Hair Metal or Synth Pop, Hip Hop or New Wave, come print your own mix tape art print using our century-old letterpress, this Saturday night!

With nostalgia in the air, the movement of cast iron and paper will result in a blank cassette for you to keep or share. The print is a blank cassette, but what you put on it is up to you. More importantly, who are you giving it to? We hope "I Made You a Mix Tape" brings back memories for some and makes new memories for everyone.

Please note the temporary adjustment in our hours on Saturday, Oct 14th: open noon-midnight.

The FREE art print will be available to make during the hours of 6pm-midnight TONIGHT - Saturday, Oct 14, 2023!

Can't make it? A limited number of mix tape art prints will be available online for the cost of shipping and handling, while quantity lasts. Order a Nocturne Keepsake!

Check out the Nocturne guide to explore all of the projects and events taking place in Halifax/Dartmouth!

Before, and after.

The above photos clearly show the restoration work done to our Golding Pearl No. 11 Improved Press serial #1918 built c. 1920 in Massachusetts, USA.

When I decided to open Inkwell, one of my goals was to have at least one working floor model letterpress in the shop. Finding an old piece of equipment such as this, in working order can be a costly and time consuming quest. So with some patience and hard work we can now introduce our working floor model press that we affectionately named Isabella aka "Pretty Izzy".



We first found Isabella for sale on the letterpress classifieds at Briar Press. She was located in Connecticut. After negotiations with the owner, we agreed on a purchase price and pick-up date. This happened in December 2010, just as winter was beginning in Atlantic Canada and the New England states. Not an ideal time to plan a road trip, but with a clear forecast, and borrowed new van (thanks Mom & Dad!) my partner Daniel and I began the 2800 km (roundtrip) journey.



Weather was fantastic during our travels and we found our way around easily. We disassembled Isabella (would we remember how it all goes back together!?) and with the help of some local movers to do the heavy lifting, loaded Isabella into the van for her journey to Canada.

As you can see she was a colourful beast. Previous owners had really botched her surfaces with poorly applied paint. She was pretty beat up, but still in working order, so we were excited to have her and knew her potential.



The next few months were spent stripping and sanding her various cast iron parts. Working in an un-heated garage during a Canadian winter makes cast iron VERY cold to work with.



Work continued into the spring when weather allowed for more outdoor work, including painting and varnishing. So many parts, so many screws and bolts collected. Fingers were crossed through the whole process that we'd know how she went together.



Parts we painted, gears were oiled and everything fit together. Every part has its own specific function which made assembly quite easy. Everything fit into place nicely.



Here she is today. Our 90 year old black beauty - Isabella. On a warm Saturday in August we ran our first prints on her. With very little adjustment she was printing great. It was us, as press operators that needed more work. We ran about 100 Inkwell Boutique business cards and cleaned her up.

Stop by soon and see her in person!

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 9, 2011

This week marks 10 years of business for Inkwell!

Thank you to the wonderful customers who shop at Inkwell. I'm so proud and thankful to still be here and couldn't have done it without your incredible support over the years - through all the highs and lows!

Over the last decade, we've had 2 different locations, countless open houses and book signings, printing demos and letterpress keepsakes, collaborations, crafting workshops, an in-house/wholesale product line, awards, accolades, and features on TV, in books, magazines and newspapers. We've gone from a one page website to a full e-commerce site with thousands of products.

During this time, we've made countless friendships, worked alongside the best employees and makers. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!

We've seen you, our customers, through the celebrations and sorrows that life brings and our community has seen us through the joys and challenges that shop ownership presents.

I hope you feel every purchase is a transfer of the enthusiasm I feel for everything we offer in Inkwell. I hope that some of the love that each maker puts into the handmade items we sell brightens your day, whether it's something for yourself or a gift for someone else.

Ten years in business is a major milestone and we'll celebrate in person when it's safe to do so.

Thank you all for your continued support and for allowing me to live my dream.

  Andrea

"At the Ladies of Letterpress 2020 conference, Jenny Wilkson of Partners in Print (formerly the SVC Letterpress Program) reminded and inspired us that hope can be more than a feeling, it can be a call to action. By the same token, taking action—working with meaningful purpose—inspires hope. As artists and printers, let’s use the power of print to create and disperse messages of hope amongst each other and throughout our communities. Messages that will inspire action, new ways of thinking, and new ways of being."

When we started to think about what our submission would be, the decision was made to use a polymer plate on our Vandercook SP-15 because we've been having great success with it. The idea of doing a reduction print was very appealing both to explore the technique, and as a cost saving measure. Is it possible to do a reduction print with polymer? After a few tests with older plates we determined we could not make deliberate cuts into the polymer and it did not seem like it was something that would produce results we were happy with. But then, we decided to do an untested technique we'll call 'destructive printing'!

The first colour, blue, was printed using the plate as we normally do, with some extra packing to ensure we get an impression in the paper. For the green colour run, we used a painters tool and a rusty hacksaw plate to chop, hack, and scratch the polymer. It felt so counterproductive to how we normally treat polymers! Bits and pieces were flying off, and a mess was made, but would it be enough? Would it have any impact on the next print run? It did!

We were so pleased to see how the scratches and indentations on the polymer translated to the print. Not only did the destructive marks translate visually, they resulted in an impressive tactile feel on the final print.

Thanks to Ladies of Letterpress, Partners in Print and the Printing Museum for arranging the print exchange, and to Jenny Wilkson for the inspiration for the print. We look forward to seeing what others have created. Remember, hope is action!

Printed on a Vandercook SP-15, January 2021 by Inkwell Originals
Polymer plate from Boxcar Press
Light grey 92lb coverstock from Reich Savoy
Printed with Pantone process blue and Pantone 2255

Please enjoy these free printables!

We'd love to see your finished artwork or posters hanging! Tag us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @inkwellboutique!

Nova Scotia Mayflower (We Bloom Amid the Snow) colouring sheet

Halifax Streetcar Paper Toy activity

Enjoy this free printable colouring page that you can cut out and make into a paper toy! Click here or on image to download. We'd love to see your finished toys! Tag us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @inkwellboutique! Check out our other printables here!

Enjoy this free printable colouring page! Click here or on image to download.We'd love to see your artwork! Tag us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @inkwellboutique! Check out our other printables here!

We are through the roof ecstatic to see an 8-page spread of our handmade creations showcased in this new book Print/Maker by Uppercase Magazine! We are truly humbled to be included alongside so many talented peers, friends and artists we've carried over the years!

The book contains 48 profiles, 368 pages and over 660 images from all sorts of printmaking mediums like silkscreen, letterpress, risograph, linocut and more by artists from all around the globe!

Available now in our Halifax shop!