See how far the top of the paper stack is away from the holes and springy fingers? That’s a good space for smooth sheet feeding. Keep the stack rising at this constant rate depending on paper thickness, amount of air blast, angle of suckers and where air blast fluffs up the stack and you’re in business as a smooth operator.
Greg peels a plate off the washout unit on the platemaker. In the water are brushes that have taken off non-inking areas of the plate.
We’re excited to share an event that Smudge Ink (one of our long time letterpress friends) is putting on next week. They’re teaming up with local vendors to put on a holiday sale, and will be donating a portion of the proceeds to the Greater Boston Food Bank! The Holiday Sip + Shop event will take place on Thursday, November 3rd (that’s a week from today!) from 4-8pm at their shop in historic Charlestown, Massachusetts. Because we think it’s so cool that Smudge Ink is supporting their local food bank with their event, we donated the plate for their letterpress posters, and we’ve gotta say — they came out pretty awesome, don’t ya think?
If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to stop by! There will be a drawing for a gift basket filled with awesome prizes like a calendar, gift wrap, boxed notes, holiday cards and coasters from Smudge Ink; a 2-box subscription from Boston Organics for home-delivery of organic produce; a soy candle from Crash, plus soap goodies from Stella Marie, a few bottles of craft brews from Pretty Things Beer + Ale , and a special gift from 2-Fresh-Threads!
Smudge will also be giving away a 4-pack of these amazing letterpress coasters to their first 50 customers, so be sure to stop by and support these local businesses!
Having a cool letterpress holiday event at your print shop? Let us know and we’d love to help promote it!
In case you haven’t heard, Boxcar has a recycling program for plastic-backed photopolymer plates called Boxcar Press Photopolymer Plate Recycling Program or BPPPRP. Learn more about this recycling program here.
Inside this formidable cabinet lies a plethora of plate types that one can order from us. You can choose metal or plastic backed, and a variety of plate heights.
Gaze deep into the flywheel, you are getting very sleepy. The rhythmic song of the press is lulling you. Bask in the fuzzy goodness of letterpress.
The Boxcar Institute Training Series (aka BITS) is filled with helpful tips and tricks — check out one of our latest videos for tips on how you can get the most use out of one plate.
Letterpress printer Jake means what he says! Tip o’ the hat to you, reader.
A fresh batch of our Smock cards are gathered (or printed) by Jake. 
Sarah Wilkinson and Karis Van Noord are two beautiful California girls living their dream with Tabletop Made. With a garage turned studio and music at full blast, their stationery line proves that with a little you can get a lot. Each one of their cards are hand printed on a tabletop Kelsey Excelsior and the response has been nothing but positive. They have been featured on well-known blogs such as Design*Sponge, Sycamore Street Press, and more as of late. Read on about these ladies to hear what everyone is talking about.
How did each of you first get into letterpress?
We dreamed of starting a letterpress card company, and for fun, we took two workshops at Irvine Fine Arts Center with Madeleine Zygarewicz of Panorama Press. We were hooked! We immediately started searching for a press of our own.
What was your very first press?
Our first press (that we still use to this day) is a Kelsey Excelsior 6×10. We nicknamed him Sven, and he’s a hard-working man. He complains sometimes, but he’s had a good life so far.
What medium do you usually print?
Most of our designs are on photopolymer plates, but we do have a couple of steel plates. We also have a few collections of metal type, which we use for our own personal designs, say stationery with a friend’s name. However, photopolymer is our medium of choice.
What’s your process from sketch to press?
Taking inspiration from just about anything, we sketch, scan and trace the image to Illustrator, play around with colors, send each other ideas, rework the design a couple of times, prepare the file for plate-making, jump for joy when the plate arrives, and slap it on our Boxcar Base!
What other print shops do you admire?
We love Deadweight, Great Lakes, Morris + Essex, Tall Cow, Dutch Door Press, and Krank Press.
Who or what inspires you the most?
Living in Santa Barbara is a huge inspiration to us. We love looking at local textiles, architecture, natural landscapes, Mexican pottery, paper cuts – basically everything around us!
What’s your favorite item from Boxcar Press?
We love our base!
Any neat tricks you can share?
We have one trick that we swear by. We use paper corners to hold our paper in place. This allows us more room for the design since we don’t have to worry about mashing clips up on the base.
How was your experience showing at LA Renegade Craft Fair?
LA Renegade was an insightful experience. It was our first fair ever! Since we weren’t sure what to expect, we over-prepared. We basically brought our whole print shop. Now we know better! Our favorite parts included meeting fantastic artists who were so friendly and helpful to us and seeing our customers in person! We want to try out the SF Fair next.
Thanks Sarah and Karis for showing us your talent and hard work! Check out their blog and shop for all the latest from Tabletop Made!