Birthday Party photos!

Here are some photos from last week's celebration of Pyramid's 31st birthday! Here was guests got to make in the letterpress studio, a fun greeting card to go along with the party's Olympics theme:

With your choice of Olympic-ring colored envelope!

Here's Lauren, Janine and Leslie finishing up with set up:

Some guests printing their cards with the help of our volunteers:

A couple shots of Erin manning the scoring station, where guests scored their cards and chose their envelopes:

And a photo of our Letterpress Marketplace where guests could check out and buy letterpress goodies made by various artists that use our studio (manned by the family Karlins!):

And here are some photos of the activities going on in the other studios!

In the Bindery, visitors selected a pre-made book cover:

And then got to sew the pages in and foil stamp them, with help from Bookmaking Associates Patty Lee and Linda Rollins:

Papermaking Associate Laura Kinneberg helped people make paper medals:

And in the Screenprint Studio, Associates Marty Ittner and Becca Katz helped everyone do two-color screenprinted bags to hold all the goodies from the other studios:

 

Thanks again to our awesome volunteers! Hope to see you at next year's party!

Maintenance Day photos!

This Saturday, we had our semi-annual Letterpress Maintenance Day. Thanks so much to all the volunteers who chipped in to help whip the presses and the studio into shape:
Helen Baribeau, Erin Brophy, Bob Cmarik, Lauren Emeritz, Kathryn Hoeppel, Alyson Hurt, Amanda King, Jason Lee, Janine Osif, Elizabeth Reiner, Michelle Seaman and Sarah Studer.

Here are some photos that Melanie was able to snap during the day:

And here are some "after" shots. Love how tidy everything is looking!

UPDATE 10:33am:
Here are some more photos, taken by Alyson Hurt:

 

 

Call for Volunteers: 2012 PA Letterpress Calendar!

We're getting ready to start planning out our annual fundraising project, the PA Letterpress Calendar! We're going to need 13-14 volunteers to design and print a page (one for each month + the front/back covers) . See info below:

In 2010, former Letterpress Associate Moira McCauley started this calendar fundraising project. Each month (plus the cover) was designed and printed by a different Pyramid letterpresser. The assembled calendars were then sold with all proceeds going directly to Pyramid. It was such a great project that we've started doing it annually! Photos of the previous calendars:

2011 Calendar (photos courtesy of Alyson Hurt):



2010 Calendar (photos courtesy of Melanie Karlins):



Now we're putting out the call for volunteers for the 2012 calendar! Please see the info below:

 

Dates:
-Sign up: Friday August 12.
See instructions to sign up below. If we have more than 14 people volunteer, we'll use a weighted lottery system to determine who will be participating (giving preference to people who haven't done the calendar before and/or active volunteers). Shortly after this date, I'll email you your assigned months and specs.

-Critique: Wednesday September 7 (tentative).
This year, we're requiring that all participants take part in an informal critique. It's not necessary to have a final design at this point--just enough to show what you're planning on doing and how (via setting type/photopolymer/linocut etc.) Sketches/computer printouts are fine.

-Final due date: Friday October 14.
All printing should be done by this date. We'll take the following week to assemble all the calendars.

Other info:
-Print run: TBD (in the range of 100-125)
-# colors: Due to the crunch on the studio, we're limiting all pages to 2 colors.
-Size: TBD
-Studio time for this project will be free.
-Pyramid will provide the paper and ink.
-Any other materials (photopolymer plates, linoleum blocks) will not be covered.
-Each participant will receive 2 copies of the final calendar to keep + volunteer hours.

Eligibility:
-You must be certified to print in the letterpress studio independently. If you are not currently certified - you still have time!
-You must be willing/available to meet the deadlines for the critique and the final print deadline.

Sign up:
-To sign up, email Julia by August 12.
-Include your first and second choice for which page you'd like to do (which month and/or cover)

Please let us know if you have any questions! I hope you'll all consider participating!

Maintenance Day!

In light of my post yesterday.... It's time for another maintenance day!

Saturday July 2, 10am - 2pm

To Do List:

• Tackle the gripper bar on the 4T (schematic above)
• Clean off another layer of grime and funk
• Assemble the 4T's lockup bar with replacement parts
• Organize the studio
• Sort type

As always, volunteers will be rewarded with volunteer hours (to exchange for free studio time) and pizza!

If you plan on coming by, please RSVP by emailing us!

**UPDATE: Please note that Maintenance Day has been changed from May 22 to July 2**

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!