Dear Reader,
This week I printed the cover for our upcoming chapbook. From experience, I know that printing handmade paper with a deckle edge does not always result in printing on a straight line. To ensure the covers are free-from wobble, I printed the words onto a sheet of paper which will then be pasted to the front of the book.
The title is printed onto Five Seasons paper, which is a recycled, British-made paper. Designed for use by Five Seasons Press, this paper is lovely and smooth. Hopefully this paper will be continued, but with the passing of Glenn Storhaug, it's possible the paper, too, will be discontinued.
The text is set in Fournier from Nomad Letterpress. The title is 36pt and 24pt. As far as I know, we cannot get more of this cast. The subtitle is 14pt italic, cast by Nomad.
The brass rule that makes the double line between the title and subheading are from Phil, third generation printer at E.E.Chrisp. He has been cheering (and trying to convince me to get an electric Heidelberg press) for years.
The ornaments, you may remember from last week. The length of the bounding box are from Andrew at Carpathian Type, and the corners are from Matt at Paekakariki Press.
The cover is painted with ink we made from willow branches. The willow tree is constantly getting knocked about as it grows next to the path onto the moor behind the pub. I rescue the snapped limbs and make them into ink. The paper is from Paper Foundation, but made by Barcham Green in the 1980s. Some of the covers are printed on the inside as we've reused misprints. It's not visible, but I love that even the paper has its own history.
For the month of April, I'm writing about printing as we create On the Record: a short essay on the pollen record of Dartmoor. I'm covering all the steps from typesetting, printing, through to binding. There will only be 100 copies available. You can reserve your copy now.
Best inky wishes,
Emma