Felt is
Remembered.

01 / The forme

Every letter is a piece of metal.

Type is picked out of the case one sort at a time and stood in a composing stick, backwards and upside down. Spacing is settled at the bench with strips of lead, not nudged afterwards on a screen.

02 / The lock-up

Locked in iron, packed out with wood.

The set type goes into a chase, is packed with furniture and driven tight with tapered wedges. Done properly you can lift the whole page by one corner and nothing shifts.

03 / The impression

Then the platen closes.

Depth is set by the packing behind the platen and adjusted in fractions of a millimetre. Too little and the card reads flat. Too much and the counter of every letter punches through.

04 / The sheet

You can read it with your fingers.

Soft cotton takes the hit and closes around the letter. That dent was considered a fault for four centuries. It is now the reason anyone orders the work at all.

See the work →