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Spring into Type Founding with Micah Currier

Micah Currier
Micah Currier and his partners at The Dale Guild Type Foundry.

 

Micah Slawinski Currier is a journeyman type-founder and letterpress printer. He is co-owner and operator of The Dale Guild Type Foundry.

Click here for a more in-depth (and aesthetically relevant) look at Micah Currier, in his own words.

 

foundry Nicolas
The first setting of Russell Maret’s foundry Nicolas, cut and cast by Micah Currier at the Dale Guild Type Foundry.

 

“The craft of type founding is one of the most secretive disciplines within the history of printing. In the mid-19th century two technological advancements within the 400-year-old craft created a revolution that would begin to modernize typography and printing. David Bruce’s pivotal caster was first patented in 1834, mechanizing the type casting while allowing for more complex designs and better type. Along with the pivotal caster the process of electro-depositing matrices had become a viable means for matrix production.

Type Founding: An Introduction is a hands-on class with historical lectures and discussions focusing on the two primary elements of type production: casting and matrix production. Students will learn to operate, maintain, repair, and cast type from The Dale Guild Foundry‘s Bruce and MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan pivotal casters. The type cast during the class will be put to use in Penland’s print studio and fonts will be made up for all students to take back to their print shops. In addition to learning to cast and hand-dress type with the pivotal casters, students will learn the invaluable skill of making electro-depositing matrices, and how to set up this process at home. Being able to make replacement matrices for characters that are running low or even making an entire font of matrices is a skill that will benefit any printer’s type collection.

 

Dale Guild Type Foundry
Type casting equipment at The Dale Guild Type Foundry. Photo by Scott Lowe.

 

“Pivotal casters are hand-operated casting machines that require a bit of strength to turn over. Students should be able to do 10 pushups without too much difficulty to be comfortable casting type by hand. Students will be encouraged to spend as much time casting as they feel comfortable, but it is not a requirement of the class to be able to crank the handle for hours and hours every day. There will be many other aspects of the craft of type founding and printing to learn. In addition to working with the various disciplines of type founding, students will learn more advanced typesetting using a mortising machine, miter saw, and other type altering tools. There will also be open time each day for students to work on printing projects with assistance from an instructor throughout the class, up to final group project in the last two weeks.

 

Benton engraving machine at The Dale Guild Type Foundry. Photo by Scott Lowe.

 

“Given the limited availability of type founding equipment throughout the world, no previous experience is necessary to sign up for the course. The foundations of setting type and printing with a proof press will be reviewed a the beginning of the course, although letterpress printing experience is suggested.”

You can click here to visit The Dale Guild Type Foundry’s website for more information about Micah and his work.

And you can click here for more information about Penland’s spring concentration workshops.

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Photo of the Week: Iron studio panorama



This picture is a 360-degree panorama of the Penland iron studio. If you click on it, you can navigate around the image–left, right, up, and down. It was made by photographer (and Penland student) Christopher Ellenbogen–one of a series of ten Penland panoramas that he made this summer. You can see all of them (in a bigger, wider window) on our page at 360 Cities.

Special note: If you have an iPad, you can stand with it in your hands and turn your whole body around and watch the panoramas swirl across the screen.

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Robert Fulghum at Penland

Painting by Dimitris Katsigiannis

Imagine our surprise when we discovered that Robert Fulghum, author of  All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, took a woodworking class at Penland with his son this summer. It seems he kept a low profile vis-a-vis his fame and we didn’t notice that we’d had a celebrated literary personage in our midst until he wrote about the experience on his blog:

“Back after a two week adventure at Penland. 
If you are involved in the world of crafts, you would immediately recognize that I’ve made a pilgrimage to the heart of the world of fine crafts…
“My son, Hunter, and I decided to do something together this summer, and instead of a road trip somewhere to look at someplace, we would go somewhere and learn something. We’ve both long been amateur carpenter-woodworkers, so we chose a course at Penland called Screw It – focused on alternative methods of wood joinery. The class of twelve students made tables, experimental croquet mallets, and small sculptures.  The wood studio was huge – a wood workers dream – containing every kind of tool and machinery to do almost anything to shape wood.
“
And the studio was open and in use 24 hours a day…”

Click here to read the full article, plus Clothes Pin Meditation, an original short story.