Pomegranate Letterpress + Design is the husband and wife team of Joe Borges and Margot Cudmore. We met while working in the crazy world of advertising and realized if we wanted to keep our sanity we needed to find an outlet that let us be the client and produce work that makes us happy.
Tell
us about your work and what we can expect to see at this years Handmade
Hamilton?
Our
work is very much a mix of Canadiana and our sense of humour. We love the art
of typography, and strong clean layouts. At Hamilton Handmade, you’ll see a
collection of hand-printed art prints, drink coasters, greeting cards, booklets
and our limited edition Canada150 calendar. Many of our art prints are
eyebrow-raising, funny, or interesting quotes or phrases,. Recently, we’ve
added original lino carving images to mix giving us a delightful new way to
share our stories. We use a 600-year-old technology to create these truly one-of-a-kind
items – each one different because of the nature of the printing process, the
character of the wood and metal letters and the fact that each print is
hand-fed, one colour and one sheet at a time. You can expect to find something
that will make you smile knowing you’re the only one who owns something so
unique.
What
does your process look like?
Our
process is a fluid merging of creativity and production. We make a great team
by building on each other’s strengths and
weaknesses. The process can start with a spark of an idea while driving in the
car or talking to people at one of the craft shows we participate in. Once we
have a new idea, we figure out the best way to make it come to life. A new art
print might be created with our selection of wood and metal type, or it might
be an original lino-carving illustration – or even a combination of both! Much
thought goes into who we a creating this art for, and how they will experience
it. All this before we even get to the press!
Once
on press, we start hand-setting the type and creating the layout – this is when
it pays to be fluid in your creative process! Sometimes the set-up takes hours
and sometime the layouts create themselves in minutes. We take time to craft
the layout, we kern the letters, we adjust the rollers, hand-mix the inks and
then we replace, we discard, we start over. Or sometimes, we just print and
enjoy the results.
What
are your inspirations?
Letterpress
itself is an inspiration because the process can’t be rushed, it is tactile, it
is old, it is new, and it is different each time. Our collection of wood type metal
type is inspiring because each letter has its own story. How many hands have
touch this piece of wood, set it, cleaned it, sorted it and printed with it?
How many stories has it told?
And
Canada is inspiring. All of it. We love how this country is growing and
learning, and what it brings out in all of us. The merging of cultures, all the
foods it opens up for us. The CBC inspires us. Music inspires us. The farmers’
market. Our own garden. Pop culture - we love watching TV (a hang-over from our
advertising days!). We love sports. We love going to Ottawa Street and hitting
the antique shops. Or going to a concert in Oakville, or a local paper store in
Thorold. Inspiration is all around us, you just have to be listening and
watching for it.
Many
makers listen to podcasts. Do you? and what are some of your favourites?
Yes, we both listen to some podcast. Two Podcasts we’d
recommend are Unthinkable and The Creator’s Journey both deal with
being creative and all the things that come with it.
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