Badger PressOpen Access Fine Art Printmaking Studio
The Oxmarket’s popular printmaking exhibition is back for a fifth year with Monoprints, etchings, collographs, linocuts and much more, we’re thrilled to see so many Badger Press artists exhibiting, including Deborah Richards, Diane Longbottom, Ruth Barrett-Danes, Angela Fry, Kate Watkins, Jan Blemmings, and Kim English.
Printmakers Cut runs until 6th August at Oxmarket Gallery, Chichester.
We would like to congratulate Badger Press artist Deborah Richards who won the runner up prize at the Print Room exhibition at Pallant House. Team member Paul made a surprise appearance to snap a photograph of the print and bumped into Deborah herself. Congratulations from us all at the Press!
A wonderful time was spent by all on Suzie Brown’s brilliant textile day. The class worked on a range of ideas, creating images with vibrant colours onto fabrics. We’re looking forward to Suzie’s second Foil and Flock weekend on August 13/14 and remember you can see all the images from her recent workshop at Badger Press Flickr site. There are still a few places, so book quickly.
Paul and Kirstie have been working hard to put everything in place for The Strong Island Exhibition at the Round Tower, Portsmouth. You can keep up to date with last minute work at The Round Tower. Represented so far from Badger Press are Ruth Barratt-Danes, Angela Fry, Kate Dicker, Seth Maximen, Janet Woodward, Jordan Pryke, George Sharp, Kirstie Larsen, Stephan Caspar, Paul Booth, Jack Pearson, Rob Luckins, Dan Walters, Hannah Edwin, Kim English and more coming as framing shops work round the clock. I’m really pleased that we have such variety in terms of processes and approaches, Badger Press is really becoming an eclectic and compelling studio, with a wonderful group of artists who are generous, open-minded and passionate about their work.
Strong Island Exhibition – Launch Night 15th April / Open 16th April – 1st May 10-3pm.
Heyday Collective © 2011
Over the past few months we enjoyed the company of two very busy and industrious artists, Hannah Edwin and Dan Walters, who have been sneaking into the Press late at night to create exciting and wonderful new work. This talented duo are having a productive spell and have teamed up to launch a new website. Hannah was kind enough to drop us a line to let us know about their work and how they started, so let’s meet the heyday collective.
“Dan did graphic design at surrey institute in epsom. He has done lots of bits and bobs for tape club records and Jelly Jazz. He is a mean drawer whilst being a super cool DJ -bonebookbang!! He has worked at Peagreen for 8ish years I think and is just excited as am i about printing, making and showing our personal work.
I went to camberwell college of arts and did illustration there. Whilst I was there I redesigned a cafe and turned it into a illustratively narrative space relative to the town it was in. I’ve dabbled in printed textiles, ceramics, sound art general and furniture for people and places. After graduating I got a design job in Hong Kong and stayed there until I moved to Peagreen. The best moved I ever made!!
We started Hey Day as a place where we can work on personal work, alone and together and get back into the exhibition scenes and just generally experiment! Dan has a real love for making nice prints and cool characters and I have an obsession with making everyday objects (I have read Bruno Munari’s boook a few too many times I think) and a growing obsession with type! Hey day is place for fun, nice everyday objects and prints that we hope to share with anyone out there who wants a peep or a piece!”
Dan’s likes…Records, buying things for the kitchen and receiving graze boxes
Hannah’s likes…spotting cute dogs, driving about in my smart’ie car and plinky plonky music.
Our director Paul Booth recounts his visit to Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop to revise his typesetting knowledge and learn some new techniques for the Press.
“Having a fair amount of experience with Typographic design in digital form, both in print and for the Web, the need to get into a traditional type studio had grown and swelled for some time. Whilst helping a student with a research project (on printmaker Alan Kitching) we came across Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop on the Creative Review website… I saw a price and dates, went home and booked my place.
The studio is situated in a yard in Kennington, a cobbled street tucked behind a full set of characteristic London houses. After (good) coffee and polite introductions we cracked on with day one; print the date and your own in some form using wooden type on the Vandercook press. Like a child in a sweetshop at Christmas I rifled through case after case of Mr Smith’s wooden acquisitions, looking for the something striking but simple. Outline, old, cracked and weathered type filled the cases which we selected carefully and carried to the Vandercook on galleys. Having drawn a grid on paper one student laid out their idea while the other began setting their type on the press, ‘sketching’ a composition on the bed, which Kelvin explained was a method used by Alan Kitching that he learned as his apprentice for four years.
Day one was extremely informative yet relaxed, we printed our work and then looked to combine our own ideas to form and unified piece. Homework was set to come up with a short statement which would provide content for a certificate of course completion which would incorporate both lead and wooden type.
We returned the following morning with a plan of action, learning the proper methods and terminology for setting type. Which as a ‘digital native’ in design terms made my previous knowledge and experience in working with type very real indeed. Leading by pulling it from the shelves and locking it into a forme (the name given to a chase when it is filled with type), counting the points and picas as carefully as you can before proofing the idea into something fully formed. First by manually inking the type on the bed, then later using the roller to produce a clean and even coating of ink. Two colours were decided on by the end of the day and the designs came together nicely. Both myself and the other student attending produced a set of beautiful prints. As an educator in graphic design and a long time appreciator of type design and layout it was impassioned and the most satisfying work I have done in a long time.
The whole two days has given a great deal of inspiration and information on working with type, along with the recent purchase of an Adana press and a few boxes of lead Type the work is underway to bring Typographic workshops to Badger Press. With a long term view of providing accredited courses (more on this soon) and amassing a type collection to bring Badger Press in line with other letterpress studios like Mr Smith’s. Plans were made for Kelvin to visit the press in the future and to offer advice on improving our resources in building up a facility for letterpress.”
If you are interesting in learning about traditional and/or digital typesetting, layout and even Typographic design please register your interest to paul@badgerpress.org
