Guild Card

Letterpress, Monotype hand-set metal type

2.5" x 3.5"

The C.C. Stern Type Foundry issues new cards annually to supporters who donate to the organization. Each guild card is printed in a small edition.

Type is recently cast hand-set Monotype 10pt. Bulmer 462 and 18pt. Bulmer Italic cast in 2003 at Monotype University. The ornaments were recently unearthed in a reorganization of the galleys in the print shop and appear to be rarely used American Type Foundry BI1056 and BI1055 (reference is the Monotype Corporation Fleurons broadside). Unfortunately, I don’t recall where or when we procured this sweet little box of ornamental border material.

The Point v.6

The Point Volume 6 is out in the mail as of today! Cast primarily in 10pt Bulmer 462 on the Monotype Composition caster, with classifieds composed on the Linotype in 8pt Spartan Heavy. This annual newsletter for the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is 10 pages, folded to a 4” x 6” finished size. Available for donors to the Foundry at the Printer’s Devil level and above. This year all the lower case e’s were just fine. In fact, the Bulmer matrices seem to be in great shape.

r.i.p. pica the cat

This week we buried Pica, a small cat with a big personality. She never really took to the print shop, made morning coffee, or learned to collect the mail … but she was still a great friend to us and will be missed.

Typesetter's T-Shirts

I recently unearthed a box of these t-shirts from over a decade ago! Shirts are made in America, screen printed in Portland from a clean proof of wood type. Sales benefit the programming at C.C. Stern Type Foundry. Buy one here.

P.S. The lovely model is Emma Swartz of Squeezebox Press.

No Kings Day (Again)

On October 18, 2025 the streets of Portland were full of people with signs, wearing inflatable costumes, chanting and dancing. Rage with a smile. Three hours of walking the downtown march route and both the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges were still full of people on the move. If seven million showed up for this single day protest, we’re getting closer to the tipping point.

weathergrams

When printer-friends visited C.C. Stern Type Foundry and Craft Printing House in early September, we engaged in a fun last-minute project of making Weathergrams. Inspired by Lloyd Reynolds and his interpretation of the Japanese tansaku form, we set type for seasonal poetic notes and printed a small edition of 30. Tied to branches with string, these little Weathergrams were hung at the Autumnal Equinox and are doing their best to become soaked and tattered as the leaves themselves at the end of the season.

Printing Circle in Grand Ronde

I was lucky enough to be on the team from Marie Watt Studio that led a printing circle for youth at the Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center in Grand Ronde, OR this summer. Participants created pressure prints addressing the language of democracy using stitching and collage methods. This is part of a multi-year project in which Marie Watt will ultimately quilt these with other prints created at various community group gatherings, forming a public installation piece.

American Typecasting Fellowship Conference in Clatskanie!

In April, I cast decorative ornaments (Monotype 1258 and 1259) at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry as part of a project with Montana State University, and this month we had a chance to put them to use ourselves. Paired with Linotype Electra and Gothic No. 13, they make a nice impression in gold ink on red paper. This little project announces the 2025 American Typecasting Fellowship Conference which is scheduled for July 31 - August 3, 2025. The C.C. Stern Type Foundry is hosting 4 days of fellowship, including technical sessions, a panel of presentations, banquet, swap meet, letterpress fair and auction. Registration closes on July 15.

More information on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry and American Typecasting Fellowship websites.

Poetry Missives

Each week I check the PO Box in Clatskanie, and for the last couple months I have been greeted by a new poetry card from Clifford Burke. Initially I thought these little publications were Desert Rose Press's contribution to National Poetry Month, but as they kept arriving through May and June I realized they are a gift of activism using the language of poetry to register dissent and offer hope. Thanks, Clifford, for these messages that arrive by post and stay in my mind as we struggle through the dismantling of Representative Democracy.

No Kings! arm bands

Letterpress, hand-set wood type

3" x 12”

Inspired by the Suffragettes of the early 1900s and the Nazi Punks Fuck Off! arm bands of my Reagan-era youth, I printed a few red cloth bands for the Flag Day “No Kings” protests (June 14th, 2026).

enough! zine project

I’m officially a zine publisher again! As a way to ground myself during this country’s abrupt transition to authoritarian rule, I’m using the zine format to explore my personal values and share with friends. Twelve months, twelve issues. It’s good noticing practice, and has required note-taking in the weeks between issues, as well as some synthesis (digestion?) of my experiences in order to represent that in the publication. There’s no subscription, I’m just sending them as I make them, and letting that be “enough”.

