Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your holiday!
Metal Doily Press is a letterpress studio in Long Beach, Calif., specializing in handcrafted, unique prints from wedding invites & save the dates to custom cards & stationery.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Naoko & Blue Note Michelle
Two weekends ago I printed my first project! Along with it came a very interesting (re: stressful) story. So as I mentioned on my old blog...the Chandler & Price press calls Chino Hills home in my parents garage. As I was nearing their place I noticed a lot of smoke in the air and it turns out neighboring cities Corona & Yorba Linda/Brea were on fire. The air quality at this point was ok so I got to work setting up the plates and inking up the press.
These pictures are the polymer plates Naoko (my friend) and I had made from Boxcar Press.
This invitation set was a 2 color project with the designs in a custom mixed pink & the copy in a custom mixed green. I had gotten about 85% of the pink part done when the air just got too bad to be breathing in while working in the garage.
The fires at noon:
The fire at night:
I had plans back in LA that night so I decided I would go to that and then head back in the morning to finish up. After driving for 1.5 hours and only getting 10 miles from my parents because of freeway closures I knew I wasn't going to make it in time for the movie I had tickets so I turned back. I spent most of the night watching the news and when I went to bed relieved because the latest was people were urged to evacuate towards where I was since the fire was going the opposite way. Come 4 am and my mom wakes me up and says we need to start packing what we can because the fire had turned and was coming our way. I helped my parents and sister pack important paper, photos/photo albums and their dog's stuff, our eyes were glued to the tv waiting to get word if we needed to evacuate. In my freaked out state I decided I'd better think of a back up plan for finishing these invitations in the case that we had to go and the press burns with the house (extreme right??) I am part of this letterpress list-serv/forum where people post questions etc. so I made one asking for help in the case that I need to leave. I got many offers and well wishes from list members. The fire turned but there was no way I could work with how bad the air still was so Michelle of Blue Note Press was the one who came to the rescue. I headed over to her amazing studio space in her Pasadena home. Not only did she help me finish up the project but she gave me extremely helpful tips for any future printing projects. Michelle if you read this somehow, Thanks again!
The first picture is from the bride to be of how one of the sets look when completed. I will get some more pictures up soon. Yay first project!
next up: Metal Doily business cards
Chandler & Price 10x15
originally posted on my blog http://moadesigns.blogspot.com 8.18.08
I've been holding out with this news because I wanted to finalize some details... I bought a large floor model letterpress printing press! Yes...before I even got my Craftsmen Imperial tabletop press up and running that I posted about here. I'll tell you what, this was just a really great opportunity that I couldn't pass up.
On a Monday morning a few weeks ago I saw an ad over on BriarPress for an 8x12 Chandler & Price in Hermosa Beach in excellent condition and for a great price that had been posted the day before. I called anyway regardless of thinking that for sure it would be spoken for already. Actually I called my parents first to ask if they would be ok with me having it at there house (they were!) The 8x12 press was taken already BUT the seller, an amazing lady named Jenny, had another one. A bigger one that she was willing to sell for the same price as the 8x12! I pretty much was set on buying it but wanted to go see it in action first.
I went to check out the press after letterpress class so Brenda & Danni were able to come with me to the warehouse. Turns out Jenny is the letterpress printer for all letterpress things at Papyrus! I had just gotten this beautiful letterpress card for a friends wedding so it was so exciting to see thousands of prints of it. She was nice enough to show us the working of her studio, samples, mock ups etc. and believe you me all three of us geeked out when she asked "Do you guys want to see the glitter room??" The room where they hand glitter any glittered elements on the cards, so cool! The deal was finalized for the press to be picked up before Oct. 1 and to only add to Jenny's coolness she offered to let me come by and do some printing on the press with her supervision to get a feel for it and also answer any questions that may come up. I will be heading over there to do that this Saturday.
I'm so excited for this you have no idea. I've already been researching which fonts I want to get from M&H type foundry. I will take some pictures this weekend but here are some (thanks danni) from when we went to see if the first time around.
I've been holding out with this news because I wanted to finalize some details... I bought a large floor model letterpress printing press! Yes...before I even got my Craftsmen Imperial tabletop press up and running that I posted about here. I'll tell you what, this was just a really great opportunity that I couldn't pass up.
On a Monday morning a few weeks ago I saw an ad over on BriarPress for an 8x12 Chandler & Price in Hermosa Beach in excellent condition and for a great price that had been posted the day before. I called anyway regardless of thinking that for sure it would be spoken for already. Actually I called my parents first to ask if they would be ok with me having it at there house (they were!) The 8x12 press was taken already BUT the seller, an amazing lady named Jenny, had another one. A bigger one that she was willing to sell for the same price as the 8x12! I pretty much was set on buying it but wanted to go see it in action first.
I went to check out the press after letterpress class so Brenda & Danni were able to come with me to the warehouse. Turns out Jenny is the letterpress printer for all letterpress things at Papyrus! I had just gotten this beautiful letterpress card for a friends wedding so it was so exciting to see thousands of prints of it. She was nice enough to show us the working of her studio, samples, mock ups etc. and believe you me all three of us geeked out when she asked "Do you guys want to see the glitter room??" The room where they hand glitter any glittered elements on the cards, so cool! The deal was finalized for the press to be picked up before Oct. 1 and to only add to Jenny's coolness she offered to let me come by and do some printing on the press with her supervision to get a feel for it and also answer any questions that may come up. I will be heading over there to do that this Saturday.
I'm so excited for this you have no idea. I've already been researching which fonts I want to get from M&H type foundry. I will take some pictures this weekend but here are some (thanks danni) from when we went to see if the first time around.
please excuse the sleepy eyes/no makeup! you can see how big the press is in this one...
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