Meet Laura MacDonald, a fan of elbow grease, ink and her half-tonne printing press

When Laura MacDonald moved in 2018, it practically took a village to move her letterpress — a 545-kilogram Vandercook No. 3 cylinder press from the 1930s.

"Every friend I have came over to help," said MacDonald with a laugh, noting this was her fourth move in six years.

Her new print shop, Deep Hollow Print, is in her home in North Alton, in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

The letterpress process involves putting movable type on a press bed. You fill the spaces between the type with other material. Once that's locked and ready to go, you put ink on the press.

The paper is pressed down onto the letters to create the print.

Some presses use electricity, but MacDonald's doesn't. She uses elbow grease and oil.

Video produced by Wesley Booth, Hilary Drummond, with help from Kyle Bernard, for CBC. Music: The Basin Brothers.

The walls of MacDonald's studio are plastered with letterpress she's made or collected. There's the twinkle of string lights and wooden letters that all could tell a story.

This is a place where she creates and hosts house concerts. Some music has been recorded here too.

In this digital age, MacDonald said there's a resurgence of people wanting something more tactile and warm, like vinyl records.

Her letterpress posters have this feel.

"They're warmer, they're friendly, they're human, " she said. "You can tell in all their imperfections that, you know, somebody has touched them to make them."

MacDonald specializes in gig posters, but also creates album covers and concert tickets. She's won two East Coast Music Awards for her work.

She also does projects for local businesses, like the bags for North Mountain Coffee, and makes art prints. Some of her work is graphic design.

MacDonald was born in Nova Scotia. She moved to the United States when she was young, but came back home about 10 years ago to work at Gaspereau Press.

She was interested in book publishing and binding at the time, but developed a love for letterpress.

Nova Scotia to Nashville 

Her letterpress education also took her to Nashville, where she interned at Hatch Show Print, which is famous for it's circus and minstrel show posters. A lot of famous performers had posters printed there, including Elvis Presley and B.B. King.

"Eventually, they sort of become the face of the country music industry down there," said MacDonald.

She experienced that history first-hand.

"I used an h that was used on an old Hank Williams poster," said MacDonald.

While at Hatch Show Print, she worked on posters for the likes of Willie Nelson.

His manager would even send them Krispy Kreme doughnuts sometimes.

"Love Krispy Kreme donuts," said MacDonald.

Community support

A lot of MacDonald's work is inspired by Nova Scotia.

She said the Annapolis Valley is a very supportive community. Most of her clients are local, and the music scene in the valley and the province has been good for her business.

A lot of her clients like to come to her shop to see the process, and sometimes they even help her print the work.

MacDonald said she would eventually like to hold printing workshops.

"It's hard to get started when you don't have the space, you don't have the equipment, so you kind of rely on kindness of other older printers to help you out," she said.