three

Lovely quasi-sister-in-law gave me this for Christmas!

So, I had the class on the 14th, and, seriously, nothing can beat time spent in a book arts studio. I've been missing the letterpress quite a bit lately. This class was for platemaking, very similar to working in the darkroom, only you're exposing a uv photosensitive plate to create an image and/or text to be run on a press. I eagerly arrived to class with a few potential photographs, and was deeply saddened to realize we would not be making our own. (Of course, this made plenty of sense when I realized I needed a certain kind of negative which I neither had nor knew about). So we used the negatives brought in for us, and made plates for the Center for the Book to keep and use.

My plate was an image of a nail (as in hammers, not fingers). There were these delicate little lines that grooved around the base of the cylinder, and connected with the flat head. It was very satisfying to wash the plates and run my fingers over the etched surface.

I forgot all about the camera in my bag, so no photos for this week.

The San Francisco Center for the Book is a great place for both classes and renting time on the press/bindery/etc. If you're in the area and have never been, I highly recommend it!