Author Archives: ren

Dancing Rainbow Press 6.0

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Some time in the early to mid 1970’s I got a Kelsey 5×8 straight from the factory. The Dancing Rainbow Press was born, unfortunately getting its name from a terrible poem I had written that had its own cartoon character as well. It was located in a small unfinished room behind the bathroom at my apartment in Reamstown. It moved back home to my parent’s house in Mount Airy (2.0) when I did. There my wife to be and I printed our wedding invitations and moved it with us (3.0) to our first house on Walnut Street in Ephrata.

When we moved to Old Mill Road (4.0) it was set up in the basement. Our son, Ben is shown printing on it above. Use of it, however, languished and the press and most everything else was sold a decade or two later. Though I hadn’t printed for so long I soon missed having a press and as a replacement started volunteering at the print shop at the Historical Society and at the Ephrata Cloister. Some years passed and while volunteering at the Cloister I met a guy who said he had some printing equipment to sell. I had already bought a couple small presses for use at the historical society, but wound up sharing a large acquisition that outfitted a new shop at my training center in the old Recreation Center building on Cloister Avenue (5.0) in Ephrata.

Me printing on the 1850’s Bronstrup at the Conestoga Press.

Due mostly to the COVID19 pandemic the center was closed and I moved the shop (6.0) into an undisclosed location in a small rental space in Ephrata. The Dancing Rainbow shines albeit underground again as pictured at the top of this article.

Sigwalt Nonpareil No. 23

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I bought this for a steal thinking it was a Golding, but paid a fair price or better for a Sigwalt. Since the manufacturer intended the parallel I can be forgiven. They were direct copies of the Golding Official #2. I was in search of an 1800’s tabletop press and may have gotten it just slightly. I got the look for sure with the decorative painting still intact on parts of the press. These were first made at the end of that century in 1899 and well into the 1900’s, but best I can find the round bases like mine came first and were replaced fairly quickly with square bases. Since they don’t have serial numbers there’s no way to better date mine. It prints pretty well and is great for demonstrating when drawing attention to our time period at the Conestoga Press.

Demonstrating letterpress with my Sigwalt outside the Print Shop at the Ephrata Cloister.

Ukulele Number 12

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Fastest I ever bought a uke. I had 5 or ten minutes to spare at an NAGT Eastern Section Meeting in Maryland while people were gathering to eat at a restaurant there when I decided I could run a block or two down the street to a music shop prominently displaying a UKULELE sign. We had passed it multiple times traveling from the hotel to the meeting. I rushed through the door and saw this Cordoba 24C spalted maple with a cedar top Uke and bought it before the guy at the store said hello. I had seen this new model in Ukulele Magazine and instantly fell in love with the wood. It’s the only ukulele I can think of that I may prefer the back to the front. When I got back to the restaurant everyone was seated and I proudly displayed my latest catch.

RR Tracks Background

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Another photo you can use as a background on your computer. I’m using some of my creative time to clean out a very crowded folder of these that I have on my computer.

Railroad tracks in Christiana, PA. Photographed by me 10.28.19

To use this yourself click on the image to open it full size in a new tab. Then right click on it and select “save image as…” to your computer. Then just install it as wallpaper to your desktop as usual. Remember to click on the Backgrounds tab at the right to see the others available.

Cats & Mouse

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Cut this simple puzzle as a gift. Eliminated one of the cats in the pattern, which originally had another small cat within the one on the right. The one is was going to only has two cats, Waylon and Willie. I also added the tail to the mouse.

Spring Background

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Wanted to create a background for my computer to celebrate Spring and found this photo from Damariscotta Lake in Maine where we literally watched the ice leave last Spring. Missing that scene for sure out the window, so on the computer is the next best thing.

To use this yourself right click on the image and select “save image as…” to your computer. Then just install it as wallpaper to your desktop as usual. Remember to click on the Backgrounds tab at the right to see the others available.

Ukulele Number 11

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Yes, I play a little uke… my Ohana Sopranino! It’s a Ohana SK-21A, the smallest of the standard sizes for the ukulele. It has a solid cedar top with solid rosewood back and sides, whose dark color sets off the cedar nicely. It’s held here by our “forever” Gio who says it’s a perfect size.