Boxcar Press

Over the holidays I was back home in Rochester, NY.  I was so close to Boxcar Press in Syracuse that I couldn't resist taking the time to visit.  Turns out that the whole family wanted to go, so there were five of us on the tour.  Let me tell you, those folks are wonderful!  I contacted Cathy and she got me set up with a time and date.  When we came by, it was pajama day.  That right there could've made the tour for me.  Cathy generously spent a good hour and a half with us and took us through every section of the building and showed us the individual steps in their process from making a design into a plate to operating a Heidelberg windmill.  My dad even got to pull a test impression on a freshly made plate.  It was a really great experience.

Here are some shots (SOC) from our visit:

It's Official!

I'm now officially selling letterpress items.  I am setting up an Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/kkozelsky and have a new business Facebook page.  Check out Kozelsky Press and give it a 'Like'!  While you're there, feel free to swing on by KozelskyPhoto and give that a 'Like' as well to keep up to date with my projects.


I sold at my first art show over the weekend at Spin Cycle in association with Waldo Wildcrafts.  I didn't have a great spot, but I think that in general it went pretty well.  I brought the press with me and gave a couple of demonstrations during the afternoon.  I'll definitely be hauling it to any shows I do in the future.  


Here are a couple of shots of my setup:

News!!!

I am terribly excited to report that I am now the proud owner of a Kelsey 5x8 Excelsior tabletop platen letterpress!

These presses were manufactured in the early 1900s and are making quite the comeback.  I became smitten upon first seeing a picture of Shawna Noel's new letterpress stationery for her own photography business.  See it here.

I posted a 'want to buy' ad at briarpress.com - not expecting too much - when lo and behold a couple in Tampa contacted me because they had just bought two presses and wanted to sell one.  Perfect!  They had cleaned up and removed the rust from both presses, and so last weekend we drove down to pick it up.  Dare I say it?  The thing is smaller than I expected and actually kind of cute.

It will be a little while before I can actually use it, as it needs new rollers and trucks, and I've yet to purchase all the supplies that are needed to operate it.  I'll be getting most of the associated paraphernalia from Alan at excelsiorpress.com, ink from "Gary, the ink in tubes guy", and a base and gauge from boxcarpress.com in good ol' Syracuse, NY.

The ink plate... the back is notched so that it rotates every time you make an impression to ensure even distribution of ink

When we took it out of the car to bring into the house, this E fell out.  I don't know where it came from, but it's a lovely E, isn't it?

The press is on an old metal worktable that I just found on Craig's List.  For the record, I love the little metal logo on the front of it.