drawers full of letter blocks to choose from at W2

Last week, I enjoyed two days of printmaking with the heritage flatbed letterpress at W2 with Shallom Johnson, who schooled me on how to play with word/font/size arrangements.  I had some scribbles and poetry that I wrote during my design process for larry. this year, and I wanted to include some prints with the lobird road collection opening at grace-gallery.

inking the letters

Choosing your letter size and font is a daunting task – it’s very difficult to decide where to begin.  My only advice is to just start somewhere…begin to lay it out, and do test prints until you find an arrangement you like.  All of the letters need to be magnet-locked onto the metal flatbed, and doing this without shifting the letters out of place can be challenging.

ink, but not too much ink

day two, project 2

checking the print

series 1, click to enlarge

I will most certainly be frequenting the letterpress as often as I can – a great idea for making personal cards, and I may even print off a run of hang tags for the larry. collection this year.  The process is both creatively challenging and calming.  The letterpress studio is volunteer-led and artist-run, and will most likely be accessible to the public via a sliding scale fee in order to keep it accessible to the community. If you’re interested in learning more about using the letterpress, I highly recommend trying out one of the workshops – check their Facebook page for upcoming events.