The annual Wayzgoose at the St Bride Foundation

 The 7th Wayzgoose

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 or so tables displaying and selling many different items - everything from lead type to the Adana tabletop presses (see below picture) 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 - 40 pence per 100 grams.

I served at my 'paper stall' from 11am to 4pm  ...and by the end of the day I had raised £280, 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 four wayzgooses!

My thanks to all the staff and friends at St Bride's who organised the event.
https://sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.05.2023

The annual Wayzgoose at the St Bride Foundation

Last Sunday, 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 (see below picture) 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 - 40 pence per 100 grams.

I served at my 'paper stall' from 11am to 4pm  ...and by the end of the day I had raised £206, 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 three wayzgooses!

My thanks to all the staff and friends at St Bride's who organised the event.
https://sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.05.2022

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

Central St Martins - Degree Show 2017

On Tuesday evening I was invited to the private view of the Central St Martins Degree Shows at King's Cross. It was a very hot London evening and given the current security situation in the country, there was security and bag checking, so it took me half an hour in the queue to get in, but that's entirely understandable.

The show was exceptionally well attended, laid out on the ground, first and second floors and including the large atrium area.

I spent most of the time at the BA Graphic Design course on the second floor.

Even though there had been a log queue outside, there was an equally long queue for the Camden Town Brewery stand, who was one of the sponsors as well as that other "Hull based" paper company!

As always, the work is well displayed and laid out - but then they are lucky to have one of the best exhibition spaces in the country and their disposal!

Thanks to all staff and people I know at CSM for the kind invitation and a chance to see the work of the new graduates.

http://2017.csmgraphicdesign.com/
http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/whats-on-at-csm/degree-shows-2017/show-two/graphic-communication-design/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.06.2017

Central St Martins - Degree Show 2016

Yesterday evening I was invited to the private view of the Central St Martins Degree Shows at King's Cross. It was a very humid London evening but the show was well attended, laid out on the ground, first and second floors.

I spent most of the time at the BA Graphic Design course where I was shown around by Helen Ingham, from the letterpress workshop.

It was a very busy show with lots of thought-provoking work on display. Interesting (for me) to see just how many final projects still involve paper and printing. There was a superb project by Michal Kuzmierkiewicz, beautifully illustrated, exploring the roots of his family's exodus from Poland to Britain after WW2 (unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that project.) 

Below is the work of Odira Morewabone on Matatuism, a subcultural exploration of the urban youth culture in Nairobi in creating these artworks used on local taxis.

And below is the work of Anna Finch on the Jewellery Design course who has incorporated paper into her work. Through extensive experimentation, including pulping, carving, cutting, laminating, heating and sanding, Anna has been able to create some extraordinary pieces.

This piece is made using paper that she has processed, inlaid with pearl and silver.

Thanks to all staff and people I know at CSM for the kind invitation and a chance to see the work of the new graduates.
http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/#

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.06.2016

Watchtower Blues

In 2008, Peter Saville was reported as saying that Record sleeve art, as a medium was dead. Maybe so in mainstream culture, but there are pockets of people in the creative arts who are still innovating and designing for the record sleeve. This is the sleeve for a 10 inch EP (45rpm) titled Watchtower Blues by The Shooting Stars, a new band described as a western 'n' rockin!

The size of the cover is 270mm square and has been produced by artist and letterpress printer Helen Ingham at Hi-Artz Press (who is also is one of the six band members)  ...and it houses a record in Green Vinyl - very,very cool...

Picture showing front and back covers:

The sleeves have been produced in two colour letterpress (red and green) - yes just two colours! look at the colours, overprinted colour and the tint graduation - pretty impressive stuff.

The sleeve has been produced on our Kapok 500gsm, which is a natural, brown coloured board, very stiff and slightly 'polished' on the surface. The sleeves are folded on one edge and the two other closed edges are sewn in a buff coloured thread:

Helen Ingham is an artist, illustrator and letterpress printer based in Luton. Helen also runs the letterpress workshop at Central St. Martins and is a regular demonstrator at the letterpress workshop at the St Brides Foundation. This record sleeve is just beautifully produced, a really lovely object. Thank you to Helen for sending me a copy.

