Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019)—Part 10: Letterpress Workshop Day 5

Prints drying on presses and cabinets in the machinery exhibition room.

July 12, 2019 | Day 4 of the project

Friday was the last day of the letterpress project. It was chaotic and frantic, as it had been with Alan Kitching in 2015 and with Erik Spiekermann in 2017. As in the past, those who finished printing their page early pitched in to help those who were lagging behind. This spirit of cooperation is always one of the most pleasing aspects of Legacy of Letters workshops. The urgency of getting a project finished seems to bring out the best in people. We failed to get the menu book bound, but at least we succeeded in getting all of the pages, as well as the covers, printed and scored. Our plan is to have a “sewing bee” to assemble the book at Peter Kruty Editions in Brooklyn this fall.

The menu book was more ambitious than the previous two projects, neither of which involved sewn bindings. Part of the scale of the project can be gauged by the fact that the drying prints on Thursday and Friday covered not only the usual display cases in the machinery exhibition room but also the floor and any available flat surface, including on the printing presses themselves.

Prints drying on a handpress, the floor, and display cases. Emmy Yamaguchi’s unfinished print is in the foreground.

Prints drying on presses and type cabinets. Laura Thom’s is in the foreground and at the right while James Stroud’s is in the back.

Emmy Yamaguchi | Primi Piatti

Emmy printing on a vandercook as Jason watches.

Emmy with her partially completed primi piatti print. The missing part is the fork for the strands of pasta.

Emmy’s stencil for the fork.

Jane Pirone helping Emmy with stenciling the fork onto her print.

Jane Pirone | Dolci

Jane checking out her lock-up in the bed of the press.

Jane and Sayre Gaydos share excitement over Jane’s yummy dolci print.

Jane signing her scored dolci prints.

Lucille Tenazas | Contorni e Insalata

Peter Kruty helping Lucille edition her print.

Lucille signing her contorni prints.

Shaina Pruden | Aperitivi

Shaina gathering leads and furniture for return to their proper drawers and shelves.

Lucia McCreery | Secondi Piatti

Lucia redistributing metal type.

Paul Shaw and Patricia Childers | Frontmatter and backmatter

Patricia setting the menu (contents) page.

Patricia checking out the first proof of the contents page and title page.

Sayre Gaydos | Endpapers and binding

Peter and Sayre printing the endpapers.

Sayre folding pages for the dummy.

Sayre sewing the dummy.

Sayre’s binding jig.

Peter and Sayre discussing the binding. The dummy is in the foreground.

Patricia admiring the binding dummy as Peter and Sayre look on.