L.A. Printers Fair

Well it took a bit of coaxing from Rachelle Chuang, the tireless volunteer extraordinaire at the International Printing Museum, but I packed up and headed out to the L.A. Printers Fair last week. I met my friend Kseniya Thomas there, where we set up a Ladies of Letterpress table right next to my Heroes & Criminals Press table. The trip was mostly for work, but we made sure to fit in a little bit of sight-seeing, shopping, and sampling the local cuisine in some swanky (and some not-so-swanky) restaurants.

The fair itself was overwhelming, not just for me but also for the 1200+ visitors walking around like deer in headlights. And I mean overwhelming in the best of ways: such an amazing gathering of talented people, printed goods, presses, type, and anything else you can think of that's letterpress-related. As it turns out, the museum in itself would've been worth the trip, and the fair was just icing (gobs of icing). If you haven't been yet, I highly recommend that you put this event on your calendar for next year. Here are some highlights:

Ladies of Letterpress at Pyramid Atlantic

Spent the weekend at the The Book (R)evolution, the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair, and had a blast. Instead of setting up a table for H&C Press, I decided to set up a Ladies of Letterpress table with Kseniya Thomas to promote LofL and our first LofL conference, to be held next August in Asheville, NC. We were asked by the planning committee to participate in the fair by giving letterpress demonstrations, so we set up a printing area and promptly dubbed it the "Letterpress Party Room". We set up our two Kelsey 5x8 presses, one set with type and the other with photopolymer plates, and let visitors print their own takeaway cards. It was fun to see their faces light up as many of them printed for the very first time! It was also great to see dear old friends and make a few new ones as well, and to see the fantastic bookworks being made by a group of talented and inspiring artists.