Tag: letterpress

It’s All In What You See

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Sometimes people will come in the shop and say, “Do you have a card for _____?” And, of course, I have everything BUT that. So I was thinking I could make something ambiguous that might fill several needs:

It’s the way you….

~hold my hand when we walk

~pick out the perfect birthday present, even when I haven’t asked

~let me cry when I’m sad

The card is blank inside, so you can write whatever you want.

But, this could also go in another direction…

It’s the way you….

~leave your coffee mug on our wooden table all day

~drag me to your parents’ house when I’d rather stay home

 

He he! It’s all in the message.

Working Together

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I love working on teams, sharing ideas, making something happen.

Truth is, I am more of a big picture person than a detail person. But sometimes things happen because someone says, “Why don’t we try…”

Recently I worked with a friend, a graphic artist in town. I printed some cards and passed them along to her for watercolor touches. Wow, I was impressed. I LOVE the work she did.

FB Water

Sometimes I wonder why it took me so long to realize how much I like making things. Getting my hands dirty, playing with ink and type, this keeps me going for hours. I wish I’d been able to study design, the weakest link in my process. But I’m willing to learn, put in the time. It’s the problem-solving that keeps me going….

 

etsy
great.ly
website

 

The Business Side of Things

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I’ve been watching other Etsy shops to see how they package and ship, advertise, and promote their letterpress products. It’s actually fun to think about this, not in my wheelhouse, but that’s ok. It’s all about learning.

These are some of the shops I’m following- in no particular order:

Each has its own style, it seems, while I am still all over the place. After the holidays, when things settle down around the shop, I am going to try to focus on presentation. Any other ideas for shops that do this well?

When the Words Won’t Come

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UntitledI’ve been having a hard time writing lately. My dreams are of presses and type, my spare moments have me reading instead of composing. The words roll around in my head. Until they decide to take some shape, I will ignore the guilt.

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Who knew?

Besides artist and author, Nin was also a publishing entrepreneur. In January 1942, she sets up her own small press in a loft on Macdougal Street, and soon set out to print and self-publish a new edition of her third book, Winter of Artifice, teaching herself typesetting and doing most of the manual work herself.

I totally get this:

You pit your faculties against concrete problems. The victories are concrete, definable, touchable. A page of perfect printing. You can touch the page you wrote. We exult in what we master and discover. Instead of using one’s energy in a void, against frustrations, in anger against publishers, I use it on the press, type, paper, a source of energy. Solving problems, technical, mechanical problems. Which can be solved.

But can she teach it?

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My base for the Pearl arrived from Boxcar today, IMG_0820 and I printed some of these bookmarks to hand out at our party at the studio tonight. Though I prefer working with my metal and wood type, I can see why people design with Illustrator and use polymer plates on their presses. Designing for polymer does give you more flexibility with type faces and sizes. And it’s faster–stick it on the base and print. Then wipe it off, peel it off the base, and you’re finished. Of course, the press still needs to be cleaned, which takes time.

Having two presses helps me problem solve. I was struggling with one plate that had a rather large illustration that should have printed black ink. Since the Pearl doesn’t give much of an impression, that section wasn’t printing. So I actually put the chase in the Pearl and let the rollers ink it up — then moved the chase to the proof press, to which I can apply more pressure.  Ta da! Problem solved, and I didn’t have to hand-ink it.

Next week, I need to figure out if I can actually teach someone else to do this. I’ve had many requests for a workshop as there are not many people who do letterpress printing in our area. Even though I’ve been working at this for nearly a year, I still feel like a beginner.

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I enjoyed seeing old and new friends at the party tonight, but it’s been a crazy busy week with two other groups I volunteer with. My introverted self is looking forward to some quiet time in the studio–after a trip to the mountains for some hiking and talking to the fall leaves.