I Love Letterpress, Too! (And I Definitely Love This Directory...)

It's not the first time I've been to the blog I Love Letterpress, but yesterday was the first time I really looked through their directory - as in, pretty much every link. It's phenomenal, and it's so inspiring to see all the different things people are punching out with their letterpress and leaves me utterly envious of those who have a press! ILL gets a big round of applause from me for documenting all of those letterpress companies in such an organized manner - you absolutely must check it out!

Just as Impressive as the Bling?: Our Engagement Announcements

The physical labor paid off: our engagement announcements came out great! The above picture is a scan, so it's not going to be color accurate, but the ink is an antique gold and the paper is a blush pink. I'm going to slowly be adding photos of it as part of my documentation of the planning process, so keep checking my Flickr account for new uploads. I'm going to try to get some done tonight.

If you're a design-it-yourselfer like I am, and you like this look, here was my supply list:

• polymer plates
• Linotronic film negatives of my art work
• Vandercook SP20 press
• Van Son letterpress inks - the pink was custom mixed by me with Pantone base colors; gold is Unipak Gold Pantone 873
• Paper Source A9 Flat Cards in Luxe Blush and A9 Envelope in Stardream Antique Gold
• Bickham Script and Garamond Small Caps
• Flora & Fauna Engraved Illustrations Disk

Since you need all hands in the studio that are available, I couldn't take step-by-step pictures of the process, but I will be going back soon to press the holiday ornaments for the swap, so if anyone would like to see them, comment here to request them. I will, however, give you a brief overview of what to do to press your own. I can't get too specific, because the process greatly depends on what kind of press and images you're using, but here we go:

1. Design your invitation or announcement, then get it ready for prepress. Convert all images to black and white, and outline our text so it becomes a vector image rather than a font. If you don't use SmartSet, the Linotronic film vendor I have linked above, contact your negative producer to see what formats they'll accept. My file was submitted as an Illustrator file. Send off your file, and you'll usually receive it back fairly quickly.
2. When you have your negative, prepare and make your plates. This step, and the negative making process, can be consolidated by simply by having your plates made by Boxcar Press. You can choose metal or vinyl backed plates - vinyl are more flexible and transparent, so you can easily register and square off your plates with a Boxcar base (available through them). I recommend vinyl, but it's a personal preference - if you end up washing your plates out by hand, you may prefer metal backs.
3. To make your plates, they need to be exposed to UV light. Place the negative so that it is wrong-reading (emulsion side down) on the surface of the plate and expose it - 3 minutes is generally enough if you have strong bulbs. The plate will noticeably be different - exposed areas will have slightly changed color. Wash out your plates gently in a lukewarm bath with a soft brush (Boxcar supplies these brushes as well, I believe) until the gummy surface of the unexposed plate has washed away and water rolls off of the surface like it would on glass. Let the plate dry thoroughly; it's best to do a flash dry with a hair dryer so that water spots are avoided as much as possible. If you have a plate dryer, let it sit in there for 10-15 minutes. Re-expose the plate without the negative for equal to or slightly more time than it took to initially expose it to completely harden the plate. If you're using vinyl plates (instead of metal backed with a magnetic base), you'll need to add plate adhesive to the back of it, which is also available at Boxcar.
4. Print them!

GET INSPIRED! CORKBOARD 001: Marie Antoinette

As a new feature on Try This at Home, I present to you our first Get Inspired! inspiration board. It's designed to help crafters and designers construct products and lines based off of themes, so whether it's a drawing for a greeting card or a necklace design, it's always trend-right.

Our first board is a Marie Antoinette board (preview above), featuring theme color samples, film stills, product ideas, and key elements to complete the look and feel of the board. (Note: This one's a smaller one - I'm just testing the waters here to see if this is useful for you guys. Let me know your feedback... the good and the bad is all appreciated!) Please feel free to download the full board, print it out, and do what you wish with it - just please don't repost without permission! Enjoy!

