Letterpress: Be Careful What You Wish For
September has been a busy month down at the St Botolph’s Letterpress. Not only did we have our regular Letterpress Takeover event, we also launched our monthly newsletters, signed up to the British Printing Society and the Oxford Guild of Printers, found time for a couple of Wednesday evening sorting sessions, took a trip to Cheltenham for the Whittington Press Open Day, and had a very successful visit to the John Jarrold Printing Museum (JJPM) in Norwich. Phew!
The big exciting news is the acquisition of some new essential pieces of kit, which have been given to us by the chaps at JJPM. We returned from Norwich with an Adana 8×5, a big box of inks, a rotary bowler plus various other useful bits and pieces. As well as that, we’re also finding space for a very large Soldan proofing press (with a print the same size as Typoretum’s biggest press) which should be coming down later this month or next. And to top it all off, JJPM are sorting through a recent donation of wood type, with the promise that we can take on whatever they don’t need. As the sheer size and variety of the JJPM collection had already floored us, all this news sent us straight to the nearest pub for a stabilising and celebratory pint!
We have a big photo album to put up from our trip, and it’ll probably warrant it’s own blog entry, but it just goes to show that hard work and a willingness to connect with the wider world of letterpress is already rewarding us more than we thought possible. We have a feeling this particular relationship will be a fruitful one.
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Getting out into the world of letterpress is also how we heard of and met Russell Frost of Hooksmith Press. We loved the pieces that he submitted to our IMPRESS 2014 show earlier in the year, and were thrilled when he agreed to come and talk to us about his adventures in print.
Having first got the letterpress bug when living over here with his English wife, a move back to his native New Zealand yielded an untapped market. Touring the country for old print studios he found plenty of presses, wood type, and (his personal passion) printing blocks. These etched and hand carved images have graced many of Russell’s prints, and help them stand out from the text based pieces that most people produce.
With his print workshop growing ever larger, the decision to return to the UK meant that all of that carefully sorted metal type had to be taken out of the typecases and made ready to ship across the world to his current base – a mid-terrace house in Leytonstone.
Unlike many of the new generation of letterpress printers, he has no formal design training beyond his qualification as a landscape garden designer, in fact compared to landscaping he finds letterpress a relatively quick discipline! His passion for hunting down type and it’s connection to the past really shone through, and we’re hoping he’ll send some more gems our way for IMPRESS 2015.
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Our final big event of September was this year’s Whittington Press Open Day, aka Presstival. Falling on Saturday the 6th, it seemed as good a time as any to make a pilgrimage out to one of the bastions of letterpress in the UK. Whittington specialise in fine press printing and artists’ books, and one of their regular works is Matrix, a high quality annual dedicated to fine printing from across the world.
Presstival is when they throw open their doors, letting people into the rabbit warren of machinery and workshops, whilst printers from across the country sell their wares outside. It’s a great opportunity to see what people are up to, catch up with various acquaintances from the thriving online letterpress community and – somewhat inevitably for visiting pressmen – grab some beers and swap some tales.
As with our John Jarrold trip, we’re hoping to put up a proper account of Presstival soon, but until then this account by the excellent The Counter Press (who also had work in IMPRESS 2014) should help give you an idea of what it’s like.
As our little letterpress project here in Colchester continues to snowball, we’re sure that the coming months will be just as exciting. There are a few ways to keep up-to-date with all that’s going on. Sign up to our mailing list for a monthly newsletter detailing our upcoming plans, give our Facebook page a like to follow our day-to-day happenings, events and photo albums, or regularly check our website and blog pages to find out more about the story of the St Botolph’s Letterpress project and how you can get involved.
Letterpress: Locking Up & Pressing On
The St Botolph’s Letterpress project has been running for 6 months, so it seems as good a time as any to look back at what we’ve achieved so far, look ahead to our plans for the rest of the year.
Events
Creating a programme of talks and events is a key part of the St Botolph’s Letterpress project. Not only does building a community of beginners and enthusiasts help us uncover the expertise hidden in and around Colchester, it also helps us find people who want to put our press to good use. Our 5th event is taking place at the end of September, and every single one so far has widened our awareness of letterpress practice and practitioners.
It’s also made others aware of our existence. An extra pair of hands cleaning a typecase, a local printer showing (and selling) work through our exhibition, or a key contact to help us get some essential equipment, these are all things that have only come about from being an outward facing and open-minded organisation. We can’t wait to find out where this will lead us over the next 6 months.
Our first exhibition, IMPRESS 2014, was a great success, and despite being a fairly last minute affair, we took around £350 in sales, some of which will help the print room develop and grow. Plans are already underway for IMPRESS 2015, and we’re excitedly uncovering new printers and potential exhibitors every week. The show will run for longer, with more work and even more variety.
