Letterpress Printing Workshop For Beginners | 5th September 2026

A Letterpress Afternoon at The Hellbox Press

For anyone curious about typography, print history, paper, ink, and making something properly by hand. No experience needed, just turn up ready to get inky. 

In four hours you'll learn the basics of letterpress, choosing and setting wood type, locking it up, inking, and pulling prints on our resident Farley proofing press, and you'll go home with two prints you made yourself, start to finish. 

What we'll do

First, Word Soup.
After a quick hello and a demo, everyone writes a few words on slips, a noun, an adjective, a colour, an adverb, and chucks them into the pot. We pull them back out at random and see what nonsense the soup serves up. GREY OSTRICH RUNS SPOOKILY, that kind of thing. The group picks a favourite, and then we set it together in wood type, each person setting their own word, and every has a go printing it. Everyone takes home a copy of the weird little sentence we made.

Then, your word.
In the second half, you'll set and print one word of your own to take home. It can be literally any word, the word that sums up your week, your year, or a word you love, or maybe even hate. Your choice. You'll set it, ink it, and pull it yourself. 

You'll have the run of our small wood type collection, with five or six different font faces to choose from. We'll be printing in black ink throughout.

The ink can take up to two weeks to dry (depending how liberal you are with the ink). Your prints will be left to dry and posted out to you within two weeks, or you can come and pick them up when dry.

The practical bits

• 1:00pm–5:00pm
• £60 per person
• Max 4 people, so everyone gets proper time at the press.
• Please arrive 15 minutes early (12:45) so we can say hello and get settled before we start
• Aprons are provided, please don't wear anything smart, our permanent black ink will ruin your jumper - black is often a safe shout (both in fashion and for this workshop)
• Located in Leighton Buzzard Town Center - directions given once purchased
• Adults only, 18+

Access
The studio is on the second floor with no lift, so please bear that in mind before booking. Pulling the press also takes a bit of welly, there's a proper physical pull involved. If that's not for you, no worries at all, I'm very happy to pull it for you so you still get your print. Just let me know and I can accommodate for you.

Inclusivity
The Hellbox Press is an LGBTQIA+ friendly space, and everyone is welcome in the studio. Disrespect of any kind towards anyone won't be tolerated, and you will be eliminated. (:

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here.