Based in Winchester, VA, Horse & Hare makes a beautiful line of goods crafted by hand and with a sense of humor. The intricate designs are hand-carved using wood and linoleum blocks, then letterpress printed on their antique Chandler & Price press. Horse & Hare is operated by Neil and Kerry Stavely, who also run an art gallery and handmade wares shop in Winchester and work as a tattoo artist and freelance graphic designer. Their work caught our eye when we saw that they were printing onto DIY Scout Books, so we asked them a few questions:
How did Horse & Hare get started printing?
We both went to art school and had studied printmaking a little bit but it wasn’t until some years after school in 2004 that we began printmaking on our own out of our home. Our daughter was young at the time and we found it a good medium to work with in our limited spare time – very easy to pick up and put away, quick clean up and what not. Also, we didn’t have a press at the time so everything was hand burnished with a wooden spoon (something we still do for much of our work), so it was something we easily do out of our home.
We’re big fans of the early German Expressionist printmakers, and love the whole letterpress revival movement that is going on – we lived in Tennessee for awhile so Hatch Show Print and Yee Haw Letterpress really inspired us.
How did you get acquainted with Scout Books?
We had bought some by The Black Apple on Etsy and then at some point looked you guys up! Since then we have acquired different ones from various artists and of course use the ones we print on ourselves. We love them! We try to offer variety of hand printed items other than just art prints – so Scout Books are another way we can exploit our print blocks and provide something useful and beautiful to our customers.
Check out more of Horse & Hare’s work, available through their Etsy shop.
Thanks to Kerry and Neil for sharing these photos!