Accounts!

screen prints

new linocut blocks

linocut prints (one and two colours)

greeting card designs

greetings cards (letterpress and lino)

digital prints

casebound sketchbooks from scratch 

letterpressed notebooks

business cards

sheets custom giftwrap

plus scoring, folding, trimming, gluing etc,
also pairing up with envelopes, cutting mattes,
framing and putting everything in cellophane!

Phew!

These last few weeks have been a bit of an ordeal as am not used to producing ‘stock’ but at least it has got me enough to make a good show at the Leeds Print Festival as well as finally getting my online shop organised.

THIS HAS GOT TO BE JUST ABOUT THE LAST CALL FOR LPF 2012 - although the event opens on the 27th – c’mon people, show your support – and there will be live printmaking on the evening of the 29th (I’ll be strutting my printerly stuff!) there’s a print fair on the 30th, and talks by leading practitioners: Generation Press,  Si Scott &  Anthony Burrill on the 31st – (tickets required). If you have any interest in print – in any form – you should try to get there – it’s all happening at the Leeds Gallery on Monroe Street – I can guarantee that your print fetishes will be catered for.

Last of all, I would like to give a big shout out to the organisers of LPF 2012 who have worked hard to make this happen – especially Aaron Skipper (a very, very talented graphic designer) and Amber Smith - just for the love of print! I am glad to be part of the event, and hope that we – my fellow participants, exhibitors, printmakers/sellers and speakers and I can help make it the success it deserves to be.  See you there!

Productivity!

I feel like I need to apologise for posting so much on this but it has been a fairly dominant presence for me over the last month or so. As I showed in my last post I have been continually preparing prints and books so that I have a decent amount of stock available for the print fair, but I’ve also been getting a few pieces ready for the Friday exhibition/demonstration evening.  

Although small in size as well as quantity this little project has been very time-consuming – indeed, I am still printing, cutting and sewing, in order to produce a few more in time for the Festival.

I have also been making lots of little notebooks…

Quite a few small batches in various sizes, all utilising different cover and page stocks, each with a different letterpressed cover, and pamphlet stitched in specially dyed linen thread!

These last few weeks have been a bit of an adventure for me – particularly preparing for a sale as I tend to print for my own satisfaction and am not used to producing ‘stocks’ but at least it has got me going enough to get my online shop organised.

If you click on the ‘SHOP’ heading at the top of the blog you will be taken to my retail debut – “The Department of Something Else” – I hope to be making more of my work available, more often and as always, I will keep you up to date here.

Leeds Print Festival – getting nearer…

The Leeds Print Festival has got very close, very quick and I have been getting a lot of things ready for the print sale on Saturday 28th January 2012. I am also involved in the opening event on the evening before and am preparing for that also.

And of course that means doing things (and making mistakes) that are unique to letterpress, no CTRL+Z here!

Notice the pile of pied type in the last image. Bugger! It’ll take ages to sort that lot out again! I wouldn’t mind but I wasn’t using that fount - I just spilled it!

I have also cut a big (A3-ish) lino block which already had a number of prints run before I cut it into smaller pieces out of frustration!

This will be one of my bookbinding projects for the Friday evening – if all goes well!

I still have  some books left to bind, and one or two covers to attach, as well as a lot of packaging, but I am getting a bit excited now! Sorry for going on about this, but there you go!

Rising To The Challenge…

These job opportunities were recently advertised in my local paper - the Lynn News and may be a reflection of the governments new policies to improve care for the elderly.

This is not a spelling error; an institution as fine and respectable as this would not allow a simple lapse in concentration to sully its pages, nor miss the digressions of a mischievous intern. This is, good readers, a finely positioned hickey. A hickey is an error during the printing process which results in a white spot on the final printed piece. Printers can get very dusty because of the large amounts of paper being handled on a daily basis. If a small fleck of dust lands a piece of paper before it runs through the press, it prevents the ink from hitting the paper leaving a white spot. This type of hickey can show up on a very small number of printed pieces because the dust is constantly moving in the air. I have checked other copies of the newspaper and found them all to be as perfect as one has come to expect from this bastion of quality local news.

Imagine the kind of responses an ad like this would generate though? I’ll leave you with that thought!

Just Don’t Freak Out ,Ok?

There are some changes going on around here at Lestaret Towers. Things will change, but it’ll be ok. Just don’t freak out on me!

Preparing For The Leeds Print Festival

As I mentioned in my pre-christmas post,  I will be taking part in the inaugural Leeds Print Festival in January 2012. As well as particpating in demonstrations of linocutting and bookbinding, there is a print fair on Saturday 28th 11am – 6pm where prints of all descriptions can be purchased from a wide variety of sellers, myself included! I will be offering sets of linocut and letterpress greetings cards, linocut and screenprinted art prints, as well as a few etchings and some digital prints too. There will be handmade sketchbooks for sale also.

Over the holiday I have been busy printing and getting all my unfinished things finished and starting new ones!

I did my first ‘real’ run of prints from my hand series – originally cut in 2009 to test out my newly acquired and restored nipping press. The original post is here and you can see videos here.

I mixed a very deep green – not really visible in these images – and needed to make some adjustments to the block as I went along, like spraymounting small strips of paper onto the areas I wanted to keep clean after each inking!

There are three hands in the series and these will be for sale separately and as a set…

I also did a couple of tests from a new block…

And I’ve been bookbinding too. I haven’t done much binding recently, so have really enjoyed getting stuck back in. Cutting folding and poking little holes in them…

This how I have been spending a fair bit of my time – hunched under a vintage Anglepoise lamp, surrounded by tools, threads, papers, knives, ribbons and the occasional glass of  ’falling down water!’ Please notice the computer screen in the background – on this occasion, iTunes was playing out the new Tom Waits album, and the pot of vintage dip pens in front makes a nice silhouette!  

Better get some covers sorted then!

Meanwhile, back in a very cold garage printshop, more letterpress tomfoolery has been taking place, with a limited edition run of something special for the opening night of the festival – only 50 off, but you’ll have to be there to get hold of one!

If you can make it on either day, say come over and ‘Hi’ – don’t be shy and maybe buy a print or two if you like!

Lots more information on their website, and you can follow on twitter and facebook if you’re that way inclined…