Of a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, Needle & Thread

Open Sky

A poem by Allison Dubinsky

is now available to purchase

here.

Measuring a little over a palm's width, reading this, holding it in your hands is an intimate experience.

The themes of the narrative weave in and out of each other in this poem, and are reflected subtly in the book's structure; the black thread sewn along the spine, the leaves of the pages unfolding outward, the wood type beckoning you to "open."

All of the text was handset in Bembo 11/12 pt., Bernhard Gothic medium 10 pt., and 12 and 10 line gothic wood type. The illustration is one of the author's, and was printed from a photopolymer plate.

It was such a pleasure to work on this book. Thank you, Allison, for entrusting me with your words.

A Study in Black & Silver

In a few days, Open Sky, written by Portland poet Allison Dubinsky, will be ready to debut. Today, I offer a little preview: I loved the way these black covers looked, lined up on my workbench, their silver adornments glistening in the ever-so-rare Portland mid-winter sun.

Good Housekeeping

When I walked into my print studio this morning, my first, involuntary thought was "wow, this place needs a good cleaning." Type, type cases, spacing material, paper off cuts, polymer plate segments - everything has been kind of piling up. And piling up. And piling up. I've been so absorbed in my work that I have had neither the time nor the inclination to do anything about it.

This is not a sign of good studio housekeeping, I said to myself. Things had come to a critical mass.

I've been finishing the final typesetting for Allison's book, Open Sky, which I talked about here. She's recently returned from Peru, so we've resumed printing the colophon and a few other details before it's ready to be bound. In the process of setting the colophon, I discovered that I needed to re-distribute type from a project I had printed nearly two years ago, and that I had left standing, assuming I'd get around to it one day or another. Because that type hadn't been returned to it's proper home, I was short of sorts for Allison's colophon.

So, I simply tackled it. I scoured my little print shack from top to bottom today, vacuuming up cobwebs and stashing paper piles in a places where they will be found and used, and finally, re-distributing type from my galley trays back into their cases.

And here I am looking a bit smug and feeling thoroughly satisfied.

this is simply a gratuitous post

wherein I marvel for a moment in the beauty of wood furniture, mid-century mechanics,

and words set in perfectly straight lines.