For as long as I can remember, I have had a great passion for anything connected with lettering or made of paper.

 

When I discovered Letterpress in 2011, I felt it was something that I had been waiting to do. I attended a Letterpress course at Central St Martins School of Art in London, set up Aspen Press, and since then have not looked back. Letterpress is everything I thought it would be and more. I love the fact that printing with movable type is a very old process that can be traced back to Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century and that today there are still many foundries casting movable lead type known as monotype.

 

At Aspen Press, which is situated in Orford on the Suffolk coast, we print on a variety of presses including a vintage Golding Pearl treadle machine which was built in 1889 and two Adana table top presses built in the middle of the last century. All of these machines continue to produce high quality work to this day.

 

We also have two foil blocking machines. Foil blocking is the application of pigment or metallic foil to paper where heated movable type or dies (engraved metal pieces) are stamped onto the foil, making it adhere to the surface of the paper and leaving the design of the type or die on the paper.

 

In addition to our letterpress and foiling machines we have a large library of vintage and new typefaces and ornaments in various styles and sizes.

 

Another love is stationery and we seek out papers primarily milled in the UK for our notebooks and other stationery items.