wayz·goose ˈwāzˌgüs
from The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: An annual summer dinner or outing held by a printing house for its employees. The term is recorded from the mid 18th century, as an alteration of the earlier waygoose ; there is no evidence as to its etymology (there is, for instance, nothing to suggest that goose was eaten at the dinner).
There was no goose present at the Gaspereau Press Wayzgoose but what it lacked in geese it made up for with a lot of joyful people printing a lot of great stuff!
The day started with presentations from Phoebe Todd-Parrish, Emily Hancock, and Amos Kennedy in the upstairs room of the King's Arm Pub.
Phoebe Todd-Parrish (find her here: @flycatcherpress) started us off with a lovely presentation on how she came into printing, the different projects she made during her schooling, how different studios she has worked in have functioned in different communities, and her current project making prints of diners. She was super enthusiastic and had a wonderful energy to start off the day.
Emily Hancock (find her here: @stbrigidpress) gave a really fun walk through of her studio, a virtual tour of the space, a run down of some of the machines she uses, and finished her presentation off by sharing some of her favourite printers from history. Her presentation was full of quotations and mottos and the emphasis on rural printing was important to hear about since so many of the people in attendance live, work, and print in rural communities.
Amos Kennedy (find him here: @kennedyprints) was the final presenter and gave a short presentation all about the studio space he's building "A Pile of Bricks" in Detroit. He's obviously a bit of a legend in the printing community and was a happy conclusion to the talks. Hearing about someone putting so much gusto and energy into a printing space was exciting: there are people out there with lots of room to keep printing! Maybe we can have that too someday!
The final part of the morning session was an audience Q&A with all of the speakers hosted by Andrew Steeves of @gaspereaupress. The question that got everyone riled up the most was "Where do you source your paper?" and I was excited to hear them discuss their strategies since I had, just the night previous, been struggling to buy paper online. Andrew discussed Gaspereau Press's relationship with the Papeterie Saint-Armand. Amos talked about his reasons for printing everything on chipboard (it's so cheap that he can give away his work or sell it for very little thus lowering the barrier to entry).
Next up was the open house! Gaspereau Press was full of happy people. I really want to highlight just how happy everyone was roaming from room to room. People were printing, they were talking about printing, they were running into printing friends, they were meeting new printers: it was a big printing party. I visited all of the stations, printed things, chatted, and felt merry.
I was given the opportunity to make a metal slug and had to get "NSBAG" printed!
Back home I had wonderful new prints to tape on my wall (including a great Nova Scotia postcard from Katie of @woodshedpress) and a big pile of papers and cardboards from the "$5 per handful" bins. This opportunity to get supplies, all of which were offcuts and castoffs from Gaspereau Press, was a real treat. I was so thrilled to get supplies at such an affordable cost to turn into books!
The day ended with more talks in the evening which unfortunately I couldn't attend. The drive home was beautiful, so many gorgeous fall leaves on full display, and when I got home I felt so fired up and inspired by the event. I moved a few items around in my office and now have a shelf dedicated just to book arts supplies. That's how it starts! I'm grateful to Gaspereau Press for hosting such a wonderful and thoughtful time and I feel lucky that there is such an enthusiastic print scene here in Nova Scotia. The feeling in every room was always one of revelry and I think it'll sustain me until next year!
Written by Ariel Bissett