Letterpress – Green Chair Press Blog

Suzanne Moore’s A Musings

For this year’s Codex, through Instagram, I got to see some books in progress before the fair. Calligrapher Suzanne Moore has a new book called “A Musings,” a book of all embellished A’s. Jessica Spring of Springtide Press letterpress printed one page and posted pictures of the lock-up and printed page — before Suzanne worked on it. Jessica told me she didn’t recognize the pages after Suzanne finished with them! Suzanne laughed when I told her that. The finished book is beautiful — I couldn’t find a snap of the page Jessica printed, but I did find a few other spreads. They are below, after Jessica’s. I asked Suzanne if she was going to do the entire alphabet, and again she laughed and said she’s considering only one other letter: Q.

Suzanne Moore’s A Musings

Rebecca Chamlee’s Letterpress Botanical Prints

One of the more amazing things I saw at Codex was Rebecca Chamlee of Pie in the Sky Press‘s letterpress printed botanical prints. She says they are “letterpress botanical images of California native trees, collected from Corriganville Regional Park in Simi Valley, California, printed four-color in tight registration with photo polymer plates.” Below is one of them (see them all here). She also has a new book, Where Stucco Meets Chaparral that includes the botanical prints. On her blog she has several great posts about making and binding the book — be sure to check them out.

Daredevil Furntiture

Codex was awfully inspiring. I’ve been planning a book with curved type for quite some time, and now I can do it in metal thanks to the kit I got from Jessica Spring at Springtide Press. That’s the coaster she sent me as an example along with her furniture kit. Get it here.

2014 Oak Knoll Fest, part 1

Here are a few highlights from Oak Knoll Fest, the book fair I attended last weekend. There will be more later in the week.

Editions Denise Lapointe

Editions Denise Lapointe showed a prototype of a long skinny book where the pages had “cants” (log cuts) printed letterpress on Japanese paper. There’s a poem written specially for the book that will be added later.

This great photo is in the box housing “James Reid: Selected Wood Engravings,” published by Brier Hill Gallery in Boston. Below is one of Reid’s woodcuts. See many more here

Woodcut by James Reid

At the table next to mine were students from the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Bowe House Press in Richmond. The book below is called Immortals. It’s 15 6 x 6 x 6″ triangular panels with letterpress printing on both sides, hinged together so the book can be manipulated and read in a variety of ways. I loved the way the book moved. More about it and other student books here.

Stink

Jessica Spring’s postcard for the exhibit Ink This! Contemporary Print Arts in the Northwest. See Jessica’s tumbler here.

2015 Calendar

I’ve finished printing, trimming and assembling my 2015 calendar. As in past years, it has 12 unbound cards, one for each month of 2015, each with an original haiku and design. It’s stored in a jewel case (or you can just get a refill if you already have the stand). See all the months here