Fenner Paper 2022 Diary x4!

If you are a wonderful customer and therefore a deserving user of our papers! ... you will be receiving your new 2022 diary in the next week or so and here's a sneak preview...

Four diaries? Well, just one diary but there are four different covers! ...which one will you get? This year we have collaborated with both the St Bride Foundation and the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD).This year’s cover was designed by Andrew Long and printed by the St Bride Chapel, St Bride Library’s workshop team.

The diary itself has been designed by David Coates, independent designer and board director of ISTD. The internal pages are typset in Foundry Unie from The Foundry Types. As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format. The 40pp text is simply printed in one colour, offset litho, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

The cover is printed in three specialson our NEW PaperWise, made using 100% agricultural waste and completely unbleached. The above shows all four cover designs, front and back covers. The design was inspired by Chaostype, a process invented in the late nineteenth century by Cincinnati printer John Franklin Earhart that relied upon the unpredictable and random qualities of hot lead chaos. Below are some test sheets produced back in the Summer...

Andrew Long together with the four different covers in the St Bride Library workshop...

My thanks to all the collaborators and thanks also to Commercial Type for the use of their Commercial Classics catalogue for use on the cover design. They are recreations of historical typefaces inspired by the punches, matrices, specimens and smoke proofs held at St Bride Library. 

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post but if you would rather have it sent to your home than the office or if you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

 Posted by Justin Hobson 13.12.2021

St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

Here's a date for your diary...

This year, the Annual St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose takes place on Sunday 17th May  

The above flyer is printed letterpress by Andrew Long ( ...on our Colorset Lemon 270gsm!)

Wayzgoose is a term (unfamiliar to many people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an away-day to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.

 However, in this instance the St Bride's Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale. There are companies selling type, letterpress accessories, ink and lots of letterpress printed books and cards and the proceeds from the event go towards the St Bride Foundation. Why not come along... ? For interest, this is what it was like last year:
https://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-5th-wayzgoose-at-st-bride-foundation.html

http://www.sbf.org.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.03.2019

The 5th Wayzgoose at the St Bride Foundation

Yesterday, I had a stall at the St Bride Foundation WAYZGOOSE. This is a term (unfamiliar to most people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a print-works and was often an awayday to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm. In this instance the St Bride Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale.

Thirty tables displaying and selling many different items - everything from lead type to the Adana tabletop presses from Caslon, to secondhand books and printed examples of work.

Below is the table that I was allocated, where, as with previous years, I adopted a "throw it all on the table" approach! I took lots of offcuts and discontinued paper and board items. All paper and card sold by weight - 30 pence per 100 grams.

I served at my 'paper stall' from 11am to 4pm  ...and by the end of the day I had raised a record breaking £357.00, all donated to the St Bride Foundation.

...and here is my beautifully crafted 'Weigh & Pay' signage.by Helen Ingham from the Hi Artz Press - It's now lasted two wayzgooses!

My thanks to Mick Clayton for organising the event and to all the staff and friends at St Bride's.

http://www.sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.05.2019

The 4th Wayzgoose at the St Bride Foundation

Yesterday, I had a stall at the St Bride Foundation WAYZGOOSE. This is a term (unfamiliar to most people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a print-works and was often an awayday to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.

In this instance the St Bride Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale.

Thirty tables displaying and selling many different items - everything from lead type to the Adana tabletop presses from Caslon, to secondhand book and printed examples of work.

Below is the table that I was allocated, where, as with previous years, I adopted a "throw it all on the table" approach! I took lots of offcuts and discontinued paper and board items. All paper and card sold by weight - 30 pence per 100 grams.

...and here is my new, beautifully crafted 'Weigh & Pay' signage 

It was sign-written by Helen Ingham from the Hi Artz Press, pictured below and I am really touched that she kindly produced such an exquisite sign. I am sure it will come in useful for many years to come!

I served at my 'paper stall' from 11am to 4pm  ...and by the end of the day I had raised a record breaking £247.00, all donated to the St Bride Foundation.

My thanks to Mick Clayton for organising the event and to all the staff and friends at St Bride.

http://www.sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.05.2018

Workshop Fun

Last week, I organised for a small group from The Partners to spend the evening in the print workshop at the St Bride Foundation. There were about twenty of us in all and after an introduction and briefing by Michael Clayton the group were encouraged to have a go at setting type, inking up and printing.

For those not familiar with the St Bride Foundation, it was established in 1891 to fulfil social needs in the Fleet Street printing area. Facilities included a library, baths and a swimming pool (as hygiene was poor) and a printing school which was the forerunner of the LCP. Nowadays, this historic building houses a world renowned printing library with a large letterpress collection, a community theatre space, a bar, print workshop, meeting and conference rooms. It is still located in the original building, just off Fleet Street.

As well as printing, Andrew Long demonstrated lino-cutting and most people had a go. As the name suggests, this technique is actually engraving into a piece of floor linoleum, which is then inked and used to print from. The results can be amazing! ...you can see the concentration at the lino cutting bench below:

Andrew, selected one of Stanley Donwood’s London Flood prints. The engraving which was divided into 15 pieces which were then individually cut by different people over the course of the evening. I even had a go and this was my section (as you can see, I initialled it with a cheeky J!)

At the end of the evening the pieces were assembled and below, you can see Marc Spicer printing the result: 

...and here he is holding up the finished result:

Below is the comparison with the original on the right hand side

You might have spotted there is a head floating in the river which looks like me! Thanks to Nick Eagleton's lino cutting skills, he used his piece of lino to produce a likeness of me, which he also used to print me a card below

You can read a far more erudite version of the evening on The Partners blog written by Marc: http://www.the-partners.com/blog/2017/8/11/letter-heads

It was a really fun evening, where everyone got a chance to have a go and join in. We had some food and a few drinks laid on at St Bride's and a few of us even made it to The Old Bell on Fleet Street afterwards!

My thanks to all the staff and friends at the St Bride Foundation with special thanks to Mick Clayton, Andrew Long and Bob Richardson who made the evening really good fun.

I just wanted to note that Peter Smith who is resident wood engraver at St Bride was unable to join us as he is recovering after an operation but I want to wish him well and a speedy recovery.

www.sbf.org.uk

http://www.the-partners.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.08.2017

The 3rd St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

Yesterday, I had a table at the St Bride Foundation WAYZGOOSE. This is a term (unfamiliar to most people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an awayday to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.

In this instance the St Bride Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale.

Over twenty five different tables displaying and selling everything from lead type to tabletop presses and printed examples of work.

Here is the table that I was allocated, where, as previous years, I adopted a "throw it all on the table" approach! I took lots of offcuts and discontinued paper and board items. All paper, cards sold by weight - 25 pence per 100 grams.

I'm pictured with the very helpful Andrew Long, a final year student at Central St Martin's who kindly helped me unload the van and set up the stall - he's looking for placements and work - I recommend him, he's a hard worker - you can find him at and.long@me.com

I served at my 'paper stall' from 11am to 4pm  ...and by the end of the day I had raised £210, all donated to the St Bride Foundation.

My neighbours on the table next to me were Caslon. Many readers will be familiar with the typeface, Caslon, first cast by William Caslon in the 16th century. The firm is still run by the Caslon family and today, they supply machinery, inks, powders and the ever popular Adana printing press.

They letterpress printed some cards on our exuberant So ..Silk, Beauty Pink 350gsm and they look amazing.

My thanks to Mick Clayton for inviting me and to all the staff and friends at St Bride.

http://www.sbf.org.uk/
http://www.caslon.co.uk/html/_adana_letterpress___.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.05.2017