Peter Fraterdeus loves letters and words. Not just reading them. He likes the tactile feel of letters carved from a block of wood, the metal and ink of old letterpress equipment.
His studio, Slow Print, 151 E. Ninth St., is a letterpress printing studio that, in many ways, is a page back in time. Visitors during Fall into Art, a downtown gallery tour, will be able to see two 19th-century Chandler Prices, a couple of old Heidelberg Originals, a Miehle Vertical and a Vandercooke proof press, as well as old wooden printer's cabinets.
He'll likely have one of the Heidelbergs inked up and running during the studio tour.
But Fraterdeus, who lives in Galena, Ill., is not mired in the past. He takes pride in linking past and present.
He first learned about printing in a junior high shop class while growing up in Evanston, Ill. When he started high school, he said, he took an early class in computers, "when they were still using punch cards."
He's been a printer and calligrapher for 35 of his 55 years. He's self-taught, except for some calligraphy
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Event: Fall Into Art, gallery tour Organizers: Dubuque Main Street Time/date: 5-10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 Sites: * Clarke College Art Department Off-Site Exhibit, 219 W. Ninth St. (Fischer Building), featuring artwork by students, faculty and alumni, with demonstrations. * Dubuque Museum of Art, featuring "Bissells: A Family of Artists," "Art Geisert's 'Oops'" and "John Vachon and the Great Depression." * Joey Wallis & Sarah Ehrler Photography, Main Street Studio and Gallery, 1075 Main, nature and portrait photography. * Mary Ellyn's Gallery, "Antiques as Art," 425 Bluff St., folk art, paintings, sketches, handspun linens, ceramics, hand-blown glass, jewelry and more. * Matter Design Store, 137 Main St., contemporary, functional items. * Mural Inspirations, 1344 Locust St., paintings by Jeanelle "Page" Westerfield and Sarah Barnes. Also hand-painted china, tiles, murals and furniture. * Outside the Lines Art Gallery, 409 Bluff St., watercolors by Alda Kaufman and ceramics by Gary Carstens; also work by more than 75 regional artists. * Slow Print Studio, 151 E. Ninth St., letterpress work and demonstration by Peter Fraterdeus. * Voices Warehouse Gallery, 1000 Jackson St., exhibit by 11 artists, hosted by Dubuque County Fine Arts Society. * Warehouse Art Gallery, 1079 Elm St., ceramics by Scott Lammer, with music, wine and beer tasting and food; tours of Restoration Trust Warehouse, Resa James Home and The Gym. Cost: Free. There also will be a free trolley, 5-10:30 p.m., doing a continuous loop about every 20 minutes. |
But as he learned the traditional ways of printing, he was also enmeshed in the growing computer age. In 1979, he designed bitmap fonts for the Apple II. He bought his first Macintosh when they came out in 1984.
A consultant for type design, he spent the past 15 years working in Web and Internet strategy.
"I like working digitally," he said, "but there's nothing there, nothing tactile."
He is able to work both sides of the print aisle because of a polymer plate process developed in the '90s. It allows him to take an old half-tone -- the screened image once used to print photographs -- scanning it and digitally "descreening" it to avoid a moire (or "moray") pattern.
"I call it slow printing," he said. "It's a balance to quick copying."
There are things letterpress can do that digital copying can't, such as work with a blind impression process or embossing process in which no ink is used. He uses it in high-end business stationary, tags for jewelry as well as wedding invitations. But the recession is biting into that business.
"People expect to pay more for this, but in this economy, even the wealthy are weighing whether or not they want it enough to pay for it."
Fall Into Art Tour - Peter Fraterdeus, of Dubuque, demonstrates the use of a Heidelberg Press, which he will be doing as part of the Fall Into Art tour on Oct. 2.
