We Love Letterpress Interview with Convivio Bookworks

For those who do not know, the JCBA's director, John Cutrone, & the collection specialist, Seth Thompson, has a press together outside of the Jaffe Center, making them busy boys. We Love Letterpress just released an interview with John about his printing press company with fellow JCBA'er & partner. It gives good information about their side company & you can visit their website at the link to the left.

When did you start letterpress printing?
1994, but I used to set the type & print personalized Christmas cards for folks at my family's card shop when I was a boy. My first time at the Vandercook, in fact, I wondered how the type was heated. Seth Thompson, my partner, began in '95 when we met.

What do you like best about letterpress printing?
It's such an amazing process, watching things appear on paper, mirror images of what is in the bed of the press. Very tactile, the paper, the ink, the mechanics of the press. Plus, rubber based ink smells great.

What inspires you?
Inspiration comes from unlikely sources sometimes & what inspires us most is the unexpected: that magic that comes when you least expect it. The alchemy of the everyday.

Which press(es), ink & paper do you usually use?
We have a Vandercook 4 that is our go-to press, but there's also a Golding Pearl in the shop. In our work at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, we are mostly printing on the Vandercook 4 again, but we also have access to a kick-ass Wesel Iron Handpress from the 1890s.

How would you describe your artwork?
Simple & clean, hopefully. Balanced. Not dark.

What kind of products do you create?
Most limited edition books & broadsides, though we have plenty of other things in mind for the future.

Do you custom work?
No.

Where can we buy your products?
At our website & in person at our occasional Open Studio Days... sometimes at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, too.

Do you offer workshops? If yes, what kind of?
We teach at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. Some letterpress workshops & workshops in artists' books, & one really popular workshop called Natural Dyes for Book Arts Applications. The most popular, though, is an introductory JCBA immersion called Book Arts 101, which is taught numerous times each year, always with a theme appropriate to the season.

Is there anything you wished you had known as a beginner?
Things, it seems, have happened just as they were supposed to. Sometimes I think I missed something in never having taken a graphic design class... but honestly, I think we've done okay designing from the gut.
At our website and in person at our occasional Open Studio Days... sometimes at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, too.

Do you offer workshops? If yes, what kind of?
We teach at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. Some letterpress workshops and workshops in artists' books & one really popular workshop called Natural Dyes for Book Arts Applications. The most popular, though, is an introductory JCBA immersion called Book Arts 101, which is taught numerous times each year, always with a theme appropriate to the season.