Letterpress workshop

Hello lovely people. At the beginning of this year I had made a few goals. One of them was to do a letterpress course/class/workshop. I also wrote another post about more goals and getting out of comfort zone. So far this year I'm achieving these goals slowly and it feels amazing. A few weeks ago I attended a two night letterpress workshop at the Design College Australia. 

It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I finally took the plunge and enrolled in the workshop. They work with traditional letterpress and type and even though in the future I'm aiming to work with polymer plate letterpress printing it gave me a better understanding of the whole process and the history of the printing form. My instructor was so passionate about it that it filled me with excitement. 

The workshop was over two nights over two weeks. We worked in partners because it takes a long (loonngg) time to put it together and it's easier having someone to bounce ideas off. 

It's terrible but I can't remember what type of letterpress machine this is but it's the one that we all used. 

*TheDesignKids Instagram

I was trying to figure out another way to put the type together and I was concentrating hard. 

* Stongarmpress Instagram

I like this birds eye view of us working. This was taken by our instructor. 

* Strongarmpress Instagram 

Another view from the top. This place was amazing! Apparently it's an old bacon factory (or something like that. Lots of character). 

This was from night two. This part took a long time to do. It doesn't seem like much but if you've done any traditional letterpress you would know the time it takes.

* Minusculetiny Instagram

As you can see I was quite excited to paint and get the print finished. 

A few of our prints. We had to make a few as they are all slightly different. 

So this is the final product. What I love about the traditional form is feeling the wood type in your hands. It has a nice texture and I like the rustic look. The imperfections give it character. Plus our instructor suggested the awesome orange. You can't tell from this photo but it's a delicious looking fluro orange. It adds a more modern element to an otherwise traditional piece.

At the end you feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that you put together this print. We chose the type we wanted to use, the layout and we had to pick a print saying from a list they provided us. 

You can not believe how excited I was to finally do something I've wanted to do for ages. I'm glad I finally stopped making excuses and just did it. 

Oh if you want follow me via instagram. My username is Graciebellabutterfly. 

What have you done that you have been wanting to do for a long time?

Have a wonderful weekend. 

More inspiraton

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Mine was great but busy. Got back from Bathurst Sunday morning and went straight to church. It was a nice relaxed day though having lunch with the fam. Although right now I'm a bit sick. It must be lack of sleep, busy weekend and the colder weather in Bathurst. It felt more like winter here in Brisbane instead of autumn. I don't think I was quite prepared to feel cold.

Anyway, while at home trying to get better I've been doing some Wedding planning. Since we don't quite know the venue yet I thought to gather more inspiration. I decided to start searching for wedding dresses. I think I'm a little picky though. I'm not into the big, princess like dresses though they look beautiful in photos, they're just not my style.

Image from Hills in Hollywood. 

I quite like this style. One that sort of flows. I kind of like the layers flowing out. 

Image from Disney Bridal 

This is from Disney Bridal. From the Princess Jasmine collection. It helps that she is my favourite Disney princess. I like this style. Sort of reminds me of a Grecian goddess. 

Image from Disney Bridal

Another from the Princess Jasmine collection. This one is a lot simpler too. Maybe change the neckline to be a more sweetheart style. 

I was thinking of making an inspiration board but I might do that next post. I did however want to share my tabletop letterpress. 

Here it is. I'm ashamed to say I haven't played around with it yet, but I will. I bought it from Bespoke Press. They were selling it off because they were getting a larger one and didn't have the room for it. It's basically a starter kit and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it. I had to make the photo look old =) 

Here's one of the trays of type that was included. There's another tray as well. I definitely need to start playing around with it especially because I'm hoping to do letterpress our invitations. 

I hope you all have a great rest of week!

The beginning of my creative pursuits

Tomorrow night I have my first sewing lesson/course. I'm kind of nervous but I'm sure it will be fine. I'm going to try making a simple skirt for now. I had fun looking through the pattern books and wished I could one day make my own clothes. I will keep you updated.

Here are some envelopes I have been playing around with. I might put them in my Etsy. 

This is the one of my ideas. I'm thinking of making a few more of these envelopes. I will most likely have tags? Or a skinny mini note card.

I was playing around with my new Basic Grey stamps. I definitely need some new ink pads. I'm also thinking of playing around with embossing powders. 

This week I'm also getting my tabletop letterpress from Bespoke Press. This picture is a photo of some items I bought from Simple Song Design. Letterpress is beautiful! So I'm quite excited to try my own designs!!

Have a great week everyone xox