JUN2013•NO. 32 It was a 'hot time' at the Phoenix Goose! PAGE 2 Morris Fuller Benton, Type Designer — Fact or Fiction? PAGE 10 APA JOURNAL is the unofficial publication of theAmalgamated Printers’ Association. Published as the spirit moves by Mike O’Connor. Articles and comments welcomed. 2 PHOENIX GOOSE Some traditions ignored; new efforts successful A few might contend that the record- setting 108 degree temperature was the big news at the recent apa Wayzgoose held in Phoenix, June 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, 2013. They’d be wrong. Our “dry heat” brought some at- tention, but that was not even close to the “big news” from the Phoenix Goose itself. First the statistics: 42 apa members and 34 guests were in attendance along with five spouses. There were a total of 35 who attended the three workshops. The swap meet sold 18 tables with the two big- gest vendors there ( John Barrett and Mark Barbour) very happy with their sales. The Friday morning was the kick-off for the official Wayzgoose to begin and attendees heard five presen- tations. There were over 70 members and guests in attendance to hear the talks. auction, while considered “small” by some past events, earned the apa treasury $1,425. day events at a Wayzgoose usually involve a so many talented and interesting people in Also, 86 folks enjoyed the bbq Buffet at the tour at some printing-related plant and/or the apa membership that Phoenix organiz- banquet and about 60 attended the Sunday visits to members’ home shops/studios. ers thought it best to utilize some of these tour of Skyline Type Foundry. At Phoenix, those in attendance spent people. The Phoenix Goose program shook up the day listening to five excellent presenta- Friday morning the first presentation some traditions of the apa Wayzgoose. Fri- tions from our own apa members. We have was by Sky Shipley, titled “The mysteries of type alignment.” This was followed by a pre- in hospitality or listen to Dan’s talk. Nearly the Mount Pleasant/Printers’ Hall Goose 3 sentation, “Phantom of the archives,” given by 50 people heard the presentation. event and that was holding workshops. apa Archivist David Kent. After the noon These were held Wednesday and Thursday. lunch Jen Farrell led off the afternoon with The other major item that totally broke Again, workshops were given by our own her presentation, “Printing for profit with apa Wayzgoose tradition was that Goose talented members: Jim Horton gave a two- handset type.” Right after her presentation, organizers this year went out of their way day workshop on wood engraving; Jessica Kseniya Thomas gave her talk titled, “How to invite guests to attend (at a slightly high- Spring on daredevil printing and Ron Hyl- ladies put life back in letterpress.” Ending er registration fee). ton on learning the basics of the Heidelberg the afternoon presentation was the contro- Initially the reason for this effort was Windmill. versial talk given by Rick vonHoldt: “Morris to try and bring together those letterpress In promoting the workshops and the Fuller Benton, type designer—fact or fiction.” printers in the state, meet them and with Wayzgoose on the Internet through the (Rick’s talk is presented in this issue.) this initial effort, there would be a base of web site, organizers attracted some inter- And that wasn’t the end of interesting printers to have future meetings with letter- ested letterpress folks far from the borders talks on Friday. Dan Mayer of Arizona press folks in the state. of Arizona. The guest registrations grew State University gave Phoenix carried over another break and grew. Phoenix also welcomed students a talk on Adventures with tradition that occurred last year at from Arizona State University. in Polymer Plate The effort proved very Making. While successful. A number of many members send newbie’s to letterpress out to have their showed up plus a num- plates made, asu has ber of students came to done a lot of research the Goose. on pushing the limits To try to break the ice of photopolmer from at the Friday lectures, at low-tech to high-tech the start of the proceed- and processes their ASU’s Dan Mayer ings that day everyone plates in-house for artistic printing. Dan there (some 75 people) has over 30 years experience in letterpress was asked to introduce printing and the samples of the artwork themselves, where they he presented were fantastic! This was held were from, their occupa- during the hospitality period on Friday eve- Friday evening Dan Mayer a packed room listened to Dan Mayer tell tion and why they were ning so members and guests could partake about