More new books

I stopped teaching and demonstrating printing something over ten years ago. But when our friends Nick* and Tilly Wonham mentioned at the last Oxford Fine Press Book Fair that their youngest daughter, Petra, was interested in adding to her book making knowledge, I thought ‘why not?’ Petra and the rest of the family had made a couple of family projects here many years before, and it was a pleasure to welcome Petra back again.

After finishing her studies in Edinburgh Petra had stayed on for a year working in an art supply shop.  Incline Press was to be a month long induction into some of the skills and problems of letterpress printing as Petra intended moving from Edinburgh to London.

Now there is a reason why letterpress printing was a seven year apprenticeship, and a month can barely be expected to cover much of the ground. Petra set out with a keen interest and desire, so we planned three projects: a pamphlet to practice typesetting and sewing, a broadsheet with a two colour lino cut, and to hone what she had learned on those two projects, a serious piece of book making.  As a break from the toil in the composing room, we visited Whittington Press to welcome members of the Wood Engravers Network at the invitation of Pat Randle, and then Helen Morley at Wigtown Press, where one of her paste papers was chosen for immediate use. 

The pamphlet, Traveller’s Hope, and the book, A Bonnie New Garland of Robert Burns’ Love Songs and Poems have just been added to the Incline Press shop, and the broadsheet will appear in the specials of Momento Mori. 

*See Steel Horizon and The Charm of Magpies in our shop, or see their work on Instagram.