Last week I was fortunate enough to take an orientation to letterpress class at Dartmouth Book Arts.  For three hours, I learned the terminology: typeface, furniture, quoins, pica, Vandercook; played with lead type and wooden type; chose typeface (out of 100s of fonts!); set my quote using a composing stick; watched as our instructor proofed our page; and even got to run the press!

There were six people in the class: my friend Judy and me, a mom and son, and a newly married couple.  We had so much fun!  I even loved putting all the type back in the drawers!

Here is our instructor; Sarah Smith.

 
(photo from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/preservation/contact.html)

Here is the link to the Book Arts Workshop.

The really fabulous part about all this is now I can go to open hours at the studio any time I want!  For free!  And make whatever I want!  I can see it now: business cards, greeting cards, posters, valentines, the possibilities are endless!