Season's Greetings

Christmas tree woodcut made by my mum (Joyce Oliver) sometime in the 1950's or 60's, cleaned & printed some 50 years later on a Vandercook proofing press.

Winter Walker. Lino/vinyl cut based on a photo taken below the Daneway Inn near Sapperton, Gloucestershire, on a walk with Walking the Land in November 2012. Printed on a small Albion Press at the Gloucestershire Printmaking Coop in Thrupp.

And per se and or ampersand

Rolled coloured litho ink onto the wooden block by hand & (of course!) meant to keep the rollers on the Vandercook press up and out of contact while I put the paper through, but forgot, so the rollers took some print off the block and started their own mix. I went with the flow & carried on inking up the block with red, yellow &/or blue ink & turning the paper to get over-printing. Carried on printing not adding ink to get paler over-printings too. Could have carried on all night ...

Winter coat pocket treasures

We inherited my dad's long winter overcoat, and when my son was trying it on for size, we decided to check the inside pockets, and found these treasures!

The theatre ticket is from the Theatre Royal in Norwich. Going to the pantomime at Christmas with my grandparents & auntie was one of the holiday rituals. Wondering what the panto might have been 46 years ago, I googled "Theatre Royal Norwich 1967 pantomime" and to my delight was directed to an Eastern Daily Press article uploaded yesterday which contained an image of the dame in the 1967 production of ... Babes in the Wood!

The bus ticket is a Cheltenham District Traction Company ticket, probably purchased for a journey from Cheltenham to Prestbury on either the number 1 bus, or the 587 service. I can remember the smell and taste (I used to roll them up and "smoke" them) of those paper tickets.

The news receipt will have come from Prestbury Post Office and Newsagents where my parents ordered their newspapers. February 3rd was on a Saturday in 1968, just a few days before my 9th birthday.

The little note is written by me, and I am very touched that it stayed safe in dad's pocket for all those years. It is a request with the relevant telephone number and says,"Harriet come to tea on saturday with play clothes." Those were the days (my friend) when the black dialled telephone sat alone on the hall window sill, and was used nearly exclusively by our parents, who answered any call with a recital of the number, in the form of a question: "Hello, Cheltenham 7666?"

Letters on letters

Monoprint, letterpress & John Bull Printing (c.1966) text.
Playing with french & the first line of the John Donne poem letter To Sir Henry Wotton:

Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls,

For thus, absent friends speak.

STOP

Let the cat out of the (plastic) bag please!

Two (letterpress) days out

The Whittington Press Open Day, September 7th.
Presstival 2013 poster featuring very large Caslon ligature.

Tilley Printing in Ledbury, Open Day visit on September 10th.
Lots to make me smile!

This land is your land

The title of a folk song written by Woody Guthrie in 1944. It speaks to us in Stroud at the moment where 2 housing development plans are working their way through the planning process.
Letterpress comment here: the rights of the land owner on one side, balanced against the public right of way on the other. Our local valley landscape of fields, woods and footpaths is a precious part of our lives.
The small woodcut to the right of the word "is" is by father. He cut his initials the wrong way round, so they have printed backwards. Schoolboy error, dad?!