This week in class we took a little “field trip” to the letter press printing room to see how an actual print press worked. The whole experience was something i’ve never witnessed before, and probably never will again. We got to see the professor (who’s name I can’t remember) prepare and demonstrate the press to the class. Loading the ink took a while, but once it was fulled loaded and ready to go, a beautiful one of a kind print was created! He showed the class how to make a print of both words and a photograph–and showed us how the molds were made.
The most interesting part was when he let the class make their own print. Now of course any machine being old and humongous would scare me, so when it came to being my turn I was terrified. It took me a few seconds to get the hang of it, and of course man up. The prints we made were all the same, but I got to make my own print so it was very special to me. The professor was extrememly nice and laid back, which I liked. We got to ask him a whole bunch of questions, as well as recieve information on all the other types of machines in the room. To me, this expereince was fun and interesting and I’m really glad I got to see how printing was before we took it for granted.
