Hello again (or, if this is the first time you have read Dapple Scrumping, just ‘hello’)
Further down this newsletter I’ll be doing the reveal (ta da!) of my latest reduction linoprint, but first I want to tell you about something rather special happening in the print world in York.
Towards the end of 2019 I was able to visit a special room in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York, just over the road from me, where a small group of staff and students, calling themselves Thin Ice Press*, had assembled a collection of historic printing equipment and ephemera as part of studying the history of print.
Fast forward a bit, past those two years when Everything Stopped, and this small endeavour had found its way into an empty retail unit in the centre of York and become the StreetLife project. There it was able to display its growing collection of presses, hold workshops and talks and invite the public in to learn more about printing. Local printmakers without their own studios have been able to pay a weekly membership fee to use the equipment.
The temporary lease ends soon but it is looking hopeful that in early 2024 it will be possible to move into a suitably historic building in York and there establish a permanent Centre for Print and become a hub of printmaking, learning, discovery and exhibition. It is all Very Exciting.
All this is of course going to cost money so there is currently a crowdfund to top up the funding already secured from various bodies, and specifically to cover the cost of specialist removal services to transport and install the antique presses and other equipment. I have lobbed in a contribution as I can’t imagine a world without printmaking, or rather I don’t want to imagine it. The (very) short video below tells you a bit more.
* Why ‘Thin Ice Press’?
In the very cold winter of 1739/40, the River Ouse froze over and the residents of York held a Frost Fair, because that was what you did on frozen rivers before the days of Health and Safety and public information films. Early in January a local writer and printer named Thomas Gent saw the opportunity for a spot of PR and marketing and took his printing press out onto the ice. There he set himself up with a print layout including a woodcut of a view of York (Minster in the background, river in the foreground) a passage of verse (I use the term loosely - see further down) and a blank space to be personalised with a customer’s name. He then proceeded to produce souvenir prints to order, there on the ice. I have to say I think this was entrepreneurial genius. All went well and a large crowd gathered, until the ice was heard to crack and the show was swiftly over (without casualty, as far as we know).
And thus the name ‘Thin Ice Press’ was chosen, paying homage to the history of printing in York, while at the same time acknowledging that traditional print is on the red list of endangered heritage crafts and we are in a precarious place.
When Good King GEORGE 1st, sat on the Throne,
In Seventeen Hundred Sixteen, well 'twas known,
Frost-Fair was held upon the River Thames,
And Shops with Booths stood firm o'er crystal Streams,
Meat-roasting, printing; some fine Glass a spinning;
Milliners, Toyshops; Venturers loosing, winning;
Musick, Bear-baiting; humming Ale, strong Brandy;
And Lovers young, more sweet than Sugar-Candy:
In short, most Persons of fair Occupations,
Left their warm Houses for their Icy Stations.
As then great London frozen splendours view'd,
So now may YORK with Pleasures be endu'd;
That Seventeen Hundred Forty may be reckon'd
An happy Æra to King GEORGE the Second.
Come, sprightly Youth, fair Virgins, Husbands, Wives,
Behold our Art, that seems to give new Lives;
Divert your Thoughts with ravishing Content;
And be immortal made by THOMAS GENT.
The above verse is transcribed from one of the original prints produced on the ice that day, held in the archives of York Minster, and personalised in the rather magnificent name of Mr Nicholas Hailstone.
Shelter
The print I’ve been working on in the last couple of newsletters was finished last week.
I’ve called it ‘Shelter’ and it is now available to buy. It’s an edition of 10 prints but only five will be released initially as I will be saving some for York Open Studios next spring.
Right, back to work now. I think I need to order some more lino.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon.
Jane