Hand Lettering Workshop/Cereal Magazine Collaboration, Shoreditch.

Our hand lettering courses have been going incredibly well since we started them back in August - we've had an amazing response and have thoroughly enjoyed assisting our attendees in improving and developing their own personal hand lettering styles.

We are extremely pleased to announce some more dates for our full hand lettering workshop as well as an exciting taster in collaboration with our most favourite magazine.

Athena working her magic on some lettering for a wedding stationery suite.

Our recent taster course at Anthropologie, Bath.

This December the 6th we will teaming up with Cereal magazine to put on a special taster course in hand lettering. The course will take place at The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch, London. 

It will be a condensed version of our full course that we usually hold at our headquarters in Bath, teaching the basics of calligraphy and hand lettering. We will start with how to handle your pen and nib, using ink, basic pen strokes and then start to form indiviual letters. The course will end with each person writing a delightful message on a christmas card available to purchase on the day.
Book tickets here http://readcereal.com/calligraphy/

We are also extremely excited to announce our exclusive collaboration with Cereal magazine. We have teamed up with our good friends at Cereal to produce two fine offerings for this Christmas. Designed by Cereal's head designer Rich Stapleton, and printed here in Bath - the cards are letterpress printed in an Ombré print onto Pristine White Colorplan and foil printed in white onto Smoke Colorplan. They will be sold individually and in mixed packs of 6 with matching Smoke envelopes. Individual cards and sets will be available to purchase at the Ace Hotel along with our Christmas cards, box sets and calligraphy items on the day.

We look forward to seeing you there!

New Meticulous Ink Goods - Christmas 2014

Christmas is almost here, and so we roll out our new products for Christmas 2014, as well as some new additions to our current stationery range.

Earlier this year in March we took our first break since we started Meticulous Ink in 2010 - to a little village in Northern Norway called Oldervik. It was absolutely beautiful, a country we had both wanted to visit for some time and it was so much more than we expected.
We were particularly taken by the nordic huts that scatter the landscape, and the colours that were chosen which seemed to be consistently well matched.
So much so we decided to base our latest christmas designs on the beauty that we saw - our latest christmas offerings feature nordic huts, mountains, northern lights and a Norway inspired colour theme.

We have also added a few other new products to our offerings, including labels, bookplates and some new correspondence cards and greetings cards.

All of our new range is available to buy in store and online in our Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MeticulousInk

Exciting news - We're Moving!

On the 26th of September we will be moving from our shop at 33 Walcot Street, to our new Printworks premises at 134 Walcot Street. 

Our products and bespoke orders will then be produced entirely in house, everything from the design and printing of our letterpress stationery to the wax seals we apply to our own brand box sets. We are extremely excited to have everything in one building, with the focus on our own brand  products, which will be available for purchase at 134, together with some of our other favourite stationery items and accessories. 
Customers will, of course, still be able to peruse samples of our bespoke stationery here, and place their orders with us in store, with the additional possibility of watching their stationery being printed. 

We started Meticulous Ink at number 33 back in 2010 and it's been a whirlwind of activity ever since, from printing downstairs in our shop on a Model No.4 table top press, to printing hundreds and thousands of pieces of stationery for all to see on our Heidelberg windmill presses at 134 Walcot Street.

This Saturday at 33 Walcot Street we will be having a sale on selected goods in store - Rifle Paper cards and accessories, Invite. L leather goods and stationery, Prior books, Original Crown Mill and a few of our own brand products.

We look forward to welcoming you into our new store very soon.

- Charlie & Athena 

The Lost Art of Hand Lettering

The word calligraphy comes from Ancient Greek κάλλος kallos meaning  "beauty" and γραφή graphẽ  meaning “writing”. 

I remember receiving my first hand lettered envelope and being unable to comprehend that somebody had written the address by hand. The fluid curves of the letters, the opaque white ink jumping off of a scarlet envelope, the sheer neatness of each individual letter, all struck me so deeply that I have kept that envelope and it sits besides me now as I type this blog post. 

Athena hard at work hand lettering

Calligraphy has become a significant part of the day to day business of Meticulous Ink. We have always incorporated hand lettering in our letterpress designs, and our unique and playful stye has become ubiquitous of Meticulous Ink. In the summer of 2013 we began offering the service of hand lettered addresses, starting with a commission of sparkling gold ink on ivory envelopes. We have now completed calligraphed addresses in everything from egg yolk yellow on brown kraft, to deep aubergine on olive green. There is nothing more exciting than experimenting with colour and style when it comes to addressing an envelope.

Handmade Cool Blue envelopes with bright pink calligraphy

We will be holding our first hand lettering workshop in store on the evening of Wednesday, 6th August, where Suzie, our calligraphy expert will guide you through an introduction to hand lettering. The workshop runs from 6pm to 8pm and will include a hand painted dip pen, nib, a pot of our own Iron Gall ink, along with a Guide to Hand Lettering and a letterpress calligraphy practice pad; all to take home after the workshop. The workshop costs £75.00 and spaces are limited, so please contact us to book your place: (01225) 333004

Hairy Manilla envelopes with egg yolk yellow ink

Meishi

In Japan the act of exchanging a business card is a ritualistic tradition. A Japanese business card is called a meishi; translated mei means name and shi thorn; traditionally the cards would have been hand carved using sharp splinters of bamboo. When the card is presented it is held in the top two corners, face up and turned so the person receiving the meishi can read the card; the meishi should be received and held in the bottom two corners, it is considered impolite to cover the name with ones thumb. Once the card has been read one must thank the person and bow.

This concept is very foreign to us in the UK; all too often a creased, digitally printed card is pulled from ones pocket and immediately stuffed into a wallet without a second glance. Our belief is that a business card is the first physical impression of you and your business. Everything from the weight of the paper, the texture of the print and the typesetting of the text all lead to a lasting impression that is formed of you.

"Look at that subtle colouring. The tasteful thickness... oh my God. It even has a watermark.” 

Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, 2000.

Letterpress printed onto Cairn recycled board

Metallic die-stamping and light blue letterpress on Colorplan Mist 540gsm

Grey letterpress on Colorplan cool grey 350gsm.

On the press: Grey letterpress onto pristine white Colorplan

A Window into our Soul

Our new print works are shortly opening on Walcot Street, Bath.

From our conception in a dusty old shed in Dorset, to a windowless industrial unit on the outskirts of Bath, the time has finally come to move the printing machines to pride of place in their own stand alone store on Walcot Street, Bath.

We print using two beautiful Heidelberg 10x15 Platens dating from the 1960’s and everything from their windmill like motion, whooshing and whirring as they print, to their physical beauty (1 ton of elegant German engineered black steel, wielding 40 tons of pressure); are a pleasure  to behold.

So, one day, very soon, as you are walking down Walcot Street, why not cast your gaze upon no. 134 and witness for yourself what really goes into making a meticulous letterpress print. 

Formerly opening on Saturday, 14th June 2014.

Being loaded onto the truck before being transported across Bath.

Charlie meticulously cleaning the machine parts before reassembling .

The machines in their new home, 134 Walcot Street, Bath