Letterpress, cakes & books at The Hours in Brecon

There's a great bookshop in Brecon called The Hours. It's an old building, crowded full with books, and at the back a cafe - a perfect combination. I have been letterpress printing for them.

I was asked to letterpress print some labels for the cakes! Unexpectedly precise printing for me, but rather fun, choosing a font, and some ornament. Dark brown was requested, very stylish!

I have used a lovely font called Bologna, which has one of the cutest ampersands ever.

And then cakes are labelled! I love the shining cake domes.

I was rather pleased with them, and the cakes are truly delicious.

Thanks to Nicky and Leigh of The Hours. If you're in Brecon, go and buy a book and then drink tea, eat cake, and start to read - what better way to spend a rainy Welsh summer's day! Here's a link to The Hours facebook page.
http://on.fb.me/1HIJAhQ

Printing shed. Letterpress printing. Summer garden.

It has been absolutely lovely, in this hot weather, to have both doors of my printing shed open. The garden becomes part of it.

The sun shining onto the metal of the proofing press, which is on the floor. I have been experimenting printing with two colours. Very daring.

Enjoying finding quotes and phrases that I like.
Here is a bit of Descartes, I think therefore I am, making full use of the big fancy A and M.

My tray of the ever reliable and beautiful Caslon font by my side. I use this most of all for the big prints. It has upper and lower case letters, and there is something so reliable and utterly right about Caslon. Don't know why - it just is.

And here is the washing line with all three pieces hanging up to dry. Pirate map lore, Descartes, and Game of Thrones. I think that just about covers it!

Happy Summer. x

A Guilty Pleasure. Game of Thrones.

Well I do have one or two guilty pleasures, and one of them is Game of Thrones! I'm not really a fantasy fan, but this is just wonderful. I can't begin to describe how much fun it is to watch this detailed, over the top, colourful and outrageously plotted series.

So of course, I have started to arrange wooden letters in my printing shed, and here is the first result.

Rather stylish, I feel! The letters printed so nicely,

showing their history,

and displayed against the wooden type in the shed.

I have put the cards into my Etsy shop. I wonder if any G.O.T fans will find it there?
etsy.me/1y9B9ej  Winter is Coming!

A very frivolous font. Letterpress in the kitchen.

I am not sure we will ever actually sit down to eat at the kitchen table again. My latest purchases from the print shop in Manchester are here, waiting to be cleaned, and then? Well my house is very small so they might just have to stay here!

I have a very busy week out and about being a poet in schools and libraries this week, so don't have time to play with my lovely new wooden and metal letter. However, while waiting for my toast to do its thing this morning, I quickly cleaned and photographed these wonderfully frivolous letters. I love the little flick on the exclamation mark. The whole thing is so exuberant. I am really looking forward to printing with it.  My father's initials are FX.

Luckily the toast took a little while, so I quickly picked out words from another tray of three small wooden fonts.

Wherefore art thou, pictured next to the foods that fuel my lodger and I. Bananas and peanut butter are a very excellent way to keep going!

Letterpress printing. Wooden letters. Shakespeare. White spirit.

I have transformed my kitchen into a print room, with the proofing press on the floor

 and a washing line strung between two shelves, in front of a rather exuberant Susie Perring print.

I am making Shakespeare prints,

with my trays of wooden letter on the floor, and on a small table behind the kitchen table.

The proofing press is a beast. I love it.

And I have learned two very important things this morning. First, that white spirit DOES remove printing ink from a stone floor. Second, that it does NOT remove it from pyjama trousers. I suppose there is a third thing. Put on printing clothes before beginning to mess around with ink and type.

Loving Letterpress. Wooden alphabets saved from the skip.

There is something so seductive about wooden type. This is one of two type trays I brought home from a print shop in Eccles, Manchester. You will notice at the top of the picture a rather robust table top proofing press that also found its way into the boot of the Ford Fiesta.

I went to a printing firm who are moving premises having been in the same place for a very long time, and had not thrown anything away. So all the letterpress and everything to support it was still there, having been put to one side as technology progressed, and then forgotten about.

There is so much of it that the owner is having difficulty finding ways to shift it all, and he's very concerned that much of it may have to be scrapped. However, I have been able to give him a couple of names of enthusiasts who are probably better resourced than me, and with luck the type and all the letterpress and printing treasures will find new homes. I certainly wish I was a lot wealthier!

