iBB Podcast #12.1 – Ivan Gulkov – Being a Hobbyist Printer Today and in the 19th Century

In the previous episodes, we only had one guest not with a bookish profession but with a bookish hobby. Ivan Gulkov will be the second of our guests of that type. He’s a hobbyist printer and in the first part of our talk with him, we discussed the history of printing and what it is to be a hobbyist printer in the modern world and how it all started in the late 19th century.

Next week we’ll post the second part of this episode. Among other things, Ivan invites us to a workshop tour there and shows some of his prints.

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00:00 – Beginning
00:47 – Becoming and hobbyist printer
01:56 – Moving from old computers to printing presses
03:51 – What is it to be a hobbyist printer
06:00 – Appearance of small printing presses in the late 19th century
06:50 – Ivan’s tabletop press
08:33 – Small wooden printing press from Stepan’s collection
09:12 – Linoprinter by Mattel
09:41 – Is there a society of hobby printers?
12:23 – Printer’s starter kit and its value
15:54 – Hobby and professional type casters
21:03 – Gutenberg and his bankruptcy
27:11 – Fonts and copyrights
30:36 – Ivan’s project to replicate fonts of Francysk Skaryna
35:19 – Printers’ fingerprints on old proof copies of books
36:08 – A portrait of a modern hobbyist printer and the printers of the olden times
41:26 – Learning and making your first prints
43:53 – Journeyman printers
47:34 – Printer’s fairs
50:35 – Modern printers in Russia
55:26 – Bookish people of the modern maker movement

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