All Things Considered

The Society of Wood Engravers
Posted by Angie Lewin

The 72nd Annual Society of Wood Engravers exhibition is currently on show in London at the Bankside Gallery (next door to Tate Modern). The exhibition features work by engravers from the UK and abroad.

The vast majority of the images are black and white showing the graphic quality and fine detail unique to the medium.

In addition to a wide range of work from Society members, you can also view the twenty five engravings that have been commissioned for Box 25, a set of prints celebrating the 25th anniversary of the refounding of the society. Illustrated below is Peter Lawrence's interpretation of the number 25.

To find out more about the exhibition (which runs in London until October 4th but will tour again later in the year) visit the Society's website.

Posted by Angie Lewin on September 28th, 2009

People Will Always Need Plates
Posted by Angie Lewin

Spent last night at an event celebrating Liberty's "Britain Can (Still) Make It" event, curated by David Nicholls (design editor of The Telegraph Magazine) and Michelle Alger (Liberty's home & furniture buyer). It was great to see reactions to our collaboration with the Race Furniture Company and to have the chance to see the other exhibits - all UK designed and produced.

Stand out items for us included Matthew Hilton's Treviso desk, Benjamin Hubert's Gradient chair (both for Ercol) and the new range from People Will Always Need Plates, 'British Industry Is Dead, Long Live British Industry'...

"This new edition is a response to the perceived wisdom that Britain no longer makes anything. While the traditional, heavy industries have long been in a steep decline, a few are still struggling on and in some cases enjoying a resurgence.

Though coal mining, ship building, and much of our motor industry has been lost, the UK is not simply a nation of shopkeepers - or more latterly, IT consultants and telecoms engineers..." More

The exhibition runs until Sunday 27th September 2009 at Liberty, Regent St, W1 (once there, head up to the 4th Floor).

Posted by Angie Lewin on September 24th, 2009

Ten Walking Songs
Posted by Simon Lewin

A recent posting over at Caught By The River reminded me of a walk we took on the west coast of Scotland earlier in the year (snapshot below).

In this Tracks for Tracks: Ten Walking Songs post, guest selector Robert MacFarlane lists ten "Songs to keep you company. Songs to learn by heart. Songs to lend a beat to tired feet. Songs to yell from the top of a hill..."

Here's an extract about 'The Road To The Isles'...

"The song is a map, really, of the westwards way, from the Southern Highlands to the Western Isles. Its place-names guide the singer-walker westwards, its melody lures him and its rhythm sustains his progress. The song cites the locations that will bring the singer from Tummel in Perthshire to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, by way of Loch Rannoch, Lochaber, Shiel, Ailort, and Morar. Singing therefore becomes a means of navigation. In this way, ‘The Road To The Isles’ has a family resemblance to Aboriginal songline cycles, which describe the ‘dreamtracks’ left by the ‘Ancestors’ at the creation of the world. The route of these dreamtracks – and they can run for hundreds of miles – is preserved in the form of songs, in which each note or phrase corresponds to a landscape feature (a claypan or rock outcrop, say, or turn in a creekbed)." Read in full

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 23rd, 2009

Garden Wisdom
Posted by Angie Lewin

Earlier in the week my copies of 'Garden Wisdom' published by Merrell arrived. It's a gardening anthology compiled by Leslie Geddes-Brown which is illustrated by 20 of my prints.

The book was featured in The Guardian's gardening blog yesterday...

 "Every now and again a gardening book drops onto my desk that makes me sit up and take notice: Garden Wisdom, compiled by Leslie Geddes-Brown, is one of those books.

Gardening anthologies are ten-a-penny these days: what sets this book apart, though, is Geddes-Brown's careful selection of extracts. Every single one is a gem, from Margery Fish on the joy of compost to Penelope Hobhouse on garden style. Angie Lewin's gorgeous bold prints make this feel like a different kind of gardening book; one you'll find yourself dipping into regularly."

And Gardens Illustrated have also just reviewed the book in their latest issue Read in full

Copies of the book can be ordered online via Amazon.

