One day perhaps, one fine day, I will at last resist the temptation to talk about an unfinished thing before it is finished, but it is not this day.
My most recent post was about how I had bought a press, a very nice Chandler and Price. I lied a bit. I had not actually paid for the press or physically acquired it, and was leaving the logistics of moving and housing and using it up to the gods. But the gods can be fickle, or at least know when the time isn’t right for something, and the logistics fell apart completely. Any spaces I could find were either expensive or in out-of-the-way locations. All of the necessary trailers were in Texas (Texas!) and I, being a bit shy of 25, would not have been able to rent a vehicle large enough to pull one anyhow. So, in a nutshell, I did not buy a press, and probably will not for some time. So it goes.
However, I did gain, or re-gain, clarity in the process. I have a press, the one that I built, which is not yet perfect, but which I can make so. I have the willpower and a good portion of the know-how to build a print shop mostly from scratch, and so I am set more firmly on that course. The money that I would have spent on the C&P is being reinvested in type and tools and other things that I can actually use. The path becomes clear, but perhaps only by straying from it.
So I go on. In July, I shall be spending a few Saturdays at the Iowa City Farmer’s Market, hawking prints and notebooks and things, and perhaps picking up a few jobs to print along they way. I’ll provide more information on that as I go.
I feel a bit silly about the whole thing, but in a way this sort-of failure has given me the necessary kick in the pants to proceed with my endeavors. So proceed I will, and boldly. The important thing, the whole reason for at all, is to do the work. That’s where the joy is, and the excitement.
Onward!
