TypeFacebook

via creativepro and make
“TypeFacebook was a booth at the 2011 Bay Area Maker Faire that was organized by the People's Republic of Paper, a loose collective of designers, type casters, paper makers, printers, and book binders. The TypeFacebook concept was simple: Using moveable lead type, people were asked to respond to the prompt Facebook uses: "What's on your mind?" Each character of your answer was a piece of metal type, which you carefully picked from a job case. You set the characters in a job stick (also called a composing stick), making sure they faced the right way. The press owner and operator, Pam DeLuco, set three people's answers into one forme and mounted the forme on a small platen press. Each participant then laid paper that would become the book cover on the press, pulled and released the press's handle, and the printing process was done. If you made typos (as I did), you either had to live with them or go through the entire process again…”
Read the rest here, and see some wonderful photos there as well.