Slate Publishing House

14/04/2023

Join us for Slate’s first ever book craft course with master bookbinder and craftsperson extraordinaire, Tom O’Reilly 📚

- 6 week bookbinding course
- Begins 29th April
- Saturdays, 11am - 2pm
- Beginners welcome
- All materials & equipment provided
- Ocean Studios, RWY, Plymouth
- Limited tickets: link in bio 👆

Learn the different stages of making a book, covering a variety of designs to include pamphlet binding, traditional hardback, and quarter-leather binding.

THE ARTIST 👨‍🎨

Tom O’Reilly is a renowned bookbinder, having produced books for the V&A Collection, Royal Academy Summer Show, and reproduced works for the National Trust. His creations are treasured by book collectors across the globe and his publishing career spans several decades.

BINDINGS 🪡

This is Slate’s launch event for ‘Bindings’, an immersive programme of workshops, talks, and exhibits focusing on the revival of traditional book craft. We look forward to sharing a wealth of practical skills and techniques with you over the coming year, and would like to thank & for their support in hosting our programme.

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04/04/2023

We are excited to announce Slate’s new series of traditional book-craft events and workshops, Bindings. The programme launches with a 6-week beginners bookbinding course from master craftsperson The Book Bindery - Tom O’Reilly M.A on Saturday 29th April 📒📚 Workshops are held in the beautiful Ocean Studios, Plymouth.

Study and practice the craft of traditional hand-binding with master bookbinder, Tom O'Reilly, on this six-week course.

04/04/2023

We are excited to announce Slate’s new series of traditional book-craft events and workshops, Bindings. The programme of events kickstarts with a 6-week beginners bookbinding course from master craftsperson The Book Bindery - Tom O’Reilly M.A on Saturday 29th April 📒📚 Workshops are held in the beautiful Ocean Studios, Plymouth.

Study and practice the craft of traditional hand-binding with master bookbinder, Tom O'Reilly, on this six-week course.

05/12/2022

When it comes to making a difference, our actions don’t have to be eloborate 🍃

Big requests, extensive demands, and complicated actions may be implemented briefly; but people quickly tire, burn out, and turn their attention to other matters.

By contrast, smaller, incremental steps can be maintained over time, enhancing the chances of ultimate success 🦶

The steps of change we make can be small but with every one we make, it paves a mighty moment on a revolutionary journey 🤝

02/12/2022

Who invented the Printing Press? 📖

Unfortunately, it's not that simple 🧐

Nobody knows who invented the original printing press (or when it was made) and the evolution of the printing process is a lot more nuanced.

The oldest known printed text originated in China during the first millennium A.D., so we can only assume that's where mass-produced printing techniques began.

The first printing press revolutionised society and in the 15th Century we saw further development of this powerful equipment in Europe 📚

Johannes Gutenberg, the father of modern publishing, invented the Gutenberg press in 1450.

Integral to Gutenberg’s design was replacing traditional wood features with metal and printing blocks with each letter, creating the European version of moveable type 📖

Gutenberg's press started a printing revolution and is responsible for many of the building blocks that the publishing industry, as we know it, is built upon today.

In part two of this post we are going to take a closer look at the Gutenberg press and what made it so effective. Turn on our post notification to ensure you don't miss it 🛎

01/12/2022

To produce one ton of paper, 27,000 litres of water are used, 27 kilograms of carbon dioxide are emitted, and more than four kilowatts of energy are used 📚

Independent publishers and larger publishing organisations need to work together to commit to ensuring a sustainable future for the industry.

Here are three ways we can do that 🌳

1. Set company ambitions and declarations for sustainability targets and hold yourself accountable to them.

2. Create practical tools to understand the impact publishing businesses have - from a carbon calculator to a recycled material index.

3. Celebrate best practices in the industry. Success can be shared and the biggest difference will be the one made as a collective.

At Slate Publishing House, our handcrafted books are made with FSC-accredited paper and we continue to make environmentally-conscious decisions when selecting resources and organising distribution.

We are committed to paving small steps of change that we hope one day will have a greater overall impact 💭

30/11/2022

Have you heard of Abibliophobia? 😱

Abibliophobia is the fear of running out of reading material 📚

It may sound pretty crazy but in fact, many people experience milder forms of this condition every day.

