Typecasting is alive and well- learn how this tradition is staying vibrant. Val Lucas has worked with her mentor, Jim Walczak, to learn the art of engraving new casting matrices for the Monotype Sorts Caster. She is creating brand new borders and ornaments of her own design, and to date, has designed five sets of type for printers to play with. While these designs are new creations, she’s also been working with Ian Edelson of Small Capital Press to electrodeposit matrices from existing type to re-create old ornaments that are no longer available. Ian has re-engineered the electrodepositing method to create a new casting matrix, and together, they’ve successfully grown a new mat and used it to cast new type.
Val Lucas
Typecasting Revival: Engraving and Electrodepositing New Matrices
Val Lucas
Bowerbox Press
Val Lucas, a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, runs Bowerbox Press, a letterpress and woodcut printing studio in rural Monkton, Maryland. In addition to woodcut and letterpress prints and posters, she creates new metal type for printers by engraving and casting new ornament and border designs. She teaches Letterpress and Bookbinding at Towson University.
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