For this week, I was shadowing a Letter print class from 9:30 to 4. This was a pretty complicated class because in order to properly fit the letters in the press so that they would not move some math was required. There were lots of small spacers and larger furniture that had to be kept track of and re-organized afterwards. It was my first time working with letterpress, so I was really grateful for the opportunity to be able to create my own piece. The teacher for this class led with introductions and asked everyone why they were interested in this particular art form. Many people in the class were artists, and it was interesting to have such a wide range of backgrounds all working in the same medium as the class produced a huge variety of different prints. A lot of the class time was spent discussing the technicalities of the process, and because of this the work time felt a little rushed. I could tell a couple of the participants felt a little stressed during the final half hour or so when they still had not printed their pieces, and so I spent time helping them complete their setups. I also helped with the clean up process, which was somewhat a challenge because of how many different pieces had to be re-organized. Overall, the class was very enlightening and the teacher was willing to help everyone at each step which made learning the new process feel much less challenging.
Here’s my print! staggering the letters in “love” was the most challenging part, but I think it turned out fantastic!
