Wednesday 9 April 2014

A shed full of print & Shakespeare

At last, I have surrendered and made my shed solely into a print studio.
Very proud of my shelves - strangely enough, Ikea didn't have shelves specifically for trays of type, but these are fine.
The proofing press is on the floor. It's so heavy I figured it would probably end up there anyway.  I quite like leaning down to print.
I have been in a Shakespeare frenzy, finding quotes and bits of quotes. It's amazing how much Shakespeare we know and say without realising. I am planning some less literary printing, but it's been just William so far.
And this card has sold to several parents with children doing course work and dissertations. The big O is fabulous.
I decided to sew the prints onto cards rather than stick them. I don't know how adhesive is done commercially, but I never manage to get a card completely flat, despite my book press (that's still in the sitting room, doubling as a sculpture). And I like the look of the stitching!
The machine complained a bit, but it's been with me a long time and used to make pantomime costumes, so it's used to some extreme sewing.
Some of the cards have finger puppets on, of course. Here's Hamlet.
The cards, with and without puppets, have already been out to a couple of craft fairs, and will go onto my Etsy shop, as soon as I have photographed them successfully. And then away from Shakespeare and into Bride & Groom, Congratulations, Happy Brithday, and You Know Nothing Jon Snow territory. The last phrase is a Game of Thrones thing!




9 comments:

  1. Your new style print shed looks fabulous - I love the enormous O for the Henry V quote ...

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  2. It's from a set of four, spelling SOLD! just need to work out how to use the others.

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  3. Ooh fabulous! Wonderful to have a place especially for printing :)

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  4. It is absolutely great - and smells reassuringly of the linseed based ink that I use, and white spirit. And no cats are allowed, because cat hair and letterpress printing are not a good mix!

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  5. Love your shed and love your cards!

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  6. Thank you, Clive! Out with collage and in with PRINT!! I am going to make some posters as well, and am also thinking of printing on fabric!
    Game of Thrones is my second guilty secret, the other being TruBlood. I still can't resist vampires, and TruBlood makes Buffy look like a Sunday School picnic!

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  7. What a wonderful studio, and a hive of industry, I'd love a letterpress and all that goes with it. Beautiful cards too.

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  8. Thank you! I have come late in life to printing, but am loving it. There's something about actually handling every letter of a word that is very satisfying.

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