Effra Press, until the end of 2012, took up about two square metres of living room space in Nick Gill & Victoria Knowland’s tiny rented cottage in south-east London, with small type cases and home-made lead racks stacked as high as we could get them, and paper stored under the bed in some increasingly-flimsy units.
As of 2016, the press has moved several times, ever further from the underground river whose name we borrowed, acquiring more equipment and taking up more floor space along the way, and is now based in North Yorkshire, UK.
Until February 2016, Nick worked at Hand & Eye Letterpress, one of the UK’s very few remaining jobbing printers. Under the eye of Phil Abel, he set type, made up pages, proofed, comped, printed and ran the Monotype casters for seven years. He has worked at The Type Archive (formerly The Type Museum) for many years, making matrices and cutting punches. Thanks to the tuition of Parminder Kumar Rajput, he’s one of two people in the world capable of making Monotype Composition matrices from Monotype punches.
In 2015, Nick was given a grant by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust to study the cutting of typographic punches by hand, the casting of type in a hand mould, and the casting of type on pivotal casters. He’s now one of the very few people in the world who have cut a punch by hand, and one of an even smaller number who continue to do so. Nick will be joining us for The Shipley Wayzgoose this Saturday, 3rd June, Kirkgate Centre, Shipley, 11am-5pm, Free Entry.
Dennis Gould is a poet, peace activist & printer from Stroud. His distinctive letterpress style is a continuation of his cut & paste work from the late 70s, when he stumbled across a treadle platen and a case of type which would see him set up his Woodblock Letterpress workshop that continues to this day in Stroud. Printing is Dennis’ way of getting his work and the work of others out there and he can be found manning his book stall in Stroud every Saturday and occasionally performing poetry at The Albert pub. Dennis & Jeff Cloves formed the Riff Raff Poets in 1970 and they continue to perform together and produce printed works. Dennis was part of the original Glastonbury Free Press crew and he could be found down the front of the tent reciting poetry (whilst printing) to a huge crowd of onlookers as well as being the subject of a small BBC Film during the festival of 2014. Kitty Crossley & Dennis will have a specially composed Bradford themed poster for you to print and take away for free on the day. Dennis is a legend and inspiration and it’s a real honour to have him at the Shipley Wayzgoose, which takes place on 3rd June at the Kirkgate Centre, Shipley, 11am-5pm. Free Entry.
With his woodcuts, Jonathan Ashworth (Jonathan Ashworth - Woodcut Prints) offers what our fast-paced, fractious society most needs to experience: tenderness for life itself. It's there in his everyday scenes - the Bakehouse bearing the three-word poem "Life leaven love"; it's there in the timeless lore of Spring Dance; it's there in his simple, impactful calls for climate action. "Be gentle and be nice" is perhaps what Gandhi would have said to our predicament. We are lucky that Jonathan Ashworth says it so well.
Anna Simpson - Editor of Forum for the Future's 'Green Futures' and author of 'The Brand Strategist's Guide to Desire’.
Come see Jonathan and his amazing wood engravings at the Shipley Wayzgoose, 3rd June, Kirkgate Centre, 11am-5pm, Free Entry.
Nick Hand from The Letterpress Collective is currently cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats on a bicycle with a printing press, “...visiting places known for making one thing and printing along the way.” This is the second journey Nick has made on ‘The Printing Bike’ — a bike specially made by Robin Mather (Mather Bikes) which is literally a bike with a printing press on it.
This bike’s first outing was from the UK to Mainz in 2014 and Nick sent back details of his encounters in the form of printed postcards that would drop onto your doormat during his journey.
Journeyman: An Adventure in print.' is his new project: “A journeyman is a term used for a printer after finishing an apprenticeship. If work was short in your hometown, you would have taken to the road with your union card to look for work. This project is inspired by the people who made their living on a bicycle, in particular the knife grinders, who lived their life on the road traveling from town to town sharpening folk's knives.”
Nick certainly won’t be sharpening any knives along the way but he will be printing some very sharp postcards, and we’re very honoured that he’ll be making it to Shipley for the Wayzgoose on 3rd June with his bike so you can print one of the many designs that he’s currently carrying with him. Don’t miss it.
Shipley Wayzgoose, The Kirkgate Centre, Shipley, 11am-5pm, Free Entry.
