Wayzgoose Keepsake Envelopes

We have been organizing like maniacs getting ready to host the APA Wayzgoose. We had a good logistics meeting today and then got to impromptu collaborate on printing the large keepsakes envelopes. (Conference registrants get a variety of letterpress keepsakes!)

While the brain trust was composing a very cool idea for the wayzgoose envelopes, my contribution was printing a blue stripe as the first layer. Will post the final envelopes once the wayzgoose starts. Gotta have some surprises!

Wide Wood Type Numbers

Some fun wide short numbers on the press.

1970's Anyone?

Letterpress Revival in Arizona

The New Times, Claire Lawton did a cool article about Sky Shipley and the Skyline Type Foundry! We had fun printing the cover for them.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2013-05-09/news/letterpress-is-all-the-rage-and-an-important-part-of-its-history-is-being-preserved-in-arizona/

Here is a link to a slideshow with tons of letterpress related photos:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/slideshow/skyline-type-foundrys-sky-shipley-is-on-a-mission-to-save-letterpress-39515001/

Photos from printing the cover.

 Lots of wood type.

Favorite Holiday Images

So behind on posting! We tend to keep our facebook page a little more current. You can see us on facebook at Letterpress Central.

https://www.facebook.com/LetterpressCentral

Here are some of our favorite images from this past holiday season.

Happy 2013!

Printing holiday wrapping paper.

Donna and Mike's fabulous book tree!

Jingle all the way!

Sam's "Define Naughty" holiday cards

Lisa's fun envelopes

Holiday Cards Class

Wood Type Word Cards - Noel

Wood Type Words - Merry Christmas

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

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!

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!

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?

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!

Hamilton Wood Type - Cool Never Fades

Of course we are all gaga about wood type. I love the way it looks, feels and prints  -  imperfections, dings and all .  I was interested when I heard Target had partnered with the Hamilton Wood Type Museum to design some of their fall clothing. Here's a cool video about the project.

I  got Gary a couple of the wood type inspired shirts for his birthday. This ochre one is my favorite. I love the western wood type in blue!

We just listed several sets of wood letterpress type for sale so click here if you want to get some for your letterpress shop!

 NOTE: the letterpress wood type sets we listed on August 16th have all SOLD.

We may be listing more type in the future, so check back with our site. Thanks!