This year’s Love Letters Botanica 2026 exhibition invited printers across Aotearoa to explore the botanical world through relief‑printed text and imagery. It’s a theme that feels wonderfully aligned with my own practice, so I’m delighted to share my two submissions—both titled Just My Type.
Just My Type — Botanical Selection on Crane Lettra
Printed in green and red on 300gsm Crane Lettra white, this piece brings together a curated selection of small botanical and floral motifs. Each element is hand‑set and hand‑inked on my Korrex Stuttgart cylinder proofing press, drawn from my wider collection of borders, ornaments, florettes, and decorative typographic details.
Just My Type — Silver on Crane Wild Black
The companion piece explores the same ornamental vocabulary but shifts the mood entirely. Printed in silver ink on 300gsm Crane Wild black, it highlights the sculptural quality of letterpress impression—light catching on raised forms, pattern emerging from darkness.
Behind the Printing Process
Alongside the finished prints, I’m sharing a few photographs from the press bed to show how each motif was composed and locked up for printing. Every square began as a small arrangement of metal ornaments—borders, florettes, corner pieces—brought together on the bed of my Korrex Stuttgart. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing these tiny elements held in tension, ready to transfer their form to paper with one clean pass of the cylinder.
Shaping the Leaf Forms
Once printed, each motif was hand cut and then cornered on opposing corners to create a stylised leaf shape. This small intervention transformed the squares from simple samples into something more sculptural and botanical. The cutting process became its own quiet rhythm: measure, trim, corner, repeat. It’s a reminder of how much of letterpress lives beyond the press itself—in the handling, shaping, and finishing that give each piece its final character.
Exploring Variations
Preparing work for this exhibition led me to print far more variations than I ultimately submitted. Different sizes, shapes, combinations, and colourways emerged as I worked, and the process opened up some exciting new directions. These small botanical squares—each just 35 × 35 mm—have become a kind of modular language, full of potential for future projects.
Commission Possibilities
If these motifs or the approach resonate with you, I would be very interested in discussing commissioned projects that make use of these ornamental prints. I’m especially drawn to:
- Artists’ books
- Book‑form structures
- Three‑dimensional sculptural pieces
Projects where typography, pattern, and form can interact in unexpected ways are where this work truly comes alive.
If you have an idea you’d like to explore—or would like to see some of the unused variations—please feel free to get in touch.
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