Wednesday, November 5, 2014

WOIW Week 5

BOOK

In Kraafters Kommunity on Google Plus,  the 5th Word Of Inspiration is BOOK.

My interpetation celebrates the printed WORDS of BOOKS, from the first scribed scrolls to the Gutenberg Press, to typewriters and today's computers.

I was fortunate to work for Arizona Highways Magazine as a programmer and computer operator. The Magazine had an old Gutenberg Press along with all the printer drawers filled with wooden typeface, in a little room next to the computer room, we called "The Museum". We also had the original printing press and composing table the Magazine was printed on. When The Magazine expanded, this wonderful equipment was donated to the Phoenix Museum of History. They in turn donated the Composing Table and Press to ASU's Walter Cronkite School Of Journalism



I loved those presses. Not only were they beautiful to look at, but those tiny pieces of wooden typeface were magnificent pieces of art. When I needed de-stressing time, I would wander into this room and just take in the visual of these presses and their smells... the wood was intoxicating. I would handle those typefaces and daydream about their usage. We also had something on the press bed ready to print, as we often did demos of the Gutenberg Press. Wonderful times!!!



So with my personal history lesson here, I feel Blessed to have been apart of that history. I still recall those days, and those presses as I work on my journals, or mixed media or cards... that special "something" that influences my choices in my crafting.

Here is a digital piece I did for BOOK. I used an old manual typewriter along with a printer's box filled with wooden typeface, a printer ticker tape and a printer seal. I chose a typewriter as focus, because of all the manuscripts, books, and papers that have been produced/written thru the years.  All those WORDS carefully laid down on paper for others to read, learn from, wander into imaginary places/lands, to give us hope, allow us to dream, or simply pass a Summer day reading for the pure pleasure of reading... and because I still have two manual ones and one very old electric...



Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog.


6 comments:

  1. Sylvia, I loved reading of your experience and loved looking at your digital art work. Wonderful. hugs, patty

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    1. Thank you, Patty. There are other printing artifacts in our little Museum. One I just adored was the huge cabinet that had all these little pull out drawers filled with letters of the alphabet and special characters. Lots of different fonts to look at and wonder about their history ...

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  2. Wow, what a magnificent piece of machinery! I really enjoyed reading your story! Great visuals in your digital art. You could print those elements and use them in a physical piece one day!

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    1. Thanks, Zsuzsa. That room was truly a visual delight -- the presses, the old heavy oak cabinets filled with printer trays and typesetting rows, the inks, the rollers ... All magical

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  3. I love your digital art work Sylvia. I would have loved working amongst all that beautiful old machinery too!!

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    1. Roz, it was a wonderful experience. Just to be a part of that history, that brought the world the gift of words in books was an indescribable experience! !!

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