Red Crow.

It was pushing 115 degrees today at my house in Ukiah. The garage that I have converted into a letterpress shop has no insulation. It is freezing during the winter months so space heaters are pulled out…and it is basically a sauna during the summer. The best times to print during the summer is at the crack of dawn, when it is nice a cool. You can open the door and hear the neighborhood wake up while enjoying your coffee and smell of fresh ink being pushed along.

This particular morning I received an email saying that Sean McDonnell’s book ‘Beneath The Valley Oak’ is shipping. Yes the book is done! Things tend to sneak up on me. It isn’t that I wait until the last minute, I just have a hard time prioritizing things and my ‘to-do’ list grows longer every day. Good thing I like to stay busy. I had already started the book jackets yesterday, printed the black title with some very old wood type. This morning I inked up the Chandler & Price letterpress with a deep red and finished the crow that adorns the cover. Still more to do, but seeing this come together for Sean’s book is a moment worth writing about…with the book jackets coming together…it just seems that we are at the end of our journey. Just seeing that red crow being pressed into the paper, there was something very bittersweet about it…and the sounds and smells that surrounded me this morning.

rob.