The Printing Press Of My Dreams

If you've been following this blog a while, you may already know that I'm a sucker for an antiquated printing method called Letterpress. I didn't mean to fall in love with Letterpress - it just happened. We met one day while I was at a book fair. Letterpress showed me all these cards made with salvaged type nobody else wanted; it whispered in my ear that it would take up hours of my life, infect my thinking, and make me want to drive to other parts of the country to look at bits of metal in boxes.

"I don't mind," I said. "It is already too late."

Between then and now I've printed cards, chapbooks, posters, and a tiny anthology of work by writers I admire (now sold out). I used to print these at The Print Project, but for various reasons decided I'd be better off with a press of my own (pictured above).

In the future Yuertes (as he is affectionately known) will likely be used to print gig fliers, leaflets, and short story postcards. For now, he is just settling into my kitchen. Doesn't he look at home?

Here are some of the things Yeurtes and I have made this afternoon.

(answer: fabulous).

Type: A Collection

Type: A Collection is a micro-anthology of stories and poems by the writers Claire Massey, Nasser Hussain, Zodwa Nyoni, and Saul Franks. The result of many months' hard labour in the print room, Type brings together stories and poetry connected to the title. Genealogical types. Literary form types. Biological specimens. "Your sort".

The writers involved each asked to contribute specifically to this little 'zine-style chapbook. It was really exciting to see their contributions come in. Four diverse viewpoints range from the homely to meta, highbrow and fantastical - all within the space of six pages.

The run has been extremely limited, with only 75 having been made. The body text is set in Perpetua and Goudy Italic; with second-colour text in Gill Sans Bold and Bembo Roman type, all set letter by letter in movable type and printed on a Peerless platen letterpress at The Print Project. There won't be a second reprint of this book, ever - it's totally unique!

You can get one from the Print Project's etsy shop.

Cops & Robbers

Cops and Robbers is a free guide to DIY gigs in Leeds. It's a long-standing institution which lists gigs that are for fun, not profit, and not as a stepping-ladder into mainstream music industry success.

Run by a couple of hard-working volunteers, Cops & Robbers is itself a non-profit - you don't pay to list your gigs in it, and it carries no advertising. It survives on money from benefit gigs and the generosity of donors.

In and amongst the gig listings are illustrations, usually drawn by members of the local DIY community. At the moment, Nick & I (the print project) are working on illustrations for the next issue. I've written a short 'fact-haiku' about DIY and activism, and the text is illustrated with text pictures using large wooden letters and typography, mostly courtesy of Nick. I'll post up pictures of the whole thing when it is done - but for the time being, you'll just have to content yourself with looking at part of the text and a letterpress forme 'word-cloud'.

Next to Nothing

This is the latest in a long line of current projects... two letterpressed short stories for the Black Dogs 'Next To Nothing' exhibition, which opens at the Light in Leeds, on September 15th. The exhibition, which will include contributions from around 30 artists, and non-artist reprobates like me, is sited in a disused shop unit in one of Leeds' most 'aspirational' shopping centres, and explores our conception of worth and value.

I have two short stories included in the exhibition, both of which I typeset & printed myself: Hourly Rate, and The Most Wonderful Time of The Year.

The exhibition's preview is on Thursday 15th September, with an after-party gig at Wharfe Chambers (formerly the Common Place). It will be open until 1st October and will be open Mon-Thurs 4-7pm, and on Saturdays during the day.

First experiments at making bookmarks for The Leeds Library...

Currently, I'm embroiled in several projects in which art, literature and letterpress collide. This is one of the newest: a potential commission for letterpress bookmarks for The Leeds Library. Opening in 1768, the library is one of the country's oldest subscription libraries. It houses a marvellous book collection, which is chosen by and reflects the interests of its members, and recently they were kind enough to allow us to host Fictions of Every Kind there.