(Graphic) Design the Studio Space

After nearly a year of ignoring my studio space at home, I've decided it is high time to make it look more like a graphic designer works there. Don't get me wrong - it's really pretty: lavender accent walls with a light cream carpet, a large window that floods the space with light, and these awesome industrial-style glass and silver metal desks and shelving units from CB2. Other than the basics, though, it's not very inspired - or maybe it's that I'm just not very inspired by it? Whatever the case, it's clearly upgrade time, as I'm planning on doing some freelance graphic design work for the indie community in the near future (more on that soon), and will be spending my weekends almost exclusively in there! I figured I'd share since (in my opinion) the more you like your work environment and the more professional you think it looks, the more you'll take yourself seriously - and in turn, your clients!

My first step: wall lettering. I want to spell out "THE STUDIO" - nothing too creative, because I don't want to be locked into a name I can't or won't want to use later. I was originally considering buying these cardstock letters from Target, installing them quickly and calling it a day, but I thought it would be great to have some dimension to them, since the light is really beautiful in that room. I had been looking through Joann a few weeks back and found some really awesome dimensional letters that appeared to be made of chipboard - there are also these wood letters available online, though I think I'd prefer a flat edge to a beveled one. Since I want them white, I'm planning on painting the letters with Gesso, but you could use a variety of paint media to cover it if you'd prefer a different color. (If you're interested in coloring it but still maintaining some of the wood grain, why not try painting it with gouache? Gouache seems expensive, but if you use it right, it can go a long way, and the price could be well worth the final results!) Although I'm keeping it as a flat, graphic color, you could also consider rubbing the paint down with sand paper for a more grunge look, or focus on just the edges with your sand paper for an antiqued look.

I haven't decided on how I'll mount them yet, but I may end up purchasing a white Ikea Lack shelf (it's thick, basic, and modern looking), or I may just make something similar and set the type on that. The other option would be to mount them directly to the wall, which would probably look better given how clean the rest of the aesthetics in the room are. I'm going to run to Home Depot - I'll let you know what they recommend for that!

Making an Impression

There are few times I've ever experienced as strange of a sensation as I did this weekend. There was the time that I dreamed I was in my grandfather's hospital bed, suffocating by some invisible force, and I was woken by the call from the hospital that he had just passed - cardiorespiratory shut down, as a result of a month-long last stand against cancer. There was the time four months later I had a very similar experience prior to finding out my grandmother had passed, as well. This time, it was a similar experience - not sad, but still emotional, while also feeling somewhat out-of-body with a look towards the future...

... and it was all brought on by a Vandercook No. 4 press.

I'd been on a Vandercook before - it's not like it was entirely new to me, although I had been rusty since the last time I used a letterpress, about 2 years ago. This machine, however, was in far better shape. It's so cliché, but between the smell of inks, hum of the press, and the rythmic turning of the press levers, I was so zen. That's when I decided that sometime, not necessarily in the future, but sometime, this had to be what I did for a living, period.

This all happened while taking a class at Minnesota Center for Book Arts, of which I am happily a member. They're a fantastic little place in a gorgeously renovated old warehouse building that continues the traditions of handmade paper, bookbinding, and letterpress. It's an absolute must-see if you're coming out to Minneapolis, and their shop is - well, let's just say that if you're on a budget, hide your wallet. I'm already signed up to take another class which is entirely based on polymer platemaking and printing, which I'm so exciting over that it may be the only reason I'll avoid complaining about the onset of Minnesota Winter.

In the meantime, I'll probably be sharing some really great resources my instructor, Regula Russelle, shared with the class. She did a lot of things on the press differently than I had learned, so she was a great source of insight and really broke things down in easy-to-understand steps - but her handouts were the best by far. For my reference as well as yours, I'll type up the sources she recommended in hopes it will inspire you as well as it has me!

