News from the printshop

Keeping ourselves busy.

From top left clockwise: Vivienne Westwood words (in the shop); a collaboration with Chuffed and Claire Cartwright; Own the means of the production poster (in the shop); packaging for Wright’s; Progress (in the shop); labels for Wilding Cider.

It goes without saying that it hasn't been quite the year that we were expecting. We are very grateful to everyone that has supported us either by commissioning work or by visiting and buying from the shop. We've not had a workshop in over a year and considering that they have been 50% of our work and income for eight years, it's no surprise that we've had to change and adapt to get by. We've continued to print for other people as well as design and print things that we care about. The shop has seen a lot of new editions from this work. We have also had time to plan and work on projects that hopefully will see the light of day sometime soon.

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Workshops on the horizon.

We are excited to welcome people back into the workshop. Running workshops have always been a key part of what we do here. We're hoping to start from mid-April, we will put dates on the website in the next week or so. Please email you have any questions. Workshop gift vouchers are available in the shop. If you are a family, group of friends or business that would like to arrange your own workshop, we'd love to hear from you.

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More Printing Bike adventures.

Most of us have been thinking about the first place we'd like to travel in a month or two when we can leave these city walls once more. I've been starting to plan another printing adventure on the brilliant bicycle that my good friend Robin Mather made back in the carefree world of 2015. Since then there have been several thousand miles worth of hills, and many a postcard printed and posted from the far flung hills of Britain, France and Germany.

The new adventure will be to cycle from library to library, 100 in total around the country and print 10,000 bookmarks. The idea is to work with writers and artists to create beautiful bookmarks. In doing so I'll cycle 1000 miles carrying the lovely little Adana press up and down many a hill (much like the one about which is on the England Scotland border). It's still in the planning (and funding) stage, so if you have a favourite library or any ideas for such a hair brained caper, please email me your thoughts.

Thank you for your ongoing support. Please visit the website to hear more about our projects and share the link for the shop with friends – there are many treasures to be found and it's a great way of supporting us. We hope to see you very soon.

Tranquility and bird song: tinkering with lead and wood type and the thud of a printing press.

We've been wrestling with the new found tranquility of the city alongside the panic of how we're all going to get through this in one piece. Ellen and I have been in this little corner of the Old City of Bristol for seven years now. We have quietly been collecting and sorting type, restoring and operating presses. We've been working with and alongside lots of amazing people both in workshops and by creating print. We've also collaborated with lots of friends; other printers, poets, musicians and artists. It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun. At the moment, as you probably know, we can't run workshops for the foreseeable future. We are trying to look at how and when that might change, but for now we rely of commissions and selling print from our shop. We are very grateful to all the people who have helped by buying stuff from the shop already and we are adding new things each week. Please take a look, we've worked at having a bunch of things from £5 up to £150. Thank you again, it really is what is keeping the printshop going, we look forward to seeing you here again, hopefully not too far off now.

Our little credit card sized guide to the history of Universal Suffrage, is £5 (free P&P) and is a must for anyone lucky enough to have the vote, as well as essential for the suffrage round of a pub quiz (they'll be back soon). Our luggage label set is a fairly random use of the amazing Victorian ironmonger wood engravings in our collection again £5 inc P&P. The playing cards are illustrated by our good friend Jeb Loy Nichols. Each card is illustrated with a country soul legend and the pack was printed by our own legend, Ellen Bills on the death defying Heidelberg Windmill press. You can see them in action here. The Move Slow and Mend Things print is a collaboration with friends, Joe and Cally who had spotted an opportunity to offer a response to the evil giant, Facebook who adopted the phrase Move Fast and Break Things. Our print is A3 and printed slowly on the FAG40 proofing press with our battered wood type and is in the shop for £15 plus P&P.

We just have a handful of each of these left now: The print of the Bristol's Old City (where we are based) is from a walking map (also in the shop) and illustrated by Simon Tozer. It is 380x560mm and printed on Somerset Satin and costs £30 plus P&P. "No One Can Own a River" is scratched on a sign telling you when and where you can walk alongside a stretch of the Wye. The phrase is detailed in our friend Richard King's book The Lark Ascending. The print costs £15 plus P&P and is 282x670mm, it makes good use of some lovely old river blocks by Jon McNaught. The final print is from Jeb's playing card set (above) and uses a set of the blocks from the playing cards, it is 204x631mm and is £15 plus P&P.

We'll see you soon, meanwhile thanks for you support.

Photography of print shop Lily Watts.

Adana workshop, Bovey Tracey. March 2020.

During the Journeyman exhibition at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, Nick and Ellen ran two workshops in the gallery space. This was the second day which made good use of the printing bike and the collection of Adana presses from the printshop in Bristol. The workshop included typesetting using lead type and printing short runs of small cards and bookmarks.