Monday, November 30, 2009
Printing all day everyday
Will you please look at that impression? Amazing!
This is a sneak preview of a brand new item! It's not quite done, so it's not up in the shop yet, but I'm super excited. I should be getting the tab cards in today, and will print letter dividers on them and get them ready for RENEGADE CHICAGO this weekend!
I've once again enlisted my dad to make me some boxes. And these are in oak! So very pretty. I think I'll have about 10 of them for sale in Chicago this weekend, and will take orders for more on my etsy shop. I'm cutting it close!
We tried out all kinds of things on our new press this weekend--this was a vintage Santa and reindeer cut from Jerry at SOS Linotype in Nashville. It printed so beautifully on the C&P press!
This is very exciting: Carrie's Chicago print. It's 5x7, and in 2 colors! We hope to post it on Etsy this week.
And here is Carrie's mom, Neda assembling calendars for us at the barn while we printed. I think we're finally done with the darn calendar. Next year, we're doing it differently! But first, we still have about 150 to sell!
Labels: carrie, chandler price 10x15, letterpress, printing
Thursday, November 26, 2009
What I'm Thankful For
This guy who turned out to be a better husband/friend/personal comedian and chef than I ever thought possible, and certainly more than I deserve. And I'm also thankful for Jason. Hahahaha.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Day One of Printing on the 10x15 C&P
It's been a long week of waiting for all of the pieces to fall into place. We had to order rollers and trucks (they cost more than the press!) tympan paper, gauge pins, ink, a new Boxcar base, and assorted hardware store items. All week long we knew our press was sitting in a barn, waiting for some attention.
This is the counter. It only counts when the prss is impression mode. Pretty cool, right? No more counting on our fingers!
It takes quite a while to get set up and start printing. The gauge pins are great, but require careful placement so that they don't hit the boxcar base and get all smashed up.
The first time we pulled this card out of the press and saw the impression, it was the best moment. I am so sick and tired of trying to get a good, even impression on my kelsey 5x8. This just does it effortlessely.
It may not be the prettiest girl in school, but she sure can print. The press. Carrie and I are plenty pretty. Maybe some time this winter or during a downtime we will clean up and give it a new coat of paint--wouldn't red be awesome?
Our wheels are really spinning now with the possibilities that improved speed and quality of printing that we can have now. The game has been changed!
Thanks to Carrie's mom, Neda for taking photos!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Snapshots and a new print!
Busy busy busy here.
Got some new fabrics in--they'll be up in the shop soon enough.
And here's a brand-new letterpress print up in the shop right now! I'm pretty proud of this guy. I drew it while I was supposed to be watching a movie. Hopefully I'll be able to print it on the new press when it's all up and running, but right now I'm hand-pressing it. So it has that extra little bit of love.
We're working on the press this weekend! I'm sure Monday will bring many photos, and hopefully success stories!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Our biggest day. So far.
We have big news--literally! We got a new press!!
Carrie and I drove to Iowa with my uncle Richard yesterday and picked up our new press. I can't tell you how excited we are!
Here's how it all went down: I saw a listing on Briarpress for a small Golding Pearl. That would have been awesome because they don't take up that much space. Alas, it was already gone before I could get in touch with the owner. He was a super nice guy, though and gave me the phone number of another pressman also in central Iowa.
After several several phone calls, we figured out that he did in fact have a press for us. It was a 10x15 Chandler and Price, and he agreed to put a motor on it and clean it up for us.
Lucky for us, my uncle Richard has a big ass truck. And he is a candidate for sainthood, because he drove all the way from Kansas City to pick us up, and then all the way to BFE Iowa, and back. Oh, yeah, and he did a lot of the lifting and moving. Carrie and I never could have done that ourselves. He's a saint, I tell you!
A few words about the state of this little print shop: holy crap. It was like a printmaker's boneyard. There were parts and pieces and rollers everywhere, presses in all stages of disrepair, and some things fully assembled.
The owner is retiring to start up a small-town newspaper using his linotype machine that you see here in the front window.
After much pushing and pulling back and forth, we got the press in the truck and started back home.
Around 6pm, we arrived at our new destination. Carrie's mom and dad met us and forklifted the press off the truck at their barn and put it in place. Forklifts come in handy, I've realized.
I'll have to take some more photos of the big red barn where we'll be printing later.
Here it is in it's new home! And here's a quick video of it working:
Labels: letterpress, printing
Friday, November 13, 2009
New print!
Now available in the shop! 
I love to carve blocks of linoleum. Sometimes I choose to have plates made from my drawings to preserve the line quality, but the carving is pretty fun.
For this print, I used a really blocky typeface that I found on DaFont. Have you been there yet? Tons of cool free fonts. Use at your own risk!
I love love love the bright sunny yellow. It's sort of tricky to line up the grey for the tires and windshield wipers, but I think it will work out.
I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve for the upcoming Renegade Handmade Market in Chicago....so I'll be rolling them out here.
And coming this Sunday, Carrie and I have a BIG, HEAVY surprise for you. Just wait. It's going to be an exciting weekend.
Monday, November 09, 2009
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Coming to Chicago December 5 + 6!! Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, from 11-7. Please stop by and say "hi"!
Carrie and I are happy to announce that we're going to be at this year's Renegade Handmade Holiday show in Chicago!
It's our first show as 1canoe2, and we're busy busy busy printing. We don't want to run out of anything! We know we'll be in good company. Honestly, I would want to go to shop even if we weren't going to have a booth.
Check out these photos from last year's event.
So you 'll be seeing updates that include lots of new printing, and probably some old, and if posts are spare around here, or short, it's because I must be printing!!
Labels: 1canoe2, printing, shop, shows
Friday, November 06, 2009
Look who's REALLY printing all of our calendars!
Curtis and Colin are my co-workers sons. They went as Super C's for halloween. Katie got their costumes from BabyPop on Etsy. They are awesome! Curtis is five years old, and really into art. He was super excited about his "letterprint" bikes. And then of course Colin had to try it out as well.
Hey, I'm doing what I can to pass letterpress printing on down to the next generation!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Marketing Schmarketing
It's true that being an artist is not just getting paint (or ink) all over your hands everyday. That artwork won't sell itself! Okay, so with the internet and Etsy, you might get lucky, get on a big blog, and it might sell itself a little. With a little effort, however, you can sell a lot. And sales on sites like Etsy have a snowball effect...the more you sell, the more often you're listed at the top of the "recently sold" list, and when you relist you're bumped to the top as well, and therefore the more visible you are.
This month I purchased a spot on Poppytalk Handmade. I don't have hard facts to prove it, because frankly, Google Analytics wisdom eludes me just a little, but I think my sales have already gone up because of it. The first day that our gallery was up I sold at least 5-6 items, which virtually paid for the gallery spot.
The best thing about gallery sites like this is that they are curated. I love the "come one come all" flavor of Etsy, but SHEESH! there's a lot of crap on there. (Sidenote: have you wasted any time on this site yet? OMG!) So the gallery websites really direct people to the good stuff.
Go checkout Poppytalk. It has some really great art and usable items on there. I'm just honored to be a part of it!