A question, pressed to paper | News, Sports, Jobs - Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Aug 21, 2024

Nancy Sinkoff paints ink onto a set of type in BluSeed Studio’s recently refurbished Vandercook Universal III printing press as Peter Seward looks on on Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Peter Seward beamed with joy and Nancy Sinkoff shouted excitedly as a crisp print rolled off the press inside a BluSeed Studio workroom on Tuesday.

They were working on BluSeed Studio’s recently refurbished Vandercook Universal III printing press — an old machine where lead type is set by hand and manually rolled to press ink onto paper. Their excitement came after numerous smudged or faded attempts to perfect the print.

There are a lot of variables to a printing press — the viscosity of the ink, the pressure of roller on the type, the height of the type, the tightness of the lettering and paper absorbancy.

“It’s a complicated machine,” Sinkoff said.

It’s also frustrating at times.

Nancy Sinkoff and Peter Seward read a page pressed using BluSeed Studio’s recently refurbished printing press on Tuesday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“But it’s a deeply satisfying thing to do,” she added.

She spends hours of her life on a screen.

“I want to do things that aren’t in front of a computer,” Sinkoff said. “This is like uber-analog.”

The two said they are still learning their way around the Vandercook. This was their first time operating it by themselves outside of a workshop.

As they worked, Seward thought about how, at one time, nearly all print publication was done on a machine like this. Every community used to have a press like this, he said. Now, there’s a registry of where each Vandercook is.

Nancy Sinkoff and Peter Seward read a page pressed using BluSeed Studio’s recently refurbished printing press on Tuesday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

BluSeed has one of the 100-or-so Universal III presses listed in the Vandercook census.

Sayings still used today — like “deadline,” “out of sorts” or “mind your ‘p’s and ‘q’s” — originate from the press.

But manual printmaking is having a resurgence, they added, like vinyl albums.

Sinkoff said she’s not an artist, but has a strong graphic sensibility and love for language that drew her to the press.

She also runs Center for Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. On Tuesday, she was printing a card for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It included a quote from a rabbi in both English and Hebrew.

Nancy Sinkoff locks in the “furniture” around a set of type on BluSeed Studio’s recently refurbished Vandercook Universal III printing press as Peter Seward looks on Tuesday. Sinkoff had just performed “surgery” on the lead type after proofreading and realizing a Hebrew letter had been set upside-down.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

In it, the rabbi asks “What is the right path for a person to choose to live a good life?” The answer is “A generous heart.”

After they pressed the letters, Seward and Sinkoff said they were going to cut a heart-shaped stamp from a potato or eraser to press between the two languages.

ALBANY — The state Department of Environmental Conservation is encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to respectfully ...

LAKE PLACID — The town of North Elba is seeking to override the real property tax cap in the event that they need ...

RAY BROOK — The Adirondack Park Agency will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, Oct. 17 at the Agency’s ...