Category Archives: Ephemera

The Boxcar Press Open Studio – It’s On!

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By now you’ve probably heard about the open studio event we’re throwing this Saturday, December 11. We hope you have and we hope you’re planning to attend! We’ll have tours of our newly expanded print shop, printing demos, refreshments, giveaways, goodies and fun activities for kids, and loads of letterpress fun. You don’t want to miss it. We’ll see you on Saturday between 10am and 4pm. The Boxcar Press Open Studio is on!

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This fall Boxcar Press got a lot larger and moved into some new digs. Our expansion (17 letterpresses, 55 employees, 24,000 square feet) makes us one of the largest letterpress shops in the country. One thing that hasn’t changed – we still have an insane attention to detail, an overbearing enthusiasm for letterpress, and the same old mushy hearts. Come visit us this Saturday and let us show you around!

Happy Birthday to the Boxcar Toddler!

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The Boxcar Toddler turns four today and we celebrated with a great big birthday party! There were plenty of friends, crafts and painting, delicious vegan cupcakes from Boxcar favorite Strong Hearts Cafe, stacks of presents and a little face painting, too. It’s hard to believe this little guy is four already. Happy birthday, Jasper!

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It’s Coming! The Boxcar Press Open Studio.

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It’s possible that you may have caught wind on twitter that we’ve been working on a quite the renovation project ’round these parts. We’ve expanded our print shop and moved our entire operation from one end of a big old warehouse in downtown Syracuse to the other. We’re still cleaning up our dust but figured we’d give you an early heads up; we’re hosting an open studio and we hope you’ll join us. More details to come so stay tuned!

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Boxcar Press Donates Paper to Local Art Programs

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A couple of weeks ago we were excited to once again have the opportunity to donate a bunch of paper to local art programs and schools around the city. We’ve been donating paper to local schools annually (if not more frequently) for the last few years and it’s something that never stops being rewarding. We love doing our little part to help kids foster their creativity!

The teachers come in droves and bring big boxes and hand carts to scoop up as much paper as they can. We roll out big palettes and carts full of paper and envelopes and load them up with as much as they can carry.

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Thanks to our esteemed press operator, Carrie, for helping organize our paper donation this year!

A Note from Bow & Arrow Press

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Here at Boxcar Press, we love hearing from the printers who use our bases and plates. Recently, Zachary of Bow & Arrow Press at Harvard University was kind enough to leave us this nice bit of feedback we couldn’t resist sharing.
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“You’re the best. No, really. The best. We love you as much as we happen to love our Vandercook No.4, and that’s something we recently invested 60 hours taking apart and cleaning up, so it’s evident we love that machine quite a bit.

This year, you’ve been an integral part of our fundraising efforts (we’re a non-profit). We’ve printed a number of limited edition broadsides, books and the occasional wedding invitation for our university community using your plates and your base. They’ve in part helped us raise more than $12,000 this year for a letterpress that gets $500 a year in university support.

That fundraising has let us hold letterpress crash courses and intermediate classes and even a for-credit printmaking and bookmaking seminar, a first for us. This year alone we’ve had some 200 people learn letterpress. It’s also going to let us buy a new Vandercook–the one we’re eying right now is a 219 (powered). Two years ago, we had type in 1-lb coffee cans and no two leads were the same length. We had accumulation, not organization. Talking with Boxcar and getting to know you through your website have given us a model for what a printshop can be. Keep doing what you do, and keep up the fun attitudes and terrific customer service. You guys really are the best.”

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Bow & Arrow Press has fundraised enough to bring in an SP20 (as Zachary likes to say, “to give our No.4 some company”), a 23″ Challenge paper cutter, flat files for proper storage, and 10 very full cases of new type from Michael Bixler, in their studio. Such passion to keep letterpress alive makes us jump for joy – this is what the heart and spirit of Boxcar Press is all about for us! It’s exciting to see all the work Bow & Arrow Press has put into keeping their studio alive, especially since they are so dependent upon student interest. We’re happy to have played our little part in helping them keep the dream alive. Spreading the love of letterpress and helping to preserve it for future generations just makes what we do all the more special.

Spring Cleaning – When the Fridge Attacks

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Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at a letterpress print shop? Consider today your lucky day. We’ve been so busy printing lately that our fridge has long sat sadly neglected, piled high with the remnants of delicious meals past. When we could stand it no longer, we decided a little spring cleaning was in order. It took two brave souls over an hour of diligently scraping dishes and checking expiration dates, but the Boxcar Press fridge is no longer a dark and scary place. Good thing we compost – we filled our compost bin right up!

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In Memoriam

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Boxcar Press mourns the sudden loss of our beloved Office Manager and Client Coordinator Carrie Reagan. Her obituary appears here.

Boxcar Press initially hired Carrie as an Administrative Assistant in 2007. She earned a promotion to Office Manager in 2008 and was continuing her advancement this year into a role as a Client Coordinator, managing our custom printing jobs. Her work was exemplary and always in sync with our mission and values at Boxcar Press.

We will always remember the tireless energy that Carrie devoted to her job. She touched many of our customers and vendors through detailed phone support over the past three years. She was conversant in all aspects of our business, and patiently explained ink choices, file formats, paper sizes, press mechanics, everything. Everybody turned to Carrie for an answer, myself included. In addition, Carrie organized many of our environmental and social initiatives, from company-sponsored organic agriculture to employee-powered neighborhood cleanups.

Carrie’s upbeat, positive, constructive personality helped carry our employees through the past three years. We are all grieving her departure. In her memory, we ask that you consider her 4-year old son Eamon. This “little man” (who likewise brought joy to our life over the years visiting our office and printshop) now has suddenly lost both of his parents. Please consider a memorial contribution to the Eamon Willoughby Trust Fund, c/o Geddes Federal Savings & Loan, 2208 W. Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13219.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to Carrie’s survivors.

Harold is famous again!

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Harold first fell for letterpress at a small town college in Northfield, Minnesota called Carleton (Carleton also happens to be the school where Harold & Debbie fell for each other, but that’s another story!). So we were so excited when Carleton’s art department asked Harold to write his story for the college’s web site, to show (we think) prospective art majors and their parents that those art degrees do go onto do great things. Read Harold’s romantic letterpress saga here!