RINGSIDE Poster

We think of letterpress like boxing because sometimes it whoops the tar out of you and other times you feel like a champ when you land that knockout punch. We love old boxing cuts, images, posters and the language of boxing.

We wanted to print a boxing poster for a long time and when we finally had the chance to print the old halftone cuts of the guys we realized that we had wrestlers too. So the poster is titled "Ringside".

Noodling with this two color lock-up with wonky wood type and odd-shaped halftone cuts was challenging and an exhausting work out! 

The poster can be purchased on our Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/listing/112903120/ringside-letterpress-print-vintage



Orange Crush - Halloween Bags Galore

We have a lot of goofy images from all the different printing stuff we have acquired. And of course we can't let it go! So we used some of our old wood type, tiny spooky ornaments, crazy old found images and triple XXX black ink to print these bags.

We thought they would be good for kids; GREAT FOR ADULTS! Send the party-happy halloween kiddos home with cool party favor bags!

A set of 10 with 2 of each style for $5.50. We listed these on our Etsy site in case folks just wanted the bags--then we could ship them regular mail for 2 bucks.


http://www.etsy.com/shop/paperstudio

Letterpress Basics

Thanks to Sam who was in our letterpress class on Saturday and then wrote a fabulous blog post. Check it out! http://sammitt.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/making-letterpress-cards/



From 1960 to 2013

I printed this cool half-tone cut that works perfectly for the July 2013 letterpress calendar. It printed well considering that it must be 50-60 years old - looks like 1960 summer fun!

WHOA Book Release Reception & Readings

 A fun time was had by all at the WHOA book release party. Author Becky Byrkit and poet Cynthia Hogue did poetry readings and attendees got to letterpess print an excerpt from one of Becky's poems.

It was a full house at the readings!

Jerry Riopelle rocks!

AmeriCamera band was terrific!

Becky's dog Kamali is adorable and exhausted.

Poetry & Music and Letterpress Printing

Join us for a fabulous reception of Becky Byrkit's newest poetry book! Readings by Becky Brykit & Cynthia Hogue. Musical performances by Jerry Riopelle and AmeriCamera.


Becky will sign copies of her new book and letterpress broadside. You will also be able to letterpress a keepsake of the event!

Doors open at 4:00 pm on Sunday the 23rd. Free!

100 Creatives - Phoenix New Times

Thank you to the New Times for featuring me in the 100 Creatives series! It is an interesting series and you can read about the other folks featured as well.


http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/08/cindy_iverson_letterpress_central.php#more

Letterpress Central to host National Printing Conference!

We are hosting the APA letterpress printing conference in 2013. Yippee!

Nothing says Arizona like pointy Tuscan Gothic wood type by WM Page as well as highlighting the fact that we do have AIR CONDITIONING and indoor restrooms!

Dive in to letterpress, Phoenix!

When you live in a warm climate, it helps to think cool thoughts! Plus, I love how letterpress is going along swimmingly in the Phoenix area!

What do a donkey, tomato & fish have in common?

I used this crazy cut to print a "food" postcard with lovely handset Paramount type. Now why would a donkey be standing on a tomato with a fish swimming by?

WHOA - broadside & portfolio

WHOA. We are working on the letterpress broadside and limited edition portfolio. The cool thing about this project is that in addition to the new book of poems, the broadside will have an original poem by her that is not in the book and an artwork print by her brother Ward James Brykit who is one of the creative forces behind the movie Rango. How cool is that?

A Strange Kind of Sympathy

Anthony Velasquez is a local artist who creates amazing paintings. We worked with him to make a piece to go with his show at the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale. He was fun to work with because he wanted hand set type to go with the vintage images he paints. The show - A Strange Kind of Sympathy - was amazing!

Half Off Bacon - Mad Men Letterpress Class

After the Madmen inspired letterpress class, Lisa took her coasters with her to show friends at dinner. She said the wait staff were very intrigued but not intrigued enough to give them 50% off bacon!

