NO time to play with it: a thoroughly novel kind of torture.
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| I don't normally write backwards: I thought it would help me set the type, but I didn't even refer to it in the end. |
I get to run in to my newly created workspace for half an hour in the evening before being summoned back by the youngest as she requests her evening/nighttime snack. Sigh. I almost wish I was the sort of mother who could just feed her babies every 3 hours and then shut up shop, but sadly that just has never felt quite right to me... however, now my new baby is exerting pressure on me too, I'm starting to think there could be some strength to that argument.
I'm yet to even make a single print: I have everything I need bar cleaning fluid (white spirit) and a palette knife to scoop the ink onto the printing plate.... I could make do, but John is such an impressive printer himself that the thought of doing anything he might disapprove of makes me feel unworthy of his gift or his teaching. I ran into Trago Mills (our local ghastly discount retailer) today trailing soon-to-be-3 year old and with (lead-weight) baby on hip, only to find at the till that there's a minimum spend on paying by card, which would have meant spending twice what I'd planned so I marched back out again as I simply couldn't face searching for more stuff to buy that I didn't want. I used to be able to go first thing in the morning when there'd only be 3 people in the whole store, but now I'm constrained by the school run.
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| Source: Wikipedia |
So, I'm left with setting type, which is painstaking as the only bits I have are titchy, and I am very slow. I'd be happier with chunky type to start with just to be able to get used to the whole process, but I guess it's good practice. Hopefully I'll have a bit more energy tomorrow to get my supplies in and then I can get messy - the best bit of any creative process I think - from baking to painting! I do have a few blocks to play with too, so I don't have to finish my text (it's a silly poem I made up to give to John as thanks). And in the meantime I can carry on researching the wonderful world of letterpress! I'm reading this wonderful book too.
And it's rather nice to just sit in my new space and listen to all that silence for a bit.
And I still have plenty of monsters to sew!
Joining Julia at Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday -
hope you all have a productive week and I'll be poking around all those other lovely workspaces in due course :-) I'm especially envious of all those mugs of tea I spy - I never remember to make one before I start work....