For example, if you are a voracious reader and you commence a long journey only to realise you accidentally left behind your book, you will experience a mild form of abibliophobia ✈️

Or as you reach the final pages of an engaging novel and story you do not want to end, that feeling of dread may be abibliophobia too 📖

And you will always recognise the abibliophobic personality at a breakfast table as they momentarily panic when there is no newspaper or magazine at hand to read. Instead, they will probably proceed to read the contents of the cereal box 🥣

For the full definition, swipe left 👉

29/11/2022

Spoken word poetry is one of the most popular subgenres of poetry today 🗣

And it’s easy to see why spoken word has become so loved:

Since its beginning, spoken word has given a voice to the oppressed, the silenced and the misunderstood, allowing them to speak their truths and tell their stories in their own words 💭

Many listeners and fans of the craft have cited the form’s diversity and accessibility, seeing spoken word as a way to introduce poetry to new generations.

Yet despite its recent boost, spoken word poetry’s origins go back a lot further than many people realise.

Let's take a look at some of the most influential pioneers of spoken word, as well as today’s modern and innovative voices that are well worth discovering 👉

28/11/2022

The festive season can be a difficult time for many families and individuals 🎄

If you're looking for a little extra support this Christmas, our wonderful community in the South of Devon has lots of helpful resources to share 💭

Here are four worth saving:

🧸 The Toy Recycle Project: on Saturday 3rd December, the United Reformed Church is holding a free pop-up event for anyone who is worried about the affordability of gift giving.

🍓 Based in the Oasis Project, Plymouth Foodbank is on hand to provide support, food parcels and resources for anyone in need.

🏡 Age UK Plymouth is assisting individuals of pension age with practical energy-saving items, white goods and vouchers to help keep energy costs low.

🌤 Plymouth's Online Directory have an interactive map of all open, warm and welcoming spaces for anyone who may need a safe space this winter.

If you'd like further details of any of the above, please drop us a message 📱

We will continue to share free and accessible Christmas resources throughout this holiday season ✨

24/11/2022

Did you know only 6% of published writers in the UK are black?

At Slate Publishing, we celebrate the literary underdog: the marginalised voices that deserve more recognition 🤝

Here are 10 books written by black authors that you need to start reading now and finish in 2023 ⤵️

📖 Recitatif: A Story, by Toni Morrison

📖 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

📖 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

📖 Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde

📖 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

📖 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, by Nikole Hannah-Jones

📖 We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

📖 The Sweetness of Water, by Nathan Harris

📖 Moon Witch, Spider King, by Marlon James

📖 Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir, by Ashley C. Ford

Have you read any of the above? Or do you have another striking title to add to the list? Let us know in the comment below 👇

23/11/2022

Book binding tells a story of craftsmanship 📚

A binding tells us as much, if not more, about a book’s provenance than an owner’s signature or bookplate 🧍‍♀️

It assists librarians and historians to date and place a work 🗝️

It provides insight into an owner’s economic and social standing 👑

It imparts information about the spread of ideas, customs, technologies and artistic tastes of the time 🎨

It reflects the perceived significance of the book’s content and, importantly, it tells us exactly how a book was intended to be used and how it was actually used 🤲

From forwarding to finishing, and all of the steps in between, at Slate Publishing House we celebrate traditional techniques and methods of book craft 📖

21/11/2022

4 reasons why a book is the perfect present to gift this festive season ⤵️

👉 Books are thoughtful, insightful, and thought provoking. We can learn, laugh, and fall in love with a plot. Books are whimsical, explosive, and dynamic.

👉 Books can convey sentiment, just like cards or handwritten notes. They can share humour, express sympathy, or celebrate. Books can help you express things that you may otherwise find difficult to put into words.

👉 Books last a lifetime: they won’t wilt, and they can’t be eaten or go out of date. A book is a timeless present.

👉 Books are versatile. You can purchase a book based on a particular topic or genre. You can choose hardback, paperback or audiobook. You can discover new authors or re-read classics.

There is always a book suited for every taste, budget, and interest 🎄

18/11/2022

The history of the book is a subject that encompasses the history of literate culture as a whole 🌎

Books have been used for telling stories, archiving history, and sharing information about our world.

Although the ways that books are made have evolved over time, whether handwritten, printed, or digitised online, their importance to us remains timeless ⌚

Take a look this timeline for a brief history of the book so far 👉

17/11/2022

“To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step” - Rosa Parks.

