24 June 2014 - Hamilton Type Museum & 2014 APA Wayzgoose

I have just had way too much fun in Wisconsin at the Wayzgoose. I hear voices in my head all asking "What the heck is a Wayzgoose?"   In the early days of printing, before electricity, printers often had to work by candlelight in the fall and winter.  Before this could happen, the Master Printer would host a Way-goose for all his journeymen--a dinner celebration around St Bartholomew's Day on August 24.  

The earliest use of this word was seen in Mechanick Exercises, by Joseph Moxon from 1683.  He writes:  

 The Master Printer gives them a Way-goose; that is, he makes them a good Feast, and not only entertains them at his own House, but besides, gives them Money to spend at the Ale-house or Tavern at Night. ... These Way-gooses, are always kept about Bartholomew-tide. And till the Master-Printer have given this Way-goose, the Journey-men do not use to Work by Candle Light.

These days a Wayzgoose is a meeting of printers. It can be local, state, regional or national meetings. I attended the APA Wayzgoose in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  And what a treat! 

There were classes:  Engraving on wood type. I took this class and am enamored with the whole concept. 

We had some quick instruction on various gravure tools: including scorpers and spitstickers. Great names.

This is a simple router for clearing large areas of wood

and a ruling machine. Yep. Lust in my heart for this one!

Ky Wrzesinski

Talk about a heads down experience. I got tickled looking at the table across from me.  Here is our instructor, Jim Horton showing good form:

And participants emulating him.

L-R: Jeff Waldvogel, Jeryl Jones, Cindy Iverson

 Each person chose a letter to engrave. We were given a block of wood, traced the letter shape onto the block and engraved our design. 

Then we anxiously watched as Scott Moore worked out the math to get ready to cut out our letters with his wood type pantograph. 

Resulting in this:

My letter is the second O with the jellyfish. Jim will print this and we will get copies in the APA big tube mailing.

Poster layout and printing.  This was going on during my class. I don't think I saw any samples from that class.

Weaving type, image and structure. Wow. This class was taught by Jessica Spring and Jen Farrell who are amazing and innovative printers. The class printed large sheets covered with wood type, then used the printed to piece to cut up for weaving and folded projects. Really interesting stuff. 

Laurie Taylor Walters

Marjorie Wilser

Honeycomb book made from printed many Bs

    

Pressure printing, the first pass on a many layered project

Wood type (history, design and pantograph)

Here Tom Parson shows off a just-completed piece: a wood ornamental bracket he made using Scott Moore's pantograph and patterns. 

There were speakers: Greg Walters on European Type Specimen books plus he brought over 100 of his old and rare books for us to leaf through. Very carefully leaf through.  

His slide show was amazing. But I got a bad case of the giggles when I saw the screen.  Seriously over engineered. 

Greg also gave another talk on water marks in paper and how to find them. 

Jim Moran spoke about the Hamilton Type Museum's recent move and their future. 

There was a swap meet! Caveat emptor. It is not a good idea to fly to a Wayzgoose unless you really need a reason not to buy anything. It's hard to carry heavy metal type, books and accoutrements on a plane.  But look! Table after table of good stuff.

There was a benefit auction for the APA. Great fun with cheering for the winners and lots of oohs, ahhs and laughter. 

The museum itself was wonderful. Many examples of wood type, lots of presses, room for classes,  and many posters made from wood type hanging on the walls. 

This 2 was printed from a piece of wood type that is 46 inches high. 

It was wonderful to gather with so many people who all speak printerese. Even better was meeting so many of them in person. I have received so much help and advice via email--it was great to actually meet them in the flesh. 

How many ways are there to say what a splendiferous time?