Our talks are also booked in until March 2015. Our most recent talk from David Jury was a great success, sparking debate among the experienced printers in the audience, and amazement for those who just wanted to admire David’s beautiful books and his masterful presentation style. Our next four events are as wildly different as our first four, but we’re confident that they’ll continue to broaden the knowledge of all who attend.
Sorting Type
We’re also constantly edging closer to our goal of letting people loose on the type (after an induction of course) and allowing them to start composing and imposing their own print projects. Our larger typefaces are finished and just waiting to be identified and populated with spacing. Plans have already been made for some simple projects to help beginners get themselves used to the process of composing and setting metal type.
Of the 50 or so typecases we started with, there are approximately 12 left to work through, and many of these can be phased in slowly, which means that we’re no longer asking volunteers to help us clean typecases at our main bi-monthly events.
To deal with these remaining fonts, some of which are small or hard to identify, we’re taking over a table or two in the main space on Wednesday evenings. Grab a drink, talk type, and help us finish off those last few cases! We’ll normally be there every week around 7.30pm, but do keep an eye on our Facebook page, sign up to our mailing list, or email [email protected] if you want to be certain that we’ll be there.
The remaining jobs that involve sorting will be dealt with by the letterpress team. This involves things like sorting borders and ornaments, classifying spacing, filling the lead rack, labelling sorted typefaces and finding homes for the random sorts that didn’t come to us in their correct typecase. We’ll happily accept any help that’s offered – send us an email and we’ll soon get you involved.
Using The Press
We have a strong of idea of how we see the print room being used. Based on the Waiting Room’s own Hack/Maker Space membership scheme, it will involve a general membership fee, a basic workshop induction if you know what you’re doing, a fuller typesetting introduction if you’ve never done it before, and rentable galley space, so that you can create your own print projects in your spare time. When your job is ready, we’ll get it printed up on a monthly or bi-monthly weekend ‘press day’. We’re still ironing out the finer points of managing the system and creating a pricing structure, so if you’re interested in signing up, make sure you stay in the loop and join our mailing list.
Finally, we’re keen to expand our printing press options. Our Cropper is a beautiful piece of machinery, but tricky to use and potentially dangerous to the uninitiated, and with this in mind we’re working behind the scenes to locate some smaller hand presses. If all goes well, we’re hoping to have an announcement or two at our Letterpress Takeover #5. Exciting times ahead!
Finally, thanks to all who have contributed to our small letterpress studio so far. From the experienced printers who have provided advice, equipment, expertise or agreed to give a talk, through to the enthusiasts who help us keep up the momentum and resolve to push forwards. The St Botolph’s Letterpress project is completely voluntary, and we really do appreciate every single bit of help that comes our way.
Letterpress: The Year Ahead
We’ve had a busy couple of months behind the scenes at the St Botolph’s Letterpress. We’re coming on leaps and bounds in the print room, we put on the first of our annual letterpress themed exhibitions, and we also screened the great documentary Proceed and Be Bold! about maverick printer Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.
Now we’ve finally got a chance to catch our breath, it’s time for a look back at our programme of talks and events so far, as well as a look forward to who we’ve got planned for the rest of the year.
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Justin Knopp of Typoretum popped down at the end of March to show us all some of the inspirational work being produced by letterpress printers across the world. Utilising cutting edge technology (literally so in the case of laser cut wood type) or sometimes just putting a contemporary spin on traditional methods, it was a great cross section of the things that can be done with type. We’ve gathered together all of the images and credits in a Facebook gallery here so you can still be inspired even if you missed Justin’s talk.
As a special bonus, we also saw a short film about Typoretum made by Jamie Murphy of The Salvage Press. You can see it online here.
We followed up in May with another excellent presentation, this time by Len Friend of the Crescent Card Co. in Maldon. As well as being an experienced printer and machine minder with a lifetime in the trade, Len is also the chairman of the Essex branch of the British Printing Society. Suffice to say, he really knows what he’s talking about.
With a look back over the rise and fall of commercial printing in the 20th Century, Len made it clear that although a lot of knowledge has been lost, and letterpress printing will never reach the dizzying heights of those days, there is still plenty of potential for a new generation to take it forward and carve out their own space in the world of print.
Samples of proofing sheets from the Anchor Press in Tiptree helped to make the sheer scale of letterpress back then a little more real, whilst a short film detailing a commercial operation composing, imposing, printing and binding a small book illustrated how drawn out the process was before computers got involved.
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Looking ahead, our programme of talks has been booked in until January 2015, with a great mix of subjects, backgrounds and experiences. First up is David Jury, who’ll be coming down on July 30th to talk about Fine Press printing. Extravagantly produced, limited edition hand-bound books will illustrate how letterpress is still used to provide modern artisan printing.
