

What’s a Shop Talk?
As letterpress printers, we always mind our Ps and Qs, but we might also need a little Q and A from time to time. The challenge of preserving a craft that predates the Google search by centuries requires some printer-to-printer networking. Shop Talks are for talking shop: comparing notes on equipment and techniques, finding sources for supplies, or sharing opportunities and talents. Gather around the virtual composing stone for uncensored, unrecorded, free roundtables hosted by genial moderators. There are no stupid questions, and mansplainers will be digitally escorted to a solo breakout room.
This week’s topic
Join us for a virtual Lead Elephant gift exchange. Each player will provide a gift valued at $25 or less that would appeal to a printer and fits in a small flat-rate box for mailing.
- Gift opening numbers are assigned as each player joins the Zoom meeting.
- On their turn, players can choose to either “unwrap” a gift by asking the player of your choosing to reveal their gift, or steal a previously-revealed gift.
- You’ll receive the gift in the mail—good or bad—unless someone steals it from you on their turn.
- If your gift is stolen, you get to immediately open or steal another gift.
- Gifts may be stolen a maximum of three times.
- One steal is allowed per person.
- Players are not allowed to keep their own gifts.
- Once all the gifts have been claimed, each player is responsible for shipping the gift to the winner in a timely fashion.
- In the spirit on the season, considering gifting something you’d be happy to receive.
Are Shop Talks recorded?
All of PiP’s Shop Talk events are live, uncensored, and unrecorded — we find it’s a lot more fun and interactive this way. They are closed captioned using Zoom’s Live Transcription feature; to make the most of this tool, update to the most recent version of Zoom.
About the Moderator