their experiments and research with polymer plates. continued on page 5 Phoenix Goose Workshops 4 Twenty registered for Jessica’s workshop on Daredevil Printing. They pretty well took over the facilities while engaging in their projects. Jim Horton conducted a two-day wood engraving workshop at the Goose. A testament to Jim’s skills as an engraver and a teacher, many of the first-time efforts by these students were fantastic! Jim giving some individual help. Because of the large number of newbie’s in Jessica’s class, veterans were paired with Five students took Ron Hylton’s basic Heidelberg workshop. Here students Pe- newbie’s. Here Marjorie Wilser is paired ter Schaub and ASU student, Maria Talarera work on the press. (Ron is to the with Wilson Thomas. right.) involved in letterpress. 5 The introductions proved to be a gateway for conversations for the entire event. Mem- bers were easily mixing with guests and stu- dents and also newbie’s found a wealth of in- formation available to them. There was also interest from a number of people to join apa. This camaraderie between members and guests and long time printers and newbie’s Friday’s events were held at the 6,500 sq.ft. Letterpress Central. This was also the location for the work- permeated the entire weekend. shops that were held on Wednesday and Thursday. We can’t leave Friday’s events without giving the reason why Friday was such a from Michigan with tons of successful day at the Goose. wood engraving supplies; Dave That success can be explained in two Peat for his info, history and sam- words: Letterpress Central. Lc is a 6,500 sq. ples of electrotypes and how they ft. building and is owned by apa members relate to wood engraving; Jessica Cindy and Gary Iverson. The building was Spring who taught and inspired just a short one-mile drive from the Goose almost 20 daredevils (that is a lot hotel (a hotel van provided rides back and of students!) and Ron Hylton forth if needed). Letterpress Central is also who taught folks how to simulta- home to the Iverson’s Paper Studio, an in- neously print, perf and number house paper mill and online paper shop. on the windmill. Working with clients and artists on com- mercial printing projects is also a part of Tradition took hold again on Letterpress Central along with giving com- Saturday. That’s when the Wayz- munity classes on letterpress printing. goose holds the annual swap meet in the morning and the auc- Had it not been for Letterpress Central Auctioneers Dave Peat and Sky Shipley did a fine job of getting we couldn’t have put on the workshops. Fri- tion in the afternoon. All events maximum bids from the audience. day’s program was at lc which meant we on Saturday were held at the ho- tion is that at both events there was a “wrap didn’t have to rent a room at the hotel. But tel. and ship” table present. Those who came by many thanks also go to the instructors— One aspect of the swap meet and auc- plane could wrap their purchases in pack Jim Horton who drove over 1000 miles tion that might add to an additional tradi- them in usps Prior- 6 ity boxes and then they would be shipped out Monday. There were some 20 boxes mailed out This proved to be a highly successful service. Banquet attend- ees were treated to a bbq Buffet put on by the hotel. The food received high praise and Goose organizers Sky Shipley demonstrates his caster at the open found out later that the house Sunday in Prescott. gal who had been at- tending to all the needs at the hotel was back in the kitchen herself tast- ing everything before it went out. Top: Goose organizers: Jeryl Jones, The other treat at Mike O’Connor, Cindy and Gary Iverson. the banquet was the Left: We didn’t ask, but we think main speaker. The in- Mark Barbour enjoyed the BBQ Buf- teresting talk and slide fet at Saturday’s banquet. Right: Genevieve Kent (daughter of presentation was given by John Risseeuw, APA Archivist David Kent) shows off professor of art at Arizona State Univer- her printer’s hat which all attendees sity. His topic was “Seduced by ink and lead” Sky answers some questions posed by two stu- dents who attended the open house. received at the banquet. and covered more than 30 years of print- ing experience. John also brought a lot of with banquet attendees. samples of his work (all of which has been Talk about a break tradition again— purchased by the Library of Congress) and usually Goose attendees head home on kindly stayed to answer questions and talk Sunday; but not at Phoenix. Thanks to the generosity of Johanna and Sky Shipley all 7 were invited to their home and the Skyline type foundry in Prescott.