A Few More Coasters

My how time flies.  We have been busy here crankin' out the coasters...
We had the lovely pleasure of working with Miss Angela and coming up with a wonderful save the date.

She wanted something in dark purple/plum and a a deep raspberry red.  She sent along her lovely wedding inspiration photos; these always help when creating a custom design.  She needed something elegant and regal...

The result was combination of multiple designs combined (and several revisions!).  The bride to be was pleased with the results (which always pleases us!)

Next we worked with Kara.  Simple. Direct. Lovely.  I am always fond of these.  Red is elegant and bold, the type is simple and direct.  Marvelous!

Something about that stymie font...

One Wondrous Little Coaster and a Whole Slew of Challenges

We print a great deal of coasters.  Just when you start to get ahead of yourself and think that it's going to be a breeze- you realize you were wrong!  The easiest project turns out to be a challenge.

First, the color stripes had to be printed.  Now, when I create designs for the coaster I work through the printing in my head.  I try to make sure that it is feasible.  Throwing a circle in seems easy, right?

Well- those little stripes go to the end of the coaster.  How does the coaster stay in place?  Usually we have little pins(affectionately called frogs) to hold the paper in place.  When a design goes to the edge, you can't do that.  It gets a little tricky.

Once the stripes are printed- it is time to print the black "cheers."

Not so bad?

Well, each little coaster has to be placed in the correct orientation. Vertical strips need to be 100% up and down. And this has to be done by hand.  Each coaster.  This isn't about speed- it's about accuracy.

Oh, and what happens when one of those coasters sticks to the form in the press?  The rollers run right over the back of the coaster- giving a solid coast of ink.  (that one did not get sent to Australia!)

Happy Halloween All!!!

Happy Halloween! 

 For all intents and purposes, our family looks upon this as a time to slip in a little creativity and fun.  A time to hit the pumpkin patch, carve pumpkins and create darling costumes for the little guys.

And as always, create some new coasters for the shop.  This year I wanted to make something  a little fanciful.  Last year my sketchbook was filled with ideas.  At one point I spent some time contemplating pointy boots with some old striped stockings.  Even though I wanted to create those they got put off to the side burner.  So this year I decided they were the ones.  Those sagging stockings and curved toes were going to come to life.

As far as the results, I couldn't be happier.  Being a lover of lines, I wanted something that really looked like it was hand drawn.   I whipped out the drawing tablet and worked a bit- referring to last years sketch.  And when I finally put them into the press, I must say that I smiled a bit at those witches shoes.

Then I printed up the tags and tied 'en up.

And then...

Well, they sat as I got extremely busy.  Neglected for a month and a half!  Everyday I would walk buy them and smile and say "tomorrow I will take your glamor shot."  Yet, these little guys sat around waiting for me to photo them and put them up.

Now as the pumpkin is roasting in the oven (to get turned into soup) and the kids are getting ready to go for their candy lap- Here I am putting these up.

So sad.

Oh well, next year. 

Cheers to Love

This is the first post in a long time.  We have changed locations and moved into a new studio!!!  That post will come along shortly.  First, I thought that we would share one of the last projects before we left Atlanta.


Almost a year ago, Meag contacted us for some custom coasters.  We worked on them a bit and she decided on this simple but elegant coaster.  Additionaly, she wanted some beverage tokens designed for her reception.  This was actually the funnest part.  I adore small little paper products not to mention the colors; silver and buttercup yellow.

Here they are together- the 4" coasters and the 2" beverage tokens.

The front of the token, hot off the press.

The backs of the tokens.  Love them!

Stacks of little letterpress tokens.  Thick cotton paper, handprinted, custom designed...

1500 Coasters

 

1500 coasters is a formidable pile of paper.  15 stacks of 100 paper coasters.  

It all started with my friends moving party.  I talked her into the coasters because I thought they would be a challenge to design and print.  The result (for my animal loving friend) was a way too cute lab, in bright fushia.

  Yes, Rush (the labs name) stole my heart.  And began my odessy with coasters.

Before I could step up to the press I had to locate the coasters to print on.  Easy enough I thought.  Well, as it turns out, you can either by a few for way lots of money OR you can get 1500 for pretty cheap.

1500 coasters!!!! What was I going to do with enough coasters to build a dog house?  

Ha! 5 months later I placed my second order for 1500 coasters.  Turns out, coasters are a hot item. 

This posting is a look at some of those coasters that started coaster mania at Vermilion Star Press.

Note: printing on a circle takes a little care and practice.  Registration is a challenge- But hey, those 4" circles are hot.

 Simple and elegant, I received a request for this coaster.  Script reading "coup de foudre" (which is basically love at first sight in French-) and the location in a wonderful chocolate brown graced this coaster.

Vegas, anyone?  Sweet Roeanne from Guam needed some coasters delivered to the resort for her wedding. She requested something in yellow and navy blue.  She also needed a swanky font that fit the mood of a Vegas wedding.  (Here I would like to say that it is so interesting to work with people from all over!)

Okay, Halloween.  How could I resist?  These were mainly for fun.  A set witches printed in purple, green and orange paired with a couple of  pumpkin coasters.

Julia contacted me with a design pretty much already laid out.  In fact, she sent a cute rough sketch for me to check out.  A little fine tuning, selection of related fonts and we were pretty much in buisness.  On a print like this, it is always a little bit of a challenge to get the solid areas to print well without the smaller font/areas filling in.

 Martinis anyone?  The challenge was to create a coaster that would convey a clear message but still be stylish enough for the event.

A ton of Christmas coasters!

























And then there was the coaster that we printed for Stephanie and Kelly.  Which in itself deserves it's own blog posting.
Why you ask?  Well, each color is printed seperatly.  Lined up precisely.  This coaster was front and back.  Three colors on the front and two colors on the back.  hmmm.  Yes, that means that each coaster was ran through the press 5 times!!!!

Okay, again the weakness for the marvelous color.  Another sweet dog lover contacted us for coasters.  Julie will get her own posting as well- because she sent great photos of her boston terrier.  Her new address and contact info is on the reverse making it great to sent off in the mail!!!