The library has a range of merchandise ranging from book bags to postcards and bookmarks. When Geoff told me they were thinking of having new bookmarks printed, I leapt right in to offer to letterpress some. (Everything looks amazing when you letterpress it). He lent me an old printing block that they have, and I got to work typesetting their address and contact details. Above, you can see some of the prototypes. The completed versions should be available before too long!

Currently reading

The Wayward Bus John Steinbeck
Collected Stories Raymond Carver

Letterpress nerdery

Here is a picture of a nice dog I saw yesterday whilst on a print-related adventure.

Yesterday, I went to a strange place - a letterpress graveyard, if you will - with my letterpress conspirator, Nick. He had his eye on a proofing press, and I wanted to perv over many different kinds of type.

At the moment, I'm working on several letter-press projects. One is a collection of micro-stories for an exhibition themed 'Next to Nothing'. I'll letterpress print the stories and show them in the exhibition, which is going to be in a disused shop unit in Leeds later on in the year. There will be three stories, and my aim is to print each using a different typeface... so I needed to get my mucky little paws on some more of those lovely letters!

The chap who runs the strange place used to work with computers, and has gradually moved, bit by bit, into the world of antiquary. While we were there, he mentioned in passing that he would never go back to working back with new technology again. The mainstay of his business is in repairing and moving printing presses, but incidental to that has a massive collection of trays of type, printing press spare parts, and everything that goes along with it. Cases reached from floor to ceiling, each full with type trays. There were lots of rare typefaces, in all shapes and sizes, and I spent a pleasant hour standing on chairs and climbing over printing presses to look at them. I came away with two trays of an 20s style art-deco typeface which so rare it isn't in any of the books. (This is what I'll be using to print one of the stories).

In addition, the guy was looking after two of his friends' dogs and they were both running around the yard, yapping and getting excited. Here's a picture of them in action.

Now out!

After months of hard labour, copies of my letterpress & handmade short story chapbook 'A Stranger Came' are now officially available! They're priced at £3.90 post paid to UK addresses - contact me for prices if you live outside of the UK. I'll accept payment by paypal, cheque, or the time-honoured method of sticking coins to a bit of card and sending them through the post and hoping for the best. Contact me at the email address in my profile, or leave a comment below, if you want one.

A Stranger Came: Out Shortly!

A close up of those bound edges

'Tis nearly finished! After months of labour, A Stranger Came is now (almost) completely bound, cut and ready to go. It will be out later on this week. Two things remain to be done: the pages trimmed, and for each copy to be numbered. I am sure I won't get writer's cramp doing the second one.

Let's have a look at those different-coloured covers in full.



L-R: White with ltd edition silver binding; cream; brown; pale yellow




Pale yellow; cream; brown; white with ltd edition silver binding

Currently reading

Trust me, I'm a junior doctor Max Pemberton
The Crystal World JG Ballard

What a bind!

These are the pages of my short story 'zine A Stranger Came. Those of you who've been following my blog regularly will know that I've been typesetting and letterpress printing this story for the past few months. It's been a bit of a painstaking endeavour! The text is set in Morris Gold 8pt type, and because I didn't have enough of it to set a full page at a time, I instead spent many weeks typesetting two paragraphs at once, printing those, breaking up the type, sorting it, and then setting the next two paragraphs....

The last of the printing itself was finished about a month ago. (Special thanks at this point must go to Nick at The Print Project for teaching me how to typeset and print, and for letting me come over every week to print more bits of it.)

This week, the pages will at last get bound together. The rather marvellous Alice Rix is going to come around to lend a hand, and to help me work out how to bind it. Hopefully, by the end of this week, 86 copies of A Stranger Came should be bound and cut and ready for sale.

Here are the things you need for binding:


Clockwise from top: Craft knife costing £2.69 or less; hole punching device; hammer; embroidery thread.

More to follow.

Currently reading

Burma Boy Biyi Bandele
Not on the Label Felicity Lawrence