After my sister bought me a rather fine vintage letterpress and some lovely type, I thought I’d better learn how to use it!
So, I went on a fantastically inspirational letterpress workshop with rather lovely people at Turnbull Grey. Based at Craft Central in London, the TG studio was just lovely; small enough to be intimate and personal but large enough so our two expert trainers and my two fellow workshopers weren’t stepping over each other. Yes, there were just three people per session, which kept things friendly and made sure learning could be quite fluid.
Myself and my three companions were like kids in a sweet shop. There were drawers and drawers of woodblock and metal type of various fonts and sizes – lovely. There were also two types of letterpress machines (two Adana’s and a larger one for posters) to play with.
I didn’t take any photos at the course as I didn’t want to disrupt anyone’s learning. I also made sure that I didn’t try and produce a finished piece of artwork – I just wanted to get the hang of the process. It is really easy but can produce incredibly effective results, especially as you’re working with the woodgrain, little nicks and idiosyncrasies of each individual block that give real character to every print. Anyway, here are some examples of what I produced in the three-hour session.
Wonderful W
Yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAHHHHHHHHH!
M. W. B.
Everything starts with an 'E'
B is beautiful!
Loving the L
Yeah - with a kiss!
It’s only £60 per session and it is a tremendous amount of fun with real letterpress practitioners. See the Turnbull Grey website for more info.
