This piece is included in the New Impressions Exhibition on display at the museum April 21-July 29, 2023. There are a limited number of these prints available.
Artist Biography
Jessica Spring is proprietor of Springtide Press in Tacoma, Washington. She started setting cold type on a phototypesetting machine as an undergraduate English major, beginning a lifelong interest in typography. She learned to set real metal type in 1989 and has been a letterpress printer ever since. Her work at Springtide Press—artist books, broadsides and ephemera—is included in collections around the country and abroad. Collaborations are an important part of her work, and a way to share the type collection at Springtide Press. She also collaborates on the Dead Feminists series and co-authored Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color. Spring has an MFA from Columbia College Chicago and teaches workshops virtually and in person around the country.
Description of Process
Known as ‚ 'cinderella stamps', and designed to resemble official postage, artist stamps present an excellent challenge for typographic composition in miniature. "Love Land" combines wood type, metal type and borders printed in three passes with vintage gummed paper perforated on a 1888 Rosback. The ink plays with translucency and opacity to blend with and obscure the colored paper. Letterforms were created using typographic borders--some cast by currently active foundries Patrick Reagh Printers and Bowerbox Press--to contrast the wood type. The letter O was formed with the use of Daredevil Furniture in combination with the Uroboros Ring Set made at Wicked Bear Press. The resulting stamps celebrate the analog details, and send a message of love for our craft.
