Happy Monday! Check out this great Kickstarter project from A Fine Press, who is undertaking a mission to acquire and refurbish a beautiful vintage letterpress with amazing history. About the letterpress itself and the work that needs to be done:
When I moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Lakeland, Florida (the swan city) in the year 2000, I was unaware that I was repeating the path of a Chandler and Price 8×12 New Style letterpress, which had made the trip more than eighty years earlier.
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Like many letterpresses extant, this one has been used exclusively for die-cutting for more than a decade and has sat un-used for several years. I need your help in acquiring this piece of Lakeland history and bringing it back to its prime working condition. The press appears to be in great shape, but needs a thorough cleaning (it’s covered in sawdust and gunk) and some additional parts to adapt it to modern letterpress printing. This project is designed to fund:
- the press
- a new motor
- rollers
- an aluminum base
- photopolymer plates
- ink
- paper
- rent – our floors can’t handle this half-ton monster
I’ve figured, in total, it will cost approximately $4,250 to bring this press to printing life and get the plates and paper necessary to give you the goods.
They’re a quarter of the way to funding with 11 days left to go. It’s a great project to support — every backer gets some goodies as a reward as well as the good feelings of helping out a letterpress printer. I donated $50, head over and support Swan City Press as well!
