Tag: pigs

A Box for Bird Hide and Stickers for Pigs

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Things have been really busy this spring with the very good bookbinding course at City Lit and general print experiments based around ancient grains and their production and more pig progress. One of the projects I worked on at the bookbinding course was a box to contain the little “Bird Hide” book I made a couple of years ago. See here https://pencilandleaf.blogspot.com/2017/02/bird-hide.html

I wanted to try making a box to hold a book, so I printed some calico for the bookcloth and some Japanese  paper for the interior covering material.It’s not exactly difficult, it just relies on very accurate measuring and a methodical approach, building a tray, the box top and the inset, then preparing the base and side and front cover with an extra inset for the inside of the cover and then assembling it all.. and just hoping it fits. It did! Hurahh!

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The structure of the box inside.

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The front cover with the printed bookcloth and the box structure.

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The finished box interior. The book fits into the aperture and under the book is a map of the walk which relates to the concertina book. Opposite is a short piece of text about the book and the path.

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There is an extra element. If you lift the map there is a tiny nest with three eggs. It’s all about birds, hiding, the woods and the path to the bird hide by the lake. I was so pleased that it worked! It has made something special of the small book.

And then pigs.. you can never have too many pigs. We are slowly getting round to the packaging of the Salute the Pig prints and the book. There have to be stickers!

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More soon…..

Binding the Pigs!

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I am really busy right now with a new small book project,  but also making some, albeit a bit slow, progress with the “Salute the Pig” books.
I have “assembled” one trial binding. I say “assembled” because it’s definitely trial and error and there are still some things to get right in the stitching and spine areas. But it is coming along. I printed the endpapers and cover designs some time ago:

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Trotting trotters for the endpapers…

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Two halves of one very big pig for the cover….

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End papers pasted in….

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Cover assembled…

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One book bound :)… only another 24 to go…AND…. Chris is working hard on the accompanying little recipe book. “A Feast of Pork”…

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All tried and tested here at home ….MMMMMMMM delicious !

Half the Hog: Part 2

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Printing the Texts:
With the texts set, checked and the few changes made it was onto the press with them, locked up, positioned and ready to go.
Most of the pages have to be printed on both sides so it’s essential to have the dummy book to work from to make sure the pagination is right for the book.
Because of the thickness of the paper I decided to have three folded sections, rather than just two, so that the book sits nicely in its binding and does not gape open.

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The dummy pages pasted up with markupsfor positioning the text block on the press bed.

The paper grain is also essential to ascertain as the grain must run in the direction of the spine, again so that the book pages lie flat and fold much more easily. Both papers are Zerkall which print beautifully and complement each other very well.Another consideration when cutting the paper was the question of the deckles. To keep or not to keep.
We wanted to keep them, again as an addition to the whole tactile feel of the book. The cutting meant that some pages would have deckles and some not. Again, just part of the look of a special little book made with great care, by hand and with beautiful papers.

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Adjusting the packing on the press

Because the type block consists of a light fine type and a heavier type the pressure on the packing was adjusted to allow more pressure for the large titles and less for the lighter text. The titles are set in a gorgeous original 1927 Futura. The big letters have the odd little chip here and there which just add to the character of the printing and the book.

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The ‘Welsh’ text about to come off the press.

A day for the first sides to dry and then Thursday was finishing up the main texts.

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Not a mistake but deliberate overprinting  to check for correct and consistent positioning of each consecutive text…spot on!

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Piles of printed texts with the trial page

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Dry texts in neat labelled piles.

Friday was our final day to print the title page, copyright  and some extra images on larger sheets.

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Chris printed the last few prints. This is his favourite, the Berkshire!
Behind him the other prints hanging up to dry.

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And of course after each day the wash up. A strangely enjoyable task which marks an end to a good days work, the Vandercook clean and ordered and ready for the next task.
We came home with beautifully wrapped ( by Thomas) brown paper packets.
All I have to do now is design and print endpapers, design covers. collate, stitch, bind and tip in the plates ! Phew….. way to go Val….

Half the Hog in Amsterdam: Part 1

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Last week we were in Amsterdam to print the Pig Book, “Salute the Pig”. Its been a couple of years in the thinking stage, so it was very nice to see it at last become an almost reality.

I say almost because I now have to design end papers and cover and then bind them, but they are looking splendid. We had booked a week with the excellent  Thomas Gravemaker at LetterpressAmsterdam. 5 days is a very short time to print even this small book and if Thomas had not done the typesetting we probably wouldn’t have made it.

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4 of the texts tied up on the galley.

While Thomas was finishing the texts, I started printing the images from the mounted lino blocks. A little bit of extra shim was needed to get the block to just type high but they printed pretty well!

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The Berkshire block locked up on the bed of the Vandercook

Proofing each block is important because a letterpress press can pick up the odd raised cut mark so a little bit of remedial cutting was made on some of the blocks, Due to the large amount of black in these prints it was necessary to double ink each image.Which means running the inking rollers over the blocks once prior to the print run. After printing the tree book pages for 5 weeks my right arm must be getting stronger?

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The first rack of images..I am printing 30 of each for a book edition of 25 books. These plates will be trimmed by hand and then tipped in to the bound book.

Thomas finished the texts, then there was proofing and checking the texts again and again for spelling mistakes, spacings and incorrect letters. You think it is all OK and then you find another!

