Lettre Sauvage offers training in letterpress printing, book design, simple binding and rents the studio for $10 an hour to trained printers. We're no longer scheduling group workshops since it's been more convenient for everyone to make appointments and pursue individual interests. You can check out our workshops page for examples of things to make while you learn the ropes.
Our Community Studio program has been a way for us to meet romantic, detail oriented people and share our love of letterpress. A few of our guests are Faith and Kathryn of Creative Shift Design, Jennifer from Ambrosia Creative who posted cool photos of our studio, and David and Serg of Hertz-lion.
The photo above is of the lovely Faith with her hand on the steel lever of the C&P. Tours are free. Come on down.
Art Predator just posted a blog about working here at our studio on elegant business cards (above) and stationery. Her design sense was really impressive. She took stock of what was available and quickly put all the elements together in an expression of her mission as a writer.
This kind of collaboration is really what Lettre Sauvage is about. In a day-long workshop we can cover a lot of basic printing skills and vocabulary while creating valuable paper goods.
The studio is also available for rental. We can shift gears to a support/resource role for printers who have trained with us to get set up for a project like printing their own book or making cards. Use of the press includes storage space, getting in on bulk paper & supply orders, sitting under the oak tree and a library of books about books.
Giants of the 1950s is our first completed book collaboratively printed for local poet and photographer, Carol DeCanio. The edition of 40 was printed by Fiona and designed by Carol and Fiona with the artistic input of Cameron who created a striking half-tone from Carol's photo of a 1930s car.
The accordion is 38 inches long and slides into a dust jacket. It is a sweet poem recounting memories of San Francisco transformed while the Giants were in the world series. It's available for $30 signed by the author. Email sales@lettresauvage.com for details.
Collaboration worked well for the three of us, leading to an unexpected design. We met several times and tried to "mock-up" the project on the laptop and looked at tiny paper sample squares, so it was really a thrill the first time Carol saw the final product. We knew we wanted to work with her when she came by and ordered stationery that said "I am an upright crumble." We were right.
Cameron Leggett and Fiona Spring kindly donated their expertise, labor, and printing services to Art City. Not only did they do the tickets for this Saturday's, March 8th, 2008 event, they also did the posters.
Original size is approximately 11 x 18. Posters printed on supremely thick and grainy recycled paper can be bought for only $10! All proceeds go to Art City, to help rebuild this Ventura westside artist collective of stone carvers, metal workers, film makers, painters, and authors.
Recently I had the pleasure of printing broadsides for David Ray and Jason Diller of the famous Bart's Books of Ojai. Just in from Taiwan, Sophia Kidd was there to help me out and take gorgeous photos. The bright orange ink on Diller's linoleum cut (above) is shrouded in dramatic shadows. The cut is of the combined alchemical symbols for lead and gold.