An industry that shapes so much of our culture must reflect its cultural diversity 🌍

But in the current industry landscape, marginalised voices are not heard 🗣

Slate Publishing House as founded to pave small steps of change within the publishing industry 🤝

Our handcrafted and hardbound books celebrate heritage, traditional printing techniques and the works of the literary underdog.

And later this month we will be launching our first title 📚

Keep our post notifications on to ensure you don’t miss our announcement 🛎️

16/11/2022

Local heritage is essential to our past, present and future 🌍

By celebrating tradition, stories, and techniques can be appreciated, learnt and kept alive— embers of past practices will continue to burn and thrive 🔥

‘If we respect and celebrate our past, then we can create a never-ending story from which everyone benefits. Places need stories. New-build glassy offices and blocks of flats that aren’t connected to the history of the places where they are built don’t have stories. Stories are what makes a place unique.’ ~ Martyn Evan, in ‘The Value and Impact of Heritage’ (2014)

People enjoy indulging in and experiencing these stories. By learning, we evolve, reflect, and consider opportunities for innovation ☀️

Without tradition, the things we enjoy would lack substance—there would be less to discover. Tradition is kept alive by an eagerness to embrace learning and a shared sense of place. Keep celebrating and practising 🌳

14/11/2022

Books are wonderful, powerful, and dynamic things.

They contain new ideas, lives to unravel, adventures to be had, and information to be absorbed and practiced. Books are full of heritage—our past, present and future.

They are fascinating objects. Here are five facts about books that every avid reader needs to know ⤵️

According to Google Books, there are over 130 million published books worldwide. That would be one big bookcase!

The most expensive book in the world is the Codex Leicester. This scientific manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci sold for a huge 30.8 million dollars in 1994.

John Q. Benham owns the largest private collection of books in the world, with over 1.5 million books filling bookshelves, boxes, garages and a two-storey building near his home.

If you read for twenty minutes every day, you will have read 1.8 million words in a year.

The longest book in the world is ‘Remembrance of Things Past’. With over nine million characters, it was written by Marcel Proust in 1912.

Save these stats for later—you never know, they may come in handy for the festive office quiz! 🎄

11/11/2022

Introducing lithography, a different kind of printmaking 👉

Unlike woodcut and etching or engraving methods, lithography uses an entirely flat printing surface. Here’s how it works:

📚 First, the image is drawn directly onto a limestone slab with a special oil-based ink, then chemically fixed to ensure the negative spaces on the stone will repel printing ink.

🎨 The drawing is then wiped off with solvent, and an ink roller is run across the surface of the slab—it only sticks to the drawing and is repelled by the rest of the surface. Paper is carefully placed atop the slab and a printing press is used to transfer the ink onto it.

🖊️ A lithograph with multiple colours can be created using a different slab for each colour and applying the same piece of paper to each in turn.

And there you have it—like this post if you’d like to see some lithography in action.

10/11/2022

Meet the team: our director, Emma Weatherhead ⤵️⁠
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Emma founded Slate Publishing House to provide a platform for voices traditionally underrepresented throughout the mainstream publishing industry 📖⁠
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“We showcase the written masterpieces of the literary underdog. Our book design is guided by a love of live heritage and investment in the historical aspects of printmaking as we produce beautifully handcrafted editions of these wonderful works.”⁠
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With over ten years of experience working with words, Emma takes particular enjoyment from impactful projects and articulating absent voices 💭⁠
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“I am dedicated to promoting equality and diversity in the publishing industry and enacting positive change through creativity.” ⁠
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Emma is looking forward to sharing upcoming book launches with you and is excited to announce our first title, published under the Obsidian imprint, in the coming weeks 🌲⁠
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08/11/2022

Meet the team: our director, Emma Weatherhead ⤵️⁠
⁠
Emma founded Slate Publishing House to provide a platform for voices traditionally underrepresented throughout the mainstream publishing industry 📖⁠
⁠
“We showcase the written masterpieces of the literary underdog. Our book design is guided by a love of live heritage and investment in the historical aspects of printmaking as we produce beautifully handcrafted editions of these wonderful works.”⁠
⁠
With over ten years of experience working with words, Emma takes particular enjoyment from impactful projects and articulating absent voices 💭⁠
⁠
“I am dedicated to promoting equality and diversity in the publishing industry and enacting positive change through creativity.” ⁠
⁠
Emma is looking forward to sharing upcoming book launches with you and is excited to announce our first title, published under the Obsidian imprint, in the coming weeks 🌲

07/11/2022

Let’s talk about etching and engraving ⤵️

We recently introduced you to intaglio printing. Here is a closer look at two kinds of this technique: etching and engraving 👉

Etching and engraving are printmaking approaches that carve their designs into a metal plate.

