Welcome to Ruby Victoria Letterpress & printmaking


Here you will find photos of all my original hand carved linocut prints and letterpress printing.
A commercial printer by trade a printmaker by choice.
I specialize in original handcarved lino block prints with a bit of letterpress thrown in for good measure.
All printed on antique printing machines with that unmistakable bite into the paper that you can only get with letterpress printing

The work that I do is not created on a computer everything is hand drawn then hand carved out of lino then printed one impression at a time on my tabletop letterpress machine

I do not use polymer which limits me somewhat in regards to type but I love to use traditional methods in my printing that involve handset type and hand carved designs and I think this is what make my work totally Original and Unique to what other people are doing right now and it also meaning everything I make is an original work of art
I love what I do and love to share it with others that are interested

Narelle


Monday, September 28, 2009

another little job completed


I just wanted to share these with everyone as I can't believe how wonderful they turned out.
Transparent ink can be a bit of a trial at times but in this case it was a dream and worked incredibly well.
I have all sort of ideas running through my head now, ways to use subtle transparent inks, so many ideas so little time !

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Letterpress book


I am starting to think that everything happens when I am sleeping .

I got up this morning got breakie for Ruby and I then sat down to check emails and lo and behold I had received an email from a lady in the UK. she is an Author at a publishing company that prints art related books , asking if I would like to contribute some of my printing images of my work in a book about Letterpress printing.
Of course I wrote back immediately saying YES PLEASE!!

Friday, September 25, 2009

a busy morning


wow I have had a busy morning .
First dropping Ruby Gallooby off to daycare the off to the shops to get some stuff from the newsagent then back home for breakfast and a cuppa tea then into it again .
I have an order for birthday cards I had to do today that should have been finished and delivered today but I didn't get the plates until last night as the guy that makes them had a flood out at his place during the week and was all panic stations , So I had to work on my lack of patience again! I have to report I am not getting any better with that! Patience I mean.
Anyhoo I finally got the cards completed and i just have to fold and package them after they have completely dried , More waiting! The tomorrow the bit I like best ,wrapping them with brown paper and string and delivering them tomorrow morning with Ruby my little Mascot/ delivery guy! !!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

first sales on madeit .com







well I didn't think it was ever going to happen but it did!
I woke up this morning to find that I had finally sold some things on madeit.com, just in the nick of time too, I was seriously considering pulling the plug on it and just sticking with etsy.
I think I will stick with it a bit long now though.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ruby Victoria letterpress Is now officially at Love & clutter




I am so proud to announce that Ruby Victoria letterpress is Officially stocked at Love and clutter on Murray St, Hobart , Tas.

It must be in the blood

An old printer friend of mine once told me, Printing is either in your blood or it isn't mean you'll either love it or hate it.
I seriously love printing the smell of ink the soft squishy cotton rag papers the oily dirty old type saved from the unappreciative hand of strangers that no longer see the value in it. aaaaargh I LOVE IT!!!
I didn't feel like doing anything much today but the adana was sitting there begging to be used so I started my little gift tags for da da da da Christmas !
I have only done the text so far and will print a little motive somewhere in a different colour, I like to keep things simple really!

my little delivery guy

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dance in my garden



I have been meaning to do a post on here for ages about my friend Luisa and the gorgeous work she does as Danceinmygarden.
Luisa's etsy store was one of my very first favs on etsy, her tepee and bunting blew me away but I think it is all her other brightly colours bibs and bags and other colourful, pretty, happy, creation that really reflect the lovely lady that makes them, I don't think I have ever met anyone so enthusiastic and as openly genuine as Luisa and when you look at her work you know it truly comes from her heart and you get to know a little about her.
Do yourself a favour and have a look at her lovely blog - http://danceinmygarden.blogspot.com/ and then her etsy shop at - http://danceinmygarden.blogspot.com/

Saturday, September 19, 2009

more new stuff on etsy

Align Center


spent the day printing these cute blue duckie cards for Love & Clutter and couldn't help myself I had to print some little duckie tags too
They are available in my etsy store right now

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

new stuff


This is a new greeting card and little gift tag I have printed to put with all my orders and as an example of what I can print, tag wise for other people.
All the type is handset so I can put just about anything on tags

