Crafty News

Hello Calgary. Clawhammer Press will be in town for the weekend! Come on down to Festival Hall in Inglewood and see our booth at the New Craft Coalition sale! We’ll be there with all kinds of new products and our portable printing setup.

We’ll Call You

Thanks to everyone who put in the effort to contact us and submit an application for our internship position. We will be making contact and calling everyone in some way shape or form over the next few days, and hope to have a decision by Monday. Cheers! -mike

Internship/Summer Staff Position 2014

EXTENDED: Based on a grant we received word about over the weekend, we are extending the deadline for application to Thursday, May 8th @ 12 noon. Because the grant is BC-based funding, our decision may favour BC students who are finishing and/or returning to school in BC.

Clawhammer Press has an opening for a 4 month position for an intern and summer staff person. The position is designed for a 3rd or 4th year design student, graphic artist or emerging typographer who is interested in enriching their knowledge of letterpress printing, typography, type history, as well as some of the peripherals such as creative industry ingenuity, customer service and merchandising.

The lucky candidate would start in May (exact date TBD) and begin with a 20-25 hour per week internship in May and June. Hourly wage will vary depending on experience and eligibility for subsidy grants. July and August will see the learning continue, but will shift to more hours per week with more responsibilities, including at least two weeks where the intern becomes master of the shop; overseeing all retail sales, printing projects, and daily operation of both retail shop and print studio.

Position includes 24/7 access to a well-equipped letterpress studio, and supplies at cost for your own projects. Interns with initiative may end up with products and projects for sale on commission in our retail shop.

To express your interest in the position, please forward the following information to mike@clawhammer.ca:
1. Your name, phone number, email address
2. Why you are interested in the position
3. A bit about yourself, your experience and your journey
4. Some samples of your work or a link to your website/CV
5. Give us an example of a problem you’ve encountered in your work, and how you solved it.

In addition, please also make sure:
• You spell everything carefully. We like good spellers.
• The email subject line reads: “Internship – Expression of Interest”
• You are entirely available from the beginning of May to the very end of August.
• You have a creative, open mind that’s ready for learning

Questions:

1. What can I expect to do during my time there?
Interns can expect to everything that is required in a letterpress shop. This includes type cleaning, sorting, distributing. Sorting… lots of sorting. It can include cleaning up ink, cleaning presses and cleaning shelves. It can also include data entry, inventory, and creating lists. The upside is that it also will include extensive experience hand-setting type, creating photopolymer plates, operating flatbed proofing presses, platen presses, troubleshooting, creasing, binding, mixing ink, talking to customers, quoting, product ideation, articulation, and production. Also, anything else that we think is necessary, relevant, and will enrich your time and experience at Clawhammer. If you don’t like following instructions and doing a variety of tasks cheerfully, please don’t apply. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for creativity. Did we mention sorting?

2. Where will I live?
The city of Fernie is not a cheap place to live, but May is a good time to look for a home because the seasonal workers from the hill will be clearing out. We cannot subsidize your living expenses for the four months, but we can assist with looking for a place to live and helping find ways to keep your living expenses at a minimum. We have connections and may be able to find a room/board situation, or a shared accommodation depending on availability and your preference.

3. What is Fernie like?
Fernie is a resort municipality. There is plenty of recreation to be had in the area: hiking, mountain biking, swimming, live music, fly fishing, and whatever else floats your boat for summer entertainment. It’s a great place to spend a summer. The downtown core is full of boutique shops, good coffee, international cuisine, and artsy things to do and see. People move here from all over the world. You’ll like it here I promise.

4. Will I get some time off?
Yes! The hours are flexible, and we can work together to work out a schedule that works for you. We do expect you to make yourself available when we need you, and you’ll have lots of notice about when that is. Part of the reason we are offering the position is so we can take some holidays, so that is our priority. Any other time we can be quite flexible about when you work your hours for internship and/or summer staff.

5. Will we be doing this every year?
That depends. We”ve had interns before, and it”s worked well, but we haven”t had a specific position with a set purpose, so if this process goes well we may do this every year. It is certainly an opportunity that I would have liked to have when I was looking for a place to learn.

6. Are there other opportunities?
Yes… we are open to talking to you. If you have 3-6 weeks and want to come and volunteer your time as an unpaid position here, we can certainly provide that as a work placement and/or intensive learning experience. We”d basically be trading learning and use of the shop in exchange for your labour helping run the shop and learn about letterpress. We don”t have a set program but can work with people to develop something that may work out depending on the person. We”ll do this on a very limited basis, so we reserve the right to say “that”s not going to work for us right now”. We also do custom 1-3 day workshops for individuals and small groups, which is another, less intense option.

More answers will be added as we get asked by potential interns, so don”t hesitate to ask.