Printing Letterpress Show Signs
I love printing with these beautiful old blocks. My father bought most of them in the 1960s and 70s but I also managed to pick up a whole shoe box full in the early 1990s on the Isle of Wight at a school jumble sale for £1. These days they are sought after but back then people just thought they were a bit of old tat!
If I am printing a 'run' (multiple copies of one print) I would set up the blocks in a metal frame and then print them on the Albion press. For these prints I am only doing a couple of images of various different words and so I print them by hand - with a hammer! You can print using anything that will apply pressure to your block and paper, I know a print maker who actually uses a steam roller on a large piece of lino as a bit of theatrical printmaking for his open studio.
These were signs created for a show I did in London in January 2020. I think they really capture the look of my work and say something about my work ethos too - using traditional techniques in a modern way.
