Letterpress Free Sunday

Tomorrow is Sunday.

Tomorrow is Letterpress Free.

Wow!

Breaks are so important!

I thought that I would just put up a few photos of some current things I have been working on.

This is one of my favorite vintage fonts.  It is called Bernhard Tango and was design in the 1920's.  I bought it vintage- thus it is missing capital "k" and a few of the letters are dinged.  Making it hard for me to offer this font to customers until I can find more of it.  (It is not made any more)

Aren't they marvelous tags?  Thick cotton paper, vintage type, silver ink and of course handprinted.

Another simple and bright tag- if I don't sell them all I might just use them on my packages.

Calling Cards

Okay- so the vintage telephone is a misnomer; calling cards historically don't refer to telephones. (But hey, I love that phone and I bet it caught your eye!)

What they do refer to is a time that has been passed by- a time before telephones (let alone cellphones).  These little guys were made to announce an arrival.  They were handed to a servant or placed in a container in the entryway (usually made of silver).  You were not seen until the card had been handed to the person of residence and your visit accepted.. 

Originating in the 1800's in France, these little cards carried a ton of importance and guidelines.  In fact, after reading all the etiquette I crindged over my lack of etiquette!  It makes you realize how laid back our present culture really is.
There were specific rules as to when you could call, who you could call, the manner in which you left your card, the time...

    There were even calling card secret codes.  The altering or tearing of a card corner had different meanings.

• A tear or fold in the top left indicated that it was a social call.
• A tear or fold on the opposite side (right) ment someone was calling to give a congratulations.  This could be for a new baby, engagment, wedding..
• If the bottom left was altered, the visitor was saying goodbye before departing on a journey.
• The alteration of the bottom right corner was perhaps the saddest; indicating a call of condolence (death in the family).

But wait, that wasn't all- those French!!! Well, they even used little intials for phrases (French phrases of course)
• p. f. - congratulations (pour féliciter)


• p. r. - giving thanks(pour remercier)
• p. c. - condolence-mourning expression (pour condoléance)
• p. f. N. A. - Happy New Year (pour feliciter Nouvel An)
• p. p. c. - meaning to take leave (pour prendre congé)
• p. p. - when you wanted to be presented to someone(pour présenter)

Examples from the American Antiquarian Society

If you are interested in further information, check out these sites.  Or for even more of a hoot- you can visit the Harpers Magazine or the Encyclopedia of Etiquette.    Enjoy the littlle dandy to the left!!!

And of course, if you are interested- Vermilion Star Press has our own calling cards.  On cotton paper, handset vintage type.  And maybe, just maybe our printing press printed these when they were first in vogue.


http://www.americanantiquarian.org/callingcards.htm

http://idreamedisaw.blogspot.com/

http://ancestorville.com/victoriancallingcards.html

http://www.literary-liaisons.com/article026.html

These are our very own Vermilion Star Calling cards- The type is set one letter at a time and then printed- ONE COLOR AT A time on thick cotton paper.

Other Examples of Calling cards from http://idreamedisaw.blogspot.com/

Finally- Coasters- A Light at the end of the Tunnel

I am almost reached the end of my stack of orders. (I can see the light!  That means I will have time for Shopping, Gingerbread Houses, Decorating, Cookies, searching out those hard to find gifts...)  Unfortuantly, I realized that I had one order that was in a color that I printed last night.  (Ugh!!  See- you can only print one color at a time, and cleaning the press is time consuming.  You have to clean all the rollers- the ink disk...  All of which takes time.  So when printing I line up the invoices by color- and try to print as much of one color as possible.  I MISSED ONE.  Wanna kich myself.
That and I am sick.  On the holiday rush...

See all the ink- it all has to be cleaned before you can print a new color

Anyway- I am gonna do the drawing for the little coasters.  Way over due--- guess I'll have to throw in something for the ladies.
Thanks gals- by the way.




1.the wonderful Soap Seduction
2.the wonderful Soap Seduction
3. Becky (who likes the Very Mod Callings cards)
4.Becky (who also pointed out that I need to have other ways for individuals to follow- working on the Facebook- sigh!!!)
5.Random Creative
6.Maitri
7.Dori
8. Patricia
9. WilksOak Studio
10. Mamma Sharp


And- there was only one person that seemed to do my "proofing" for me.  If she could resend/ contact me that would be great.