The letters are grimy with the dust of decades, so I have been gently cleaning them, and looking forward to printing. There are four full upper case fonts, and I fully intended to have more, but the proofing press caught my eye.

Aren't these letters beautiful? I am planning a series of Shakespeare cards with collage and letterpress, and these are going to be perfect. There are so many other possibilities as well!
As always, my black and white cat is very interested in all that happens, particularly on the kitchen table.

letterpress. ampersand. doomed lovers.

In the midst of making jolly festive things for Christmas Craft Fairs, I suddenly had a brainwave about a letterpress ampersand picture. Here it is, in its box frame, lounging against a sumptuous quilt.

 I have printed some of my ampersand collection onto very nice textured paper, and printed on the mount as well. I think it looks rather jolly from a distance, but when you look closely,

the ampersand joins famous lovers, all of whom are

as the printed title explains!

Excellent, now I can get on with knitting finger puppet Santas to put on collage gift cards - but the cards reference sponsorship and Coca Cola, so perhaps the doom isn't quite behind me!

Crickhowell Craft Fair, 23rd November, Clarence Hall, Crickhowell.

Christmas Fair, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, weekend of 30th November and weekend of 7th December.

Christmas Open Studio, Print Shed, Madley, 29th November to 2nd December.

Kitchen Table Publishing. Printing in gold.

I have been printing gold letters on labels this morning. They are the titles for poems also printed on labels, and hung up with keys. Here's the beautiful ink ready for printing.

Here's the first label. The gold doesn't show up brilliantly in the photos, but it has a lovely grainy quality against the rough card.

Here are the four seasons - I am going to print over the gold with a different colour for each, and the poems are different to the other four seasons label poems,

plus the key to the door! This is the title label for a short poem about Home and good it is to be there,

and here is the satisfyingly full washing line!

Setting and printing the poetry tomorrow.

love, loss and letterpress

My newly purchased wooden Caslon font arrived today. A full font of upper and lower case letters. 

It really is lovely.

I used some it immediately.

I am taking part in a project with The Print Shed in Madley, that requires an edition of 25 prints, 

20cm by 20cm, and with the deadline looming, today was my last chance to get something done.

It isn't what I had been planning, but the print is in memory of my late friend Dinah, and I wrote the poem yesterday while driving in the car, thinking of those who are left behind when someone passes on.  She was very elegant and beautiful, and it was good to make her name the first word printed with my elegant and beautiful new font.

Here's the poem;

 

time is still flowing, but

seasons are different now

never quite spring again

Letterpress printing ready for Poetry Book Fair

Strange how anxiety expresses itself. In the midst of preparing for Free Verse: The London Poetry Book Fair yesterday, I suddenly decided I must print business cards.

Inking the Adana and setting the very simple card was actually rather soothing.

The front of the card is very simple, with my favourite letterpress block in pride of place.

All the real information is on the back.

And now I am ready for the fair!

 poetrybookfair.com

Kitchen Table Publishing

I have been working at the kitchen table, preparing two sets of poems. The poems themselves are in my shed. I printed them in there, where they're now hanging up to dry. The wood, hammer, drill and nails for their presentation are all on the kitchen table, where we also eat.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be easier just to put poems in a BOOK, like everyone else, but then I really like the finished product.

 The Keys to Love.

The poems are on the labels behind the letterpress printed titles. It's an edition of six. 

Ready to take to Free Verse: The Poetry Book Fair in London on 7th September poetrybookfair.com and to exhibit as part of h.Art week, 7th to 15th September, at the Print Shed in Madley. www.theprintshed.net

Exciting times. It's worth having the kitchen table multi task for a while!

The camera lies. I have proof.

During a visit to the reclamation yard I saw this magnificent chance for  photo. A reflection in a big mirror which stood behind some open backed shelves. I love how our bodies just disappeared! And how our heads are resting on shelves.

I was looking for some random pieces of wood to bang nails into, to hold my latest series of poems entitled The Keys to Love. Here they are hanging up in my shed, printed on labels, with letterpress label titles, and little keys.

As the scrapyard is now a reclamation yard, which means everything there is  tidier and more expensive than it used to be, I  couldn't find the scruffy old bits of wood I was hoping for.

But I did see myself pictured, alive , but with no body!