I bought this set of type 10 years ago in Berlin. At the time I thought they where rubber stamps- and it might turn out that they are in fact rubber stamps, but lately my theory is that they are some hybrid letterpress. They seem to be a very hard rubber that has been glued onto some pine bases. For the arguments pro and contra them being letterpress:-
Pro:
The rubber is too hard for rubber stamps and it seems to reject water based inks. The ink tends to separate on the surface of the letter making it hard to get good coverage and a dark print (in next post). As I bought them in Berlin from someone selling various pillaged things from the former East, it could have just been bad quality rubber.
Contra:
The bases seem to be some kind of pine or other soft wood. Pine is not usually used in moveable type as it gets dented too easily. I have been wondering though whether the rubber tops have been removed from their original bases and remounted as the bases have no ink stains and x heights are also not consistent. The other fact that counts against these being moveable type is that the profile is too high for moveable type.
I can’t remember what the standard measurement is for type, Caren has it pasted helpfully on the wall opposite from where you would stand in order to set the pressure of the press: the beast (I’m not sure whether it has a nickname or gender- for me it is gender neutral). My memory says .987 but maybe that’s from an inch? All the measurements for type and furniture we have in the Book Studio are in inches (is all moveable type like this?), which make all the measurements really abstract for me.
However whatever the original use of these letters, I am going to cut the bases and use them as moveable type. And as there is only one alphabet I have started to make several sets of letters in polymer by filling up some of the negative spaces on the films I set to get the centre of the Nature Strip chapzine made.
Of course I have absolutely no spare time to be doing this or writing this entry- I am filming part of the Aichi work tomorrow and have things to do before then- but I find myself being quiet fascinated by this little project.
Along with the questions above my main question is: What is the type font? And what would the capitals look like? Any ideas out there?
I’m still working on the chap-zine that re-uses the discarded stamped prints from the installation of ‘Varied, noisy’ at Artspace last year. Chapzine is Caren’s term for a zine – like artist book that been produced using letterpress, and is usually printed on one piece of paper and folded (like the orginal chapbooks). The one piece of paper makes the setting up and printing time more manageable.
When you do a search on the term chapzine you mostly get links to Caren’s chapzine pr0n c0k-tales, but I also found references on this dead Art School blog in Vancouver. I gleaned from the detailed entry about Chapbooks on Wiki, that chapbooks where still a common form in the States in the early 1900’s, so not surprising that the term still has resonance there. Although I also found this interesting little poetry press in Berry, NSW, using the term.
The wiki entry also provided the wonderful term ‘bum folder’:
Because of their flimsy nature such ephemera rarely survive as individual items. They were aimed at buyers without formal libraries, and, in an era when paper was expensive, were used for wrapping or baking. Paper has also always had hygienic uses and there are contemporary references to the use of chapbooks as bum fodder
I don’t recommend that you use the Nature Strip chapzine as toilet paper as it is over 120gsm: not very soft or absorbent.
I have now printed two colours on the outside and am getting ready the plate to print on the inside. The top picture gives you an idea of how the long pieces of paper will be folded into a zine.
Here is a detail of the whole image that will be on the inside. It’s a reworking of the drawing that Andrew McQualter and I did on the walls at Artspace.
At the moment as well as working on a deadline for Aichi Triennale, (this website has a very helpful counter telling me it's only 37days to go) I’m also trying to get things ready for a show with Andrew in Melbourne at VCA’s Margaret Lawrence Gallery (when you see this link you have to wonder why Universities, like local councils, can't get the importance of a good website for a gallery). Busy? Too much on my plate? Yes well…
It's been a pretty full on today in Australian politics - after 48 hours of whispers Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stood aside for Julia Gillard- Australia's first female Prime Minister. It's been a pretty dramatic day but I hope this means that Labor is stronger against Abbott and that we don't see a return to a Liberal government.
The last 24 hours I have been hooked to ABC news TV there where so many crosses live to Canberra for on the spot interviews as the vote on the spill was happening and then the last and first address of the PMs- all of these interviews and comments where accompanied by the beautiful song of the Pied Currawong and Australian magpie, echoing off the concrete walls of the Parliament house- the back ground white noise of Canberra. It rang pretty clear and loud in all the interviews- their calls suddenly changing my sonic landscape and making me feel like I was in a drier cooler place. I loved that their song was oblivious to the momentous occasion- life goes on, as does the ring and warble of territorial calls.
Thanks PM Rudd, for the apology to the Stolen Generations, for signing the Kyoto Protocols, for appointing the first female Governer General: Quentin Bryce and for being the first Prime Minister to speak a second language publicly- especially the difficult tonal Mandarin, for basically not being your usual Aussie bully boy.
And..
Fingers crossed for PM Gillard, first woman PM sworn in by the first female Governor General incredible!
photos top to bottom: Caren doing some fine tuning of the furniture so it fix printing shadows on the irregular type; wooden type of first plate; dancing with the Graphix cylinder proofing press.
I’ve been pretty busy in the last couple of weeks, finishing the editing of a new part to walking through clear fells, and printing quiet a bit in the Book Studio at ANU. I have set plates in the past but had out sourced the printing. The exciting thing over the last couple of weeks is that I have started driving the beast of the press. Caren uses the driving metaphor quiet a bit but I found for me it was a bit more like dancing- once I had worked out which foot was going to step on the release that grabs the paper and which hand would hold the paper to the drum and press the print button, it all started to flow.
Shots above are from the first layer of translucent fluro orange.
Posting this now and will post second plate and more images and explanation next post- which will hopefully be tomorrow but as Lateline Business is on the TV it means it’s time to go to bed.
I was staring out the kitchen window while waiting for the kettle to boil for my first cup of tea and caught sight of this wonderful surprise. It was moving too fast to see that was on the silver star in the middle of the cluster.
As you see can it's still grey in Sydney.