Raymond Carver Writing Festival: May 3, 2025

The Raymond Carver Writing Festival takes place annually in Clatskanie, Oregon, the birthplace of Raymond Carver. The 2025 Raymond Carver Writing Festival is May 3rd from 10am to 8:30pm. Once again a committee of volunteers (of which I am part) has put together a great line-up of events centered at the Clatskanie Cultural Center, with readings and generative writing exercises at other venues around town. This year’s theme is “Call it a Polestar.” Featured presenters include Moe Bowstern, Allen Braden, Mandy Ellen, Martha Gies, Holly Hughes, Laura Moulton, Dayle Olson, and Armin Tolentino (Vancouver, WA). More information on the website.

Letterpress posters for this year’s festival will be on sale at the event, along with posters we’ve made for 2024 and 2023.

Partners in Print Grand Opening!

I’ve been involved with Partners in Print as an Advisory Council member for the the past four years, as the leadership team has established their non-profit structure and built their programming. Until a month or so ago, their physical equipment was in storage or being stewarded by various Seattle-area letterpress printers. In late 2024, the organization secured a facility and is now offering in-person print workshops and events!

Raise a toast to their efforts!
Sunday, April 27
 2025
Open house 1–5pm 

Toast at 4pm


Partners in Print

402 Cedar Street, Seattle, WA 98121
RSVP

Power of the Presses Exhibit

I’m honored that one of my prints will exhibited as part of Power of the Presses at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. The show of books and prints runs from March 7-June 8, 2025 and includes a number of opportunities for hands-on art making in the gallery.

Download exhibition flier

The Point V.5

The annual newsletter for the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is on press! This year we selected 12pt. Monotype Modern No. 8 (8A) for the body text, complemented with Linotype Bodoni and decorative border material. Seems like the process of casting was a bit rougher than years past — first a mould that we decided was too worn and needed to be swapped out, then a matrix for a single letter that was casting too low, followed by random substitutions of letters for unit spaces. Ack. All those issues meant that the print runs were also challenging, and far more time consuming than they should have been. As always, I learned a lot in the process, and was reminded of how much more there is to learn.

Printing by Hand Exhibit

I have three pieces up as part of the “Printing by Hand” group show at the Hillsboro Brookwood and Shute Park Libraries. The exhibit includes work from regional letterpress printers, and was organized by the Northwest Letterpress Network. It will be on display November 1-December 31, 2024, with a reception on December 5th, 6:30-7:30pm at the Brookwood Library Gallery.

phil elverum 'night palace' book release

We (Craft Printing House) have just finished casting, printing and binding a new chapbook by Phil Elverum, a companion to Mt. Eerie’s latest album Night Palace. The standard edition is a run of 2000, 56 pages with soft cover and a wrap-around dust jacket. There is an additional lettered edition which will be cloth bound by Jules Remedios Faye, with hand lettered spine and cover labels done by Phil. It’s the first book we’ve produced start to finish at the Clatskanie shop space—cast on the Linotype 31, text block and covers printed on the Heidelberg 13x18, and the dust jackets on the Vandercook Universal 1AB. We’re excited to celebrate the completion at the book release event on October 6, 2024 at the Birkenfeld Theatre.

The release event is part of a pilot Artist in Residency program that the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is sponsoring. Visual or literary artists are able to come to our “campus” in Clatskanie and explore a project with the technical support of the Foundry volunteers (currently by invitation only). As part of this experience, the artist is asked to give some kind of public presentation about their creative process. The poster pictured was composed with a combination of hand set metal foundry type and Linotype (text and decorative material). Printed in two metallic ink colors on the Vandercook Universal 1AB.

50th Annual Gilbert Family Beanhole poster

This colorful poster was designed and printed in the summer of 2024 to commemorate the 50th Gilbert family reunion. Every August generations of the Gilberts gather in Dorset, Vermont to celebrate our connection to each other and to the little corner of the Green Mountain State where at least five generations have resided. We have a fire, bury a pot of beans, go for a hike, attend to gravesites or hold memorials, sleep, dig up the beans and have a potluck, hold an auction, eat fresh strawberry ice cream, look at scrapbooks and note the “best beans ever” in the official record. It’s no ordinary reunion.

Letterpress, wood and metal type, carved linoleum block, relief background tint

Dimensions: 12” x 18”


Hand-set wood type and metal type, dutch oven (bean pot) carved from a mounted linoleum block.
Color tint printed from a litho blanket. Letterpress printed on Tango C1S in three colors.

Short film on barbarian press

This short documentary tells the story of Jan and Crispin Elsted, who for over 30 years have made books by hand, letterpress printed from metal type and wood engravings. It’s a portrait that reinforces what it is to live for your passion. Released in 2016, and recirculating on vimeo now.