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!

Laser Cut Wood Type!

So, a friend of Leslie's made a fantastic set of wood type with a laser cutter. Here are some photos (by Miranda Anderson) of the inaugural run:

What an awesome gift!

In the studio...

Steve and Gretchen have been working on putting together a poster for The Fillmore, a new music venue in Silver Spring. Some photos (all taken by Steve):

Here are some photos from their third round of proofing:

The lockup:

The color:

Inking:

Inked:

And the proofs:

Looks great! Can't wait to see the finished poster!

Photos from BookWorks!

This past weekend, I went down to Asheville, NC for the Ladies of Letterpress Conference. Half the conference events took place at BookWorks, a print and book arts center.  I was blown away. Everything was so clean and organized and the space had a great open layout. Here are a bunch of photos!

Here's me, with a whole lot of book presses:

Gretchen and Steve chatting in the letterpress area:

Another view of those great Hatch Show Prints on display (with fancy track lighting!):

Steve was drooling over the awesome inventory of wood type:

And here's a shot of Gretchen taking a peek inside the nice little gallery area (with conference organizers Kseniya Thomas and Jessica White in the foreground):

Some more shots of the studio space, equipment and materials:


A some photos of the gallery and the work on display (work by various members of Ladies of Letterpress):


I'm feeling really inspired to make some improvements to our studio!

In the studio...

I took this photo a while ago but forgot to post it. Another awesome wood type poster by Steve:

I especially love the overlapped letters!

Wood Type Poster class

Found some evidence from Leslie's Wood Type Poster class around the studio:

 

And some photos from Jim's blog from the class:

Wish I'd been around that day to see the other projects!

Happy Hour 4.18.11

Some photos of last week's fun happy hour!

Here's a shot of everyone plugging away at their various projects:

Steve experimented with hand inking some wood type:

Kathryn printed more of her awesome business cards:

And Jim re-set the Robert Graves poem he'd printed during the Intro to Tabletop class earlier this month. He printed it onto some wonderful handmade paper:

And unfortunately, I forgot to get photos of what Melanie and I were working on! Hope to see you next time!

Happy Hour 5.4.11

There was some wood type action going on at last week's Happy Hour!

Here's a poster Beck made for her sister's graduation:

And a Mother's Day card that Erica set:

And while she was at it, she printed a linocut for her dad (he loves herrings):

Hope to see you at the next one!

Letterpress Daily!

N is for this neat site that Melanie sent over to me, Letterpress Daily! They post images of a new piece of wood type every day. Check it out!

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**

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?!

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!

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!