Mottos and other sayings |
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| Percolation By Honoré de Balzac Tacoma, Washington: Springtide Press, 2009. Open Edition. 4.75 x 11.25" single-sheet broadside. Letterpress printed with handset type on Somerset Velvet. Jessica Spring: "Letterpress printed broadside is a celebration of coffee and ink with Honoré de Balzac's quote printed in handset type. Thirteen different vintage metal and wood fonts are printed in silver ink." Quote: "Coffee falls into the stomach...ideas begin to move things remembered arrive at full gallop...shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink." $15 |
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| A Word Search for Meaning in a Puzzling Presidency | |
By Jessica Spring 11 x 15" single sheet. Printed letterpress in red and blue. Jessica Spring: "Sharpen your wits and counter the spin until the next election by finding hidden words or phrases like 'misunderestimate." Find hidden words or phrases such as Abu Ghraib, Bin Laden, blood for oil, blue, bushisms, Brownie, chad, FEMA, friendly fire, Gore, Halliburton, IED, liar, misunderesetimate, NSA, neocon, no bid contract, propaganda, red, religious, spin, Saddam, taxcuts, torture, WMD, and wiretap. "LIAR" is circled to get you started. [Hint: No matter how long you look for WMD, the search will be fruitless.] or the blind. epress/s/springtide-Polite-Pointer
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Polite Pointers 7.5 x 14.75" broadside letterpress printed in 5 colors. Works with 3-D glasses (not supplied). Text: "Gently tilt the head in the direction of indication, raising the eyebrows for helpful emphasis"; "Use a subtle finger rounding the nose in the direction of indication, as if to relieve an itch"; "Shield the wielded pointer behind a newspaper or your opposing palm in the direction of indication."
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| Mottos and other sayings | |
More Wine!
$ 15 |
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Keep it Clean 12.9 x 9.9"; single sheet (broadside). Letterpress printed. Jessica Spring: "I've been printing my mottos – that was one inspired by two huge vintage plates a friend found at a junk shop. No limit, I probably printed 30 or so. I like to add some ephemera into the work flow with the editioned work. A lot of buyers are putting them in the bathroom or laundry room – mine is in the shop of course!" |
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| Jessica Spring: "Both spice and type have incredibly rich histories as valuable commodities traded across continents, spreading religion, culture, and knowledge. Both serve as agents of preservation and enhancement: well applied use of spice or type completely alters the experience of consumption. Spiceography is a set of broadsides. The Deluxe boxed set with map is sold out. Single broadsides are available. [An edition of 15 was printed for each broadside of which 7 were designated for the Deluxe boxed set.] "Each Spiceography broadside is printed on handmade paper containing its featured spice and utilizes multiple letterpress techniques: photopolymer, handset foundry and wood type, vintage ornaments, wire printing, monoprinting, linoleum, and collage." |
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| Ginger By Jessica Spring Tacoma, Washington: Springtide Press, 2002. Edition of 15. 15.125 x 20", single sheet broadside. Printed letterpress in Escrita on handmade paper. Jessica Spring: "Ginger was brought by Arabs to the Greeks and Romans, who believed it grew in the land of the Troglodytes - people who lived on the edge of the earth. Marco Polo recorded cultivated ginger throughout China. The Portuguese grew ginger in West Africa and fed it to men in slave gangs, hoping the aphrodisiac would boost population and productivity. "One of the oldest spices, ginger is mentioned in the Talmud and the Bible. The Koran celebrates ginger as one of the two aromatics of the next world. Muhammad grew up in the great trading city of Mecca, part of a merchant family. He married the daughter of a spice trader and recognized the mutual benefits of spreading spices and Islam. "Escrita (writing in Portuguese) was designed by Mario Feliciano for T26, a Chicago-based digital type foundry. According to Feliciano, Escrita 'was designed as an attempt to reproduce a sense of Portuguese writing. It is based on the work of 18th-century Portuguese calligrapher Manoel Andrade de Figueiredo.' Escrita includes flowing initial and finial alternate characters that serve to emphasize the handwritten feel." $100 |
