The thing about islands…

I’ve been unable to shake that quote paraphrasing George MacLeod, from bookbinder Rachel Hazell, “The thing about islands is there’s less space between Heaven and Earth.”, so I asked her permission to commit it to type and paper and she generously consented.

I used my daredevil printing skills to set the type the round; divine intervention, rather than careful planning, meant that, in 24 point Futura Regular, it fit perfectly:

The thing about islands, in metal type...

Keeping the type in place was something of a dark art involving multiple quoins plus strategic slips of paper, and significant prayer.

When I realized that the resulting circle was about the same size as my letterpress cut of Prince Edward Island, I conjured up a red-and-black combination of the two, resulting in this:

The things about islands, in red and black with outline of PEI underlaid.

I also printed a few outliers without the background of the Island, including this one, printed on handmade paper made by Catherine many many years ago, which I love:

The thing about islands on handmade paper...

Comments

vbj's picture
vbj on June 20, 2021 - 15:05 Permalink

These are inspired, and gorgeous! Hope they will appear in your Etsy shop soon.

Oliver 's picture
Oliver on June 20, 2021 - 16:58 Permalink

NeatO!

FAS's picture
FAS on June 20, 2021 - 18:09 Permalink

❤️

Chris Corrigan's picture
Chris Corrigan on June 20, 2021 - 18:52 Permalink

If you have these for sale I know a whole bunch of us here on Bowen Island that would want them.

At the very least me.

Please let me know if you plan to sell this design. And perhaps I could even commission one with a silhouette of Bowen Island if you’d be willing.

Thelma's picture
Thelma on June 21, 2021 - 06:24 Permalink

Beautiful, Peter. I especially appreciate that the "and" runs over Unikansuk/Portage, the narrowest part of PEI, like it is holding West Prince to the rest of the island!

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on June 21, 2021 - 08:23 Permalink

You are encircled by the ‘d’.

Kate's picture
Kate on June 21, 2021 - 08:25 Permalink

This is awesome!