Holiday Greetings

Arriving today is this wonderful "trade" greetings from M&H foundry San Fransisco. We buy type from them and the Dale Guild Foundry, our main fonts coming from M&H. 

 Its ideas like this expressed simply and so imaginatively that impresses me with the whole experience of dealing with suppliers in the US. Their products are great, prices right, and delivery swift, (no more than 10 days). You can find them in our links, please, have a good look at their downloadable catalog.  Its a tough monotype metal, very durable for our hand platens. If you are not a letterpress printer yet, this catalog might do it! Then check out their start up fonts and prices!

Busy With Photography and Printing

December has started with us both just flat out doing some interesting studio work. I have been processing and printing some pinhole photographs in the darkroom. I always like to tone a little just to warm the prints. For years I split toned to have nice deep blacks from the Selenium and the sepia gave a beautiful mid/highlight colour. Well sepia is getting a little hard to locate in any quantity, so I have opted for mixing my own. In Australia, Vanbar.com.au has everything you need online except the old Sulphide toner ingredients (which stank anyway), so I had great joy taking the pinholes through to final stage. My flattening press is a very early kodak job of cast iron and it requires care. The idea I think is to heat it up and then turn it off. It then flattens prints successfully for about half an hour. If you leave it on it just gets hotter. No thermostat at all.

The camera is a 120 roll film job that cost $5.00 some years ago, and I removed the lens and put a pinhole (F262) in place. I like this camera as it is roll fed and has a B setting. you need it as most exposures are 3-6 seconds long

Big printing week- Craft Fair Venue 11

 Next printery will have more drying space

 One of our most popular cards (all Linocuts)

 The Chandler and Price is nice to feed as it opens almost flat. But too many newcomers to Letterpress fit motors and they run them too fast. This is a recipe for lost fingers! I run this one by foot power at about 300 sheets per hour. That way I get to gaze at the landscape a little - which is beautiful at this time of the year.

 November and December - busy, busy!

This week sees the press foot pedal thumping away! Lots of preparation for the Deloraine Annual Craft Fair and Beyond.  Joanne will be present at our stall at the Deloraine visitors centre (venue 11) and our work is also featured in the street windows exhibition (although the publicity so far has ignored this!) So  if you are planning a visit, drop by and say hello and stock up on chrissy cards.

We have been replenishing our card stocks as you can see. I will also post soon some pinhole photographs from the "new" camera. They look great.

Dubai

A friend of ours was visiting relatives in Dubai when she noticed a print of Joannes on the wall! Purchased in Sydney but not known when. Our records show it going in the late 90's

good to see art travelling like this!

Deloraine Craft Fair

This year we are again selling cards and work at the Deloraine Craft Fair This is a annual event over a long weekend in November. Joanne will be having a stall at the visitors centre and we will be exhibiting work in a street show. Local artists take over shop windows and display work of all kinds. The craft fair is huge about 30000 people attend and stock up on original gifts for the christmas season or just wander around enjoying themselves. Its a good time to be selling hand printed Letterpress cards!

 Part of the range. Original designs cut in Linocut.

 At a recent market. We always have a small Adana press at such events to demonstrate the "black art" of Letterpress.

These are some framed prints for the street show. My work will be in the window of "Deloraine Digital" - our local Photo store.

Centaur

 I really like crisp romans. For years this meant Garamond. Now I am adding Centaur to my mix of Romans. With the Italic Arrighi as well.

 Here the 18pt goes out into the case

 A new font as shipped.

One of the great pleasures of printing is carefully putting all the letters, ligatures, numerals into the case. A great way to learn the case layout too.

Centaur is said by some to be one of the finest type designs for a roman.  Designed by Bruce Rogers initially for a private press it was picked up by the Monotype Corporation in the 1930's. 

 It really has impressed me with its crisp elegant appearance. There is something about making a press ready with really good new type, good ink and a fine paper. Very hard to beat. I order mine from M&H in San Francisco and it takes about two weeks of shipping. They are great to deal with, and have a great catalog of available hot metal.

New Camera

 The lens is extended for use

 Interesting negs!

I've been playing with Pinhole cameras again!. The joy of making a new device. This time its an old Agfa Clack from the fifties. I noticed it had a shutter speed of about 1/25 but also more importantly a B setting. So I ripped the lens out of it and fitted an F262 stainless pinhole (thanks Bayden!). This gives me a 120 roll film camera that makes circular frames! Weird. I bought the camera years ago for $5.00 so its becoming a very interesting piece of equipment. Most exposures on a good day are around 6 seconds on Tri X - so the tripod mount is essential. I haven't made prints yet but the negs look interesting.