Here is a plate being proofed in the platemaking department- a test print to make sure everything appears properly. This is a KF152 plate. We make a variety of plate types in different thicknesses, in metal or polymer depending on the customer’s plate mounting system.

by Carrie Valenzuela, letterpress printer. 1:38 p.m.

Jeff is putting the second pass down on this card. Each color requires a separate pass through the letterpress (in this case, good ole Heidelberg Windmill 10 x 15) and a plate with only that color on it (“photo-polymer letterpress plate” to be technical).

by Carrie Valenzuela, letterpress printer. 12:30 p.m.

This is a rare view from the back of a Heidelberg Windmill letterpress machine. The array of rollers is called an ink train because ink is being transported from the rear ink fountain (reservoir) to the front rubber (form) rollers that come in contact with the photopolymer printing plate.

by Carrie Valenzuela, letterpress printer. 4:30 p.m.

Mike is trimming his photopolymer plate so it can be lined up easily on the handy dandy Boxcar Base. Once in position, the plate is inked up for letterpress love!

by Carrie Valenzuela, letterpress printer. 10:22 a.m.

We think it’s beyond cool when people decide to tackle letterpressing their own wedding invitations. Like Lindsay, Beverly and Neil, a graphic designer and an architect, designed and printed their own letterpress invitations. We love the hands-on approach! These were featured on Mint earlier this week – the couple used photopolymer plates from Boxcar Press and Neenah paper, and got to take over the printshop of their friend Amos Kennedy of Kennedy Prints. How sweet is that? Beverly and Neil printed invitations, thank you notes and all of the corresponding envelopes, then added a cool textile inspiration by sewing the invitations.

You can read more about these invitations on Mint.

photo via Mint

It is always a good day around here when we learn of letterpress printers getting cool press, so it was fun to see letterpress mentioned last week by Forbes! Congratulations to everyone in the article (which you can read here), including Ben Levitz of Studio on Fire, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and The Arm in Brooklyn – all Boxcar platemaking/supply customers! We were also excited that Forbes did a shout out about our Boxcar platemaking services….go letterpress!

On a side note – we also happen to love Studio on Fire’s sweet blog, Beast Pieces and seeing how all that photopolymer translates into mind-blowing prints. You can read more of Ben’s inspiring take on the
letterpress renaissance and the benefits of using photopolymer plates here.

Where will letterpress pop up next?

One of the joys of the new year for us is letterpress calendars – 12 pages of pure letterpress pleasure! So we were thrilled this year to receive a beautiful calendar from one of our platemaking customers, Rick Ziesing, the owner of Red Oak Press in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Turns out, in addition to being a letterpress printer, Rick is also a photographer and has taken amazing photographs of his shop, his Windmill, and his printing. His pictures remind us of why we love letterpress printing so darn much – because everything about this printing process is beautiful! Can you imagine an offset shop looking so gorgeous? (see more photos of more letterpress printing at Red Oak Press here)

Rick shared with us some thoughts about letterpress (see below), and all photographs are taken by Rick. The calendar was printed using the Boxcar Base and KF95 plates.

“We bought a beautiful ‘red ball’ Heidelberg Tiegel (windmill) in August of 2007, in order to make products designed in-house without those pesky clients telling us what to do.”

“Of course, I was not a printer, had never run a press nor even seen a Windmill in the flesh until it arrived. Armed with the Heidelberg manual, Platen Press Operation, by George J. Mills, and Kelsey’s little green book, I commenced my self education. The paper companies loved me as I burned through reams of cotton paper while learning to get the press to feed, then to print, then to print properly. Many trials and errors later, I am able to produce something of reasonably good quality.”

“This calendar was designed by Lori Gray, my wife’s partner in Kedash Design, a graphic design firm in Kennett Square, PA.”

“The printing of the calendar itself was not particularly difficult, registration was not critical but getting good ink coverage on both the text and the graphic for the month was trying. I resorted to running most colors twice through the press, which is supposedly a sacrilege but certainly gets the job done without having to resort to smashing one run and deforming the letters to get the graphic to print. I did some makeready by glueing some tissue thin press packing to the platen in certain areas. Of course, the Heidelberg is so beautifully designed that you can run pieces through multiple times and get dead on registration every pass.”

“The gray wash graphics were simple, once I got the color right. There’s just a hint of color anyway and lots of trusty transparent white was consumed. We bought a hand operated wiro binding machine for finishing as the cost of outsourcing 100 calendars to some drone in a copy shop was more expensive (and frightening) than just doing our own.”

“I use standard Boxcar Bases and the KF95 photopolymer. If you’ve dealt with them, you know that this is a top-flight operation.”

“Here are a few hard learned tips. If you’re running a Windmill, get it to feed perfectly before trying to print. If your final print looks bad, it can be a million things, but I always go to the packing first and use fresh tympan and packing for every run. Roller height is critical and may even need to be changed according to what kind of job you are doing. Don’t overink….as in most things, less is best.”

We spotted Boxcar Press recently in:

*The Creativity Room (very cute calling cards for a big-sister-to-be)
*a sweet shout-out from Sycamore Press (we’re thrilled to be in their list of businesses that earned their loyalty, along with Green Paper Company and a cafe with the best veggie burgers in the world — cool!).

Thanks, letterpress friends!