Last weekend, on 15 May, I was part of the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose for the second year. I love doing their Wayzgoose, the atmosphere is brilliant, and it is so nice to hang out with fellow printers and those that love type and printing. I met old friends and new friends (many of whom I connect with on Twitter – it really was great to meet them offline!)
St Bride Wayzgoose 2016 – just about to go in!
But what exactly is a Wayzgoose I hear you ask?! Well, it is an annual beano thrown by master printers for their staff. They were traditionally held in August, however thesedays they tend to have no set date, and are more like a fair for letterpress lovers to visit, meet printers, buy letterpress goodies, and soak up the great ambience – just like St Bride’s ones!
The Typelark table all set up, doors just opened…
There were many stalls selling wares such as letterpress prints, type and printing sundries, ex library books from the St Bride Library, refreshments in the form of tea and cakes, the print workshop had demos, and the Bridewell bar was open.
Me, proudly wearing my Printer’s Hat (after Barry Felstead’s guidance!) (Photo source: St Bride Foundation)
When I got a spare moment to leave my stall I couldn’t wait to have a look around. It was so lovely to see everyone else’s amazing letterpress work, and pore over gorgeous metal and wood type, and I managed to get down to the print workshop to make myself a printer’s hat, which I then wore for the rest of the afternoon…
The goodies I bought… wish I had more time to do more shopping for myself!
Though sadly I didn’t get much of an opportunity to shop, I did manage to pick up a couple of books from the ex-library stock, A Treasury of Bookplates from the Renaissance to the Present, London Tradesmen’s Cards of the XVIII Century, and a little replica Illustrated Type Making. I also bought a whole load of paper from the lovely Justin at Fenner Paper to try out new stock and experiment…
It was as brilliant as it was last year, and I hope I can be part of it again next year! And if you’ve never visited St Bride’s or you can’t wait another year for the Wayzgoose, they hold many great type and graphic design related talks and events, plus the library is now open to the public again on the first Wednesday of every month.
