I visited to the Tokyo Printing Museum this afternoon, and what an incredible day. They have a great exhibit on the entire history of printing (no pictures allowed) and at the end they offer a letterpress workshop. I got to print some moontree coasters and take pictures of the gorgeous Japanese type cases. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences I've ever had.
The funniest part was their reaction to my interest and enthusiam. Letterpress isn't that big over here (the main reason I'm attending this show) so I don't think they understood why I was so ga-ga about the presses and type cases. I tried explaining that I was a professional letterpress printer back home, but I don't think I quite got my message across. Anyway, my 'letterpress sensei' gave me a little demo on a tabletop Adana press and then let me print 8 of my very own coasters.
Here are some photos from my class. That's me printing near the bottom, barely containing myself. :)
1 comment:
Thanks for that little report. The Toppan Printing Museum is one of my favorite places in Tokyo. I visited and was astonished at their huge letterpress lab. I wished I could have taken a class there, and fiddled around with their equipment. I have a little 5x7 letterpress I inherited from my grandfather (and tons of type in drawers) but I've never put it all together and printed anything, I'm not sure I know how.
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