Last year I began my obsession with the ancient craft of letterpress. I have read books about it and even toured an amazing printing company in San Francisco. Today was the pinnacle of my letterpress love... an actual class.

What exactly is this craft? Letterpress is a form of relief printing in which the raised surface of text and images is inked and then pushed onto paper.
This class was described as, "the workshop is designed to be informative, hands-on and fun. You will learn how to hand set type the way it's been done for over five centuries, and then get to print what you set in type! You will also be introduced to all of the vintage letterpress equipment in the shop, including rare 1800's era type from the Territorial Enterprise newspaper from Virginia City, Nevada, where Mark Twain was a reporter and city editor. (We know Mark Twain was in the same room as this type and it's likely that he may have even set some of it for print)." How could I pass this up?

Led by the incredibly knowledgeable and patient Stephen Robison, I learned so much, especially how time consuming and exact typesetting can be. I have a new appreciation for it all.



How can I express how exceptional this day was? Well, I got to play with type that might have been played with by Samuel Clemens himself. I was in the company of some very creative people. And I had the opportunity to do something I had never done before. I definitely learned something new. I can't wait to do it all over again.