Helen Moss, Awen Press

Blue Route

I am a printer and printmaker, making traditional private press books and prints using the letterpress and bookbinding crafts. The books are composed with metal type and illustrated with lino, wood or acrylic engravings, which are largely analogue printed on vintage machines such as an 1846 Albion iron hand press.

Behind the Scenes
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About My Practice

I have been printmaking for over 30 years and now focus on hand engraving acrylic plates or lino. I am still new to typographical printing, having only recently achieved the traditional 7 years apprenticeship (although I am mostly self-taught.) I worked as the ‘printers devil’ with my husband Graham Moss of Incline Press, who taught me more developed skills around composing type on ‘the stone’, book design, binding and the business of selling work to collectors around the world. I have now inherited his workshop collection built over 30 years, and continue to print my own books and prints, combining the crafts of typography and engraving. We had planned to develop a teaching practice to pass on the increasingly rare skills of the book arts, which I shall be focussing on in the next couple of years.

Tools & Materials

The workshop covers the large ground floor of this building, a former café and pub. It is a semi industrial space, with stacks of paper, type and mostly analogue printing presses. The fine press book, is traditionally created with deckled, handmade papers and covered in marbled or other decorative paper. Letterpress is very sustainable, low impact craft that is recognised by the Heritage Crafts as ‘endangered’ and on their red list.