Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kaitlin Crockett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kaitlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This summer I worked on a zine publication called Sentimental St. Pete. After hearing about yet another classic local haunt closing down, my favorite dive bar, Wilson’s, I was inspired to memorialize the special places we’ve lost in a little booklet. Those of us who grew up in Tampa Bay have seen the massive changes the area has undergone and with it the loss of some of St. Pete’s oldest and irreplaceable, Haslam’s, Coney Island, World Liquor… I made the project for myself, really, but it’s been nice to see that other people connect with it too. Sentimental St. Pete is Risograph printed and hand-sewn, with two postcards that pull out from the cover.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Print St. Pete is a community studio specializing in Letterpress and Risograph printing. We offer workshops, studio time, and custom/original print work. Letterpress is a relief printmaking process where a raised surface, such as metal type or wood blocks, is inked and pressed into paper. Risograph or Riso (pronounced “ree-so”) is sort of a combination between screen printing and xerox, and it’s perfect for posters, books, zines & publications. At Print St. Pete we offer a unique opportunity to get inky with us, to be hands-on and learn through the process. We’re one of the only community-access studios in Florida offering letterpress printing and risograph printing.

I discovered printmaking and book arts when I was a Creative Writing major in college because I was interested in the idea of self-publication and zines. But ink has probably always been in my veins- my grandfather was a typesetter at a newspaper and my grandmother was a proofreader. I love the tactile nature of printmaking, the sounds of the presses, the smells of the ink. Letterpress can be quite time-intensive and tedious, and Riso is a finicky creature, but I have grown to love the process as much as the finished product, which can’t be reproduced by digital means. There’s just something special about a hand printed card or a riso zine, the texture, the misregistration, the little imperfections that show a human made it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal of PSP has always been to foster a community around print & book arts by offering affordable hands-on education and studio access.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As an educator, I enjoy teaching and sharing my creative passion with others. I love to see it “click” for people when they’re in the shop and they pull their first print. I live to see their excitement at the endless possibilities for creating. It’s also incredibly rewarding working with artists and designers to bring their projects to life in the form of posters, prints, and publications. I feel so honored to work with clients who trust me fully with their work, and that means a lot.

Contact Info:

• Website: printstpete.org
• Instagram: @printstpete
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/printstpete

Image Credits
Becky Rudolf