David is probably well known to many locals from his days as a lecturer at Colchester School of Art. However, not everybody realises that he is a published authority on the history of design and print, even producing a book devoted to Letterpress. Add to this that he’s also a designer and printer in his own right, he generally succeeds in making the rest of us look bad, and no doubt his talk will be one of our best yet. Not to be missed!
In September we’ll be joined by our first ‘jobbing’ printer. Operating from his print workshop in a mid-terrace house in Leytonstone, Russell Frost of Hooksmith Press will be telling us about his journey to becoming a letterpress printer. It’s an unusual route, stopping off at professional fly-fishing, landscape gardening, and (literally) scouring the highways, bi-ways and hedgerows of his native New Zealand hunting for neglected printing presses.
Our November talk is a little closer to home, as Alan Brignull of the brilliant The Hedgehog Press, just up the road in Wivenhoe, will be giving us a history of amateur printing. One of the stops on his talk will be Gt Totham, home of 19th Century farmer Charles Clark, who apparently built his own press and used balloons to disseminate his pamphlets across the countryside.
Finally, January will see a visit from the lovely ladies of Harrington & Squires in Tufnell Park, North London. Having made the leap into letterpress from a design studio background, they’ll be giving us a glimpse of life in their unusual studio, nicknamed ‘The Corridor’. We’re particularly interested to hear how they manage to fit a platen press like ours in there!
The events will all be at 7.30pm on the last Wednesday of the month. As always, you can keep updated with letterpress goings on at the Waiting Room via our Facebook page, our website, or by signing up to the main Waiting Room mailing list. Or if you prefer a direct approach, you can email project leader Paul Butler.
Talking type with Typoretum
We hosted Maker Wednesday at the Waiting Room last night and for this session we were taken over by the St Botolph’s Letterpress team.
Every two months, on the last Wednesday, Paul Butler invites type fans, letterpress geeks, machinery & tool lovers, anyone with a passion for print, design, or just plain interested, to hear more from letterpress printers and to help sort the horde of type. Read more
Letterpress: Our (Brief) History
Things have been busy in the St Botolph’s Letterpress room over the past couple of months. Since our first event, we’ve been working hard to get the space ready for use.
Our furniture rack has been restored and filled, we have a system of dealing with rogue sorts and spacing from our pied and dirty typecases. Galleys have been dissed and freed up, composing sticks and rollers now have homes on the walls, and a system is in place for separating our 36pt Ens from 18pt Quads. Read more
Pin Hole Party
We held an extremely popular Pinhole Camera making workshop at the Waiting Room this evening. I would like to thank our host Jack Briggs-Miller for sharing his skills.
I’ve uploaded some photos onto the Waiting Room facebook page here. I just wanted to use this blog, as I said throughout the evening, to share a basic step by step on how to make/finish your camera. Please join us on Wednesday next week (26th February) to learn how to load your camera, and to catch up with Jack to ask any questions. Please ‘like’ our facebook page, the Coffee Darkroom, to find out more about darkroom opening times and where to buy & source paper and developing liquids. Read more
Make your own Pin Hole Camera
Jack Briggs-Miller is a photographic artist and on Wednesday the 19th of February from 7.30pm he will be hosting a “make your own pinhole camera” workshop as part of the weekly ‘Makers Wednesday’ events at The Waiting Room in St Boltolph’s.
Jack will be talking a little about how a pinhole camera works and helping people to create there own. This session will be FREE to attend; however we do ask that you provide your own materials. Read more
Letterpress: All Sorts
We had our very first St Botolph’s Letterpress meet-up at the end of January, and wow! What a turnout!
First of all both myself and Dave would like to thank everyone who made it down. Whether you managed to clean and sort an entire case by yourself (well done to Chris and Jess, whose sparkling case is our background image), or if you could only have a quick chat before shooting off, it was all very much appreciated and we were really pleased with the range of knowledge and experience that came down. Read more
Typecasing Type
This evening we held our first ever Letterpress Takeover at Maker Wednesday. Paul Butler and Dave Dixon admitted to taking on a ridiculous task sorting out the letterpress printer and it’s horde of type. But the goal, with the help of various volunteers, is to set up a communal letterpress printer for all of Colchester to use.
That’s where this event came in. We called to letterpress arms, and shouted out for help to clean and sort the vast type in its trays (and this is only the beginning). This event was the first in helping us get underway with beginning the task, finishing, tidying and polishing up an open source letterpress. Read more
Letterpress: Cases, Lays and Type
After a great response from our first blog post, it’s time to get things moving.
Over the Christmas break we were fortunate enough to have Justin Knopp from the wonderful Typoretum swing by and give some sage advice, as well as having a good old nose at our gear. Many thanks again to Justin for donating his time, expertise, and (with any luck!) spare bits of kit. He’ll be keeping a close eye on how we progress and helping us out further down the line.
However, first of all we have piles of type, furniture, leads, old galleys and jumbled cases to get to grips with, and for that we need plenty of volunteers. Read more