A variety of items from the Lestaret studio are now available to purchase – many have been featured here, and have been shown during their creation! You’ve read the blog, now buy the work!

Many of my products are absolutely unique or very limited in quantity, adding a particular sort of value that you won’t get on the High Street. Remember, Lestaret does not sell anywhere else!

Some of them make ideal gifts, or you can just treat yourself – nobody need know, and we won’t tell either!

When you choose to go to {The Department of Something Else} you will be transported magically to another place - we have joined those fabulous, er, folks at Folksy, ensuring that your purchasing is safe and secure on the interweb, and that your consumer rights are properly observed!

Right now, there are screenprints, linocut prints, etchings, Giclée posters and prints, as well as a number of  greetings cards.  There is also a small selection of handmade sketchbooks. Not exactly something for everyone, but maybe something for you. Go there. Now.  And if you buy something – send me a message via the profile on Folksy, letting me know that you got there via this blog and I’ll put a little something extra in the package!

These are set of stamps from the imaginary Adanaland, otherwise known as the brainchild of Alan Brignull’s Hedgehog Press, whose work can be found dotted all over the internet, but does not have a huge public profile. I bought these a little while ago off Ebay and they have been sitting in a little box on my desk for some weeks. This post is a sign that I’ve been tidying up.

From what I have found out so far, Alan has produced a fair amount of Adanaland printed ephemera, including quite a few different stamps. All printed on an Adana 5×8 of course.

I was originally attracted to these because of the asemic qualities of the lettering – some form of sanskrit perhaps? But I have, as so often is the case, become a little fixated upon the idea of these sheets – a collection, boxed or bound, some form of project or the beginning of a collection…

And the collection grows! Since I first started preparing this post, I have also purchased another sheet of Adanaland stamps, and a presentation pack too!

The sheet pays tribute to John Ryder, the publisher of “Printing for Pleasure” which is still considered to be the definitive book for amateur printers, even though it was published in 1955! (I’m still looking for a copy at a decent price!)

And the collectors set of stamps from Adanalands Overseas Dependencies issued by Popesgrove Philatelic – another Brignull enterprise – contains eight lovely examples…

Another one of these…

These oriental designs are beautifully coloured.

I’m so pleased with these – they really make me smile to think of the time and effort that has gone into producing them. Thankyou Mr. Brignull; keep us posted!

This is the official wallet from 1971, complete with inner cards and coins…

Those were the days when money used to be worth something…

What can I say? I just can’t help it.

The Last Tycoon

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again,
there is no use in reading it at all.
Oscar Wilde

I am back home after a weekend of print, printing, talking about print, talking about printing, printers, talking about printers, buying and selling printed stuff, and listening to some inspirational printerly people. Yes, the Leeds Print Festival was a huge success, and it is taking a fair bit of time to recover!

PHOTO BY CLAIRE JENKS

I was part of the Print’s Not Dead event on Friday night with Nick and Sarah from The Print Project in Bradford – we were giving demonstrations and getting people involved in making their own prints - me with hand rolled lino prints, and they were giving it large in letterpress with a lovely Adana 8×5.

Lots of people took home prints they made themselves – many went home with ink on their fingers and probably their clothes! I would like to thank everyone who came out and joined in – rumour has it that there were over 800 people through the doors!

It was great to talk to people who were genuinely interested in print – loads of intelligent questions were asked, and I really got a feeling that everyone who managed to get to the table were inspired (or even re-inspired – there were a huge amount of people who came and said “this takes me back” and plenty more who just came to sniff the lino!) I genuinely hope that the experience got someone back into it!

 
This was pulled from a new block I had been working on and finished carving as people arrived! Please note the inky fingers!

Of course, there were one or two ‘small sherries’ consumed following (and during!) the friday evening event, and with a head buzzing with print talk and beer I retired very late for some well-earned snoring time.

PHOTO BY GRAPHIQUE FANTASTIQUE

Saturday was entirely given over to the Print Fair, and the continuous flow of people through the doors proved that print still means something to people. This was the first time I have ever done anything like this – I will admit here that I was more nervous about this than the evening before! It was not too long before I made my first sale, and then things just kept on going!

I had lots of great comments about my work, and I am genuinely grateful to everybody who bought something; from my tiny little letterpressed notebooks to my editioned etchings, from greetings cards to framed monoprints - your decision to part with your hard-earned cash during these difficult times is not taken for granted, and for me it has validated all the effort I have made to produce things that have a real value.  Thankyou and I hope that you enjoy your prints and books.

For those of you who couldn’t make the LPF, you too have the opportunity to browse my merchandise and purchase from The Department of Something Else - more items have already been added this week!

Sunday was the day for talks. With Paul and Anand from Generation Press, Si Scott & Anthony Burrill on the list, this was bound to be a major part of the event and I don’t think anyone was disappointed. The Leeds Gallery was set out with wall-to-wall seating (the third major change of use I saw!) and well before the doors opened there was a very healthy queue that stretched around the building – and it was pretty nippy out there too!

Paul and Anand from Generation Press opened the days talks and began with hereditary account of how they came to be there  – which filled me with a satisfying sense of well-being, knowing that the concept of following in ones parents footsteps is still a do-able and admirable thing. I had genuinely thought that this no longer happened, and now see just how vital that this ‘passing on’ is if we are to continue to progress. Please note my use of ‘passing on’ and not ‘passing down’ which to me infers more of a maintenance than a continuation. This is always an opportunity  for growth, not in size or profitability as such, but in growth of experience, in quality, in variety, in scope, promise and imagination. Paul mentioned that there were people with forty more years experience than him employed in the business when he took over and he has since introduced the twenty-something year-old Anand as their ‘Adopted Northerner’ who had established himself within the company in a few short years  as someone who added youth, exploration and vigour to their ranks, and had been allowed to encourage a more experimental approach in an industry that has long been revered for its traditions. Bloody marvellous is what I say!

Si Scott followed, and made fine job of it, despite incredibly difficult circumstances. If you do not know who Si Scott is you are probably familiar with his incredibly detailed swirling imagery and type. Amazing work. A real graphic artist.

But alas, the day was growing longer and the weather was deteriorating and I decided to leave before Antony Burrills talk which I really regret now. I can only put it down to bad karma that I then had a really shit journey home (four and a half bloody hours!) and I wished I had stayed.

But still, LPF 2012 was a huge success – loads of Twittering and blogging has already been done and whispers of 2013 are already being heard across the Yorkshire Dales…

Many thanks to Amber, Aaron, Dutch, Anna and the rest of the LPF team, as well as those great folks at The Leeds Gallery and the 164 Cafe too. Most of all, thanks to everyone who visited, printed, bought and sold, listened and were enthused by the event. See you next time round I hope!

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!

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.

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!