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!

In the Forest & It Came from the Deep

Just wanted to share photos of the two pieces from Pyramid's spring staff print exchange  that included letterpress. Letterpress Associate, Melanie submitted this pretty radish pressure print:

Artist-in-residence Lee Marchalonis also included letterpress in her print:

Very nice! It's interesting to see how letterpress looks on different types of paper.

Check out the Screenprint Society's post on the screenprinted pieces from the exchange and see all of the prints up on the display wall at Pyramid!

In the studio...

Happy Monday! Just thought I'd share this photo:

Melanie, one of our Letterpress Associates, had a beautiful baby girl last August and has been out of the studio doing mom-type things. But she's gradually making her way back in to Pyramid more often. This is one of her first projects since she's been back: personal stationery for baby Elsie! So cute!

Printer Profile: Melanie Karlins

This is the first of a new series of posts! I thought it would be nice for everyone to get to know their fellow studio sharers a little better. (I was inspired by Marty's interview of Annie Albagli over on the Screenprint Society blog). I'll start by posting profiles of the three Letterpress Associates (Melanie, Leslie and myself) and hopefully move on to profiling other regular faces in the studio! Here goes....

Meet Melanie

Melanie Karlins is one of the three Letterpress Associates at Pyramid. Being 9 months pregnant, she's finally slowed down enough to have some time to answer some questions!

How did you get started with letterpress?

Melanie at a recent Letterpress Happy Hour.

During my second year of law school, I really needed a creative outlet. I've always loved stationery and started playing around with paper at home in my free time (or in the time that I should have been studying). I did folding, cutting, rubber stamps, made mini-books, wrote letters, but I wanted something more. I'd heard of Pyramid a few years prior and knew I wanted to take letterpress classes there. The day after my last exam that semester I was at Pyramid for a letterpress lesson with Karen Hardy who was the Letterpress Associate at the time. I fell in love with the process. I learned how to print on the Vandercook that first day, but I soon started printing almost exclusively with Pyramid's Chandler & Price Pilot Press. I continued printing throughout the summer and the following school year, then I started volunteering in the letterpress studio. I've been teaching letterpress classes at Pyramid since 2009 and I've been a Letterpress Associate there since 2010.

Melanie's DC Flag print (printed with photopolymer).

What do you like to print?
I started off using type exclusively. Pyramid has a great collection of metal (and now wood) type, which gave me lots to explore when I first got into letterpress. Then, I got a couple wood type alphabets as gifts and I was really hooked on wood for a few months. When I participated in the 2010 Letterpress Calendar project, I decided to use photopolymer for my design which opened up a whole new world of possibilities.  Since then I've taken a couple of graphic design classes and now that I'm more comfortable with design software, I use photopolymer for most of my letterpress work.

Melanie's 2012 etiquette calendar.

What inspires your print work?
I love reading old etiquette books and I have a whole line (Etiquette for the Post-Emily World) of items based on funny things I read in those books and how I think etiquette should be updated for modern, urban living. I've printed bookmarks with etiquette tips and coasters with dinner party etiquette, and I'm introducing a 2012 calendar this fall featuring a whole year of etiquette tips. I'm also inspired by life in DC, particularly urban neighborhood living, and I have a number of prints inspired by DC neighborhoods.

Melanie's favorite piece.

What’s your favorite piece that you've printed?
A couple years ago I printed engagement party invitations for friends of mine. I handset all the type in Margery from Pyramid's collection. And I printed the invitations on handmade paper I picked up at New York Central Art Supply. There was such a sense of accomplishment after setting all that type and whenever I see the invitations now I'm reminded of a sweet engagement party for dear friends and the amazing paper-shopping excursion to New York.


 

What is your favorite paper for printing?

It depends on the project. For prints, I like to use Legion's Eco-Rag or Bamboo paper. For personal stationery I typically use Arturo, a soft Italian paper. And for general greeting cards and other stationery, I often print on Lettra, French Paper, or Mohawk.

More on Melanie: Melanie sells her stationery and prints under the press name Grey Moggie Press. See her website here and see her at Crafty Bastards in October!

Photos from Artscape

Just wanted to share a couple photos from our Pyramid Letterpress booth at Artscape this weekend (taken by Steve)!

Here's a shot of the whole crew (minus Steve). From left to right is Amelia, me, Melanie, Moira and Sarah:

Here's Moira, Amelia and me, as we're hustling to finish our booth set up:

And here's our lattice display, featuring selected works:

Can't wait til next year!

Artscape!

This weekend, a gaggle of Pyramid Letterpressers will be selling their work at Artscape's DIY section in Baltimore! Amelia, Moira, Melanie, Sarah, Steve (who printed our sign above) and I will be taking turns manning the booth over the 3-day fair. Come visit (Booth C15) and see what's kept the studio so busy lately.

Festival Hours:

Friday July 15, noon - 10pm
Saturday July 16, noon - 10pm
Sunday July 17, noon - 8pm

Hope to see you there!

Tabletop Class photos

A long overdue post with photos from Melanie's May 7 Introduction to Tabletop Letterpress class!

Here was Lauren Emeritz's project for the day:

And some action shots:

 

And a great photo from Jim's blog of his lockup in the C&P:

In the studio...

Pretty sure this is a first for the blog: a moving announcement! Check out the ones Melanie printed recently:

I love the cute illustration! See her blog post about it for more info!

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!

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!

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!

In the studio...

Earlier this week, I was in the studio with Melissa Livingston printing a passage by George Bernard Shaw so she could get her remaining hours for certification.

Melissa inking up the Universal:

Her first color:

Her inked photopolymer plate for her second color:

And the resulting print (this beautiful initial cap was made from one of the files available at Briar Press):

Obligatory drying rack shot (doesn't everything look great on the drying rack?):

The extra fun part was that it was Melanie was teaching Jeremy Lin how to use the C&P at the same time!