Love & Clutter

Wow what a fantastic week I am having first finishing an order for Meadowbank vineyard, the market in Launceston, meeting new people that love handmade as much as I do, spending time with my family that I hadn't seen for ages, receiving a parcel from an old friend filled with letterpress printing cd some lovely business cards and the gem an original printers hints for the pressman, in my case presswoman for Heidelberg Automatic platen printing machine book, DROOL apparently printed on a platen an amazing piece of printing in itself Dennis You the man! thanks so much ! this book will be truly treasured for life. and today I get an email from the wonderful Essie and Leonie from Love & clutter with an order for cards, invitations, linocut prints and custom letterpress card orders I am so stoked.Their enthusiasm for what I do is truly beyond words.
Love & Clutter is an incredible little shop in central Hobart literally stuffed with handmade clothing, jewellery, stuffed toys, cards hair accessories you name it they have it in their beautiful little shop.
I am so proud to be having my art and letterpress work stocked with these very warm and friendly ladies along side local designers, Notions lovely fashion accessories http://notionshandmade.blogspot.com/ and Little crafty crows cute little stuffed bunnies and other creatures http://littleblackcrow.etsy.com/

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

first letterpress order finished


I know this is going to seem a little odd to most people but I am so proud to have completed my very first order of letterpress printing for Meadowbank Vineyards at Cambridge. that I wanted to do a post about it with a photo.
Please indulge me this is a really big thing for me sad I know but true!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

civic homespun market , Launceston in photos



Hi everyone I am having trouble posting photos on here today so I have manage to get these couple up from the market yesterday and I will post the others tomorrow if blogger lets me
I just want to say thank you to all the other stall holders at the market for making Allan and I feel so welcome and we look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

what you are likely to find at the Civic homespun market, Paterson street launceston , Saturday 12th sept ,10 am till 3pm

Sorry about the quality of the photo but I can assure you that what you will find at the market will be nowhere near as blurry, so come have a look and support you very talented local makers!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Civic Homespun Market Launceston



I am very excited to have been offered a stall this weekend at the Civic Homespun Market Launceston , the Pilgrim Hall in Paterson street opposite the Myers car park
The market runs from 10 am till 3pm and there will be a lovely range of handmade wares to buy.
The great thing about this market is they have a web store at their web page where stall holders can upload their stuff for sale a bit like Etsy or made it.
The address is http://www. civichomespunmarket.com.au go have a look.

I will be taking my letterpress machine along to do some demo on the day and I will be also doing some linocutting as well, so come along, say hi and have a natter and see some printing being done

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Market No. 6 rundown



Well here we are the beginning of another week, hopefully this week will be a little less hectic than last week with markets, birthdays, visitor from the north west coast and sickness.

We attended The Market once again yesterday at the sandy bay road Masonic Lodge and had a wonderful day.
some familiar faces from the beach market and some from the past market at the lodge all smiling and happy to see us there.
It always amazes me how many people I have met during these markets, that have had a background in the printing industry.
I had a lady who use to work with the big letterpress newspaper presses when she was young , an old guy that was an industrial screen printer and another guy that was still working as a commercial printer. but the highlight of yesterday was a lady that came up for a talk and told me she had some wooden type if I would like it, she said she had bought it in victoria with a type case and the type was just chucked in and it was just a couple of pieces not worth much to her so I went to visit her today and she gave me the lovely type and a lovely bunch of banksias from her huge garden and I gave her a choice of any of my prints to say thank you , she chose a little blue teapot.

Thank you so much Robyn for your generosity and kindness and I will be back to photograph your garden very soon.

Another unrelated high light of yesterday was I finally bought myself a lovely Handbag from the very talented Sashiko this is her web address check her out www.sashikodesign.com I found it really hard to chose which design to go with I wanted to take them all home. So durable and practical.

All in all we had a great day lots of sales and interest in my linocuts and and requests for custom orders and requests to hold workshops and even a possible residency at Regional arts Tasmania.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

etsy v's made it

what do we all think about this?
I have been a member of "Made it"for a little while now and haven't really gotten so much as a nibble of interest and Etsy has only really just started to work for me and I have been part of esty for about 9 months .
I am just interested to hear what other people think of these sites and if they prefer one over the other and why ?

The Market No. 6

The Market is on again at the Masonic Lodge Hall no.3 sandy bay Rd Hobart,
Sunday the 6th of Sept
from 10am till 2pm


Stall holders include:

Amazing cupcakes, Fig tree Muesli, Holly Webber, Red wren,little twig, Rebecca Roth, Phatflats, Hiiragi, little lori, Whatever Heather, Guilded pony, Cube art and design, Jenny Mills Jewellery, Oceanide, Sashiko,Tutus, Millymakers and Little ol' me Ruby Victoria printmaking and letterpress

I will be doing my usual letterpress demos and linocut carving so feel free to come and have a look and say hi.
It is really nice to meet up with new people at the market especially people from etsy, blogger and facebook to put faces to names, but it's great to meet and talk to anyone that is interested in what I do.

So please come along and meet some very talented and friendly people.

See you there !