A Queensland mobile print-making studio is offering a Handset Letterpress Printmaking Workshop in Maryborough this Saturday 4 July.
Moveable Type Studio (MTS) travels around Queensland with a mobile rig carrying authentic 19th century printing presses, to give workshops in old-school printmaking.
IMAGE: supplied by MTS
MTS printmaker, Clint Harvey, says the workshops talk about how handset type started in the 1450s.
‘This was how printed words were made for hundreds of years and it’s only been fifty since we moved away from it.
‘It’s tactile. Instead of sitting at a screen punching a keyboard, they’re writing out what they want to communicate with pen and paper, then physically finding and picking up the type.
‘Everything’s instant on a screen, but setting type by hand, realising a word’s too large and you can’t just click to fix it… you see them smile.’
IMAGE of poster printed at MTS workshop: supplied
Mr Harvey says Moveable Type Studio grew out of the belief that letterpress belongs in the places where people live and gather, not tucked away in a fixed studio.
‘That’s why we built it into a 40-foot shipping container that can turn a carpark, festival ground or museum loading dock into a working print space, complete with presses, wood and lead type, printing ink and pigment kits.
IMAGE supplied by MTS
‘For Maryborough, we’re bringing a newer, smaller version of that idea: our Pop Up Press, a trailer-based rig with two presses that’s a more affordable way to tour than hauling the full container.’
He says there’s more to printmaking than getting letters on paper.
‘Getting people to not just slow down, but get comfortable with slowing down. When you’re looking at a line of type for six or seven minutes rather than six or seven seconds, you start to appreciate the space between the words, whether that capital letter looks too heavy against the lowercase. On a screen, that stuff passes you by.’
Tools of the trade: IMAGE supplied by MTS
‘It’s coming from the human hand rather than software — you get to see the human involvement in the print. Roll a piece of type three times and it prints darker, with a different texture. It’s not crisp and perfect and punched out by technology.
‘It’s bringing the human back to the forefront.’
IMAGE of the Movable Type Studio’s larger rig with container supplied by MTS
Moveable Type Studio’s Handset Letterpress Printmaking workshop will be held on Saturday at Gatakers Artspace Print Studio, 311 Kent Street, Maryborough on 4 July, from 10 am to 4 pm.
COST: $85 (materials included). Suit ages 16+ Book here
Moveable Type Studios will also offer live print-making demonstrations at the Mary Poppins Festival on Sunday 5 July in the Gatakers’ courtyard, alongside the Artisan Market and live music.
MTS operators Clint Harvey and Dzintra Menesis
IMAGE of three participants in printmaking workshops at top of story supplied by Movable Print Studio
