Greetings, Everyone,

I just stumbled upon this site, and already I love it! Briar Press postings led me here, while I was trying to decide if I  have enough room for a Little Giant. (No, I don’t.)

I’ve been in printing for over 45 years, offset and letterpress, and have found that the letterpress was always much more engaging. I’ve owned large offset (20×26 2-color) as well as small, and made a good living from them, but the Kluge and Craftsman Automatics, the C&P Snappers, as well as the small cylinders–V-36 and Kelly “B”–are what really made me love to go to work in the morning. At one point we had three Linotypes running, and I was happily engaged in a lot of type-setting. Other times the focal point was a Windmill set up for foil stamping. My next project, should I be foolish enough to undertake it, will probably be the building of a Franklin hand-press.

As I looked around for letterpresses, I realized that it was the perfect time—a good C&P four-form roller Craftsman with the C&P feeder cost me $100.00! A 12×18 Kluge Automatic was under $1000.00, and I traded a table-top C&P platen for a working and complete Kelly “B”!!

Of course, they would be more costly now, but I lost my husband a little over a year ago, and I’m thinking that it would be good therapy and a good use of available space in the shed if I could find a nice platen and a Model 14 Lino. I guess I’ll have to see how the motorcycles feel about sharing.  Anyway, that’s why I’m here. It looks lovely, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it!