About us
Two people, three presses, since 2019
Fold & Grain began with a proof press nobody wanted: Inês found it under a tarpaulin in a closed printer's shop in Gaia, with six cases of wood type still beside it. Tomás, who had been printing zines on a risograph for years, helped carry it home. In 2019 we took a ground-floor room on Rua do Breiner and started selling at the Saturday market in Praça Carlos Alberto. We still print everything ourselves, in small runs, on papers we can trace: cotton from a mill in Catalonia, recycled stock from northern Portugal, soy-based riso inks. On Thursday evenings the composing stands fill up with people learning to set their own name in type.
Inês and Tomás
How a print is made
From a case of type to a sheet on the wall
Setting the type
Inês picks each letter from the case and sets the lines in a composing stick, upside down and back to front, spacing them by eye.
Locking up the forme
The type goes onto the bed of the press between wooden furniture and is locked tight with quoins, so nothing moves under the roller.
Mixing the ink
Each colour is weighed and mixed on the glass slab with a palette knife until it matches the proof we keep for that print.
Pulling the print
One sheet at a time, inked, laid, rolled and lifted off by hand. Then the prints dry on the rack for two days before they are signed.
The printers
Who you are buying from
Inês Carvalho
Letterpress and type
Trained as a graphic designer at the Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto. Sets the type, runs the proof press and the platen, and teaches the Thursday evening class.
Tomás Ferreira
Risograph and binding
Printed zines on a borrowed risograph for ten years before buying his own. Makes the posters, sews the notebooks and runs the market stall.