The Print Shop

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The Okanagan College print shop houses an impressive collection of letterpress equipment, amounting to more than 25,000lbs of gear. The shop's first machine, a lovely little Pearl No.3, was donated by Canadian poet Gary Geddes, and was restored by students of the Diploma in Writing & Publishing (along with instructor Jason Dewinetz) during the 2010 academic year.

Soon after restoring the Pearl we relocated to "the bunker," a storage area in the basement of the Kalamalka campus, where an arrangement was made for Jason Dewinetz, Writing & Publishing instructor and proprietor of the Greenboathouse Press, to loan a wide range of letterpress equipment for student use.

What's in the Shop?

While the equipment inventory has changed over the past few years, our current arsenal includes a giant 14.5 x 22" Chandler & Price platen press (nicknamed "Mjölnir"), a 12 x 18" C&P ("Hannibal"), the Pearl No. 3, an antique 36" paper trimmer, and all of the other bits & pieces required in a shop, such as leads, slugs, furniture, reglet, slug-cutters, mitre-cutters, etc., etc.

And then there's the type, and there's plenty of it, mostly collected from print-shops & newspapers long shut-down around the Okanagan, but also including a small gathering of newer types put to use on Kalamalka Press books.