Kitty Crossley is a printer from Stroud who works solely from wood & metal type setting broadsides, poems and posters. Kitty was part of the original Glastonbury Free Press crew, and during her tenure there could often be found down the front of the Free Press tent totally at home with hundreds of people queuing up to make one of her inventive typographic posters. One such poster ‘It was only rock and roll but we like it’ would go on to be used as the logo for Glastonbury (later re-drawn by Stanley Donwood), and her work with the Free Press undoubtedly went on to inform the new branding the festival deployed in 2014 which is still in use today. Kitty & Dennis Gould (also from Stroud) are bringing up a specially set JB Priestley piece for the Shipley Wayzgoose that you can print and take away for free. Shipley Wayzgoose, 3rd June, 11am-5pm, Free Entry. Thanks.
Red Plate Press
David Armes runs the Red Plate Press from his base in Todmordern. Using hand-set metal & wooden type, David overlaps the elemental rules of letterpress with more expressive approaches incorporating elements of art, craft & design. His work is frequently site-specific and considers how a sense of place can be represented with source material drawing from automatic writing, accidental conversations and oral history.
As well as producing posters, books & prints David also runs Little Crackd Rabbit Records. The track that accompanies this little video is from his release for PJ Philipson entitled ‘Landings at Stanage Edge’ and we hope you can find some time to land at the Shipley Wayzgoose on 3rd June for a brew and a chat!
Takes place at The Kirkgate Centre, 11am-5pm, Free Entry. Thanks.
The Penfold Press was opened in 2005 by Daniel Bugg as a print studio where artists are able collaborate with a printmaker in order to explore the creative possibilities of a number printmaking techniques. Working with an exciting group of artists who share an interest in popular art the Penfold Press has gone on to publish editions of prints by Mark Hearld, Emily Sutton, Ed Kluz, Jonny Hannah, Michael Kirkman and Angela Harding, and in doing so The Penfold Press has created a rich and fantastical world - one that’s a pleasure to dive into.
We’re very honoured that Dan is making the trip down the road to join us for the Shipley Wayzgoose with such an esteemed collection of work. Don't miss it!
Shipley Wayzgoose. 3rd June, Kirkgate Centre, Shipley. 11am-5pm. Free Entry.
We’re delighted to be joined by Gee Vaucher on June 3rd for the Shipley Wayzgoose. Like so many people I came across Gee’s incredibly meticulous, sometimes harrowing but hugely inspiring artwork through her involvement with the band CRASS, whose recorded & visual output in the early 80s is still completely awe inspiring even now. Gee’s always worked with print, from offset litho, to screenprint and letterpress, and can often be found visiting print shops across the world for a rummage in some dusty type cases looking for treasure. One such trip to The Arm in New York resulted in a book about Hamilton Wood Type’s ‘Hollywood Type’ published via her Exitstencil Press imprint of which the frontispiece was included in the first issue of Double Dagger. More recently her ‘Oh America’ painting went viral and was used on the front page of The Daily Mirror after Donald Trump won the US elections in 2016 which just so happened to coincide with her first major retrospective ‘Introspective’ at FirstSite in Colchester. Gee will have a wide selection of prints and books with her on the day, come and say hello. Shipley Wayzgoose. June 3rd. Kirkgate Centre. 11am-5pm. Free Entry.
First up for the Shipley Wayzgoose is none other than Pat Randle aka Nomad Letterpress, a producer of finely printed books and cleverly worded posters. Pat's also a regular contributor (and printer of) to the much loved and highly respected Matrix, which has been printed at The
Whittington Press for over 40 years using an exceptional Monotype casting operation. This Monotype operation also helped launch @doubledaggerz in 2016, a publication that Pat co-publishes with Nick (me, The Print Project). Pat’s got ink & type metal in his blood and nothing pleases him more than chatting about printing from metal type, and he'll be in Shipley on June 3rd to do just that! 11am-5pm. Kirkgate Centre, Shipley. Free Entry.
Leaf 20 Box Set
2016 started with the 20th anniversary box set for The Leaf Label working with the fine folks of Split Design and then ended with it being listed at number 2 in The Vinyl Factory’s best vinyl covers of 2016 (David Bowie at number 1..!).
It also picked up a nomination for The AIM Independent Music Awards best special release, so all in all not too shabby!
A real honour to work on this with Tony, Oli & Sara, thanks for letting me be a part of it (and for letting me go a bit crazy with the power tools). 😘
Letterpress printing outfit, Shipley. U.K.
