Medieval snails

It’s time for the annual 20:20 print exchange at HPB.

I had an image already in mind. It developed out of the research I did while developing my response to the medieval book. I made my plate and went to the studio to print, but the block, which was printing oddly from the start, started to break down before I’d got half way through. I’m not sure what I did differently when making it but something wasn’t right.

 I did manage a few good prints out of it, but I’ll have to give the 20:20 a miss this year.

Bees

I'm way overdue with my contribution to Collaborative Artists Books (# 19 Nature). But I've finaly designed..

 and made the plate..

Normally I wouldn't use die cut pieces, however for this book I wanted the precision that die cutting would give me.

Fragmented

I finally decided that using gum arabic or cutting text into blocks was all very well but for some projects you just need proper set type. So last weekend I went to another workshop at HBP. Elizabeth Willow was teaching letterpress, wood type and book making (all in 2 days!).

We had to take a word to use. I chose fragmented. I thought it would lend itself well to book structures.

We used the Adana presses to print metal type on bookmark sized paper

  and the Albion presses for wood type.

 I was overjoyed to find that you can move the metal type onto the relief press and combine the two.

We made the prints into several different book structures.

Even with such a fantastic teacher I know two days is nowhere near enough to become proficient but I’m hoping I’ve learned enough to be able to go in to play and work some of it out for myself now.