In the studio...

Bridget Stoyko, Sara Shaffer and Erin Brophy are veterans at printing with photopolymer on the Vandercook and wanted to try their hand at setting some type and printing on the tabletop platen press. So I gave them a crash course and helped them print some awesome coasters (photo by Bridget):

Photo collage time!

Bridget printed coasters for her beer-loving husband:

Sara printed posture reminder coasters (they just reminded me to sit up straight!):

And Erin made some cute coasters with a flamingo ornament!:

Thanks to Bridget for taking all the photos!

Tip #11

At the last Happy Hour, Erin Brophy was browsing around and discovered something that I'd never noticed before: she found that the type for monograms in the ornament drawers have holder/border pieces to go with them!

I set the letters "MOM" thinking I might make a last minute Mother's Day card:

Unfortunately, I was too tired and didn't get around to printing these. Next time! Can't wait to see how they turn out!

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!

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 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...

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!

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!

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!

In the studio...

One of our letterpress regulars, Morgan Ward, has been in the studio a lot lately as a part of The Artclash Collective's Fun-a-day program. The idea is to make a piece of art or do some other type of project each day in January and then display the results in February. Morgan will be submitting hers to be displayed in Philadelphia. More info on the program can be found here: www.artclash.com.

And now for some photos! Here's what she currently has up at the bulletin board at Pyramid:

Morgan was particularly excited about this piece, which features Pyramid's largest typeface with our smallest:

And here was yesterday's work of the day, printed on tracing paper:

I can't wait to see all 31 pieces!

Happy Hour 1.19.11

Another batch of photos from Happy Hour!

Heather dropped by to do some test prints to decide what color to use when printing her wedding stationery. Some test prints on her kraft paper envelopes:

And some test prints on white scrap paper:

Aly came to print some type she'd set at the last happy hour:

Meanwhile, Leslie, Melanie and I tried to make some homemade photopolymer plates made by scratching out an image on a negative. Here's Leslie's plate after inking:

And her print:

We're really excited that it worked!