The Printing Art Fair

I can't believe this blog started exactly six years ago, after attending my very first Printing Art Fair at the Museum of Printing. This time I only went as a visitor with my family and truly enjoyed father's day between printing and demonstrations and strawberry picking at the local farm. Funny to revisit old photos of all the past years attending the fair. Summer is almost here!

The 8th annual Printing Arts Fair

I wish the Printing Art Fair was more well attended as the Museum and the demonstrations on all day are so interesting. So this is a wish for the future, to better advertise the event. Though the day for us vendors was a bit slow, I still loved the smell of ink, seeing friends, and get my hands wet by making paper after such a long time......

Printing Art Fair 2010

My very first post on this blog was right after the Printing Art Fair of a few years ago, during a very hot day. Unfurtunally this year the fair wasn't very well attended as the previous times, but nevertheless the steam roller was printing large sheets, papermaking was wet, and all the printing machines in the museum were having great demonstrations. I had more time available to talk with my letterpress friends of Albertine Press, May Day Studio, Pressbound and Zoetropa, gather around our tables and that made the trip to North Andover all well worth it!

Printing Art Fair 2009

Another wet day here in Boston, but yesterday, despite the rain, printing and demonstrations were no stop at the Museum. A constant crowd of people were in and out during the Sixth Annual Printing Fair. A regular meeting, at this point, for many people in new England. Personally, I was most of the time at my table, talking to near by booth vendors and old and new clients, but much of the events were happening outside with the Steamroller Printing, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Vandercook Proof Press. I stepped outside briefly, but here is a good link for
a series of pictures of the Steamroller in action. All together a great event, just too bad I wasn't feeling very well! Lovely links from the pictures below:
Pressbound, Zoetropa, Albertine Press, Mayday Studio and small detail of the broadside with the tree by Marsolais Press (no website yet, too bad!).

6th Annual Printing Art Fair and Sea Dog Press

I know it is a long way until June 21st, but the great poster design by Leslie Evans of Sea Dog Press inspired me to write about the event right away. The Printing Art Fair will take place in the Printing Museum in North Andover, MA. As the previous years, I will be there with other vendors, and the following is part of the presentation from Leslie's site. Lots of people came last year from all New England and I hope even more visitors will hear about it this time. Spread the word and see you soon!

Announcing the 6th Annual Printing Arts Fair on Father’s Day, June 21, 2009 at the Museum of Printing located at 800 Massachusetts Avenue in North Andover, Massachusetts just across from the town common. The Fair is free to the public and runs from 10am to 4pm. Co-sponsored by the Letterpress Guild of New England and the Museum of Printing, it’s the perfect time to learn about the book arts and printing, with papermaking and bookbinding artisans demonstrating their craft. Also on hand are stone lithography, intaglio and letterpress printing demonstrations. And for the first time the fair will present Steamroller Printing in honor of the 100th anniversary of the beloved Vandercook Proof Press.
On display in the big tent and upstairs in the Museum are artwork, stationery, prints, books, decorative papers, crafts, posters, type and letterpress printing equipment from such vendors as Albertine Press, B Designs, Brookfield Paperworks, Carta Inc., Sea Dog Press, May Day Studio, Swamp Press, Sun Hill Press, and Zoetropa. The Museum has a fantastic selection of letterpress items for sale for those wanting to try their hand at printing. Vendors will also be donating items to the raffle that benefits the Museum.

I also would like to add, Leslie Evans completed a beautiful set of illustrations with hand-colored linoleum block prints for the book Faces of the Moon, where my daughter happily posed as a model. The books is available here and more images of this great book in display on her site.

The actual Printing Art Fair

After preparing for the fair and reading the announcements in several blog, the fair itself was indeed a successful event! Letterpress demonstrations were everywhere in the Printing Museum and always big crowds were around the old presses. Because of the rainy day, we displayed our booth on the upper floor, in one intimate environment. People came from long distance, despite the bad weather. I did the paper marbling demonstration for part of the afternoon on the Museum front porch, along with paper making demonstrations by Susy Barbarossa.
I was lucky to have my booth next to the bookbinding demonstrations done by students of the North Bennet Street School; Bexx also had some great miniature books for sale. Among others, great vendors were Kelly of May Day studio, Rifferaff, Jennski, Rainy Planet Press, PaperBreakfast, Seadog Press, Bdesign and together on the same booth Pressbound and Albertine Press. One of my beautiful discovery of the day, were the limited edition books by Laura Davidson. They were represented by another vendor and unfortunately I was not be able to meet her personally. Some images of her book A tool Alphabet are here below. I'm sure other blog will post more pictures of the day, meanwhile, I would like to thank all the people that came to the fair. It was truly a great event and for me exactly one year since I have started this blog!

Printing Arts Fair

As a first day on my blog, I'm posting some pictures from the Printing Arts Fair I was part of, last Sunday. The Fair was in North Andover, Massachusetts, in and out of the Printing Museum. A lot of bookbinding and printing demonstrations. It was a real pleasure to meet personally the people behind Albertine Press, May Day Studio and all the students from the bookbinding program at The North Bennett Street School. The amazing letterpress printed poster is by Leslie Evans, from Sea Dog Press.