Letterpress workshop

A few months ago I attended a one day class to learn the basics of letterpress printing at GTO Printers in Auckland.  It was a small class, only three of us in total, which worked out perfectly.  It was so much fun, the day just flew by.  We started by working with a little Adana press (hope I've got that right), setting metal type into an alphabet.  Getting all the letters set correctly, left to right (or was it right to left???) and the right way up really messed with my head.  There were a few back to front, upside down mishaps to start with.  And if you get it wrong, you have to pull the whole row out and start again.   Then we designed a postcard to print, also in metal type.

By the end of the day we progressed to using the wood type.  We were running short of time, so did a collaborative print on the proofing press.  I loved using the wood type.  The objects themselves, with all of the different shapes and colours left from previous print jobs make just as nice an image as the final print, don't you think?