I had a wonderful Saturday spent learning how to operate a Chandler & Price (C&P) platen press at the International Printing Museum. 7 hours of pure printing fun! Up until now, I had printed on Vandercook's and Heidelberg Windmill's. And, I know I have mentioned previously that I have my eyes on buying a Windmill. But that all went out the door within the first few hours of my class. I think a C&P is definitely the press for me. And, the museum has a few to refurbish, so one of them might just be the Dear Lola work horse. The presses we operated in the class were 9x12 and 10x15, which means that's your printing area. The 9x12 was a little easier for a small girl to operate, but I think I will go the 10x15 route. Since the C&Ps there didn't have a motor, we had to treadle with our right leg to keep the press in motion. It was quite a test in coordination, but I finally got it down. When there is no motor, you have to treadle so the platen will keep momentum and keep printing. So you are pushing the pedal with your right foot, while you feed the press with your right hand and your left hand takes your finished print off the press. It's like rubbing your tummy while patting your head. But 100 prints later, I feel like I got the C&P dance down. I will most likely opt for a motor on my own press which will free up my leg from treadling. But if you're just doing a few prints, there's no point in turning on the motor. I loved the class so much that I'll be spending this Saturday taking the second part class where we will go deeper into color registration. Oh, such an important and crucial thing to know unless you plan to only print 1 color, but what's the fun in that!?
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