You can see their debut on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNyHQTbYGbY

Records available from:
http://www.rhythmrock-it.com/
Helen Ingham: http://www.hi-artz.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.12.2013

Making Faces

STERN PRO www.canadatype.net

Calling all typophiles - if you want to see this, you'll have to be quick!

Next Tuesday (5th November) at St Brides in London, there is a screening of a really interesting documentary with an introduction by the project instigator, Richard Kegler.

US based type foundry P22, commissioned Canadian type designer, Jim Rimmer to create a new type design (Stern) that became the first ever simultaneous release of a digital font and, hand-set metal font in 2008. The skills needed to create a metal font are known by very few people and Jim Rimmer was possibly the only individual who designed and cast typefaces in metal as well as in digital format. The opportunity to document the processes of the historic with the contemporary was grasped and this film was made. Sadly Jim Rimmer died in 2010. Here's a trailer for the film:

You can read more about it here:
http://makingfacesfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

Details for the screening are as follows:
Tuesday 5 November 2013 from 6.30 to 8.30pm, film screening at 7.15pm in the Bridewell Hall, St Bride Foundation. Tickets £10, Students (bring NUS card) £6

As well as the screening, there will also be live demonstrations from Ruth Rowland in calligraphy, Oli Frape in hand-lettering, Helen Ingham and Richard Lawrence in letterpress and lino printing and Peter S. Smith in wood engraving in the workshop where you'll be able to have a go and find out more about their practices ...and I'll be there too!

There are still tickets available ...but it's on TUESDAY, so don't put it off, come along: www.stbride.org/events

www.p22.com
www.canadatype.net
www.stbride.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.10.2013

CRUSH Launch at the St Brides Foundation

Yesterday, we held an open evening with Favini at the St Bride Foundation to launch our new paper range called CRUSH.

Over a hundred guests joined us at St Brides for Italian beer and olives! After a brief introduction by Chris Brown of Favini, there was a presentation by Michele Posocco, product manager from Favini who demonstrated how waste residues from food processing is used in paper making.

In the splendid surroundings of the Bridewell Hall, Michele squeezed oranges and liquidised pulp and the dried micronized fruit residue to show how the patented process works.

The reasoning behind holding this event at St Brides was to make this a very "hands on" experience. The letterpress workshop was open all evening with printers Helen Ingham www.hi-artz.co.uk, Richard Lawrence www.richardlawrenceprinter.co.uk and wood engraver Peter Smith www.peterssmith.weebly.com in attendance.

Wood engraving by Peter Smith printed on an Adana press.

As well as printing, guests were treated to a demonstration of lino-cutting and were "press ganged" into having a go themselves ...just look at the concentration on those faces!

Under the tuition of Richard Lawrence, each person was given a small section of a 16th century engraving The Manufacture of Oil, by Jost Amman. The picture was divided into 20 equal squares, individually cut over the course of the evening and then re-assembled.


Jost Amman 16th century

The final lino-cut, ready for printing

...and here is the fruit of everyone's hard work! a 21st re-interpretation using 19th century equipment! Printed on Crush 250gsm.

Throughout the evening, the chief executive of the St Bride Foundation, Glyn Farrow and his team conducted short tours of the foundation and famous library, showing just a few of the many treasures that the foundation has in it's possession.

I should like to extend warm thanks to our partners at Favini, to all the staff and friends at the St Bride Foundation. Special thanks to Peter Smith, Richard Lawrence and Helen Ingham in the workshop who made the evening such a special occasion.

...and I mustn't forget to say thank you to Andrea at a Taste of Sicily for the amazing Castelvetrano olives. www.tasteofsicily.co.uk

www.sbf.org.uk

www.favini.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2013