Description

No To War Charity Print

The No To War Charity Print is hand printed using original wooden type on an antique proofing press. We used an Italian cotton mould-made paper, Fabriano Rosaspina and print in black ink. The finished print is 300mm x 420mm.

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** Christmas holiday closure and postal strikes **
The store will be closed between 23 December and 3 January so any orders placed during this time will be sent out from 3 January. Merry Christmas and a  Happy New Year to all our valued customers!

Royal Mail Strikes are taking place on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December so last dates for Christmas posting are:

UK – 16 December | Overseas orders cannot be guaranteed to arrive in time.

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The print is in response to a call-out made on social media by @letterpress.united and we will be donating £5 from the sale of each print to Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity.

 A word from Letterpress United

As a Letterpress United team, we decided to launch a call for antiwar posters to involve letterpress printers from all over the world.

The events of these days in Ukraine are just the latest regarding the use of war as an extreme tool of oppression, and since they are happening in a Western country they are more covered by the media. Way too often, however difficult it is to see it at times, conflicts are not so much about nations or peoples as they are about a wider political and economic vision that divides the world between the untouchable and the defenseless. It is always the weakest who pay the price for this distorted vision, to the benefit of a handful of people who expand their economic influence in an uncontrolled manner. We are tired of this, and frightened by the possible scenarios that could open up.

Some of us have already expressed ourselves individually on these issues, but what pushed us to act collectively and systemically was the arrest of a Russian friend of ours for printing and distributing antiwar posters. He has now been released, but we fear that his troubles have only just begun (for this reason we are not involving or tagging him directly). This is something we cannot accept in any way. Freedom of expression, carried out through a poster or in any other way, is inalienable, and cannot be attacked. This is one of the main reasons why we turn to our community, to bring solidarity to anyone who is having difficulty expressing their ideas.

We are perfectly aware of the contradictions that can arise from this kind of initiative. We know that printing a poster only to put it on social networks, as noble as it may seem in this context, makes little sense: we are seeing photos and videos that, unfortunately, make us think in a more direct way. Mitigating our sense of powerlessness with actions that do not have a real impact in the world does not interest us. Beauty alone will not save the world, we need concrete actions. With this call we want to avoid focusing on ourselves as individuals and our personal expression that, as such, has limits.

What we want to emphasize with this action, on the contrary, is the presence of a real community that can try to respond, with a voice at the same time unique and plural, in a united way to the problems that society presents us, demonstrating our existence and our point of view in a clear and understandable way. We want to make our voice heard clearly on the collective theme of freedom of expression and the rejection of war.

Exactly as in the case of the pandemic, each of us printers is living in a different situation, and this will change over time. In this context a plural response, able to cross borders while maintaining the same simple and fundamental message, acquires more value, bringing out the solidarity that for us is fundamental. We also feel strongly that it is important for us to show solidarity in all of our own languages, so that we are involving our home communities and saying, literally in every language possible, that war is not acceptable anywhere in the world. In addition, to try to bring more of our demands on a real level, we encourage any concrete action that may arise from the posters of this call, such as fundraising, sticking posters in the streets and distribution of a digital and printable version for free.

… From our hearts to yours, thank you. Grazie. Gracias. Takk.

Details

• One size available – 300mm x 420mm
• Collection welcome
• Delivery direct to recipient available at no extra cost
• Gift wrap service available here
• £35.00 with £5 from the sale going to Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity.

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Every purchase you make helps to support The Smallprint Company, so thanks for shopping with us!

About The Smallprint Co.

Hannah and Chris have brought their passion for print to the high street with their boutique studio close to the centre of Derby and its famous Cathedral Quarter. The team prints letterpress commissions for private clients and small businesses, facilitates workshops both on and off site, and produces a range of popular greetings cards and stationery for retail. A gallery is situated to the front of the studio which showcases work by both printmakers and their workshop attendees. They welcome volunteers to the studio to help with cataloguing their expanding collection of type too, so get in touch if you fancy getting your hands inky!