Events

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a new events page to the site! See when all our Letterpress Happy Hours, workshops and other events are at a glace!

 Hope to see you at an upcoming event!

In the studio...

A quick update on Kathryn Hoeppel's graduation announcement project! She printed her second color of this on Monday evening and did a great job with registration. Here's a photo (the color is way off... it's much closer in the previous post linked above):

See the real thing (along with a coordinating hand-lined envelope) on our bulletin board!

Mini-Workshop on Pressure Printing

This weekend Moira and I were in the studio noodling around with Beck and Ben, trying out some different things. We ended up doing some pressure printing (with a rainbow roll to boot). It was a fun afternoon and inspired me to offer a mini-workshop so more people could join in!

Here's a photo of Beck and Ben's pressure print of Ben's cat, Birthday:

 And a print of some wood type with lead ornaments using the same rainbow roll:

And now the workshop details:

When: Wednesday May 11, 6pm - 9pm
Cost: Just $20!
RSVP: Email me to let me know you're coming!

**UPDATE:  This workshop has been postponed to Wednesday June 1**

Tip #9

For this week's tip, I'm stealing directly from Pyramid renter Deidre Jacob's blog! She wrote a great post with a step-by-step guide for mixing Pantone colors for letterpress. While we don't have a scale in our studio at Pyramid yet (it's in the works), you can still follow her steps with approximations of the proportions.  For example, if the formula guide says you need 4 points Black with 8 points Warm Red, you know that your amount of Warm Red should roughly be double the amount of Black.

See Deidre's full post here!

Saturday May 7: Tabletop Class!

Melanie's Introduction to the Tabletop Letterpress workshop on Saturday  May 7 still has available slots! This class is great for those of you considering buying your own press (since they are more affordable and take up less space than a Vandercook).

Students will learn about lead type and then typeset a few lines of their choosing, then learn how to print on Pyramid's Chandler & Price Pilot tabletop platen press. Doesn't Miranda look like she's having so much fun using the press in the photo above?

A couple benefits of printing on a tabletop press (vs. a Vandercook):

• Being able to print on smaller paper. Hate trimming business cards? Buy pre-cut cards and print on the tabletop! That's how Moira printed her calling cards!
• Being able to double print more easily. Letterpressing onto dark paper is difficult, so one way to acheive a brighter/darker print is by running your print through the press twice. On a Vandercook, you have to line up your print exactly the same way, which can be difficult. On a platen press, you can re-ink your typeform and print again without ever moving your paper! See a business card that was double printed with gold ink from How Magazine.

Sign up for this class (and others!) over on Pyramid's Workshop Registration page!

Printing with Antique Type

Saw this great post over at Oh So Beautiful Paper about letterpress printing with antique type. We've had a lot of photopolymer printing lately, so maybe this post will inspire some of you to reacquaint yourself with Pyramid's awesome collection of lead and wood type!

In the studio...

Kelly is one the many brides that has recently come to the studio to print her own wedding invitations and stationery. She graciously left us one of her RSVP cards on the bulletin board:

And in case you were wondering, the pretty calligraphy was done by Carmela Mazzarulli out of NJ!

Tip #8

A new tip (finally)!

When printing a project for which you need to mix a specific color, try hand inking to do test prints before inking up the press rollers. Brayers are on the little shelf just at the end of the Universal's bed. Try to get the ink on the brayer to be in as thin a layer as possible to get results closest to what it would look like on the press. Since the boldness of your color depends mostly on the amount of ink you're using, this method won't necessarily help with that, but it will help you avoid "Oh shoot, this green looks too yellowish.... Now I gotta clean up and start all over again!"

(Photo is of Kathryn Hoeppel hand inking for a test print of her business cards printed on watercolored paper.)

Happy Hour 4.20.11

Fun Happy Hour tonight!

Miranda set some type for an annoucement of her husband's graduation from law school:

Beck set type for a postcard:

And Kathryn printed some business cards on paper that she'd watercolored:

The paper:

The prints:

And the trimmed cards:

Didn't they turn out great?!

Birthday Cards for sale!

With the help of Pyramid webmistress, Ariana Estrada, I've finally got the Birthday Card Fundraiser Sets up for purchase online!

For photos of the sets and all the individual cards + instructions on how to purchase, go to our special Birthday Card Fundraiser page!

In the studio...

Here's a photo from Deidre Jacobs of the product of her Sunday rental:

I love her color choice and how it gets darker at the bottom (like the ocean)! Check out more of Deidre's goodies at her etsy shop!

And just a note to all you renters out there, please feel free to email me photos of your work done in the studio if you'd like me to post it. Don't be shy!

In the studio...

And... yet another "In the studio" post! As you can see, it's been really busy in the studio!

Here are some photos of the complete wedding suite done by graphic designer Erin Vince for her own upcoming wedding. I'd helped Erin print her first two colors on her invitation and she quickly earned her certification and was able to do the rest on her own:

 

So pretty!

In the studio...

4th "In the studio" post in a row!

Below are photos of a project by graphic designer Kathryn Grill Hoeppel. On Wednesday, we printed the first color (a darkish red) of some graduation announcements on French Berrylicious paper.

I really like the texture created by the spiral border. Next up is the actual graduation info in a dark brown!

In the studio...

If you've tried to set up a lesson or a rental in the studio, then you know how jam packed the schedule's been - even after finishing up the Birthday Card fundraiser!

Hence, the third "In the studio" post in a row....

This one is an awesome card by awesome designer Sarah Hanks:

It goes perfectly with my favorite card of hers:

Check out Sarah's other stuff over at her blog and her shop!

In the studio...

Steve just sent me this photo of his latest poster that he printed with Pyramid's wood type:



Love it. Check out his other posters and prints over at his Flickr!

In the studio...

Moira (former Letterpress Associate) was back in the studio to print some business cards:

Check out more photos of the cards and Moira's awesome registration job over at Bookish Lady!

Birthday Party!

Some photos of our fun birthday party this weekend!

For our studio activity, we had the Universal all set up so that guests could come print their own bookmarks. Leslie and I took turns helping people crank out bookmarks with the type that Leslie'd set:

Meanwhile, Bridget manned our Letterpress Birthday Card table:

(And yes, I'm currently working on setting up a place on the Pyramid site where you can buy these sets.... Stay tuned!)

There were tons of people and tons of things to do. Here was our view of the Screenprint Studio, where guests were screenprinting a 3-color poster designed by Marty:

And Steve was kind enough to share his photos of the other demos that were happening in the other studios:

In the studio...

Graphic Designer Alison Whitty was recently in the studio printing some wedding invitations with Melanie. Here are some photos of the pretty invites for a beach wedding:

And once she helped Alison get settled, Melanie started printing some of her own designs on the C&P. Here are two of her etiquette coasters:

The whole set should be available next weekend when she and I will be at Spring Bada-Bing in Richmond!

In the studio...

Some photos of my lesson with Erin Vince, graphic designer and bride-to-be:

These photos show the first two runs on her own wedding invitations. We did first run to put a blind impression of a map onto her paper. Then followed up with the bulk of the text in turquoise. Next step: adding Erin and her fiance's names in yellow (on her own!)

Birthday Card Fundraiser Preview #4

All the cards have been printed and assembled into sets!

The sets will be available this Saturday at Pyramid's 30th birthday party. If you can't make it out, stay tuned for info on how to purchase them online next week!

And now, photos of the rest of the cards!

From Carina Herman:

Leslie Smith:

Sara Shaffer:

Beth Schaible:

 Jody McLean:

Amelia Smith:

Morgan Ward:

Sarah Hanks:

Hope to see you Saturday!