Self. Serve. Letterpress. Need I say more?
Although hearing the concept alone was enough to convince me, I’m so excited about this that I’m going to go ahead and share our recent experience at The Bar at Porridge Papers for those of you who haven’t already begun researching where you can sign up for this incredible opportunity.
Last week we shared the calligraphy class I was able to attend thanks to my lovely husband’s early Christmas gift. This past weekend was the second portion of this two-part workshop and I loved it even more than I had anticipated!
In just seven days, they created plates out of our calligraphy from the week before so that when we came back we could letterpress stationary from our own artwork. I was won over with just a calligraphy class, but the idea to transform something we ourselves had written into a letterpress card is almost too much awesome to handle in one sitting. Which is probably why they split it into two parts. ;)
First up, a brief overview of the craft and an introduction to The Bar – which is their self-serve letterpress that will be opening soon. They can either create custom plates for you, or you can select letter blocks from their stash to create your own cards, prints, etc. It sounds like they are already considering future workshops too, so you’ll definitely want to check them out.
We have a true appreciation for various art-forms, and letterpress is no exclusion. I love local businesses that are amazing at what they do! And I love it even more that this small-business has created a space to provide those of us who like to dabble with the opportunity to use equipment we wouldn’t otherwise have access to!
After a brief introduction to Milton the cat, it was my turn to apply the ink, position the plate, and roll out my stack of cards.
Have I mentioned how amazing my husband is? He took all of these great images and even caught a little footage of me manually operating the machine. Check it out…
Here’s the lettering I ended up selecting. That’s right! Kisses and hugs so that I can use the cards to leave sweet messages for that husband of mine.
Oh, and that splotch on my finger? Apparently that means I am doomed to forever be messy with the ink. Thank goodness I don’t mind getting my hands dirty for the sake of something beautiful!
I am thrilled with how they turned out! If you know me, you know that I would eagerly pick up cute cards like this if I just happened upon them. So the fact that I had a hand in making them from start to finish makes me love them even more!
After this experience, we’re even more excited to get to work on our new letterpress paper goods for Kel and Mel. Of course, we’ll be leaving the production of those materials to the experts at Porridge Papers!
-m