Ask a Question, Get an Answer #1: Engraved Illustrations for Letterpress

I received this email from Caroline today, and thought it would be a useful question to post:


Hi!... I am currently in the throes of wedding planning and even though I'm an abysmal DIY person, I thought I would take on the monumental challenge of designing my own wedding invitations. I have no background whatsoever in graphic design but I want to challenge and make something myself. I by no means plan on starting a letterpress company, I'm just trying to push my creative envelope.  I'm in the process of learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and playing around with live trace and I was wondering if you could advise me on the following. I am into the pretty engraved letterpress illustration you discussed and I'm wondering how it's created- in particular botanical illustrations. Do designers take old engraved prints or photos and live trace and play around with the design? Or do they freehand them and scan them in? I have attached the following sites: to me they look almost identical- is there a botanical illustration resource book that these designers use?...

I'm just a novice but I would love any insight as to how this engraved botanical illustration look is created. I would like to use that engraved style and add my own designs that have been floating in my head.

Letterpress illustrations come in one of two ways: the company either hires an illustrator (or retains one in-house) to have them drawn specifically to their needs, or out of copyright engravings are used. Since you're not a business or planning to be, as you mentioned, you'll probably want to go the out of copyright route - so I'll focus my time on that... Most of the Dover Publications-esque resource books are out there aren't really of the caliber that letterpress wedding invitations generally use. For that reason, to find out of copyright engravings I'd head to the library, antique store with a book section, or a vintage books store. If you have samples of the kind of illustration you're looking for, the staff will most likely be able to direct you to what you need. Browse through some books and find a few samples you like, then buy the books or check them out. I'd make sure you have a few possibilities - in design, I find that you never truly know what works until you try it, and sometimes the prettiest artwork can disappoint you! If that's a dead end for you, I found this thread - some of the suggestions aren't very helpful, but it's still worth taking a look at. Also try your shot at Gutenberg.org - it's a site with a bunch of online out-of-copyright texts, and they upload the book's artwork as well. I was able to find a few things when searching for "flower", "botanical", and "engraving".

Because of the nature of polymer plate letterpress, it's not necessary for designers to use Live Trace in Illustrator [blog note: Live Trace is an automatic function in Illustrator which allows the designer to automatically convert Bitmap ("pixelated") images into vector ("non-pixelated", graphics are drawn by mathematical equations by your computer) based on a variety of preferential settings] - all you need is a nice, rich black. The same applies if you're planning to use Gocco - it's the quality of the black that matters. It will actually give you better aesthetic results if you don't Live Trace it - by turning the engraving into a vector image, you lose the handmade quality of the illustration, and thus, the beauty and personality this type of letterpress design capitalizes on. I recommend just scanning in the art, adjusting the scan in Photoshop (or a similar program) to suit your needs (the contrast and levels will probably have to be adjusted slightly), then printing it out on a laser or carbon-based ink printer to get those blacks you'll need for exposure on the plates or the Gocco. If you are going the letterpress route, I'd recommend having your plates sent out - small detail, which is essential to this kind of artwork, can be difficult to achieve if you haven't done the process before. I'd point you to Boxcar Press for that - they have a great reputation, and they're pretty cheap - plus, that means less supplies to buy and fewer chemicals lying around, huzzah!

A big congratulations to Caroline on her upcoming nuptials! I hope that was informative for her as well as everyone else - and please, if you have a question, don't be afraid to ask! If I can't answer it, I'll try my hardest to point you in the right direction!

Bookbinding Tape is a Crafter's Best Friend

It's already been established that I'm a paper crafts fan girl. I'm sure you get that by now. In school, I loved the ease of using bookbinding tape to finish off a book, but I could never find anything other than a rather dull, dawdy beige - almost like muslin in color. Well, that's really no fun, and it certainly doesn't offer any extra aesthetic value. That's why I squee (yes, squee) over the colored self-adhesive book tape from Paper Source (right) and Making Memories (left).

Taking a road trip during the summer? Why not buy a standard-size post card at every destination and, using your road map when you're done (or another decorative paper) cut two pieces to the size of the post cards and bind them together? You'll need to align the left edge and glue the cards together with PVA (binder's glue) and let it dry overnight with weight on top of it (I've found binder clips work pretty well too, if they're heavy duty big ones). Finish and reinforce the glue bind with the self-adhesive tape for a really attractive but simple touch!

