Screen to Plate

Whether we're designing here in the shop or we're receiving files from your designer, our projects start as digital files like this...

The analog version arrives from Boxcar Press in Syracuse, NY. They turn them into photopolymer plates that we print with...

Birthday invitations and business cards coming right up!

Look Back: Moving Day

Moving the C&P 8x12 Old Style Letterpress (July 2013)

This press is a beauty! I found it listed on in Kent, WA, listed on Craigslist. It was built in 1898… 115 years ago. The gal who sold it to me picked it up from an older gentleman who used to be a pressman for the Seattle Times and later for the Valley Daily in Kent. 

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I agonized for three days over how we were going to load it up and make the two hour move north to it’s new home in Bellingham, WA. I finally settled on using my brother’s floor crane to lift the press so we could back a small U-Haul trailer right under it. It worked like a charm. Having taken the motor and wooden base off of the press, the metal feet on the metal trailer bed made sliding it into place a synch. After thoroughly strapping it down, we took the slow drive north to Bellingham and just reversed the process. Up and off. 

...and then a month later, we moved to a new location across town. 


Shop Notes

I have an obsession with notebooks and journals. I buy them and never use them  because I want them to stay pristine. No more! Still a ways out, but really happy with how these notebooks are coming together. I'll drop them in the online store once they're available that way we can all work on our note taking on the go.

In The Beginning

My first entry into printing with letterpress was printing invites and save the dates for my own wedding a few years back. I built the machine out of an automotive shop press. The results were something I'd never sell today as consistency was pretty difficult to achieve, but the smell of the ink stuck with me and I fell in love with the process.