[4259] in APO Printshop
Re: Letterpress printing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Sat May 19 22:10:31 2007
Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 22:10:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ellen Kranzer <ccrazy@MIT.EDU>
To: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.MIT.EDU>
cc: Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@MIT.EDU>, apo-printshop-journeyman@MIT.EDU,
jtu@MIT.EDU, kbyers@MIT.EDU, riv@MIT.EDU, spang@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.64L.0705190055090.14338@scrubbing-bubbles.mit.edu>
On Sat, 19 May 2007, Leonard H Tower Jr. wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm cc:ing the brothers Mitch mentioned.
>
> ps: http://www.design.upenn.edu/commonpress/ is worth a glance. Not
> quite the hot bed of letterpress printing that Yale is, but nice work
> - though not all of it is letterpress. {ps == pre-script ;-}
>
> * We have, in the past, let experienced printers in the MIT Community
> use the press if a journeyman was willing to supervise hir, and they
> pay the usual press use fees.
When was the last time someone claiming to be an experienced printer asked
to use the press? I do not recall this happening since I've been full
journeyman (1983ish), though it certainly could have happened without my
knowledge. It's not a situation I've ever been involved with. I'd
certainly want some substantiation of a person's claims and that they were
experienced and find out more about what type of equipment they've used
before letting them use the press. There's a difference between experince
with a hand-powered press and a motorized press.
In recent years we've had non-apo affiliates asked to be trained to use
the press, and I think we've turned them all down.
> The first time, the journeyman was expected to exercise the same
> care as s/he would in a qualifying run, as well as keeping the
> APOffice secure.
Actually, I would expect the journeyman to do more than they would for a
qualifiying run. Since this is the first time the person is using our
equipment and our shop, I'd expect the journeyman to need to give the
person the basic over view of our set up, our equipment, and the basic
pressshop safety lecture.
> * Prof. Montfort is likely to be a better printer then most of the
> brothers qualified to use the press. If he does the job, he'll be
> happy with the quality.
One of the reasons to let him have access to the press for his job is that
he might be able to teach us something.
> * It never hurts AX, to have another friend on the faculty.
>
> As a new Asst. Prof, he will be here for at least several years
> (most likely four), and if he gets tenure, for decades. (I'm
> assuming he using MIT's definition of Assistant Professor.)
And perhaps, this could lead to his becoming an active faculty advisor for
the chapter.
Bottom line - I think there are some possible upsides here and we would
find out more about his experience and his project before saying yes or
no.
-- Ellen
