Letterpress is a form of relief printing using a printing press and moveable type, the kind of printer invented by Gutenberg in the 15th century. Modern industrial letterpress techniques are different from the traditional version which uses a photopolymer plate to reproduce digital art.

Typically a print would consist of raised blocks carved into letters or pictures, ink is then rolled onto the surface of these blocks. Paper is placed on top and pressure from above marks the ink with paper and also leaves a textured indentation of the block.

In the UK printing presses were largely abandoned in the 1950′s. Today letterpress printing is largely used for specialist ornate books, personal stationary and invitations.

In the UK and US letterpress has been undergoing a revival partly fuelled by Marther Stewart in the 1990′s and the craftivism movement. Stewart featured invitations in her weddings magazine and it took off from there.

Part of the appeal of letterpress is the tactile nature of the print itself. You can’t do a print run on cheap paper due to the embossing process so the heavyweight paper gives a feeling of quality.

Another graphically distinctive feature of letterpress is its inability to reproduce photographic images, that might sound like a disadvantage but it restricts the designer to strong typography, line and pattern.

When designing for letterpress your restricted to spot colours, it requires a bleed on both the actual document and the areas where coloured ink is to be printed and fonts must be no smaller than 5 point.

Theres a lot of debate between traditionalist letterpress printers and the modern technique. The modern letterpress uses digital art and plastic film negatives. The plastic film is mounted onto aluminium for the printing process and ink is applied by hand.

There are of course some advantages to using the digital method since theoretically you’re not limited by the artwork which can be created and the printer doesn’t have to invest in letter blocks. Of course there are the detractors who say it isn’t real letterpressing and the quality of print isn’t the same, but I think either way there are some truly stunning designs out there.

There are some great letterpress designs on etsy and if your feeling really DIY you could even make your own letterpress machine!

Letterpress, we're bringing it back is a post from: The Typhon - Craft, design technology

If you don’t know Etsy its a website where people can buy and sell handmade goods. In some respects its a very american orientated site, however there are plenty of sellers from the UK and even from throughout Europe.

To me the beauty of it is you can get a great unique gift thats perfectly one of a kind and you’re paying the artist directly rather than having to give a large percentage to the gallery.

First up is celestefrittata from Bari in Italy. My mum is a massive Harry Potter fan and she often carries around notebooks in her bag. With this in mind I thought she’d love one of these screen printed notebooks.

I deliberated for a long time over which one to get her and whittled it down to Dark Arts and Spells and Charms. In the end I went with Spells and Charms.

I also ordered an Owl Post gift wrapping bag as an alternative to wrapping paper for an awkwardly shaped present. The design on it was incredibly cute and I also got a free Daily Prophet reporter badge!

Being a very crafty family I usually try and get at least one craft related gift and this year it was some hand dyed Falkland roving for spinning.

I spent ages looking at sellers on Etsy trying not only to get the best quality, price but also the right colours! The shop I kept coming back to was FeltStudioUK run by Daniela Kloppmann in Leeds.

Along with spinning tops she also has beautiful pre spun yarns in a variety of weights, colours and even has luxury yarns. Also its great to support crafting in the UK through a purchase.

As a designer I really value a good notebook and you can get some great hand made leather books on Etsy. I found EarthworksJournals which I think are probably the best notebook binders on Etsy in the UK at the moment.

When I made my order I was actually asked to wait for it since there was such a high demand and upon receiving it I can certainly see why! In fact I was slightly begrudged to give it away as a gift.

Samantha and Jason run the shop online from Northampton in the UK and their work makes its way through craft fairs, country shows and even on TV. Featuring a journal on BBC childrens programme ‘Sorcerers Apprentice’.

A while ago I bought myself a necklace from mrd74 a polished pewter ravens skull. Its one of my favourite pieces of jewellery, my dad decided that he wanted one too.

So I bought him the bronzed ravens skull because somehow in my mind I decided that bronze was more manly than shiney silver pewter.

Anyway I can’t recommend mrd74 highly enough because even though they’re in Canada shipping is surprisingly speedy. And I even added the who’s who in hooville necklace to my christmas list!

I’d also like to thank the buyers who’ve spend their hard earned money on the things I’ve created this year in a shameless plug for my own Etsy store – LittleWrenPottery. It recently got a feature on the Boho Birdie blog during the 12 days of Christmas.

