Our new venture for 2026
For the last few years Simon has been planning on building reproduction of a 15th century printing press. over the winter work began in earnest and the press was fully functional by M ay 2026. We are now producing an ever growing range of printed cards and art prints from a mixture of 3d printed reproduction blocks and from hand carved woodblocks based on originals. We have also produced some type for doing pamphlets and bookwork in the future. Our aim is to provide demonstrations and activity events to show the public the birth of the information age. For up to date content please subscribe to our new social media pages.
We are now in the process of building up the other tools and accessories we need for putting on a great display.
Here we have a pair of ink dabbers turned from oak with leather nailed over wool packing. A few woodcuts ready for carving. Those three are all done now and available for sale.
A visorium for holding copy and a setting stick for setting the type.
Our press cabinet holds all the tools, blocks and type. The type shown here is our own 3d printed type. This idea means that we can create whichever fount we like and as much as we like and include specific medieval characters. So far we only have one fount in 2 different sizes suitable for very early printed work. We are working on another more suitable for later 16th and early 17th century work.
We recently acquired some proper lead type amongst which was some lovely blackletter type. Here is some set as an experiment along with one of my 3d printed big upper case letters. Unfortunately there is not sufficient to complete this little passage, I was rapidly running out of es!
Here’s a similar bit of text from a medieval bestiary set with our 3d printed type
Some of our hand carved wood blocks including one in the process
