Hot metal enthusiasts gather for four days in Mt. Pleasant

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Is hot metal making a comeback? Perhaps, it never left.

A couple hundred people attending a Printers? Fair and Ladies of Letterpress event at Printers? Hall last week on the Midwest Old Threshers grounds would tell you the latter.

Hot metal is a type of technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The resulting sorts and slugs are later used to press ink onto paper.

Letterpress printing was developed in the late 19th century and the most popular form of hot metal typesetting is linotype.

Kseniya Thomas of Carlisle, Penn., is a co-founder and now director of Ladies of Letterpress. She and Jessica White began the group in 2007.

?We started it because many new letterpress operators were women and we wanted them to get as good an education as possible,? Thomas reflected. ?There aren?t really any trade schools (for learning the hot metal printing process).?

Ladies of Letterpress, which is open to anyone (men included), began with 30 members. Eight years later, the international organization has over 2,400 members, ranging in age from 18 to 80, Thomas said.

Thomas, who graduated from college with an English literature major, became interested in the process when she received a fellowship to Germany after college graduation. She ended up in Mainz, Germany, working in the Gutenberg Museum. Mainz was the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the movable type printing press. He is credited with starting the printing revolution of the 15th century.

After her return to the United States following her fellowship, Thomas settled in Texas and made plates for printers. A few years later, she moved to Pennsylvania and while working in an office purchased her first printing press.

That purchase eventually led her to quitting her office job and becoming a full-time printer. ?It was sort of intentional and non-intentional,? she explained concerning the transition into printing.

This year, she said, marks the third consecutive year that her organization has had its ?one big event of the year? at Printers? Hall. In 2013 and 2014, Ladies of Letterpress met in June at Printers? Hall. This year, they decided to have its event in conjunction with the Printers? Fair, which is hosted annually two weeks after the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion.

About 65 of the 200 participants in the joint event were members of Ladies of the Letterpress. Thomas said that most of the members from her organization attending were from the Midwest. However, she said her group also has some members from Florida, Texas, New York and Washington state attending this year.

Approximately 30-40 percent of the organization?s members are career printers, Thomas said.

Now the owner of Thomas Printers, she has three production printers and is in her 10th year of full-time printing. She said her print shop fills a need. ?There is a need for printers of business cards, wedding invitations, envelopes, posters, etc. ?I don?t feel like I am competing with digital printers. My type of printing is a niche.?

Steve Alt, who was one of the founders of Printers? Hall a decade ago said he became interested in letterpress printing ?because I like mechanical things. I still work full-time, so right now it is a hobby.?

The Printers? Fair is generally a three-day event, but expanded to four days this year. It consists of workshops, on-hand training and visits from high school and college students and a swap meet. Workshops include bookbinding, how to set type and ink it and operation of the Heidelberg, Windmill, Washington-style and Platen printing presses.

?We draw people from around the country,? said Alt, who lives in West Liberty. ?This year we have people from Salt Lake City, Oregon and Florida.?

The day?s events were to run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but Alt said that several nights last week, the doors didn?t close until midnight.

Thomas is thankful she opted for a career of printing. ?I really had no idea of what I was getting into, but that was in a good way.?