First Pressing

©2020 Barry Smith - Kindness mini posters - red - first in a rainbow series - using Garamond 72 pt lead type on Gmund rag paper - max white 300gsm

Fiona and I have done our first letterpress in Deckled Edge Press' new home.

We pondered what our first work would be; and agreed that we would do a Rainbow of Kindness series of 7 mini-posters (12.5cmX17.5cm). After agreeing the words for the seven posters we allocated words and colours. I have 4 shorter sets of words for 1, 3, 5 and 7 in the series.

I started the first in the series by doing rainbow red as you can see from the opening photo.

A few process photos follow.

©2020 Barry Smith - Cup of tea and a planning discussion

©2020 Barry Smith - Choosing the font for the first mini poster from one of Fiona's type samplers

©2020 Barry Smith - Setting the type into the chase

©2020 Barry Smith - Rich rainbow red

©2020 Barry Smith - Type locked up and inked up in one of our  Adana presses

©2020 Fiona Dempster - First inked proof off the press

©2020 Barry Smith - Twenty-one mini posters - some will be weeded because of quality - set out to dry

There is something serendipitous about the fact that Fiona and I agreed to start letter pressing in our new studio by doing a collaborative series on kindness.