Whilst etching uses acid to burn an image onto the plate, engraving is done with a sharp tool called a burin. In both methods, the resulting depressions in the plate are filled with ink using a dauber, or ink ball, before the surface of the plate is wiped clean 🖊️

This leaves the plate with ink only in the incised areas.
When pressing an etching or engraving, the pressure leaves behind an outline of the metal plate on the paper—this silhouette is called a ‘plate mark’ 🌿

03/11/2022

Have you heard of Intaglio?

In a previous post we walked you through the steps of Woodcut. Here’s a quick recap ⤵️

Woodcut is the oldest traditional printing technique. A piece of thick wood is carved, the raised areas are covered in ink and when brought into contact with a surface (usually paper) it will create the print.

This is known as relief printing 🎨

The opposite of relief printing, intaglio printing reproduces a design with ink below the plate surface.

One of the most versatile printmaking methods, there are many kinds of intaglio printing; these include etching, engraving and aquatint 🖼️

02/11/2022

Today is National Stress Awareness Day 🕊️

Created to help promote the importance of wellbeing for individuals and organisations, today is the perfect time to step back and reflect.

Your mental health is incredibly important and reading, of any kind, is a great outlet to reduce stress and practice mindfulness.

43% of people in the UK found reading helped ease their stress levels during the third national lockdown, the 2021 BACP Public Perceptions Survey found, and reading has been used for similar therapeutic purposes for thousands of years, with ancient civilisations recording their use of bibliotherapy 📚

The same study noted that ‘reading books on spiritual topics can lower blood pressure and bring about a sense of calm. And reading self-help books has been shown to help people suffering from certain mood disorders and mild mental illnesses.’

Whether you enjoy reading dynamic poetry or love losing yourself in an exciting novel, the next time you feel your stress levels inclining, make the most of this relaxing practice to ease your mind 😴

01/11/2022

Spoken word as we know it today came about in mid-twentieth century New York with the American Beat Poet movement 👉

Commonplace in coffee shops, the movement was experimental, dynamic and powerful; it explored different art forms, stripped back classical language and quickly became accessible to all classes.

Spoken word opened up a space for the literary underdogs — the oppressed, the silenced, and the misunderstood — to speak their truths and be heard in their own voices 🗣️

But at its heart, spoken word is an oral form that is rooted in human tradition. It predates written language, making it difficult to estimate how long we have been performing this artistic act, but we have plentiful examples of spoken or sung poetry from the earliest known bodies of literature 📗

Yet today, spoken word poetry is now more widespread than ever: performers speak directly to us through our smartphones, computers and TV screens in an infinite scrolling feed, and everyone has the chance to be heard 📱

31/10/2022

5 spooky reads to indulge in this Halloween 🎃

👉 The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959): In what is widely considered one of the greatest ghost stories of the 20th century, four strangers investigate widespread reports of haunting in the foreboding Hill House.

👉 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938): In this popular gothic tale, a naive young woman is swept into a holiday romance and marries a wealthy widower. His deceased wife, Rebecca, continues to haunt the couple, the landscape, and their beautiful home at Manderley.

👉 Pine by Francine Toon (2020): A contemporary gothic folk-horror novel set in Scotland, Pine follows Lauren and her supernatural gifts as she unravels the small-town mystery that has haunted her family for a decade.

👉 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898): Adapted recently into Netflix’s ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ (2020), The Turn of the Screw is an unnerving tale following a young governess as she tries to protect two orphaned children from a ghostly threat.

👉 The Turn of the Key (2019) by Ruth Ware : In this thoroughly modern retelling of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, the ghosts plaguing live-in nanny Rowan are chillingly close to home.

