Some bits and some pieces

Here are some blurry pictures of some things I've done since the last time I updated this ill-updated blog:

Two Hangover Lounge birthday celebrations, five years and six years

Here's another HL beermat, apropos of I don't remember what...

This one is something I did to celebrate a show we are putting on in collaboration with our friends at Chickfactor:

And this one is very close to my heart, celebrating my lovely wife's lovely birthday:

I've also made a number of beermats on commission, some of which have turned out very nicely, but I feel bad about posting those, since they belong to other people!

Here's a thing...

...I printed as a commission for a friend. I was very pleased with it. The "have a good great day"piece relates to a story concerning actual real famous musicians, and I'll tell you the story if I see you in the pub. It might even be true.

Dicky Knee

I couldn't go to my friend Nicky D's party, so I made him some beermats instead. I thought they came out rather nicely. Must remember to keep things simple sometimes.

Printing on celluloid

1. Yes I've been quiet here. Sorry. I haven't given up; actually I've been busy doing commissions for things like people's weddings but I can't really show you those because they're sort of private. Ah well.

2. No I haven't been actually printing on celluloid. I haven't got the correct sort of ink. And I'm not sure it is a very good idea in the first place.

3. BUT! Two little pieces of Half Pint Press work are available to see on an actual real pop video*: our good friend Darren Hayman asked for a couple of beermats to serve as the title sequence of his new video, for the excellent "Old Man, Don't Waste Your Time". You can see them here:


Old Man, Don't Waste Your Time - Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament from Darren Hayman on Vimeo.

You can read more about the song, and the record it comes from (part of the WIAIWYA 7777777 singles club) at Darren's site, and I strongly suggest you do.

*Yes I know it's video not celluloid, WHAT OF IT?

The Hangover Lounge Three EPs Box Set!

After the third Hangover Lounge EP came out, and in honour of an Independent Record Mart one Saturday, I made a super-limited (25 copies) box set of the three EPS with some spare copies of the vinyl we had. It involved some experimental printing on felt, which gives a great effect, but which presented some drying problems. I was really quite proud of how this one came out.

Here's how it looked:

1. The box itself is a 10" cardboard box with a handprinted postcard, like so, fixed to the top of the box with paper fasteners:

2. Open up the box and here's what you'll find:

Sitting on top of a hand-printed and numbered piece of felt are a specially handprinted and numbered beermat:

PLUS! a track-listing poster beautifully designed by none other than Pam Berry, who's played such an important part in making the regular EP covers so lovely:

PLUS! a selection of Hangover Lounge badges

Under the felt you'll find three beautiful pieces of vinyl, the three EPs themselves, of which we are all very proud. And, y'know, it's all about the music, man. 

At the time of writing there remain a few of these left, we're selling them for £20 a pop. I've no real idea how long they'll last. Leave a message in the comments box if you're interested and I'll get back to you.

Some more celebrations!

I have made a few celebratory beermats for special occasions, including a couple of commissions (I'm open to accepting commissions, by the way, and you'd be surprised how reasonable the rates are. Yes you would.

So, first up, a set of beermats celebrating the birth of a niece of some friends of ours:

Also, my good friends Kerry and Ewan got married, and asked me to rustle up some beermats by way of wedding invitations. After playing with a few ideas, I was hit with this one , which I was amazed and delighted they liked. So, on one side we had this (I added a bit of colour to the final print run as you can see below):

Leaving the other side showing this: 

Put them together and it starts to make sense: 

A few in a row even more so:  

Here's the colour I was talking about:  

People seemed to like these a lot, I was given a little round of applause at the wedding. I was a bit worried about offending people! I made a second, less rude design for the relatives who might have been offended. As it happens, I was very pleased with the polite run, too. 

Congratulations again to the lovely Kerry and Ewan. 

The Hangover Lounge EP3

This is really late, I know but I'm trying to get this blog updated with the good stuff. So, we made the third Hangover Lounge EP. It's a doozy (musical details here, and posts thereabouts). As ever, the front cover was done beautifully by Pam Berry: 

My bot was the back cover as usual, and I thought it was the best of my three efforts: even this relatively limited quantity of text leaves y press, or me, or both of us, struggling a bit: 

For good measure, here are some pics of the sleeves being assembled on our rug: