Letterpress workshop with Girlprinter

I recently participated in a letterpress course taken by Carolyn Fraser, aka Girlprinter and Idlewild Press.  You can see some of Carolyn's work here http://www.girlprinter.com/blog/ 

In my life pre-Clarence printing in dirty factories was my favourite past time.  I studied Textile design at RMIT for one year before leaving to work in a screen printing studio in Melbourne, sampling for Akira Isogawa and getting experimental.  I made an outfit for Harry Angus from The Cat Empire and soon found myself designing and making their band merchandise.  This became quite a nifty little side business doing specialty merchandise for bands, business uniforms and carnival performers. 

After I opened Clarence, I was so busy running my business I hadn't made or printed a single thing so you can imagine my excitement getting let loose in Carolyn's studio.  We learnt the basics over a 2 day workshop and were given time to create our own project.  The anticipation of what to make can easily give you a creative block... just ask my friend Kitty.M.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/KITTYMStationeryDesign/204175442949050

I had been (and still am) toying with the idea "Who is Clarence?" So I got experimental with that in mind.  See my pics... 

Drawers of old font. I am literally in Heaven!

Letters set... design forming.

Maybe Clarence is this guy? 

Is Clarence a Monkey? 

Locked and loaded for the first print.

I love letterpress!  The precision and patience required is such an enjoyable process. I love being forced to SLOW DOWN and be fussy to the millimetre, or should I say.. copper.  I love that it has it has its own language, special tools and measurement... em, en, picar, pt.  I love the smell of it, I love the furniture and I love the result. It is like fabric and it makes me soooo happy! This is what I made with special thanks to Girlprinter.  So great to get my hands dirty and print again, this time in a very clean studio! :) 

Clarence Card

Clarence Art