Letterpress, My Love

My friends, I have found love again…letterpress love. I’ve always admired letterpress paper goods – they’re beautiful, classic and each one is unique. I’ve been wanting to take a class to learn the printing process for a while and down here in the South, those kinds of classes are hard to find. Luckily, Houston is home to the fantastic Museum of Printing History. They offer a ton of different classes, one of which is Letterpress Printing! I immediately reserved my spot and counted the days until it was here. Finally, it arrived! Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of actually MAKING letterpress paper goods. On a bonafide, old-as-dirt printing press. This beauty to be exact…

She’s a Curtis & Mitchell press from about 1910 and she still works like a dream. One thing I learned was the actual printing on the press is the easiest part of the process. Step one is deciding on your design and choosing your type…i.e. font! The Museum has over 200 different font types. For an avid font lover and collector like myself, this was a dream…and a challenge. We didn’t have too long to peruse the collection, something that would have taken me all day. So I started looking in a couple of drawers and the first font I loved I went with it. The class assignment was to make business cards, but since I didn’t need those I decided to make a calling card for the hubs and me. I’m planning on using these for gifts or bottles of wine we give to friends. Here’s what I ended up with…

Side note: Have you ever heard the expression “Mind your p’s and q’s”? Well, this is where it comes from…when you set type, you do it backwards and upside down so there are certain lowercase letters that are hard to distinguish…like p’s and q’s. I made such a mistake when setting my husband’s name. Thank goodness for the proof press!

We learned how to ink the press, make a proof, print, distribute the type and clean the press. It really is all in the details and I’ve found that I loved every minute. It’s been hard to wipe the goofy smile off my face! Part of going to this class was not only to learn about the letterpress process, but to see if it was something I really enjoyed to do. My five year plan includes owning my own press, so I’m happy to report that I had an amazing day and I’m very, very much looking forward to owning my own press someday..soon.

Here are a few more pictures from my day… (Please pardon my iPhone pictures!)