NUMBER 5!  Congrats- after the long wait.  Coasters are yours...

TIS THE SEASON TO BE BUSY

(That counter keeps going and going)

WOW! I am taking a break.  But it feels like I have been printing non-stop.  That is a good thing, but I am tired.  I have declared that tomorrow will be NO LETTERPRESS.  And that feels and sounds pretty good!!!
Not that I am complaining.  But it will be nice to play with the boys.  Put up the Christmas tree.  Cook a good meal.  And spend a day without ink on my hands.  Maybe knit some (yep, I dream about knitting almost as much as printing and drawing- some sort of sickness I suppose)

Contest

Tomorrow I will also announce the winner to the give away.  (Which was supposed to me on the 1st- but of course that was when I walked into a wall of orders.)
Have patience dear friends.

Sketchbooks

I was very excited that one of my little handbound letterpress books made it on an etsy treasury.  (I happen to really like them.  But I am one of those people that has tons of sketchbooks around.) These little sketchbooks were completely handmade (except for the cotton paper) cut, folded, stiched and glue all by my busy hands.

At any rate, it looks like my little sketchbook was in good company.

Giveaway- Win Our Coasters

These coasters are so much fun!!! (I suppose I am a little biased)

Anyway- they are the perfect little package to slip into a stocking, give to a co-worker, or even hang from your ceiling and dance under.  (A little extreme I suppose...)

I thought we would make this a little fun! Contest ends December 1st.

Rules:

a. Become a follower (my lonely blog would love your face on the sidebar!)

b. Edit my letterpress tag! (this is the fun part- see images below)

c. Pick a favorite from my etsy shop (let me know you did that)

d. All the above (get an entry for each)

Here are the tags that I printed.  They are handset type (meaning each letter is a little piece of lead with a letter on it.  The tag on the right has the mistakes.  This font is 8pt (Bernhard Gothic Light) and  one of my favorites.

Find The Mistakes (Hint- I believe there are only three)

Send me a comment and let me know what I messed up on!!!

Mr. Lincoln will give you an idea of the size we are working with.

And this is what it looks like- the back of the tag is on the bottom half.  At the time I printed the tags - I also started printing recipe tags.  So this picture illustrates the Recipe tag.  (to save time I printed both sides at once and then cut them.  Originally I thought I would be able to fold the tag at the bottom and save time- nope it looked ucky.)

Good luck- you've got lots of ways to win!  These are on sale in my etsy shop if you want more- we have other styles too!

100 Wells Campaign- Sudan-

Safe Water

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100 Wells Campaign

"100,000 people in Jaac, Sudan need clean water to survive. The devastating genocide in Darfur has forced refugees to resettle in rural desert areas like Jaac—desert areas where clean water simply doesn’t exist. Our goal is to build 100 wells to serve this community."

"Approximately 80% of sickness in Africa is related to bad water. In Darfur, perhaps more than anywhere on the planet, clean water is critical. Refugees are forced from their homes to live in the middle of a desert with no clean water. PPF has witnessed people dying of thirst with no access to clean water. Since 2006 we have built 36 wells. The Clean Water Project funds things such as wells, Water Purifiers, water bowsers and donkeys to transport fresh drinking water."

Wow- it is hard to imagine here in the States...

I basically print and sell items so that I can print more.  Printing is my hobby/buisness.  There isn't a day that goes by that I think how blessed I am.  Sometimes this makes me feel a little selfish...
 For awhile I have been wanting a way to contribute, to be able to send a little of the profit I make out somewhere.  There seems to be so many in need.  Where do you start?

I thought I would start by contributing 5% of my monthly etsy sales to the 100 Wells Campaign.  I know, it doesn't sound like much.  But when you read that $35 helps give water to a person for life, well $35 doesn't seem like much in comparison.  I think of my little guys and it makes my stomach turn to imagine them struggling to get clean water.

So a long story short- this is where our little press will start.  GO Mr. HENRY GO!!! Look for totals soon...
And pass it along- send out the info.

The Letterpress Story

I never was good at talking about myself or art.  So, it was extremely difficult for me to make this up for a shop that will be selling out Christmas coasters.  I knew it was time to put a face to the work...