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Texts ready for proofreading.

By the end of Tuesday all the 300 plus plates were printed and we started on the book pages. We printed page 1 and page 24 first because these contain two small linocuts which will need to be dry before printing on the reverse.
Proofing the blocks,and printing the edition.

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Wednesday we started printing the texts!
Part Two tomorrow.

Tree Book Break and Pigs in Amsterdam

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I printed the last text page of 12 Trees yesterday. Phew.. it was very tricky and time consuming, but all the text is now done!
I “just” have the 12 main images to print now but they will have to wait until I am back from Amsterdam where I am printing Chris’ “Salute the Pig” book with Thomas Gravemaker at Letterpress Amsterdam again.
I printed my Masters project, Hortus Medicus Seedbook with Thomas and so I know the results will be great.

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Proofs for the pig book

The book is a tribute to 10 favourite pig breeds with lino cuts and a short text by Chris. He is also preparing an accompanying recipe book, one dish per pig with a bit of extra info about these lovely animals.

I have cut the blocks and proofed them, made up a three section dummy for the pagination and a quick InDesign document as a guide to margins etc. However, letterpress printing, as I have learnt, in the last few weeks has certain constraints and so one has to be flexible about the design especially when hand setting the type.

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Part of the 3 section dummy pasted up with text and images.

As with the !2 Trees book we are just printing the body of the book. endpapers and binding will be done later.It will be a small edition of just 20 .. which I think is about all we can print in 5 days! It’s all so very different from pressing the print button on the computer.. and to be honest much more fun.
More from Amsterdam soon.I am also posting on Instagram now if you want to see some more snaps of pigs and trees and lovely type.You can find me here….@vallittlewood

Pig Print… “Number 1. Dottie the Gloucester Old Spot”

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As you may know I am working, intermittently, on a series of pig images. This is “No1” a Woodcut, based again on the lovely Dottie from Old Weston Garden Farm.

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Dottie woodcut; Image A4

Gloucester Old Spots are gentle and good natured and were known as the Orchard or Cottagers pig. How this delightful and smiling pig must have brightened the day of the smallholder and to all accounts still does.

Lop eared with large black patches and a smiling upturned snout they are one of those charming “picturebook” pigs depicted as lazing in sunlit orchards and I do like the old wives tale that the spots developed from the bruises of falling apples. They are good mothers.. here are a few of Dottie’s piglets. Ahhh uber cute!

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Photo from Old Weston Garden Farm Facebook page.

Lots and lots more info on the Gloucester Old Spot HERE  from Chris’ Salute the Pig blog

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Working Drawings

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First Proof

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First Prints
These are really first trials for the image. I am intending to make another smaller print in lino of Dottie for the book which I hope, in part, to hand print.
But I love the chunky properties of woodcut.They compliment the chunkiness of pigs I think. Something I would hope to retain in the lino version. Will be interesting to see the comparison.

It’s November…it’s Pig Month!

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And it’s back to the sketching and the blog.

Leaving the academic world( probably briefly) regular sketching is back on the agenda. But I do like a purpose and this month it is pigs, pigs, glorious pigs.
In connection with Chris’ excellent “Salute the Pig” Blog I am going to be working on a series of pig prints and need to brush up on my sketching and get to know pigs a bit better. So on Saturday we went down to Franklins, our favourite farm/shop for their Open Day.

Their pigs are a delight, ranging from super cute little piglets to a magnificent Saddleback Boar. Loosely penned, very busy, very funny and very happy. Particularly because of the steady supply of apples which were coming their way.

Yes we eat pork, yes we know they are going to be killed, we are not starry eyed about it. But if we eat meat from animals which have had happy lives we do feel a bit better about it all.

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Franklin’s Pigs. Sat 29th Oct So to get started, some Franklins pigs.

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Little snuggling Saddlebacks

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Love those ears!! I also decided to collect the older pig drawings together in a Tumblr page here:  Pig and Pencil …yeah! Go pigs!

Other stuff: Medlars
It wont be all pigs. I am doing some observed drawings ( nice just to sit and simply draw something) and have set my Easton Group a monthly theme to work to during the winter break. Last month was “Harvest” I drew some medlars. The fruit with some delightfully rude names. It’s a very Anglo Saxon sort of fruit.

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Curious things… I am bletting them ( hmmm) in order to make some medlar jelly. I wonder if pigs like medlars. More of these odd little things to come, their history is interesting.

Girlie the Berkshire Pig….again

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The more I read about the Berkshires and the more I see them, the more I like them. I have an idea for a larger pig drawing/painting/print and have been wondering which pig to choose.

I am rather fond of Girlie who I met at Sylvia’s farm (see “Spotty Dotty and Girlie”) on a very muddy day in Feb and today I made a few more studies of her. The Berkshires are medium sized and have those lovely alert pricked ears and are a smart black/brown with a white blaze, white socks and a white tip to the tail.
For me the sketchbooks are an essential part of working out ideas. When you start drawing, more ideas occur as you work with the shapes, colours and sometimes the personality. This pig has oodles of that.

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“Girlie” sketchbookA4

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and a couple more…. I am almost convinced she is the one for my project.
See more about the Berkshires on Chris’ Salute the Pig Blog.