A New Character is Born

[Dave Hughes]

Here's a great photo story that was posted on Instagram by forum member @Nicolas Regamey showing how a brand new Monotype decoration was drawn, engraved, cast and printed.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/C5HMPo0I2iQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Machine Translation of the post
For the first time a character has been drawn, engraved, cast and printed!

According to a vine flower drawing (also called aldine flower) an engraving in brass was made by @hinderer.muehlich to make it a monotype display matrix body 24. The latter was then milled to fit the Supra smith support.

First tests are more or less good and a first impression made. Right after, a small composition for labels is realized to the greatest joy of the typographer and his stomach!

There's still a lot of work to improve on to regain the knowledge of old lead character creators/founders. But it's already a big step in the realization of this beautiful dream to be able to design, engrave, melt, print these own lead characters in the workshop again!

L'aventure Monotype continue!!!

[Nicolas Regamey]

Thank you, Dave, for sharing my various print adventures on the forum. I am currently writing and translating into English my beginnings as a monotype founder, whether with my composition caster or my "brand-new" SuperCaster, which arrived in my workshop just a month ago.

I'll be back soon to tell you about this first attempt at creating a matrix. The result is good, even very good for a first try. There are various little things to improve, and I'm thinking about that. See you soon for some fresh updates!

[Dave Hughes]

Here's some more great pictures from @Nicolas Regamey - this time he's making special characters to print on one of his Edmondson ticket printing machines.

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A post shared by Nicolas Regamey (@ateliertypodelacite)

Machine Translation of the post

Working on the Monotype Supra yesterday morning: casting the double arrow "round trip" for Edmondson cardboard railway tickets.

According to the original copper model, which is more than fifty years old, the workshop redesigned the shape of the character in a computer way and thus a brass matrix could be engraved by @hinderer.muehlich.

Once the foundry calibrated, a small hundred of this 72 by 14 points glyph was produced.

72 point letters (72 by 72) are the largest characters that can be created with the Supra Monotype. Plus the larger letters were engraved in wood. This requires instant attention with an alloy temperature and suitable melting speed for these relatively large pieces.

The workshop was able to make spare parts for an unknown area of railway heritage while learning exceptional skills in creating and casting lead!

L'aventure monotype continue !!!

[Norman Brown]

Hi
Very interesting idea, l produce and print replica Edmondson tickets in the UK, however if l can't match the original type or emblem l make a polymer plate of the ticket which l can print on my Adana TP48!