BRIGHT IDEAS: Finds in Various Other Industries

There's a lot of great areas of the independent design community that aren't part of the staple industries, which is why finding stuff that really makes you sit up and take notice feels even more inspiring and rewarding. They may not be part of the usual categories people shop for, but the fact they're unique makes them all the more worthwhile to check out.

Butter Cream Cup by Greenware Design: I'm a sucker for a well-styled succulent terrarium. I love the fact that the ceramic planter it comes in is also crafted by the person who planted it - the amount of passion that clearly went into this is completely evident, and is utterly inspiring.

Red Delicious of the Fruit Head Gang by Sewing Stars: How heartbreakingly adorable is this? A super sweet (or tart, if you would prefer its Granny Smith counterpart) take on the traditional stuffed animal, all the different Fruit Heads have different expressions and outfits and take on their own personalities. I love the details and the style!

Cute Doggie Collars by Retro Pet: Dogs may not be as finicky as cats in general, but that's no reason to give man's best friend a boring collar! Retro Pet has a lot of really cute patterns to make your furry friend fashionable, and many have matching leashes for the ultimate trend-right pooch.

Designer Collars by Kitty Cat Boutique: Does your feline "speak" with a British or Scottish accent? Lucky for them, Kitty Cat Boutique is on their side of "The Pond" and offers a lot of options where mass retailers are lacking - cute, trendy patterns that will make any cat feel like a million bucks one half of a million pounds.

BRIGHT IDEAS: If the Kitties Love It, It MUST Be Good

I posted earlier that I had purchased a number of cat toys on Etsy from Jezzi4Ever, and I thought I'd take this opportunity on Bright Ideas to update you because, we'll, it's an awesome product. I got the first two a while back, and the cats loved them so much they started hiding them from me - they started stashing them in various places, including under the couch (you're not taking them from us, Mommy!) I started emailing Jessie, the shop owner, back and forth about them, and she ended up making several of them for me in custom colors. They turned out so cute, and I wanted to share them with all the other kitty owners out there - these are phenomenal! They're little two-colored felt goldfish stuffed with Marlow and Jocko's favorite catnip, Cosmic Catnip, which is some powerful stuff! They're simple, affordable, and cute - unique as well, as they're much different from anything else in my kitties' extensive collection of cat toys.

They shipped in little Ziplock bags, with two toys per bag. I decided to slowly introduce one toy after another, but as you can tell from the above photo, my impatient little Jocko decided he wanted all of his toys now.



Jocko enjoys / stares down one of the added bonus toys Jessie sent their way. The kitties (and I) were very grateful for the thoughtful extras! They were a big hit, as well - instead of being a more dimensional goldfish, these were more graphic.



Marlowe, hoarding his goldfish (not like he doesn't have enough, but after all, what's his is HIS.

BRIGHT IDEAS: Finds in Home Goods

Three dimensional design was never really my strongest subject, but my college roommate was an amazing furniture designer whose work I always found to be really inspiring. You may or may not be interested in doing design work in this field, but it's always great to look outside of your own category to push your work forward- after all, I wouldn't have designed my favorite poster to date if it wasn't for Christina!

Flowering Pillow by Julianna Holowka: while definitely out of my price range, I still love this pillow. It comes in different colors, and the selection is beautiful. As a designer, I'm also in love with the composition of where the flowers fall on the area of the pillow.

Pretty Much Anything at Beccalights: the Blush candle, above, is by far my favorite so far, but all of Beccalight's candles are well made. The packaging is really cute - an especially amazing job was done on the Holiday collection. When it comes to photographic and packaging presentation, Beccalights definitely raises the bar in the indie community.

Josephine Lamp by Julianna Holowka: another really great piece from the designer of the Flowering Pillows. I love the lampshade - it reminds me of many different organic things, from layered feathers to layered leaves, but its also so slick and clean.

Woodland Owls Magnet Trio by Rubyfaz: I just thought these were really sweet. I love the little illustrations. Cute, cute, cute!

Dishtowels by Sweetpea Handcrafts: the dishtowels at Sweetpea are great! I love that it's mostly white - it really gives the pattern and the trim the ability to pop out without being too busy. My favorite by far is the one above.