So next time you’re looking for the perfect gift why don’t you give Etsy a try

Merry Christmas from Etsy is a post from: The Typhon - Craft, design technology

First off I’ll say that this was the first time I’d attended a Potfest event, this one was the last one in the year with other two taking place in May and June. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect since all I had to go by was the photos on the site.

It was a pretty strange place to hold an event of this kind since all the stalls that would usually hold cattle at the market were turned into trade stands, I dont think it was the most accessible of places for the few wheelchair users that I saw due to the uneven flooring.

Despite lacking good quality facilities the event itself was quite a success with people seemingly selling a fair bit of stuff. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the glazing, slip trailing and alot of the Raku fired work.

Raku for the uninitiated is a Japanese technique mostly associated with the firing of pots which gives a metallic lustre. Each piece is removed from the kiln while it is still hot and then cooled in the air, in water or in sand. As you can imagine its incredibly dangerous.

There were plenty of exhibitors including a group from a pottery village in Germany which must have been a long and expensive trip for them. Anyway a couple of the stand out pieces were Hannah McAndrew and Chris Owen. There were of course more than that but it was a great inspiring trip for a maker such as myself.

I really liked a lot of the oriental inspired pottery – the sushi plates and noodle bowls but maybe thats just because I have a particular soft spot for anything japanese.

All in all I would say it was a really worthwhile trip and maybe next year Little Wren Pottery will have a stand!

Potfest in the pens 2009 is a post from: The Typhon - Craft, design technology

So the tag for this blog is craft, design, technology and at the moment we’ve had plenty of design and technology posts but not that many on crafts or crafting.

In my spare time I’m also a craft potter in that I throw bits of clay on the wheel to create pots or mugs or whatever I fancy. At the moment I’m coming up to the end of my 3rd term of pottery class having produced a wide variety of different objects some of which are pictured in this post.

I’ve been quite surprised at the speed that I’ve been able to pick it up, there are loads of things I’d like to try but I do think that with the right tutoring and patience anyone can throw on the wheel.

Also I’ve become quite interested in experimental techniques with pottery and glazes. As a designer pottery is quite challenging because you have to learn the skill before you try and apply complex forms and designs. However the forms of simple shapes can be quite beautiful and I think I’ve gained an appreciation of simple forms decorated well.

Theres so much that can go wrong at almost any stage of the production process sometimes its amazing you get anything out at the end at all!

If your interested in finding out more about ceramic techniques check out a couple of these sites: Ceramics Today, Ceramic Review.

And hopefully I’ll also be attending Potfest In The Park during August, hope to see you there!

Where's the craft? is a post from: The Typhon - Craft, design technology

For those who don’t know by day I’m a graphic designer but by night I’m a very crafty person and one of my loves is pottery – either throwing or hand built it doesn’t really matter which. The Without Colour exhibition interested me specificially because it was mostly ceramic work.

Much of the work on show was a variety of clays and techniques. The most striking pieces were porcelain – I’ve never used it before but I’ve always admired the glazing colours that porcelain achieves.

Anyway some of the most impressive work on show was that of Tina Vlassopulos who I’m a growing fan of. Her tremendously simple and subtile works have a graceful simplicity to them and yet remain as functional objects at the same time. Its that balance of function and form which really makes craft pottery useful – being able to appreciate the handmade object every time its being used.

Other works of note were by Pam Dodds whos work can be seen on the above flyer. What was noticable about her work was the contrast between the colours used in glazing the pots – the heavy contrast with modern forms.

What always gets me when looking at craft pottery in gallery shops is the price and also the size of some of the objects. As a potter myself I understand the time and effort that goes in to crafting every piece, however I do think there is a key balance between price and object. I for one think that its unreasonable to expect to pay £16 for a mug or £60 for a teapot when you can go into a shop and pay a lot less for these items in any high street shop. Pottery is a craft where eventually you’ll have to use these objects and when the price is so high all you’ll have is an object d’art that if you broke it would be too expensive to replace.

Although the space itself was quite small it did contain some great work by very skilled crafters – not just pottery. If your in Leeds its definately worth checking out.

Without Colour at Leeds Craft Center is a post from: The Typhon - Craft, design technology