MEET THESE LOCALS Angie Hogan (Typesetter, Virginia Arts of the Book Center) Sarah Barker (American Sign Language instructor, Independent Resource Center) Jennifer Maton (Calligrapher, If So INKlined) Ben Miller (Tattoo artist, Ben Around Tattoos) Ted Wood (Typewriter repairman, Charlottesville Office Machine Co.) Jamal Millner (Flat-pick and fingerstyle guitarist) Jon Bright (Lensman, Spectacle Shop) Kenny […]
“I’m not opposed to one thing or the other,” says Hogan of letterpress versus e-books, “but it’s like the difference between writing somebody a letter by hand and sending them an email.” Tools? I primarily use a Vandercook press, which is not that old, really. It’s probably from the ’60s or ’70s. It’s primarily a […]
“People tell me that I fingerspell constantly, without even realizing that I’m doing it,” says Barker. Typical workday? I only teach evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights. There’s no typical pattern on the whole. In the higher classes we have a sign discussion about how everybody’s week is going, and maybe we’ll do a […]
“Occasionally when we’re using screwdrivers and we flip off the screws, we’ll accidentally stab our fingers,” says Bright. “Or burn our hands from working with soldering. But in general, it’s pretty low impact.” How did you learn your craft? I went to college. But I got started in second grade when I had to wear […]
“They’re normal hands,” says Maton. “The pen I use is fairly smooth, so it doesn’t rub my fingers raw at any points.” Typical workday? I usually start around 8:30am with warmup exercises for the hands, then I’ll begin one of the projects I have for the day, whether it’s wedding invitations or designs, or whatever’s […]
“I wear gloves all day long, which keep my hands fairly soft,” says Miller. Tools? For the most part, we use tattoo machines anywhere from an ounce to six ounces apiece. We use pigments. Most of the tattoos we do, we use surgical skin markers to draw under the skin, then tattoo over it. And […]
“I have to be careful, think about closing doors and stuff like that more than anyone else does,” says Millner. Tools? A guitar, flat-pick, sometimes a slide. How did you learn your craft? I started playing when I was a little kid, on the banjo before I picked up the guitar. As far as […]
Fire in the hole: Sometimes when he’s welding, stuff ends up burning. “It happens more often than you would think,” says Shreves. Typical workday? We’re always behind. We begin in the morning, and depending on where we are with the stage of the build, we start fabricating right away. On the weeks that we have […]
The right-handed Wood says he never gets cramps in his hands, even after working on typewriters all day. Typical workday? I get here around 8:30 in the morning, and go to about 5pm. We answer the telephone, take service calls as they come in. Myself, I stay in most of the time now working on […]
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