Saturday was a non-work day. But Sunday? Ah, Sunday was different. Hard work, new concepts, interesting people, challenging ideas and great fun. And pig related. As you’ll see at the end.
We spent all day at the London Centre for Book Arts workshop
a great space, right next to the locks on the River Lea, learning about Letterpress wood-type, the correct way to setup the gorgeous old presses
how to lock-up the type (upside down & back to front)
how to “make ready”
and how not to get too much ink over everything (I may be lying about how well I did in that last claim by the way).
We were so busy that we managed only 20 minutes for lunch — see the sacrifices I make for our art — eating (a recommended simple burger & blackened mackerel taco) at The Plough at Sun Wharf which backs onto Fish Island Labs which I imagine, during the week is an achingly “drowned under hipsters” area but on a Sunday was quiet, reflective & felt both old-industrial and relaxing, chilled residential.
I also warned them about gators. They didn’t seem overly exercised by the possible danger. More fool them; we’ve lived in Florida…
And after lunch, we carried on for another 5 hours. You can’t rush this process — it’s both contemplative and at the same time, quite stressed — making sure the type is aligned, kerning is right and that it won’t move at all when locked-up involves more than a little mathematics and multiple trips to the “furniture” store to pack things tightly.
This was the resulting set of prints, using various techniques and also playing with some ideas that we’ll be using later on. Not too shabby by any means. I fully intend going back; this stuff is seriously addictive.
And one final shot of some laser-cut type — an experiment and proof of concept only at the moment but something that may work out…
