Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 184
LEFT: All the couple’s
presses are either handor foot-operated. This
reduces their need for
electricity and means they
can continue working in
powercuts.
RIGHT: The arms of a
cast-iron treadle press
dating from 1910. With over
24 points that need to be
regularly oiled, maintaining
equipment is a big job for
Emma and JP.
“We love the idea of contributing
to Dartmoor’s literary history”
To this end, the couple produces custom-printed
stationery for local companies and limited-edition
art which is often inspired by Dartmoor’s heritage.
Along with a range of posters featuring bygone names
of tors – the granite outcrops for which Dartmoor is
famed – they print quotes from Arthur Conan Doyle’s
classic Sherlock Holmes crime novel, The Hound of the
Baskervilles, which is set on Dartmoor.
They also produce cards painted with homemade
‘wild inks’ made by boiling down oak galls, nettles,
gorse, rowan and hawthorn, gathered during walks
on the moor. “We tried growing dye plants in our
garden, but Princetown gets too much rain and not
enough sun for those,” says Emma. “So, we started
experimenting with what’s growing in the wild on our
doorstep, and managed to create inks that reflect the
wonderful greens, greys, browns, russets and reds that
are in our landscape. We love helping our community
tell their stories with local materials.”
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Their strong sustainability ethos means the couple
use green energy for their limited electricity needs,
and print on British-made recycled paper. “We recycle
our misprints and offcuts to make new paper, so it’s
sometimes recycled twice,” says JP.
They even experiment with fixing their inks
using iron from stray horseshoes they find on the
moor, and from copper pipes unearthed during their
home’s refurbishment.
With letterpress skills listed as ‘endangered’ by
Heritage Crafts, the couple are determined to do their
bit to keep the tradition alive. “Internationally, we
are on the cusp of losing the knowledge,” says Emma.
“We feel as if we are custodians of these machines, and
it’s our responsibility to do what we can to keep them
going, so they can continue to capture people’s stories
on paper for years to come.”
The Letterpress Printers • Emma Hogbin & Jon Palmer
