In the studio...

Here's a great "Thank You" card by newly certified printer, Miranda Anderson as a part of her sister's wedding suite:

I was prepared to go over the ins and outs of printing two colors on the Vandercooks, but amazingly the registration was perfect on the first try! See more photos of the process at Miranda's blog!

Happy Hour 2.16.11

We had lot going on yesterday at Happy Hour!

Steve and Miranda working with type side-by-side (it was Miranda's first Happy Hour!):

Tess came by to practice setting up on the C&P. Here she is locking up her chase:

And here's her test print (without ink):

And lastly, here's Sarah (another first time Happy Hour-er) contemplating some spacing issues:

Erin also stopped by to help me cut some paper, but I'd already put the camera away!

Hope to see you in 2 weeks!

Tip #5

I recently went through all our galleys at Pyramid and found a surprising number of them had no Type Identification Form. So, this week's tip is to please use this form!!

I understand that when you're in the studio, you're eager  to work on your projects and to get to the printing. But the form isn't just a pointless administrative hoop that I want you to jump through! We have many typefaces that look alike (18 point Optima regular vs 18 point Optima semi-bold, for example). It can be difficult to remember what typeface you used months, or even years later if you weren't dilligent about distributing your type immediately after printing. The form also lets us know who set the type and how long it's been set. We allow you to leave your set type in the galleys for a year. After that, it should be re-sorted.

Here are photos of the orphaned type that I found. I took the liberty of reversing the photos so you can more easily read what the type says. If this is your type, please come and re-sort it or label it (I hope you remember what typefaces you used!) Tonight is a Letterpress Happy Hour night, so that would be a great time to distribute your type!

In the studio...

Melissa and Anna, Pyramid's winter interns, were tasked with making some thank you cards. They made the paper and then printed the cards on the Vandercooks. Here's what they came up with:

This one will be sewn at the top. The back of this one (and most of the others) reads "printed with love by pyramid atlantic interns winter 2011":  

I think they turned out great, and I really admire their ambitious typesetting!

Become a member and you'll most likely be thanked with one of these!

Crafts & Kisses!

Crafts and Kisses is a valentine-themed craft fair and the brainchild of former Letterpress Associate, Moira McCauley. I've been working with her on organizing this year's fair, which will be in a smaller and more intimate setting at La Casa in Mt. Pleasant.

Here are some more details:

Crafts and Kisses will be on Saturday, February 12, 2011!
Time: noon-6pm
Location: La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, Washington DC
We’ll have letterpressed valentines, handmade jewelry, artisan chocolate music by Radio CPR and a screenprinting station! Bring your own t-shirt or scarf or hankie to screenprint on or choose from paper and cards that we’ll have on hand.

(Grant and Elizabeth from the Pyramid's Screenprinting studio will be there running the screenprint station!)

Click to view the Facebook event page!

Check out the Crafts & Kisses blog with previews of the vendors' work!

Call for Volunteers!

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!

Pyramid'll be celebrating its 30th birthday in April, and we had the idea to make a box set of birthday cards for sale in conjunction with the celebration. The idea is to get volunteers (you) to design and print a birthday card (edition size TBD) to contribute to the set. 

Details:

-You create a design and print a card (edition size will be determined shortly)

-Studio time spent working on this project will be free (but still needs to be scheduled in advance)

-You will receive volunteer hours for time spent printing your cards

-Each participant will get to keep one set for themselves

-The rest of the sets will be sold with all funds going directly to Pyramid

-We will provide the paper

-If you choose to use photopolymer, you'll have to cover the cost of the plates

-The deadline to complete all your prints will be Friday, April 1

Please email Julia at letterpress@pyramid-atlantic.org if you're interested in participating and she will email you with more details/design specs. Also, please note that you need to be certified to print/rent on your own to participate in this project. If you are not yet experienced enough to do this, please consider pairing up with someone who is, or taking the workshops/lessons necessary to be certified!