In the studio...

Alyson Hurt was recently in the studio to print some stationery for a birthday gift for her mom, featuring some of Pyramid's metal ornaments:
See her post (with a lot of great photos) over on her blog!

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!

Happy Hour 8.22.11

Photos from Monday night's Happy Hour!

Chase Clement, who took one of my workshops back in March, stopped by to check out the studio. He brought a copy of his book that he'd printed on an SP-20 with all handset type at Smith College back in 1972. Here are some photos. Amazing...

Alyson Hurt came to play around with some type to get ideas for the January page of the 2012 Letterpress Calendar:

Kathryn Hoeppel set some type to print onto watercolored cards:

She didn't really get to printing but I'm sure they'll look great when she's done.

Erin Brophy played around with making a pattern of ornaments. Maybe inspired by Chase's book?

Molly Moran printed the type she'd set at the last Happy Hour:

Curious to see what she ends up doing with these? Folded cards?

Lauren Emeritz also set some type for a birthday card (also serving as a prototype for her April page of the 2012 calendar):

I love how everything is all planned out on the graph paper.

Alison Whitty also came by to play around with some type for the July page of the calendar and to share some design ideas (sadly, I didn't get photos of these!)

The next Happy Hour will also be a critique of everyone's preliminary calendar page designs. Can't wait to see everyone's ideas!

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!

In the studio...

I caught Leslie in the studio as she was printing some lovely posters for her meditation group's next meetings:

Love the linocut and love her use of the star and sun ornaments!

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**

Happy Hour 1.5.11

First Happy Hour of the New Year!

Aly started off the new year by setting some type for a set of personalized stationery for a family member. Look for the final print on the bulletin board in the near future!

Steve came to print the second color on the poster he's been working on.

Here's a shot of just the first color:

I love the mixed wood typefaces and the ornaments!

A test print of the second color:

After the second run:

Unfortunately, the typeface he used for the rightmost quote didn't have enough e's for the last word, so he had to do a third run to get in that last word.

Hope to see you at the next happy hour! (Didn't you make a new year's resolution to letterpress more?)

Happy Hour 11.17.10

A sign I printed with wood type for our bulletin board. Please feel free to post a finished print in this section after printing in the studio!

Stationery printed by Bea Jackson for her son, Jakob (with a cute little dog ornament!):

Stationery printed by Melanie Karlins:

I love that Buttermilk font!