Posted by Angie Lewin on September 18th, 2009

Robert Gibbings
Posted by Simon Lewin

It wasn't long after I'd taken up fly fishing that I became aware of Robert Gibbings' work - I remember coming across a copy of his book 'Coming Down The Wye' in a secondhand bookshop and being enthralled by his wood engravings.

I was so pleased that Caught By The River had obtained permission to use his work for their recent anthology of writing about rivers.

Over at Caught By The River, Mathew Clayton has written this great profile of Gibbings' work:

"In July 1939, just before the start of the second world war, Robert Gibbings launched a flat bottom boat called 'Willow', that he had built in the workshops at Reading University where he worked, into the Thames. Over the next few weeks he meandered downstream. During the day he sketched the wildlife and enjoyed the hospitality of the many riverside pubs, at night he slept under canvas in the boat. The resulting book about this journey, Sweet Thames Runs Softly, the title taken from a 16th Century poem by Edward Spenser that is also quoted by TS Eliot in the Wasteland, was published by JM Dent in 1940, and became a bestseller. Its simple pastoral charm offered a picture of England that many feared we were about to lose." Read the profile in full

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 14th, 2009

Peter Green at St. Jude’s
Posted by Simon Lewin

We're busy preparing for our next solo exhibition at St. Jude's featuring recent work by printmaker Peter Green.

Born in 1933,  printmaker Peter Green OBE RE studied at Brighton College of Art and the Institute of Education, University of London.

A former Head of Art Teacher Training, Hornsey College of Art and Dean of Art and Design, Middlesex University (Emeritus Professor), Peter has written a number of books on printmaking and is a former member of the Crafts Council of Great Britain. With work in many public collections, including the Arts Council, Peter also exhibits throughout the UK, Europe and Asia. We’ll be exhibiting a series of Peter’s recent woodcut and stencil prints.

From Saturday 24th October 2009 at St. Jude's Gallery. Open Thursday-Saturday from 10am-4pm.

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 11th, 2009

Ernest Race
Posted by Simon Lewin

We're genuinely very proud to have been selected to feature in Liberty's 'Britain Can (Still) Make It' event, curated by David Nicholls, Design Editor of the Telegraph Magazine in association with Michelle Alger, Liberty’s home and furniture buyer.

It's a unique exhibition made up entirely of UK designed and produced furniture, lighting, ceramics and textiles - part of London Design Week.

We have collaborated with the Race Furniture Company in their re-issue of Ernest Race's BA3 chair.

Oliver Childs profiles Ernest Race's work on his Homespun Vintage Design website:

"Ernest Race was one the most important figures in British post-war design. After studying interior design, Race began his career with the lighting manufacturer Troughton & Young. During World War II Race served with the auxiliary fire service, after which he founded Race Furniture Ltd in Clapham, South London. Race realised that redundant wartime materials could be recycled, so he designed his furniture to utilise discarded aluminium and ex-RAF upholstery fabrics. In 1946 Race showed the BA chair at the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition. Made from recast aluminium, this design epitomised the post-war spirit and set new standards within industrial design. Race established himself at the forefront of the modern design movement, producing some of the most innovative furniture of the 1950s."

The exhibition at Liberty will present a mix of established and burgeoning designers from the world of furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles and metal - all of whom produce their work in the UK.

Britain Can (Still) Make It at Liberty, Regent St, W1 (4th Floor) from Saturday 19th – Sunday 27th September 2009. Further details can be found on our St. Jude's website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 5th, 2009

Alan Kitching
Posted by Simon Lewin

I had the great pleasure of attending Alan Kitching's talk about his work at a letterpress conference at St. Bride's last year.

There's a great interview with Alan over at Mike Dempsey's Graphic Journey blog:

"I rarely put designers' work on the walls of my home, but there are two exceptions to this rule. There is beautiful typographical map of London's Clerkenwell – where I live for part of the week – by Alan Kitching.

It has an added appeal for me because my name has been overprinted on the exact location of my flat. I never tire of the inventiveness of the map's typographic construction." Read the interview in full 


Posted by Simon Lewin on September 3rd, 2009

Letterpress Exchange Group
Posted by Simon Lewin

Over at the Typoretum blog, Justin Knopp reports on the latest selection of letterpress work that makes up the 51st bundle of the Letterpress Exchange Group.

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 1st, 2009