Fan of letterpress

Another year is flashing by. Printing & blog postings have been slow. My letterpress fan was made last Autumn with much cursing: it's really tricky to master the precise folding required so that the fan opens and closes smoothly. Printed on japanese paper. I am a fan of letterpress.

Jazz

Attempted expression of jazz music by layering large wooden punctuation marks, plywood offcuts & children's wooden toy blocks (conveniently almost type-high) in a mix of letterpress & litho inks.

The truth will out

Work in progress...

words like seeds broadcast

Visiting the Norwich Print Fair in September, I discovered Colin Johnson's work: 'I walk and I collect artefacts and fragments, my work is an exploration of these found pieces.'

Alongside Colin's prints, there were fantastic pick-n-mix style mounds of detritus from Norfolk beaches that Colin had given a uniformity to by cutting everything to a small square size. I was drawn to the pieces that contained letters and text.
Using objects found whilst walking as source material for print is very attractive. I like the fact that what you find depends not only on the location of your walk, but also on what you happen to notice & pick up whilst walking. I used 4 of Colin's pieces in this print along with ash seed from a street in Norwich, and cut up cardboard pieces.
I discovered the line of text (printed here as blind embossed metal type) whilst walking near Reepham on Marriott's Way, which follows the route of a disused railway line. Along the path you come across benches and sculptures made from railway sleepers and tracks. The phrase 'seeds like words broadcast' was carved into one bench. I can't find the origin of this phrase, but it stuck in my head. I changed the word order on this print. I enjoy the fact that you can put these 4 words in almost any order and still find a meaning.

This print, along with 2 others in the series, will be on show in an exhibition entitled 'Found' at The Old Passage in Arlingham, Gloucestershire from the end of November until April 2018.

That time of year

Another year flashing by & I realise that I have not posted anything here since February 2016. Winter is slowly creeping up and I have at last got back to printing. The kick-start to printing was a 2-week artist residency in Norfolk with no computer, car, or internet access. Just me and a small Furnival etching press in a peaceful spot with a 45 minute walk to the nearest bus stop. I decided that collecting objects (leaves, plants, rubbish, abandoned stuff, flotsam & jetsam from the coast etc.) would provide my printing matter. This print was made using a piece of 'found' wood from Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire and the tree element is a piece of 'something' (not sure what material it is) found on a Norfolk walk with added branches cut from card and printed over the initial wood printing. I like the way the different wood textures describe their own tree forms. I have blind embossed metal letterpress (not easily visible here) onto the bottom of the print: That time of year. Print currently part of 'Out of the Woods' exhibition by members of the Gloucestershire Printmaking Cooperative at Westonbirt Arboretum.

Hand & Heart

Rings & hands & hearts & what I only just realised is the Boy's Brigade emblem. I like the way the right-hand edge curves of the wooden ampersand bend protectively round the ring and trade mark symbol. The old image blocks come from the archive of Large & Sons who were printers and stationers in Byker, Newcastle. The elements all turn around ideas of truth, commitment & promises. In need of reassurance, maybe?

Dum spiro spero

I heard somebody on the radio the other day make reference to this motto dum spiro, spero: while I breathe, I hope, or while there's life, there's hope. The concise elegance of the latin and the rhyme, rhythm and poetry within these three words got me thinking & printing. My first version included the word 'hope' but I removed it, preferring to leave space for the word 'breathe' alone.
With very little wooden furniture, making do with odd pieces of wood and magnets works fine to lock the wooden type on the press bed.

'Bare ruined choirs'

Gloucestershire walking with Walking the Land on Friday January 8th, starting from the Weighbridge Inn and going up in the mud to Hazel Wood and on to Avening.

Seasons Greetings

Printed at the Gloucestershire Printmaking Cooperative near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

No L in sight

First cards printed on my Adana 8x5. Maybe the 'No Joy' reading betrays my true feelings about the big business that is Xmas. Difficult to get an even print with the wooden type. Rough & ready umlaut cut from a rubber. Getting an even pressure across the print by adjusting the screws on the back is tricky: you can see here that the pressure fades off from right to left. The clinking sound of the inking disc as it moves round is quite festive!

A is for Autumn...

... C is for Colour and O is for Ode.
The first line of To Autumn by Keats was rolling round my head when I made these prints:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

They will both be exhibited at a show entitled 'Seasons' opening on December 1st at The Old Passage in Arlingham, Gloucestershire.

Every cloud

My last postcard printed on the Vandercook SP15 in the UWE (University of the West of England) Print Centre before the building is demolished, and the print department moves home on the campus, & I finish my Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking MA.

Letterpress post card production line

From setting to production line: Printing on the Vandercook SP15 is an addictive pleasure.
The metal type (30 & 72 point) is Halley, I think, but can't find any reference to it online.

Rain storm in an L

The texture of wooden type is beautifully captured by printing on Japanese paper. It's Tosa Shi/Shia in this instance. There's a rain storm in full swing.

Spoon printing

Printing wooden type on to heavy (450gsm) paper, I wanted a solid ink coverage & discovered that rather than printing using the press, it was more effective to hand-burnish the type using a wooden spoon. Hand-burnishing also enables you to incorporate an element of drawing in to the print as you decide how to press the spoon on to the paper. The paper has to be damp, & I locked the type in place on the press bed using strong magnets.
Here is the type after printing. It was a first for the 'V' which I had made out of hard wood (sapele) using a CNC router at UWE (University of the West of England) having made an Illustrator eps file of the letter form. The V is 316mm tall.

Solvitur Ambulando

A literal translation of the latin phrase 'solvitur ambulando' (attributed to St Jerome) would be, 'it is solved by walking.' Go for a walk, and everything seems easier. Solvitur Ambulando has become a theme in my current work & an injunction to myself to get out and walk more.

This letterpress collage image was exhibited at The Museum in the Park in Stroud in September 2014 in a show called The Art of Walking. The exhibition was part of the Laurie Lee centenary celebrations, so the map in my piece centres on Lee's home village of Slad & The Woolpack Inn.

Screen Dreams

Letterpress, stitch and bleach. Image for the Stroud 2015 Film Festival.
Wooden letterpress printed black on black paper, with added stitch & typewriter text, then Quink Ink and bleach poured over the top. The bleach revealed the letterpress text hidden in the black-on-black initial printing.

My 2014 Indulgence

On November 2nd I walked from Purgatory to Paradise with Ali Kayley & Dan Glaister & Walking the Land.
Purgatory is a small copse near Fennels Farm on the way to Bisley, Gloucestershire, and Paradise is a hamlet just after Painswick, on the A46 heading for Cheltenham. We started out under grey cloud, & headed into showers, to end our walk with a Paradise picnic, where ofcourse, we were blessed with warm sunshine. On completion of the walk Ali & Dan gave us a personalised Indulgence, letterpress printed by Stawberry Press in Moreton-in-Marsh on the occasion of their first Purgatory to Paradise walk.

Tea & a chat

The quote is by Saki, aka Hector Hugh Munro. In the story this quote comes from, the speaker is eating brown bread & butter with caviar to accompany her tea. Sounds delicious!
The lino cut capital T/Tuscan Egyptian type is printed in ink I made with PG Tips. I printed on Japanese Gampi Smooth paper, so maybe next time I should move up-market & try making ink with Sencha Japanese green tea.

Inspiration

This wonderful coloured & ornamental Clarendon type was produced by William H Page & Co. who were designers and manufacturers of wood type. They were based in Norwich, Connecticut & eventually became part of the huge Hamilton type business in Wisconsin. This image comes from The Public Domain Review which is a fantastic resource of all sorts of images, animation, photos etc.