arts award 2010

Arts Award 2010 Grundy Gallery Blackpool - Introduction to letterpress

I had the offer of a wonderful job over the summer, teaching a group of 16 teenagers letterpress for their arts awards at the Grundy Gallery, Blackpool.
I've got to admit it was pretty exhausting but I had so much fun and I loved seeing their process. I only had 4 hours so it was down to basics with a short introduction and then some hand printing with some wood letters and getting use to printing back to front. First they started with their name to make it easy then I ask them to express some words of a song, book or film in print, they all were a little quiet at first but it wasn't long before there was an explosion of ink and mess ;o)
To finish they set their name in some lead type and printed some cards for their portfolio on the Adana so  they could get an idea of how letterpress works, it was no mean feat setting 16 student names but I was rewarded with so much enthusiasm and a long queue to print!
You can see more photos in my flickr set here
Thanks to Kerry at Grundy Art Gallery for the fab opportunity to work in such a wonderful environment!