I did something like this. But I like the shadowbox idea, would keep off the dust!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmakat/2430189436/in/set-72157601532421446/

hey, i collect letterpress punctuation characters! wee! but i haven't thought of what to do with them. this is a pretty sweet looking solution... i like the shadow box idea, too.

and emmakat, i like what you've done, too!!

right now, mine are just sitting on a shelf. dusty.

would you mind sharing where you find the shadowbox? thanks!

nina212 - You can get all different size shadowboxes at Joann's, Michael's, or even Aaron Brothers. I know that they are on sale 50% at Joann's right now.

Thanks! I remember seeing something on design sponge too: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/01/diy-project-letterpress-block-wallhanging.html

the problem still remains.. you're removing the scarce typeface blocks out of circulation so letterpress printers can't use them :(

rkpoon, is that really an issue out there?? i had no idea...

Great idea!! I have my name in blocks. And my parents have their initials plus the year they were married. :)

the problem still remains.. you're removing the scarce typeface blocks out of circulation so letterpress printers can't use them

That indeed must be frustrating. But you know what? We don't always get what we want. Everyone has a right to collect something they like, and if that takes away from someone ELSE'S collection, well, too bad? I'm sympathetic, but if I want some letterpress letters, for WHATEVER reason, I have just as much right to buy them as someone scrounging them for letterpressing.

I mean, for what do we go, "Oh, I like this, but I'm going to leave it for someone who wants it more than me."

kdkaboom --

yes, a huge problem. a printer's only chance to find and afford a decent font of type is to find a shop going out of business -- ebay is terribly overpriced, all thanks to this kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the appeal, and personally have type on display at my house, but it's not glued into a frame or set into a coffee table top, it's on a shelf looking pretty and waiting to go under the ink again...

Let me clarify -- I have no issue whatsoever with collecting them -- you're absolutely right, everyone has full right to find and keep the things in life that they want, but if we could make one small request: don't ruin them...

Someday, just maybe, they'll enter into the world again and find their way back to a press... If they're glued together or lacquered over for a nice gloss finish, they're all but useless.

That's all I'm saying.

I'll shut up now.

kvh, my letterpress blocks are free range, so when i die they'll be cycled right back into the dying art of printmaking... ;)

i do love collecting them, though, and i'm always scouting them out. but yeah, the price of little blocks has skyrocketed. i used to be able to buy a comma for $0.15 now it's $5! my fault for shopping at the chelsea flea market though...

$5? I know where there are boxes of these things--just mine to paw through.

I like the shadowbox/framing idea--All my favorite characters are glued together in a block that sits on a shelf (with tiny dabs of white glue--so just calm down). But this has me considering pulling them apart to mount in a shadowbox.

Though, I'd mount them so they look like a museum piece, instead of looking like something purchased at Pottery Barn like in the above photo.

And as far as taking these things out of circulation--I understand the covetous impulse regarding the disused implements of our arts, but:

(a) If people didn't create some sense of desirability for these things by collecting them, then that many more of these things would be thrown away by the box-full.

(b) How many characters do you really need? Is it really so much better that such things sit disused and forgotten, gathering dust in your studio?

"$5? I know where there are boxes of these things--just mine to paw through."

Hey, hit me up if you find any apostrophes, question marks, commas, lalalala. $5 at the Chelsea Flea market, no joke.

Why don't you printers out there just carve your own blocks? That's something I've always wanted to learn to do. I mean I know it's not easy.

I love this idea! We have a few letter press pieces and this would be an awesome way to display them.

I agree with rkpoon and kvh. Wood type is scarce enough.

Of course, if the type isn't usable for printing, have at it!

Gluing these together doesn't ruin them if they can be separated again, and I have no idea why they wouldn't be. Some people are so selfish!

Monkeyme: The fact that some people want to protect the tools of their art is not a bad thing or selfish.

Letterpress printers have the right to protect scarce printing tools like wooden blocks.

Like the wood blocks in a frame? There's a PRINTER who actually prints these same images.

I say, "Buy the prints and SAVE the blocks for what they were intended: to create art, not necessarily BE art."

I've never had a more inversely rewarding experience than I did finding wood type made into decorations when I typed the search phrase 'letterpress art'.

Thank you for reminding me of the importance of preserving the tools of my art.

I realize that they are pretty and unique - but they are to a printer what a fine sable brush and canvas is to a painter.

Except that most paint brushes are not one hundred years old and no longer manufactured.

Printers are not collectors, we acquire tools to make work.

Sadly, that puts us in direct competition with those who simply enjoy owning and looking. Not many artists have pockets deep enough to compete.