A friend of theirs had done a wonderful illustration of some Brooklyn buildings and rooftops and Chris had incorporated this into his invitation design. Together with the couple, we decided to go for a small card rather than the standard 5″ x 7″ and I think the results were perfect:

And here’s a detail of the floral imagery:

Here’s a close up to show the intricacy of the design. All of the detail was perfect for letterpress:

And we are thrilled to have already received quite a lot of press for these items. Including a feature on the Martha Stewart Weddings website!

Good luck with the new business, Roma!

After the success of our post about printing on the Vandercook, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to provide a step-by-step guide to printing on our reliable workhorse: the Golding Jobber. So Kate and I took a bunch of photos of the process involved in printing one of my wedding invitation items…

First of all, we measured out the colors that would blend to form the Pantone shade I wanted:

I’m always so amazed at the way that we can accurately mix a precise color:

The color always looks much more vivid before it has been applied to the press. This is because there is a large amount of ink blended initially. Kate applies just a tiny amount to the press disc:

The ink still looks quite bright at this time. But by the time the press has dispersed the ink all over the disc, it is clear that the color is slightly more muted:

Once the press is evenly inked, it’s time to start feeding in the cards, one by one. Here I am (concentrating extremely hard) as I line up a card to be printed:

And just after the rollers have printed the card, here’s how it looks inside the guides:

105 cards later, we had a lovely pile of finished printing. Here’s a sample:

- Jana

And here it is in bright yellow:

The lined envelopes just add the final, perfect burst of color for these cards!

- Jana

So, for any other letterpress enthusiasts out there, here’s a little photographic step-by-step guide to how to print on the Vandercook.

First of all, ink is applied to one of the rollers:

Then Kate ensures that the machine is in “trip” mode. This means that she can ink the rollers without actually printing onto the cardstock.

Then she turns the crank so that the rollers are evenly coated with ink:

The rollers are returned to their original position and Kate then switches the machine to “print” mode. This enables the rollers to actually press into the cardstock and transfer the ink and the impression.

The next step is to carefully place the blank cardstock in the correct place. There are a row of “grippers” which hold the card and also a guide which lines up the card so it is perfectly aligned:

Then it’s simply a case of turning the crank! As long as everything is correctly set up, the grippers on top of the rollers will scoop up the card:

And then the process will continue by rolling the card under the rollers, against the inked plate, leaving behind the inked impression. Then Kate just has to pull the printed item out of the grippers:

And – voila – a finished piece (well, the first color anyway!). It really is amazing to see how many little movements and skilled elements are involved in printing just one color of one piece. It really reminded me of the craftmanship of letterpress printing and the care and attention that goes into the process!

Here’s a pile of the invitations ready to have their second color applied:

- Jana