Cheese & Chaos

I was in the shower this morning when Chris came into the bathroom and grabbed me through the shower curtain.  I shrieked, the curtain rod fell, and I turned to see Chris holding an armful of shower curtain.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" he yelled.  This is his stock reply when he breaks something and wants to quickly pin it on someone else.

Today in the car, I was struggling with a near empty tube of lotion.  I would hit it on the heel of my hand and squeeze but get nothing but air.  After maybe five hits I got a little out and started working it into my poor, dry hands.  Chris took the bottle off my lap to get some for himself.

"Good luck," I said.

SHHHHPPPPPPPPPKKKKKK!

I let out one of those loud, erupting laughs that scare people.  The noise was funny enough but it was the giant gob of lotion on his hand that kept me in belly laughs until I cried.  Chris went straight past his normal giggle and into his all out Pee-Wee Herman laugh. He had what looked like half the tube- it was amazing.  Amid gasping hee hees, I apologized for drastically underestimating his man hands.  It took a while to regain enough composure to take the lotion off his hand.

Tonight we had tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner.  The soup was ready first and Chris turned off the wrong burner, so we stared sadly at the slow sandwiches until I figured out what the problem was.  Chris was too impatient to wait long, so he snatched an almost-done sandwich out of the pan.  I continued cooking mine and the kitchen was quiet for a couple minutes.

"We need to find a grilled cheese contest," he said, chewing.  "And enter you in it."

Awww.  "Thanks, honey!"

Chris went to the computer and reported back.

"Here it is!  The Seattle Cheese Festival!"

Holy shit, there's a cheese festival?  We discussed it over dinner and decided that once Ant finishes high school and finds his own place, we'll move up to Seattle.  I want to get that editing certificate from the University of Washington and Chris just wants to be near the water.  And we both want to go to the cheese festival.

Finished Projects

The boys are up!  Christmas preparations will soon be underway!

Here is Project 2, the triptych.  The title missing from this one is The Anxiety Altarpiece.  The mixed patterns are supposed to be anxiety inducing.  :D

These pictures were taken at 7:30 yesterday morning- a half hour before it was due.  It was appropriate, I think, that my last night in college was an all-nighter.

The quote is: "It doesn't get better.  YOU get better."  I'll get some better pictures when I finish my copies, but the last page has the colophon and a tiny car ornament.  And check out my spectacular mess!

It is meant to stand up so that when I wake up in the middle of the night freaked out and convinced that my life is a mess and I suck at everything, I can open this up and remind myself that life will always be messy- it's my response to it that matters.

Here is the 3rd project- the accordion fold.  I barely finished these things in time.  My copy will have a title, but now imagine this says:

AIBOHPHOBIA (fear of palindromes)

Randomly selected scrapbook paper to connect the cover to the real pages.

I thought "WOW" should not be as boring as the rest of them, so I used this patterned mylar sheet on top of yellow cardstock.  The light is pretty orange, but the letters are cut from purple cardstock.

Not actually a palindrome, but a visual palindrome.

Vertical palindrome

One of my favorite designs out of the series

Was this intentional, namers of Tylenol?

It just felt right to have this sentiment last.

More random scrapbook pages.  I used the same colophon for both projects.  (Timesaver!)

The End

Black Rock Press

Chris came into school with me to document this neat place and the lengthy process involved in using the printing press.

Find a lead for the length of your line.

I'm setting type for my colophon, which is essentially the end credits.

Back for more leads to go in between the lines.

Setting type

I have added spaces to the ends of the lines but there are still gaps, so I'm adding thin brass and copper pieces to make it tight.

I put those lines on my galley and go back to set more lines using a different type.

Once that's done, I move all the type to my galley.

It's time to make a proof.

I use wooden blocks called furniture to hold my type up and magnets to keep them from moving.

Get some fresh ink

and ink up the type.

Ready to roll it through the proofing press

Lay on three sheets of newsprint

Roll it through

Check for mistakes

That s looks a little weak.

Wipe the ink off the type, pull out the offending letters, replace them with ones that are hopefully better.

Re ink

Ready to go again

This is the fun part.

Much better!

Now, that is not exactly how Joan said it.  I have a linoleum block for that part.  What I'm trying to do is get all my type proofed.  Since these are all separate lines, it will be easy for me to separate them out on the press.

I move my type onto the press (carefully) and start measuring out what size furniture I need to fill the gaps.  The furniture comes in lengths of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60.  The widths come in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10, so you'd better get your math skills ready.  Oh, and we're measuring in points and pikas.

It is a time consuming process.

This is basically what it looks like: me running back and forth with furniture.

Now I can add the quoin (coin), which is a metal expanding piece.

I use a removable key to crank the quoin open and push against the furniture.

Tighten the bottom and make sure none of the type can wiggle.

Ink the press

Set the rollers down and turn on the press.

Chris took a ton of pictures.  I like these because you can see the ink spread onto the rollers.

Let's hope that last video made it.