The Stockists
You can find Penships prints in Muskoka, Canada, among local markets and galleries that share a love for handcrafted work. Personal and wholesale inquiries are warmly welcomed. An online shop will join the mix in the winter of 2025/26.
Coles Art Market
14 Main Street E
Huntsville, Ontario
www.colesart.ca
Algonquin Art Centre
Km 20, Algonquin Provincial Park
Central Ontario
www.algonquinartcentre.com
The Medium
My letterpress stationery is produced on an 1890s desktop pilot press best suited for short print runs and postcard-sized images. Through a coordinated ensemble of form, pressure, ink, and paper, I choose slowness and old technology for my medium because it informs a richly unique result.
Whimsical arrangements of vintage typography, ornament, and illustrative print blocks are composed by hand with early 20th-century commercial art. Made of metal and wood, each piece feels like a character waiting its turn to jump into the story.
Traditional letterpress is set by hand with moveable type and graphics that were engineered to be reused and rearranged in a thousand different ways. Most are over a century old. There is pleasure in giving their handiwork a chance to be meaningful again.
-
Single elements of art parts are puzzled together in a stack of lines to create the form. The goal is to create a perfect pressure lock to obtain an even impression. It’s like playing a game of Jenga, except horizontally and in reverse.
-
Pressure sets the characteristic tone of the impression through depth and sharpness. It’s controlled mainly by packing, which is unique to every print setup. However, many other variables affect pressure sensitivity between the paper and the form. It helps to be a MacGyver.
-
My Pantone hues are mixed from scratch with Van Son rubber-base ink. Colour is measured by eye instead of weight for an extra layer of painterly satisfaction. The ink is transparent and, therefore, influenced when layered with other tones.
-
I print on 100% cotton, archival-quality paper that's acid-free and perfectly engineered for letterpress. This paper has a soft, luxurious feel, a reputation for longevity, resists yellowing, and is fade-resistant, helping imagery stay true over time.
One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.
— Lewis Carroll