Images from the class. Such a fun day!

Birds outside our shop

We have some cool birds outside our shop due to the canal. I'd never seen such large birds so nearby!

Their wingspan is amazing when we see them fly over the yard.

Whoooo?

For eight years I've heard an owl outside our house but I could never see it. The other morning I was loading my car and looked up and saw the owl watching me. I think its a large horned owl. I was a little nervous taking the photo--the owl wasn't very high up in the tree.

Letterpress Central Open House

We are having an open house at Letterpress Central on April 21 from 10 - 2 pm. 

Come join us--you can make a print and have a snack!

Mike decided to make some signs using our enormous sign press. Great chance to use some super large wood type. The sheets he printed are 22 x 30 and the 3 signs almost cover an 8 foot table! 

Gary and I worked on the invites that would be mailed. We could have done a polymer plate but decided to do all hand-set metal type and ornaments. Then of course, I forgot to photograph the lock up. Hand-set type lock ups are almost a work of art by themselves. So much more interesting than polymer plates. We have such an amazing collection of old typefaces and ornaments that it can be hard to choose! We ended up with a reverse Gill, Trylon shaded, Brody, Packard and a french typeface - Le Moreau where the nick is upside down and it totally confused us!

 Wonder if the color of the clothes influence the ink color? Hmmm.....

We printed envelopes in three fun colors, chartreuse, aqua and kraft. I think I like printing envelopes as much as the invites because it is such fun to get surprising mail!

Photos from the Type Truck Event

We were overseeing the printing on the Vandercook at ASU for the type truck event so we didn't get out and about enough to take many photos.

 Lots of AIGA members attended!

There were so many people in ASU's type shop, it was like Grand Central Station. The vandy kept printing all night!

We loved seeing everyone wearing our printers hats! Made printing and folding the hundreds of them all worth it.  So cool!

 Wish we could have had a chance to talk with Kyle more about her Type Truck Adventures but there was a line outside her truck the whole time!

 I think this is my favorite sign of all time "This is not a Taco Truck". My friend Lisa bought one and is putting in her kitchen!

I did sneak in to say "Hi" for a second and buy some of her prints.  

That gal has really been all over the country in the type truck! Amazing! Check out http://type-truck.com/

.

Printing Printers Hats

So in celebration of the Type Truck coming to town, I got the hair-brained idea that it would be so fun to print "pressmen" hats as a keepsake. Now mind you, I had to teach myself how to fold one first then figure how to print it. I found the instructions here.

I did a number of mock-ups on a variety of paper starting with newsprint. These hats are seriously complicated to fold. The first thing I found out was that newspapers have not only shrunk but totally changed in size!

After much trial an error, we decided to go with kraft paper because it stiffer than newsprint and would hold its shape better.


It took a bit of convincing Mike and Gary that this was a fun idea and I agreed to do the folding along with the team printing. Well, we all did the printing and while I started all the folding, it became a team effort because 200 hats is a lot of hats to fold!






Here's a shot of the first run drying. We printed the back band, color band of ornaments and a colophon inside.

Below is a sample of the finished hats. I need to shoot a closeup of the back band because Mike found a great quote by Roland Tiangco that we printed. "The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty."

Mike said that these are the most printed pressman's hat ever. He's probably right, we went a little crazy!

Vintage Letterpress Look

My pal Lisa and went thrift store rummaging a few weeks ago and we scored some fun vintage items with letterpress imagery on the covers.

 This is what letterpress can be like BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS!!! Oh so true..well sometimes a project can be a bit maddening.  Gosh I remember my dad playing this album when I was a kid. It has really great songs on it.

The backside is set in metal type. So fun!  I need to get a turntable because the album is pristine! I knew we shouldn't have sold ours 10 years ago at a garage sale. Isn't that always the way?  Look out when we find a turntable--we can sing our lungs out while printing!

The next item we found is a kid's spelling book with painted wood type one the cover. It's from the 70's and obviously before photoshop. So cool.