The Press Blog

Kay Ryan Poet Laureate of the US of A!

We've been hosting some North-American literary royalty! Earlier this week(specifically Tuesday), Kay Ryan came to campus and gave a reading. In honor of her visit Colin and Jaimie created a beautiful broadside of her as yet unpublished poem "Cloud". The piece is quietly elegant, printed in a pale green, grey, and black. Those color descriptions don't do it justice, let's try again: deep sea-foam, mist, and ebony. Printed in an edition of seventy they are available for purchase at the price of $15 and an additional $5 for shipping. A previously unpublished piece by the poet laureate of the united states letterpress printed on a broadside measuring 19 1/2" x 12 7/8" and (if you get to us early), signed by the author? This is a steal! Contact Colin if you want one.

Colin Frazer
The Press at Colorado College
14 E Cache la Poudre St
Colorado Springs, Co 80903
719.389.6376
colin.frazer@coloradocollege.edu

Close up

Signed Copy

The Full Broadside

A lesson in printing: It will always take more time than you think and you will become obsessed with making it PERFECT. The above is a sampling of all the test sheets we went through to produce "Cloud".

The Making of a Poster

Emma Mitchell has been working on a poster to advertise visiting writer Bonnie Nadzam. The following is a bit of a photo essay documenting poster printing (significantly lacking a few stages such as a preliminary sketch, setting the type, and printing the image. Whoops) with Emma!

Carving the organic filigree design she created for the poster

The second print. Emma originally went for a grass green text but had to abandon it (sigh) because the text overlapped with the filigree and wasn't readable. Thus a switch to deep midnight blue. The look of mild bewilderment is no doubt caused by my taking her picture. For those of you who are interested, this is what a locked up press looks like when the type is inked and you're ready to roll!

Mixing colors is a bit of an art. The ink is extremely concentrated so the ratios are very important. In the end you often try a number of mixes before you find a hue that's juuust right.

Jody looks on while Emma Prints. Nobody No-how No-way is allowed to print without the presence of a monitor. We really hate it when people get fingers or sleeves or braids caught in the press and there ain't no-one around to give them a hand. Plus, despite the fact that a vandercook weighs a couple thousand pounds and looks like a beast, you gotta baby it a little.

The finished product!

 

The Palace Print Shop and Bindery

During the second block break Colin went on a bit of a road trip down to New Mexico and visited Tom Leech at the Press of the Palace of the Governors. "Situated in rooms adjoining the nearly 400-year-old courtyard of the Palace of the Governors is the Print Shop and Bindery, known as the Palace Print Shop, or, more formally, as the Press of the Palace of the Governors. A living Museum of New Mexico exhibit dedicated to the history of the state's printing traditions, the Print Shop offers some 70,000 yearly visitors an opportunity to relive the lively environment of 19thcentury publishing." Extensive historical information is available on their website.

Tom Leech, printer

 

Tom's assistant James

Christian Bök

Christian Bök, top poet of the cold reaches of Canada, did a reading at Colorado College on the 15th of October 2009. To celebrate his visit Colin printed a pamphlet of "Voyelles," a poem by Arthur Rimbaud translated by Christian Bök. With everlasting class and cleverness Colin selected the imagery thusly: the cover features a print of all the capital vowels rotated around a central axis. Nerdy? Yes. Cool? Absolutely! For those of you who don't speak french "voyelles" means "vowels" which are the subject of the poem. The first line goes "A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: the vowels." The back of the pamphlet is printed with five small rectangles, one in each color. Oh how minimalist and elegant. They were printed in an edition of 90 and are available for purchase at the price of $25. Contact Colin to set up getting a copy!

Colin Frazer
The Press at Colorado College 14 E Cache la Poudre St Colorado Springs, Co 80903 719.389.6376 colin.frazer@coloradocollege.edu

The inside en francais (the english is on the facing page).

Capitalized vowels rotated around a central axis

Indeed, what is "goin' on"?

Well,

Thus far this third block there has been a great flurry at the press. Poster printing, poster setting, and preparation for Kay Ryan Poet Laureate of the US of A! Jaimie has been busy working on a broadside of Ryan's poem "Cloud", as yet unpublished but we hear it should be coming out in Poetry sometime soon! Ryan will be visiting the campus and doing a reading on November 3rd at 7 PM in the Cornerstone building. Don't miss it!

Colin has been experimenting with glow in the dark ink for concert posters (a warning to those of you who get excited-this ink is expensive stuff). I, (Katie), just finished up a blindingly orange poster advertising the half-block class in "The History and Future of the Book" taught by our beloved librarians Steve Lawson and Jessy Randall. Several students are taking advantage of the press to create small books on their own time and with the aid and supervision of Colin and the monitors. We love visitors so come to the press and explore some ideas! Ever considered making your own letterhead? How about book-plates? Low on cash for the Holiday season and not really prepared to do a repeat of the clay birds nest you made your mom in second grade? There are any number of elegant, funky, and generally interesting projects that you might embark upon. Gosh and golly gee, I'm really making a sales pitch here. But honestly, don't let the opportunity to experiment in the press pass you by. The craft is amazing and the people are pretty cool too.

Oberlin Group 2009

From the 1st through the 3rd of October Colorado College played host to the Oberlin Group, "an informal consortium of the libraries of 80 selective liberal arts colleges." In celebration of the annual Library Directors Meeting The Press at Colorado College produced a pamphlet in 65 copies. The pamphlet featured "Walking Along the Dictionary," a poem by CC's Curator of Special Collections Jessy Randall, and "All A's," a poem by English Professor Jane Hillberry.

Colin addresses the crowd

Librarians explore the press

Tutt Library director Carol Dickerson engages in some bibliophile chat over a Vandercook

EN283 Beginning Fiction Writing

Most of the students in Professor Steven Hayward's English class had never even stepped foot in the press. However, during the 8th and 9th of October 2009 they had a crash course in letterpress design, typesetting, and printing. Under the guidance of Colin Frazer the class worked together to assemble the lines of Chapter Six, a poem they had co-written. Completed as a pamphlet the finished work was elegant and simple, and each student took home a copy. Professor Hayward is responsible for the unusual colophon quoted here: "This Exquisite Corpse was produced by Hayward's Beginning Fiction Workshop. Block 2 2009 * When the world was young."

 Students assembling type

And expressing some confusion...

 

The finished product!

New Home

If you're confused or haven't been around, the press has moved to into a new home: the same building as Taylor Theater. You can find us if you walk along the path between Ticknor and Taylor. When you enter the building turn right and ta da! All of the 15th century technology you could want.

A corner of our new space and one of our feathered friends

Furniture, ink, type, leg, mounted bird and skeleton (cat?). All necessary for letterpress.