Letterpress save the dates: Spring flowers

I’ll put Katherine and Jeff’s save-the-dates here as a pretty diversion, until I can be a good blogger again…

Letterpress save the dates: Songbirds

A save-the-date with a springtime feel for Laura and Michael’s April wedding… these songbirds are just right for the occasion!

Letterpress correspondence cards

I promised I’d show you these letterpress correspondence cards once they made it to Dallas. Well, I delayed a bit longer (no sunshine for photos!) but at last here they are.

Chocolate ink printed with magnesium plates on white cotton cards, teamed with papaya envelopes.

Beautiful!

{The address has been digitally altered for privacy. Also, upon looking at this post I realise the address looks crooked. It’s not!  I’m so uptight about straightness. Just the angle of the photo makes it look that way….}

On the press : Paris summer wedding invitations

Here’s a walk through the process of printing the letterpress invitation suite for Kate and David’s summer wedding in Paris…

The picture above shows the magnesium plate for the scrollwork. And below is the black-and-white proof I used while setting up the job on the press and checking measurements and alignment.

The invitations go through the press for the first time – scrollwork in soft grey.

Next, the invitation text in mint-green ink. A second magnesium plate, new makeready, and another trip through the press.

While the mint ink was still on the press I set up and printed the green scrollwork for the response cards.

I printed grey text on the response cards…

…and more grey for the outer envelopes. In the picture below, I’m using my trusty AlignMate to make sure the return address is straight.

And in case you forgot what the end product looks like….

The end!  Much happiness.

Letterpress birth announcements: Halle Joan

I’ve waited forever to show you these pictures…

This birth announcement was a thrill to print – not least of all because little Halle is my niece, and she is absolutely ADORABLE.

Okay fine, I’ll save the overexcited-Aunty talk for later.

{Printed on a Chandler & Price Old Style press; magnesium plates; 5x7in 100% cotton card; mint, rose and chocolate hand-mixed inks; antique gold envelopes; print run of 100}

Ooohh, voting!

I’m up late-ish and I’m about to prep some files for platemaking (for a letterpress wedding suite I’m so excited about, by the way!) but first I wanted to share this bit of excitement – Sweet Olive Press has been nominated for The Poppies Awards in the Favorite Paper Goods category! Hooray!!

If you’re in a voting mood, I’d love you to click over to Poppytalk and cast your vote for Sweet Olive Press.  (You’ll need to scroll down the list a fair way…. oh alphabetical order, you are not my friend…)

Voting runs until Saturday, January 30. Thank you!!!! (Yes, I’ve now used up my quota of exclamation marks for the week…)

In other (non-voting-type) news, our kitchen renovation is finally finished! I’m so excited I will definitely be showing you pictures here, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with letterpress.  You watch.

Celebrate: letterpress for a cause

I designed these cards to honour Bryan’s mum, and women everywhere who face cancer with courage, and the families and friends who support them, and the researchers and fundraisers working tirelessly to find a cure.

We only met Bryan’s mother for a couple of days in New Orleans years ago, back when Bryan and Nathan and I were bar-hopping, stoop-sitting, black-cat-owning neighbours in the French Quarter. Bryan’s mum was sweet and off-beat and lovely, and I’ve always remembered her. I wish I’d had the chance to see her again.

When Bryan asked me to design some letterpress Christmas cards themed for breast cancer awareness, I felt completely inspired and filled with an urge to do something good. After many hours at the press, these are the cards:

…and this is the Good: I’m donating a portion of proceeds from the sale of these pink-ribbon Celebrate Love card sets to Susan G. Komen For The Cure® and the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers Foundation. Bryan’s mom supported both, and they supported her.

These cards are letterpress printed one by one on my 107-year-old Chandler and Price letterpress, creating an impression on luxurious 100% cotton (tree-free) stock. They are available in boxed sets in the Sweet Olive Press online store.

Advice

Printing wisdom from my four-year-old:

“We don’t lick the letterpress,” she says, “because it would taste yuck.”

Sweet Olive Press business cards

Running out of business cards is actually kind of great! It gives me a chance to take a fresh look at my card and – in this case – redesign it altogether.

I started out with a blind impression for the little flowers, but then I switched to printing with transparent white for an “almost blind” impression. The pattern just looked better and more uniform with a little ink on the press.

For the text, I hand-mixed a dark charcoal ink that jumps right off the card without being too harsh (black would’ve been a little much, really).

The Chandler & Price is behaving beautifully – all ready to start printing the many (many!) custom projects and new stationery designs that are lined up for the next few weeks. I’ll keep the pictures coming…

A perfect printing machine…

In 1902, my letterpress was manufactured by the Chandler & Price Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and I’ve often wondered about all the places it has lived since then. I’ve tried to imagine the printers who have worked with it and, marvelling at how beautifully it runs after 107 years (107!), I’ve been thinking more and more about the skills of the men who built it.

The 1902 Chandler & Price Printing Press catalog, titled “The Chandler & Price Press … A Perfect Printing Machine” gives an interesting (and charming) insight into the way these presses were built. Take a look:

“Specializing is the secret of perfection in any line of work, and this is especially true of machine construction. Every machinist who works on the Chandler & Price Press is a specialist, that is, each part is perfectly made by an individual who does nothing else the year round. He is never put on other work… The several parts thus being made by specialists, the assembled machine must be perfect in its operation – perfect parts must make a perfect whole.

“Each part when finished must meet the standard of measurement to the smallest fraction of an inch. Should it fail in this it is condemned immediately. No part is ever ‘made to do’. Accuracy in every detail is essential.”

In 1902 my C&P 8×12 had a list price of $165, and the company’s literature boasted, “Over 15,000 in use. Every one satisfactory.”

{Chandler & Price illustration from the 1902 catalog, courtesy of Industrial Objects Infobahn}