Howards finished restoration

Readers of this blog will remember a rough but useable platen that Howard has been working on. It all came to fruition and was used at steam museum weekend recently. We set some type for a bookmark design and every attendee could go home with a fine memento. It still needs a pair of friskets and a bit of fine tuning but generally it printed very well. Howard was given a complete Ludlow type caster by an interested visitor. Ludlows are a very useful casting machine used for producing single lines of type from 'fonts' of matrices held in libraries by the user. Widely used all over the world they were a very useful machine in small printeries as it gave the printer great flexibility and cheap good typesetting.

Melbourne Wildseed 2012

 Emma Wild's label, "Wildseed". - Watch for it!!

The end of January and we were away in Melbourne catching up with family and having a break bird watching. Daughter Emma is a total ball of energy at the moment and producing some great fashion works combining silkscreen with lovely fabric designs. She sells at St Andrews market (Saturdays) and Geelong (Friday nights). Printing sure has changed. In my time it was lengthy apprenticeships and not much art now its the opposite. She takes inspiration from nature and the design is eye catching and simple elegance at an affordable price. Printing meets fashion.

 I usually like my presses to be made of cast iron and steel, but I must say I love the design of these silkscreen machines. totally adjustable for register and light enough to operate for medium run lengths. Ideal for back-shed use! Like the early Adana platens in the 50's many a small business is out in the shed! Emma is a fan of photo-screen which combines image gathering, computer work and screen making. Emma's picture I think, or could be Pete's!

 Jo, Emma and grandson Ruben outside Emma's stall at St, Andrews Saturday market. It was so hot. This is a great country market on the edge of Melbourne near an area ravaged by fire a couple of years ago. The landscape and the people are still showing the effects, but the market is vibrant and the overall vibe is relaxed and happy. Lots of interesting stalls. Great food.

A part of the range Emma makes. Its hard work! Shes on a roll folks.

 Emma selling her creations (Wildseed label) proudly being able to say "I designed and printed everything you see".

Melbourne was very hot and full of interest. Emma, Pete, and Ruben live close to our esteemed Prime minister in a neighbourhood close to Port Phillip Bay. Lots of bird life and some wet areas that yielded a couple of new sightings for my life list. Over 300 birds now.

 The "Spirit of Tasmania" is a very smooth ship to voyage on and the staff are actually friendly. Its relaxing and interesting. Try and say that about a recent air journey!

The return voyage had us in recliner chairs at the stern of the ship watching more birds and some great squalls crossing over us. The ferry is a lot more interesting than air travel. I just hate the vibes in air ports these days. Air travel is good if you need to be somewhere fast, but if not, its just an experience in congealed anxiety! I really enjoyed the ocean birds like Gannets, Petrels, and Prions, wheeling around and moving with the fronts.

Now for a year of printing and art in front of us! The paper has arrived and some transparent tint ink, and I have just ordered a font of Centaur titling from Bruce Rodgers original Matts. no ideas for them as yet but its the first time in many, many years, the mats have been released for casting. Dale Guild are doing this service for printers.

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.