open hotse

A few weeks ago when I visited Kseniya, we decided one day was  "Take your mom to work day.   I went with her to her shop - she is a letterpress printer - has her own successful business Thomas Printers.  She makes beautiful invitations for weddings, business cards and any other very unique printed stuff that people want - and can afford.  She learned this all in Germany while working at the Gutenberg museum.  She even founded her own organization - Ladies of Letterpress

Kseniya at her shop, mixing colors

I really didn't appreciate what goes into making something via letterpress until  she helped me create some invitations to our annual Christmas Eve open house.  We have never sent invitations to this event before - it was always just by word of mouth.  Even though we have had the open house for 17 years!

In the course of an afternoon (with only a break to go to Starbucks for coffee and some sweet stuff that we called lunch) we made about 50 invites - with the imprint of the letters on the paper - green on white.  They look so pretty but the simple elegance does not tell of the work involved - using a machine that is about 110 years old and picking out each letter and placing them on a composing stick one by one and upside down until they spelled out what you want.  Each word has to have a space (filled with a lead spacer) between it that is just the right width.  The sentences have to be centered equally. And if you drop the composing stick you are screwed and must start over.  If you are not coordinated (I'm not) the old letterpress machine will smash each and every one of your carpals - making carpal tunnel syndrome seem dull by comparison.  OSHA would be all over these machines if they were built today.



These are her three printers.  I used the first one. The middle one has a motor

We did a test drive after all the words I wanted were on the composing stick and spaced appropriately.  This involved first making the right color that I chose - a nice green which Kseniya did by mixing three colors in a proportion that made the green we wanted. No measuring needed for her - a dab of this and a bigger dab of that and it was perfect.   Then you spread the ink on the ink disk and pump the treadle that looks like a sewing machine treadle  and the rollers spread the ink around the disk.  The typeset letters are placed in a frame like thing called a chase and positioned on the press.  You then push on the treadle (like a foot pump - the press used is not motorized although she has one that is). You also have to have strong arms to move the wheel on the side of the machine.


The first test card ended up reading "Christmas Eve Open Hotse" instead of "house".  So we had to remove the chase and replace the "t" with a "u".  I should mention that all of the letters are kept in a drawer in their proper place which has key that tells you where they are.  So when you are done, you must put them all back in their proper place so the next person can make accurate sentences.  I think putting them all back was the hardest part because I could not tell what the letters were, even with my reading glasses.  I learned that the terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" letters originated from where the letters used to be placed in the drawers. Also "mind your P's and Q's came from the printing as well....the "P's and Q's were easy to mistake for each other.  

These are the drawers that contain all the lead letters

The end result (it took us about 4 hours I think) was these beautiful invites - handmade, clean, pure type - classic elegance.  I loved seeing the indentation of the letters on the paper.  Kinko's or Hallmark could not compare to these and the satisfaction of having done them myself - with Kseniya's help of course.  I had forgotten how good it feels to just make something that is useful and pretty.  Most of us don't take the time to do that anymore because we are too busy. It is too easy just to buy stuff.

Here's a copy of the invite...The Scan does not do it justice!

Spending time with my daughter for an entire afternoon, of course was the best part of the day - but the sense of pride in both the cards and the talent she has was also worth all the squinting I did to make sure I had the right letters.  I am only hoping that I put them all back in the right place so the next person won't have an open hotse instead of house.