Hannah and Louise Owens

Hannah and Louise

A few of the images Hannah and Louise created in their first letterpress workshop.

Hannah and Louise Owens

Hannah and Lousie Owens pull their first prints from the Imperial Press. By using a wide range of stereo blocks and choosing from 20 or so wood type fonts, the girls had a blast. At least 20 settings/printings completed in the workshop.

Hannah passing WWOOFer

Hannah was passing through onto her next WWOOFing host but had enough time to set type and cut a lino block to produce a set of 'up the mountain' images.

Sheilah Wilson 'artist in residence'

Sheilah Wilson lays paper (dampened 310gsm Fabriano) onto letterpress type.

Llara letterpress type setter from Ohakea.

Llara carefully lifting off the paper print from the type. The 2 verses on flight by John Gillespie Magee, handset in a galley and printed on the Hunters Proof Press (1900)

Hannah Lock

Hannah was very patient with her sorting of a wide variety of fonts and sizes of lead type. The first step is to isolate the ones from the same family, size, then find the type tray they belong to and return them safely home. Type that appears not to have a home is placed in a couple of trays put aside for 'sorts'. Muddled type like this is called 'pied' type and was often a job for apprentice printers.

Retirement Village

Keith Bird with some of his mates from the Summerset Retirement Village find the woodtype letters to make their name. The men were very interested in a short history of letterpress printing and surprised such an old working collection was still available.

Hannah Lock

The type and stero block is locked into the chase in preparation for printing.
Hannah will have her first try on the Pearl Platen Press (1905)

Hannah Lock

The paper flew through the press as Hannah printed 400 book marks.

Albion 1872

An arcroc cup sits on the bed of the Albion (1872) just before being dismantled and taken to the movie set in Auckland City. The press performed its job very well and should appear in a documentary shot about Kate Sheppard's life. In the movie Kate is negotiating the printing of 30,000 flyers, by hand, to be printed on a press like the Albion. Around 1882.

David Young and Geoffrey Bertran

David Young and Geoffrey Bertran visit Homeprint to look at the letterpress collection and catch up after retirement. David was owner/manager of 'Websters' wonderful art supply and framing shop in Wellington. Davids friend Geoffrey Bertran and he share a passionate interest in old cars and they both own and drove their 1929 Essex cars to a national car rally in Wanganui and shot over to Feilding for the day.

Hannah Lock

Hannah Lock spends her last day at Homeprint, as an apprentice for the last 6 weeks, during her holiday break. She is putting the type away from a lovely wedding invitation she designed and printed with Bianca Beauchamp.

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

The Feilding Guides and Rangers Group along with 3 of their Leaders spend one and a half hours making a book and then printing some 'clip art' from the Museum collection of homeprint.
Girls sort through the blocks to find one they like to add to their 'clip art' page.

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

John demonstrates the laying on of the paper to avoid smudging.

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

Pick up and roll the roller across the picture blocks to achieve an even inking.

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

Push the power lever down.

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

Feilding Rangers and Girl Guides

Here is my print.

John and Allison Brebner - Halletts Bay print

The 'Halletts Bay' print is a combination of MDF cut on a jig saw, letterpress wood type and lead type and blind embossing.