Leaping Letterpress

“I thank You God for most this amazing / day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees / and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything / which is natural which is infinite which is yes” –e.e. cummings

I have been fascinated by the magic of printing since I first ordered a set of cartoon figure rubber stamps from the back of a box of Rice Krispies. I have made a career of the design of publications for printing and as the computer revolution brought publishing to the desk top of everyone, I became curious about earlier means of printing. I learned typesetting and letterpress printing at the Penland School from Steve Miller, an amazing artist and printer, director of the Book Arts MFA program at the University of Alabama. Since those classes in the nineties, I have collected type and equipment and shared my pleasure in the craft of printing with as many folks as possible.

I recently built a small studio on the back of our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Here I have moved my small supply of letterpress equipment. From my desk and from the press I gaze across my neighbor’s pastures to the three mountains which create this Appalachian cove and delight in the opportunity printing has given me to share my joy with others.

If you are interested in a hand-crafted broadside printed from my small selection of foundry type and embellished with a woodcut of my creation, I would love to hear from you. Please drop me an email.