Graphic design is tons of fun, but it’s also work—and it takes a lot of mental energy. Sometimes you just have to get away and play. So how do you play and relax?

As many of you know, one thing that I’m enjoying a lot at the moment is letterpress. I’ve successfully restored a Vandercook SP-15 press, and today I cleaned up the C&P (not sure the model number or size at the moment. I know there’s a chase somewhere, but I haven’t measured it yet). And again, I must say, Evapo-Rust is a wonderful product!

I soaked some paper towels in Evapo-Rust and then wrapped up the press in plastic wrap to keep the Evapo-Rust from evaporating. It “soaked” for about 2 hours. There are still some rusty spots on the platen that were pretty bad (you can see on the edges), but that may not affect the inking process too much. See bigger photos in my Flickr set.

Along with cleaning the C&P today, I set up a small job for the Vandercook. Back when I asked for ideas for projects, Alex mentioned bookmarks. I thought that was a great idea! I chose a quote from The Hobbit:

I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone. — Gandalf (to Bilbo)

That reminds me so much of what it’s like to start a new book—it’s an adventure! And The Hobbit was a fantastic story (I liked it way better than LoTR myself).

The paper that I have to print these bookmarks on is the perfect size to print two up, so I also want to make a bookmark with this quote:

What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Now isn’t that a great quote!

I set up Gandalf’s quote today and ran into an interesting problem that made me realize even more what an art letterpress is. I wanted to add those em-dashes for who said the quote but the font I was using didn’t have any! I’m sure many of you experienced letterpress artists out there are grinning and nodding; I think letterpress is full of things that you simply must work around.

So what do you do when you don’t have an em-dash? Well in this case, I found an ornament that does quite nicely (very elvish) and I actually like it better than a simple dash!

Do you have any fun letterpress stories? What work-arounds have you had to do to complete a project? Did you end up liking them better than what you originally had in mind?

For those of you who aren’t into letterpress, what do you do for fun? How do you get away from the riggors of designing?