Birthday Card Fundraiser Preview #3

(Note: You may want to see Preview #1 and Preview #2 for background info on this project!)

I love that each time I go to Pyramid, I see new finished birthday cards in the studio! Here are some photos of the newly finished cards:

Bridget's added a yellow exclaimation point to go with her yellow envelopes:

Here's Melanie's card (unfortunately my camera had a hard time picking up the pretty blind impression pattern):

Bea's colors actually look really similar to Melanie's! Too bad they didn't coordinate to save on clean up!

Miranda's card fun word search card:

And the newest one, Tess' Marie Antoinette inspired card:

I really can't wait to package all of these together!

In the studio...

On Friday, Melanie and I did a double lesson with sisters Kristin Regan and Jen Liljegren:

The two run LilyPad Weddings and are thinking about adding letterpress as a service for their custom wedding invitation clients.

Here's a photo of some notecards they printed. Such a pretty color!

I hope to see them in the studio again soon!

Tip #7

This tip comes from Sarah Noreen, an excellent printer who designed the December page in the 2011 PA Letterpress Calendar. To facilitate registration, she does test prints on tracing paper.... SO smart! I know I've shown some of you how to do tests on copy paper and compare alignment using the lightbox. It's the same idea, but this way is so much simpler! Just do your print on the tracing paper and then line it up with your actual paper to see where it'll print in relation to your paper's edges or previously printed colors!

Sarah's card had a little cutout window, so she used the tracing paper to place her pretty border around the window:

Birthday Card Fundraiser Preview #2

Yay! We've got some more completed (and semi-completed) birthday cards!

In case you didn't know, Pyramid turns 30 on April 9 and we're going to be selling sets of birthday cards at the party.

And on to the photos!

A shot taken by Marty of the "done" pile:

Bridget's first color (a really pretty one!):

Erin's awesome orange and pink design:

And a beautiful print of Megha's that I found in the scrap bin!

I'm loving how different these all are!

The studio is pretty much booked solid for the next two weeks, so stay tuned for the another preview shortly!

Happy Hour 3.16.11

Hello there friends!

Better late than never.... I've finally gotten around to posting pics from last week's Happy Hour! The card above was printed by Miranda on the tabletop. Here's really cute action shot:

The yellow "hi" was printed using some wood type here at Pyramid. The "hello there friend" was a bit of type that Miranda added to a photopolymer order that was going to Boxcar.

Steve and Morgan came to work on some typesetting projects. Can't wait to see what each of them cooks up!

And lastly, Melanie and I spent most of time prepping for printing.... Mel worked on an inventory of all the various papers she has and I worked on cutting my 22" x 30" paper into 4.5" x 6.25" sheets. We're both preparing for our upcoming Grey Moggie/Orange Tabby joint ventures!

In the studio...

Earlier this week, I was in the studio with Melissa Livingston printing a passage by George Bernard Shaw so she could get her remaining hours for certification.

Melissa inking up the Universal:

Her first color:

Her inked photopolymer plate for her second color:

And the resulting print (this beautiful initial cap was made from one of the files available at Briar Press):

Obligatory drying rack shot (doesn't everything look great on the drying rack?):

The extra fun part was that it was Melanie was teaching Jeremy Lin how to use the C&P at the same time!

Tip #6

Marty sent me this photo:

The plan was to come print her birthday card in a creamsicle color. However, because the previous user didn't fully clean up, the creamsicle ink came out looking ochre (the lower print)! After a cleaning, she got the desired color (the upper print).

So the tip is to always fully clean the rollers! And if you're printing in an especially bright (or light) color, you might want to consider doing a check and a preventive cleaning, just in case. But, let's all try to fully clean up after ourselves each time we print. Remember, the golden rule... you wouldn't want someone to leave a dirty press for you, would you?

Birthday Card Fundraiser Preview #1

In conjunction with Pyramid's 30's Birthday Open House celebration on April 9, we will be selling sets of letterpress birthday cards designed and printed by various members of our PA letterpress community. All proceeds from the sales will go to fund Pyramid's awesome programs and facilities! 

This weekend kicked off the busy printing period for this project. We now have two (and a half) designs printed!

Steve's metal and wood type card, with a nod to the Beatles' "Birthday" song (Steve - I was thiiiis close to doing something with the song myself!):

 

Drying rack shot of the front of my own card design, also set in lead type:

And the inside:

Put them together:

And the first side of Marty's design:

I can't wait to unveil the complete sets at the Birthday Open House! Hope to see you there!

Tabletop class

I happened to be at the studio while Melanie's Introduction to Tabletop class was going on. It's  always great to see a group of new and enthusiastic letterpressers! Here's a few shots of the class:

Introductions:

 

Going through the basics of setting type (with volunteers Miranda and Maggie to help):

Students plugging away at setting type:

Locking up in the chase:

 

Maggie helping some students with their lock up:

The first student, getting ready to print:

Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots of the prints that were made. I hope to see everyone in the studio again soon!

Next Saturday: Photopolymer class!

Intimidated by the process of designing and printing with photopolymer? No need to be! I’ll be teaching my photopolymer class this coming Saturday March 19. This class is designed for those who’ve printed with metal/wood type before and want to learn the basics of using photopolymer, which allows us to print digital designs on the presses. I’ll go over how to set up plates on the press and everyone will print a page of useful tips to take home with them. Then we’ll go over how to design for printing with polymer, how to order plates from Boxcar Press and take a look at individual projects. Register for the class here!

Here are some photos of a photopolymer project taken by Aly Hurt. Aly was a student in my polymer class last year and designed the January page in the 2011 Pyramid Atlantic Letterpress Calendar:

 

 

Happy Hour 3.2.11

Yay, another productive Happy Hour!

Newcomer Kelly checks out the 2011 PA Letterpress Calendar and other printed works on the bulletin board:

Bea and Erin were nice enough to come help me cut and divvy up the paper for the birthday card fundraiser. The blade of the guillotine was a little dull and I really wish I got some photos of us all hanging on the handle to get enough weight to cut through the stack!

And the fruits of our labor:

Now that the paper's all ready for you, all you brithday card volunteers have no excuse for not working on your designs (including myself)!