Letterpress Wedding Invitations - Justine and Edward

Hand drawn maps are an incredibly popular choice amongst our customers here at Meticulous Ink, combining the simple functionality of a map, with a playful and elegantly illustrated design unique to stationery specialist and designer Athena Cauley-Yu.

For Edward and Justine this was something they really wanted to feature in their invitation suite, the day itself was intended to be quite a laid back affair so we wanted to ensured the invitations held this feel well. To accentuate the relaxed theme, the design was drawn entirely by hand - adding a little playfulness and fun to the invite.

The invitation itself was letterpress printed in dark green ink - onto 425gsm Bockingford board, a stock we often use for letterpress due to it's wondrous impression taking properties. Intended originally as a watercolour paper, it is an incredibly soft and nicely textured stock, allowing our letterpress machines to bite gently into the board leaving a well considered impression.
We complimented the invitation with a brown recycled envelope and soft yellow tissue lining to enhance the delicate letterpress print that was to sit inside the envelope.

Within the design itself, we made sure that we made it personal to the couple; Edward and Justine both worked within the food industry, so naturally the invitation embellishments were food related. With delicate line illustrations of vegetables, fruits and flowers - including daffodils which the couple had on the day, the lining of the envelope was also a little nod to their flower choice of the day.

Hand Lettering Workshop, Heal's London.

We will be heading back to London later this April, following our successful workshop at Another Country in Marylebone - and will be holding our hand lettering workshop at Heal's on Tottenham Court Road for the second time this year!

Our workshop at Heal's in February for the Modern Craft Market

Back in February this year, we participated in the Heal's Modern Craft Market - a fantastic fortnight of amazing craftspeople, furniture making and conversation curated by Hole & Corner magazine. Heal's was such a wonderful venue, we have decided to hold our hand lettering workshop there again.

On the 29th of April, our hand lettering expert Athena will be bestowing her hand lettering knowledge upon pupils at Heal's in their beautiful store on Tottenham Court Road.
The workshop will start at 5.30pm and will last until 8pm. On the day we will provide each pupil with a nib, nib holder, practice sheets, guide sheets and a pot of Meticulous Ink.

We will go through the basics of hand lettering, from handling a nib and ink to forming beautiful letters and words in a copperplate style.

Tickets available to purchase below.

Event registration for Hand lettering with Meticulous Ink from the Heal’s Modern Craft Market. powered by Eventbrite

Hand Lettering Workshop at Another Country, London.

Over the next couple of months we will be holding more of our ever popular hand lettering workshops in store, of which we will be releasing more tickets for later this week.

Photo courtesy of Jet Indigo

But on the 4th April we are collaborating with the wonderful Another Country in Marylebone, London to hold our hand lettering workshop in their beautiful store on Crawford Street.

Another Country are a contemporary craft furniture store based in London, who produce the most beautiful furniture inspired by archetype - calling on the familiar and unpretentious forms of British Country Kitchen style, Shaker, traditional Scandinavian and Japanese wood work for inspiration.
Consequently their store on Crawford street is a beautiful environment, and one that we know will aid in a tranquil and inspiring atmosphere for the days lettering efforts.
The workshop itself will be held in their store, and you will be scribing away on their beautiful furniture - a privilege in itself!
Another Country are hosting the event and will be providing tea and cake to enjoy whilst you master your hand lettering skills.

We have 10 places available for this particular workshop, and it will be held on the 4th of April from 2pm - 4.30pm.

Tickets available below.

Online event registration for Meticulous Ink Hand Lettering Workshop London powered by Eventbrite

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