See?Īfter cleaning, though, I took up my hammer and nails and tried to figure where was the best point on the back of the drawer to hammer the nails into for support. My drawer “cleaned up good”, as they say. You touch the stories behind those things. I daydreamed a bit about what kinds of printed matter the type was used to create, and where the drawer could have been from. While part of me felt a bit alarmed at the idea of lead touching some of the areas (the graphic design layout term “leading” actually comes from actual use of lead to separate lines of text), the other part felt an odd sort of excitement that I was coming in contact with history. There were A LOT of partitions to clean.Īfter about a thirty minutes to an hour of elbow grease later, this is what I had to show for it:ĮStill, I had to wonder if some of that grime was actually from the time when the drawer had been used. If I was being a little more obsessive compulsive about the process, I probably would have grabbed an old toothbrush or cotton swabs or something to get in the crevices. I sprayed all over the tray drawer several times and rubbed hard with the rags for each application. I had no idea what I had just signed up to do … I set the wire and nails aside for a few minutes and took up the rags and Kleen Guard spray. I figured if they could jerry-rig it that way, I could, too. I took my cue from the old frame and grabbed a couple of nails from our stash. I grabbed a couple of old rags, wire cutters, a hammer, a can of Kleen Guard spray, and an old frame I had picked up at a Goodwill store a few years back.įirst, I stole the hanging wire from the back of the old frame, cutting it on each side as close to the nails as possible. I took a good look at it and realized 1) there was a LOT of grime on those sections of the drawer, and 2) there wasn’t a way to hang it up on the wall. Here’s how it looked before I got to work: It was a gift from my mother and father back several years ago and I was so excited to get that gift, but I never did anything with it! Finally, it went to use, but first it needed a little TLC of the MacGyver variety. That’s when I re-discovered my type drawer. I searched high and low in our house, only to discover that 90% of my vintage “stuff” that I like to swap out from room to room was too small, or just plain impossible to hang on a wall. Something that would tone down the girly-ness and not cost too much. Pulling out the drawer for use is similar to a tray – hence the name “printer’s tray.During my mad weekend makeover of our dining room, I kept telling Daniel that I needed something with some oomph to put on the wall. The printer would pull the letterpress drawer out of the typecase and work from it. In order to typeset, the printer chose the correct type blocks to compose a document. To letterpress, brush ink onto metal letters and press them into the paper. Each drawer has many small compartments, which hold type blocks.Ī type block is a single letter with a wood base and metal top. Letterpress drawers were stored in type cases (furniture-style cases that hold several drawers). Once offset printing was developed in the 20th century, letterpress declined (see: history of printing).ĭue to the age of the industry, it’s likely that when you buy a letterpress drawer, it is an antique (100+ years old). Letterpress printing began in the 1400s, invented by Gutenberg, and was widely use through the 19th century. What is a Letterpress Drawer?Ī letterpress drawer, also commonly know as a letterpress tray, printer’s tray, or printer’s drawer, originated from the letterpress printing industry. A letterpress drawer makes displaying tiny objects simple, and beautiful. While, as an adult, my “collections” are a bit more practical, I still enjoy displaying collections of everyday objects in stunning vignettes.
#Letterpress tray how to#
Want to know how to display collections without looking cluttered? Try a letterpress drawer! Here are 15+ collections to display in a printers tray, letterpress drawer, or shadow box.Īs a child, I loved to collect small things… coins, keychains, stickers, rocks, and more.
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