WIGTOWN PRESS and printshop is run by fine artist Helen Morley
in Scotland's official book town in beautiful Galloway.
Baile na h-Ùige - The settlement on the wide sweeping bay.
in Scotland's official book town in beautiful Galloway.
Baile na h-Ùige - The settlement on the wide sweeping bay.
Printing from hand carved blocks and moveable metal type is a beautifully analogue, low impact art form, where each letter or engraving is carefully composed, locked into a forme, inked and pressed onto paper or cloth using antique tools and machines. Making a limited edition book or forming an illustrated poem this way is a magical process that produces truly hand crafted work.
Limited edition books and broadsides
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THE RAVEN SITS – a poem by Mark Vernon Thomas, illustrated by Helen Morley of Wigtown Press. Mark Vernon Thomas is a poet living deep in the Machars, South-west Scotland. He has been published in a number of magazines internationally, is a Federation of (Scottish) Writers 2020 prize winner and is included among the Champions 2020 poets on the Scottish Poetry Library website. He is very fond of cats.
This entirely hand printed artist book (or chapbook) is illustrated with acrylic engravings developed from intuitively made mono-prints and the text is hand printed with moveable metal type, printed on the Cropper Minerva printing press. The text is printed in black ink on dark blue card as a response to the mysterious opening and closing of the poem and its darkness, which similarly demands close scrutiny. It is set in 12 and 14pt Baskerville fount on 170gsm deckle edged Zerkall smooth paper, is hand sewn, signed by the poet and artist, and is limited to 50 copies. The internal print measures approximately 76x25cm and is £40 including free UK P&P. It is available here. WINTER TWILIGHT - This small broadsheet is a poem by Angelina Weld Grimke. The text is printed in 18pt Plantin moveable type on the Cropper Minerva press, and the acrylic engraving is printed on the Austin intaglio press on 170gsm Zerkall smooth paper.
The edition is signed and limited to 35 copies, and will be posted flat. £22 including UK postage. It is available here. |
THE DESIDERATA - a prose poem written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920's, hand composited with metal type and illustrated with ten acrylic engravings of some of the native wild plants near my home in Galloway, Scotland. The images were designed from very quick continuous line drawings made on the spot, of the few plants that survived the Council mower in July 2020 during the Corona virus emergency. This is my first letterpress book and launches Wigtown Press and my newly restored Cropper Minerva. The hardback book measures 12.5 by 10.5cm with printed wrapper. It is hand bound and printed on 12 pages of off-white cartridge paper in 14pt Baskerville. It is an edition of 50 copies at £50 each including UK postage and prospectus. It is available here WHAT I BELIEVE - is a collection of poems, quotes and some of my own writing; it is a love letter, a meditation. The large images are all hand carved multi block lino prints made on the bottlejack press. See a little film of the book here on my Facebook page. The book measures 28 by 36cm and is hardback in printed wrapper and book cloth, hand bound on 24 pages of heavy white cartridge paper and two double sided marbled end papers. The text is all hand carved and is a limited edition of 75 copies at £200 each including UK postage. SOLD OUT |
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THIS WORLD, OUR HOME - is my first broadsheet. The acrylic engraving was printed on my Dad-made Austin Seven intaglio press, the fount (my biggest block yet) was printed on the Cropper press, and the red text on the bottle-jack press! The tradition of broadsheets or broadsides were the forerunner to today's press media, beginning as street literature sold on street corners, in pubs and at fairs by pedlars, hawkers and ne'er-do-wells. Their content may include bawdy song, news of sensational murders, religious texts, fairy stories or seditious agitations, but this is a collection of quotes by John Muir, a good Scottish man who went on to create the first national parks of America and was one of the pioneers of conservation. I fell in love with his words as a young volunteer in the nature reserves of Kent 30 years ago.
SOLD OUT |
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Bindery
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I have an ever changing selection of blank journal or sketchbooks available in my Etsy shop. No two are ever the same as they are covered in my own acrylic marbled papers. I try to make sure the shop is stocked with a variety of A4, A5 and A6 books in portrait or landscape format, with either a 140gsm wet sized cartridge paper and a 210gsm watercolour paper (NOT hot pressed finish.) Each book has contrasting end papers and a ribbon book mark and is made with acid and chlorine free paper and non toxic paints. |
Studio
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1880's (ish) Cropper Minerva platen press,
aka Minnie |
A home made bottlejack press
(a poor woman's Albion) aka The Beast |
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Dad-built intaglio press made from an
Austin Seven gearbox |
A 1969 Adana 8x5 press
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Prints
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