Do you have a favourite spooky read? We’d love to read your recommendations in the comments below ⤵️

27/10/2022

In a previous post we walked you through the steps of woodcut, a traditional printmaking technique used in our publishing processes 👉

Today, we’d like to introduce you to letterpress. We will be using letterpress to create beautiful letterpress inserts for an upcoming release 🤫

Like the older woodcut technique, letterpress also uses a relief printing method, where the top surface of a template is coated with ink and stamps the design or text onto paper. 📜

To create a page of letterpressed text, a craftsperson will fastidiously select and place a metal template, called a ‘sort’, of each individual letter and punctuation mark into a composing stick.

As it fills up, all the sorts are transferred into a heavy metal frame, or ‘chase’, that holds the whole page of set type together 🅰️

The type is locked in place, checked carefully, and then a printing press brings the paper into contact with the inked metal type, transferring the text onto it.

…and just like that, you have one beautifully letterpressed piece ✨

25/10/2022

Let’s take a look at four more bookbinding tools that are essential to our traditional publishing processes 👉⁠
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Bookbinding Tape 📖⁠
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Bookbinding tape is a thin woven strip made from either linen, cotton or polyester. Bookbinding tape provides structural support to the book as well as a scaffold for the threads holding each signature, or folded section of pages, together.⁠
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Type Holder 🧾⁠
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Consisting of a bulbous wooden handle and a short metal compartment, a type holder is a traditional bookbinding tool used to print foil letters onto the cover or spine of a book. ⁠
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Awl 📍⁠
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The awl is a simple yet crucial piece of equipment in bookbinding practice. Consisting of a comfortable wooden handle and a long thin metal point, it is used to bore holes into paper or card that will later be used for sewing the book together.⁠
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Craft Knife 🔪⁠
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A multi-purpose tool, the craft knife is essential to have on hand throughout the bookbinding process. It must have a wooden handle that fits comfortably in the bookbinder’s hand, and a well-maintained sharp edge. ⁠
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If you didn’t see part one of this post, make sure you head to our grid to get to know the five other tools that we use to create our wonderful handcrafted books 📚

24/10/2022

At Slate Publishing House, we champion a return to older publishing processes, using traditional letterpress techniques and bookbinding tools to handcraft our beautiful hardback books 📚

But why is handcrafting so important? 👉

Handcrafting celebrates our intangible publishing heritage, and keeping these practices alive is essential to our past, present and future 🌎

In ‘The Value and Impact of Heritage’, Martyn Evan writes that ‘if we respect and celebrate our past, then we can create a never-ending story from which everyone benefits. [We] need stories.’

It’s these stories that we unravel with every handcrafted book we produce 📜

With every page letterpressed and every jacket bound by hand, we consider the time and care taken by our bookmakers as they practise techniques passed down from distant generations.

20/10/2022

Did you know this fun fact? The use of a composing stick in typesetting gave rise to a modern everyday phrase, ‘the wrong end of the stick’ 🌲

If you hold the wrong end of the composing stick, all the metal type falls out and you must begin the typesetting process over again 🤭

Invented in the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg, letterpress printing allowed the reproduction of large amounts of text quickly and cheaply, increasing the accessibility of written material and promoting literacy.

Letterpressed text is clearer and more well-defined than text produced with more common offset lithographic methods. As a result, the craft of letterpress printing is enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the twenty-first century 🗺️

All of our hand-crafted books have elements of letterpress printing throughout their pages.

DM us or comment below to be added to our mailing list and access previews of our first release coming soon ⌚

19/10/2022

There are very few sensations that compare to holding a book, in all its creative glory, in your hands 👐

Many thought the rise of the eReader would replace physical copies of the books we love and read but we continue to crack spines, fold the corners of pages and scribble in margins ✍️

Physical books often contain fictional plots that unravel as you devour each chapter but with every flick of the page a story in its own right is also told.

The coffee-stained jacket reminds us of dark winter evenings spent reading under lamp light, the grains of sand lodged in the book’s creases tell of summers spent on beaches abroad and with each scribble and underlining, we gain insight into moments of thought and idea exploration 🌍

Books can be collected, shared, loaned, resold, and archived. They gain character, they age, their pages smell musty with time, and their colours fade in sunlight. The lifetime of a book can be immense, exciting, sad, interesting, loving and adventurous 🧗

Books allow us to switch off from a digital world and immerse ourselves in lives far more exciting and intricate than our own.

And in the words of one of our favourite artists, Anthony Burrill, as written in the graphic above: ‘Nothing will ever come close to the feeling of a book in your hands'.

It is truly irreplaceable 📚