Emma Woodford, sister to award-winning poet Anna Woodford, got in touch to ask if I could print a letterpress bookmark that Anna could use at the launch of Everything is Present, her latest book of poetry. Whilst we were chatting about that idea I mentioned the print that Liz Hyder commissioned for her debut YA book Bearmouth, and Emma was smitten with the idea of printing a poem.

I took a lot of photos as I worked through this commission, and thought I'd take the opportunity to share a bit of the process with you here.

Having seen my poetry cards, Anna and Emma liked the bright colours, and we settled upon fluorescent red as it feels so nice and contemporary, and really pops.

After mocking up a design on the computer that we all agreed upon, my first job was typesetting. We had chosen 12pt Baskerville for the poem, but when I looked in the typecase the "n" compartment was short of n's (we needed about 38). Slight technical hitch — but the type had recently come from a Welsh printer who hadn't put away some of their print jobs, and Welsh uses a lot of n's.

I don't speak Welsh but, luckily, I had a print of this block of text, which helped immensely with distributing it back onto the typecase!

An hour and a half later, I was ready to start typesetting again. Each letter and word space is picked out one by one and placed into the composing stick, upside down and left to right. When the stick is full, the type is transferred to the imposing stone, so that more lines can be set.

With the block of text set, I adjusted the leading (space between the lines) and added a block of blank space between the poem and the credit.

When I was happy with the layout, the type was locked up into the chase, a metal frame that holds all the pieces together firmly enough so that it can be picked up and put in the press without all the letters falling out. Those expanding blocks you can see on the top and right sides (below) are called quoins, and they're tightened with the T-shaped tool you can see above the chase.

There was then a short intermission for paper cutting. For this project I was using the end of a pack of gorgeous Somerset Satin paper, a traditionally manufactured 100% cotton mould-made deckle-edged printmaking paper with a subtle textured surface. It was in long wide strips. Each sheet had to be cut by hand on the guillotine, one at a time.

Next, it was time to oil and ink up the press, and start setting up ready to print. There's always a series of test prints that get progressively better as I fix the inking, pressure and packing, and adjust the bed of the press so that the impression is even.

My first test prints revealed some issues with some letters that were printing bolder than others (a perennial problem when working with metal type that has already had a life before finding me). Those letters need to be swapped out for others.

I also wasn't happy with the weight of the credit at the bottom; it felt too heavy against the Baskerville. I had set that in 10pt Gill Sans, and I happened to have an unopened freshly cast packet of 10pt Gill Sans Light. Cue another minor diversion as I found an empty typecase to distribute the type into, and then re-set those lines in the lighter weight.

In the photo below, the eagle-eyed amongst you might spot that in between each of the capital letters is a tiny weeny sliver of metal that spaces out the caps. All-caps text looks much better with a bit of letterspacing. The exact amount varies between letters, and it's a fiddly thing to get right. Sometimes it needs a 1pt thick bit of brass (like the two pieces you can see on the right); sometimes it's a copper (0.5pt thick), sometimes a tiny sliver of newsprint. These little details make all the difference to the finished piece.

After that it was back to the press for last makeready tweaks, and then the print run could finally commence! Printing is often the quickest part of the whole process. Letterpress printing involves an awful lot of typesetting, test prints and tweaks before you get to the fun bit (well, the other parts are fun too, but in a different, more mindful way). You can't beat the thrill of fresh prints coming off the press.

The press I'm using here is my Saroglia treadle platen press. It's a half ton cast iron beast from Italy, powered by my foot on a treadle, and the flywheel. There are socking great counterweights at the back that keep things moving once you get the right pace. Too fast and there's a risk of squashing a finger (really not recommended); too slow and the press stops. 

The rollers move up across the type and pick up ink from the ink disc above. As they do that, the front part of the press closes, the paper is pressed against the type, and the print is made. As it opens again, the rollers move down to re-ink the type, the print is removed with one hand and a fresh sheet fed in with the other. It's a process that requires total and absolute concentration! Also good balancing skills, as you're standing on one leg.

Once the run is finished the press has to be cleaned up, which takes about 20 minutes, and the type redistributed back into its cases ready to be used again. The prints are dried (which may take a day in summer but can take much longer when it's cold) and then packed and posted.

Letterpress print, fluorescent red ink.
12pt Baskerville and 10pt Gill Sans Light hand set metal type.
12 x approx 17.5 cm. Printed on Somerset Satin 300gsm.

If you'd like to see more of Anna's poems, the book can be purchased at saltpublishing.com, or you can visit her website at annawoodford.co.uk.

To commission your own unique piece of letterpress printing, please get in touch with me to discuss.