Blown Rose’s new project Never Let Me Go is part of this June’s Walthamstow Art Trail.
Mudlarkers searching for treasure on the Thames foreshore sometimes turn up single letters from a print typeface half-hidden in the silt and gravel.
These individual lead letters are part of the Doves Type, a typeface created during the early years of the 20th century by The Doves Press. This was a private printing press aligned with the Arts & Craft movement and established by Emery Walker and T J Cobden-Sanderson.
The Doves Type stayed at the bottom of the river for nearly 100 years. Graphic designer Robert Green became fascinated by the legend of the lost letters and in 2014, following close study of Cobden-Sanderson’s journals and the site and armed with his mudlarker’s licence, he found three letters of Doves type on the foreshore: v, I and e. Subsequently, Port of London Authority divers, under his guidance, retrieved 147 of its characters. An expert type designer, Rob was also responsible for the digital recreation of the Doves typeface.
Never Let Me Go comprises dozens of poems and fragments inspired by the story, set in Doves. Hundreds of printed cards featuring the new work will be scattered round the indoor domestic setting at Upper Walthamstow Studios: you’re invited to mudlark your way through them and take one home to treasure.
We’ll also be hand-making one-off concertina books during the weekend – come and add your line, image or mark to a collective publication to celebrate the occasion.
Part of Walthamstow Art Trail (exhibitor #161)
Dates & Times: Sat 13th & Sun 14th June, 11am – 5pm
Venue: Upper Walthamstow Studios, 15 Upper Walthamstow Road, London E17 3QG
Nearest Station: Wood Street
(Also at the venue – Mark Sowden’s foreshore finds, ceramics and photographs; Sharon Drew’s rhythmic abstract paintings; The Nun’s Glass Head stained glass and a beautiful hidden garden with a toad.)