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| Mithridatum By Jessica Spring Tacoma, Washington: Springtide Press, 2002. Edition of 15. 15.125 x 20" single sheet broadside. Printed letterpress using Bank Gothic typeface on paper handmade from pulp from the remains of all of the other broadsides in this series. Jessica Spring: "Mithradates the Great was the sixth, and last, Pontic ruler by that name. Mithradates means 'gift of the god Mithra,' (Persian for Apollo.) When Mithradates succeeded his father, Mithradates Eurgetes, in 120 BC, he was then only a boy, and for a few years his mother ruled in his place. About 115 BC, she was deposed and thrown into prison by her son, who then ruled alone. Mithradates used prisoners to test various antidotes for poisons in order to invent a universal antidote which could neutralize any poison. Only a king could afford to take a daily does of MITHRIDATIUM with 36 ingredients that included the most rare and expensive spices. "Bank Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF in 1930. Intended as a contemporary variation of Copperplate - also a lining gothic - it was also popular with job printers for stationery and forms. The name probably comes from its appropriateness for printing required by the banking industry. "Benton was the son of Linn Boyd Benton, inventor in 1884 of the punchcutting machine which mechanized the cutting of fonts from patterns in multiple sizes. Father and son spent most of their working lives at ATF making crucial contributions to the development of typefounding in the United States. Morris produced revivals of classic faces and designed many new fonts that have survived in digital form today." The recipe for a poison antidote such as Mithradates might have consumed is printed (in Bank Gothic) along with the instructions: "These to be ground and mixed into honey; a quantity equal to a walnut to be taken daily, in wine, against poison." $100 |
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| Myrista Fragrans: The Nut that Bought New York By Jessica Spring Tacoma, Washington: Springtide Press, 2002. Edition of 15. 15.125 x 20" Single sheet broadside. Printed letterpress on handmade paper using Caslon typeface. This broadside recounts the convoluted tale of how nutmeg, more precious than gold in 17th-century Europe, played a major role in England's prominence in the New World. Jessica Spring: "The nutmeg tree produces fruit which can be boiled for jam. Inside is a core or 'nut' covered with a crimson, lacy covering called an aril. This is removed from the nut and dried in the sun to produce mace, which has a light, delicate flavor. The core inside is also dried, then cracked open to extract the nutmeg, which is best used when freshly grated. "Dutch traders used a lime solution to sterilize nuts before export to protect their monopoly. Transportation was further complicated by the trees' gender: male and female varieties are difficult to identify and at least one male tree is required for every seven females to produce fruit. Nutmeg was believed to provide magic powers, especially in the art of seduction. "Born in 1692 in England, William Caslon apprenticed to an engraver of guns, eventually opening his own shop to cut type for bindings and binders' tools. The majority of English printers used type from Dutch foundries until Caslon's production in 1722 of a roman, italic, and Hebrew font. His famous specimen of Caslon produced in 1734 eventually spread their use 'internationally, most notably to print the Declaration of Independence." $100 |
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| Today, broadside printing is done by many smaller printers and publishers as a fine art variant, with poems often being available as broadsides, intended to be framed and hung on the wall - to be just enjoyed. | |
I Want This Poem to Be 12 x 12" single sheet broadside. Letterpress printed by hand. Printed in honor of the 2010 Urban Grace Soul of the City Poet Laureate. The first in a series of a Poet Laureate Commemorative Broadside series in Tacoma, Washington. TLR Words & Works (the poet's blog), June 21, 2010: "Letterpress artist, Jessica Spring and poet, Tammy Robacker will be rolling out Tacoma's first Poet Laureate Commemorative Broadside series. Both artists partnered this spring to create the first ever letterpress poetry poster celebrating the Soul of the City Poet Laureate program in Tacoma. Robacker is hoping a tradition has been started to honor the poets and the growing legacy of the poet laureate program by having an annual letterpress broadside created for each new poet who wins the contest. The broadside posters of Robacker's poetry are coupled with Spring's acclaimed letterpress artwork. The posters are limited edition and collectible. They will be signed and sold at the event. Proceeds from the sale of the broadsides will go to support the Urban Grace Poet Laureate program and the artists who created them."
$25 |
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The Orchard 14 x 17.5", single sheet. Letterpress printed on Japanese paper in Legend font. This broadside printed by Jessica Spring was a result of the Al-Mutannabi Street Broadside Project. The project was "A Call to Action for Letterpress Printers! To protest & commemorate the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street, the centre of bookselling in Baghdad, on March 5th 2007." Jessica Spring: "The Orchard by Saadi Yousef suggested a beautiful, ephemeral place to me. For this piece I chose some impossibly delicate Japanese paper, probably not intended to print on but rather to wrap up ceramics or something more utilitarian. Combined with an Art Nouveau wood border, the color, fragility and occasional papermaker's tears seemed just right for the poem. For the type I used Legend for its calligraphic feel, though I wrestled over the choice – the font is seen so much on everything even remotely Arab, especially menus. That's part of how I read the poem though, as a memorial to a place we have changed immeasurably." |
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Page last update: 12.16.11
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