Another interest bites the dust or get over it, it's all practice... so tonight Kort and I helped on a letterpress job for the press in our building. We inked up the C&P, measured and set the diecut and pulled about 30 announcements (our goal was 80). That is, Kort pulled 30 announcements. I made half-assed measurements, wiped off extra ink from the die and practiced the movements of placing the paper in the press in between hits. Picture Daniel-san in Karate Kid waxing the hood of Mr. Miyagi's car or painting his wooden fence - hand-eye coordination is not one of my strong suits, though I have all the patience in the world to cut and bind paper into books. There were a lot of moving, noisy parts and the parts that came out of the machine were too heavy for me to lift on my own. How am I EVER going to be a letterpress printer unless I build up enough muscle to lift a vertical piece of 30 lb metal? Learning a new practice is always an exercise in getting to know myself and my process better - I learn in very specific ways (expedient means), and unless that process is honored, nothing gets integrated. The old trial and error does not really cut it for me. The similarities to photography are strong - lots of changing variables - temperature, ink, rollers, paper height, etc. etc. Oh that I actually had skills...