How sweet it is!

It's official - the gurus of great finds in city living at Daily Candy have blessed us with a "sugar coated" write up in today's Boston edition! I read my "candy" everyday, even for cities I no longer live in, so it's a real "treat" to be featured.





Click on the article to link to the full write up (including local stores).

For those who have never heard of Daily Candy (gasp!), here's a bit about them in their own words:

DailyCandy, a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, is the insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered — from fashion and style to gadgets and travel. As useful as it is entertaining, it’s like getting an e-mail from your clever, unpredictable, and totally in-the-know best friend. The one who knows about secret beauty treatments, must-have jeans, hot new restaurants — and always shares the scoop.

Cookin' the books

This past weekend Albertine Press hosted a two-day letterpress/bookbinding extravaganza.

On Saturday, five lovely ladies typeset and printed a small edition of bookplates. It was such a great group - writers, teachers, designers, illustrators, crafters and an engineer - very patient, hardworking, quick to pick up the craft, and creative to boot!

Everyone really blew me away with their designs: elegant illuminated letters, great overlays, free-form clustering, retro woodcut play, and a snappy end-plate.



Yun and Angela working the Kelsey's.



Andrea mastering the block form.



And the finished goods (pre-crop).

After a quick table shuffle and the addition of two new students (plus me!) we were ready for Sunday. Angela Liguori of Carta, Inc. took over and taught us all a binding technique called "sewing on tapes". It's a really beautiful, exposed binding, and Angela brought only the best supplies to make everything even more beautiful (if possible) - German laid paper for the text block, hand-dyed asian stock for the covers, plus her specially imported cotton ribbons in a variety of colors.



Here she demonstrates how to sew together the signatures:



And everyone with their finished books (bookplates and all)



For more pictures and perspectives of the event click here and here.

Such a successful weekend, and I loved the collaboration of printing and binding. It was the first of what I hope will be many such collective classes. Thank you to Angela for bringing such a calm and easy way of teaching (and all of the gorgeous samples). And thank you especially to Roxanne, Angela, Andrea, Yun, Susy, Pat and Ylenia for being such willing and able students - it was a pleasure working with all of you!

Golden touch

Wrapping up construction of the custom collection book, I managed to eke out one more save the date card. I'd initially planned on printing in jet black, but Emily suggested gold, and the result is positively princely.

Recraft Recap and T-shirt Madness

The Recraft Fair in Union Square last weekend went absolutely swimmingly.

We battled gusting winds, which earlier in the day were carrying off entire tents at the Farmer's Market. A few water gallon weights, a bus stop backstop, and judicious repositioning of the card display, and not a one of the cards flew off. Here's a picture of our little "bunker" (the white boxes and tins kept the direct gusts off of the rest of the cards).



There was a great mix of visitors to the fair with an extra-large helping of people in indy-hipster silkscreen shirts. After about a dozen super-cool tees paraded past, I started taking pictures:



I thought she might have been a bio-researcher (we're in bio-tech central, after all), but then Jacob exclaimed, "That's my favorite line from the movie!" Ghostbusters, that is. Nice.



This was one of my favorites, though I still can't figure out what the 'X' is supposed to be.



A bit disturbing, perhaps, but hard to tear your eyes away.



Sexy in spades.



Awesome Korean shirt - totally random, totally cool.

Plan on finding Albertine Press at a few more fairs this fall (stay tuned)!

Won't you be my neighbor?

Calling all neighbors!



This weekend Albertine Press is pleased to be an exhibitor at the Recraft market in Union Square, Somerville. The fair features lots of local artisans who use recycled, reused, repurposed or otherwise eco-friendly materials in their goods (my 100% cotton paper got me kudos and a spot).

Here are the details:

Saturday, August 18, 2007 [rain date 8-19]
3:00 until 7:00 pm
Union Square Central Plaza, Somerville
(following the farmer's market)

In addition to the crafters, there will be lots of fun, free activities (paint your own canvas shopping bag, make your own recycled disco ball) and live music. All of this brought to you by the fine people at Somerville Arts Council, and Magpie Store in Davis Square.

It's going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so won't you be our neighbor?

The glass half full

After suffering roller trouble on the Vandy, but with a production schedule too busy to stop and fix it, we're down to printing on only one half of the press ... nevertheless, everyone seems to be cooperating. Here's some of the work keeping me from fixing Precious properly:



The first of two fall wedding invitation sets; I'm excited by the impression-only flying leaves motif, as well as the horizontal tea-length card, which I've been itching to design for ages.



And here's the second leaves-themed fall invitation - designed by the bride, Alison.



A set of save-the-date cards featuring an original drawing of a building at Cornell, where the couple is getting married next summer.



And another client design - this one by Susan Turner, a keepsake for her father's memorial service. So simple, so beautiful.

Hot off the press

That's right, ladies and gentlemen - the folks at Stuff @ Night think Albertine Press is one of 100 people, places and trends that you need to know about, now.



Visit one of those pretty plastic boxes on the corner for a free copy of Stuff @ Night to read about us and 99 other fabulous Boston hot stuffs - or just read about us in the clip below.

One if by land

... and about seventy-five if by lighthouse.



These are the first thumbnails of a save-the-date card for a couple who got engaged by a lighthouse, and will marry on the Maine coast.



It's a tricky thing, drawing a lighthouse (or anything) with just a few strokes - some look more like rocket ships, others like salt shakers, but I'm determined to get one right.

Check back again for the progress of the card.

Small pleasures

I love cutting through the edge of a printed stack of paper.

Holy Gutenberg, Batman!

No, seriously. Holy and Gutenberg!



David, a student in the Intro to Letterpress class today, shared with us an astonishing treasure - an original page printed on a Gutenberg press, circa 1460!!! Thank you David, for sharing this amazing piece of history.



David's framers did a bang-up job, even glazing a portion of the back so David wouldn't have to bear covering up half of this work of art.



The page is taken from a portion of the service that ordains priests (or maybe bishops? see the woodcut insert). I'm a little fuzzy on whether or not this was actually part of the Bible project, or part of a number of side projects (including "indulgences" for the church!) that Big-G had going on.

[update: my friend Diana, rare-books librarian and expert on many-things, has clarified some of the confusion - she believes this to be a page from the pontifical, the book containing the rites for performance of episcopal functions. Sayeth Di, "I think the prayer is about stripping the bishop of his power if he does wrong, not investing him; in the picture, they're meant to be removing the mitre, not installing it." Thanks, Di!]



Look at the registration! Look at the type! Look at the illuminated letters! Look at the notes in sidebar!

Here is some relevant history about Gutenberg quoted from Wikipedia:

By 1450, the press was most likely in operation, and a German poem had been printed, possibly the first item to be printed there. Gutenberg was able to convince the wealthy moneylender Johan Fust for a loan of 800 guilders. Peter Schoeffer, who became Fust's son-in-law, also joined the enterprise. Shoeffer had worked as a scribe in Paris and designed some of the first typefaces.
...
It is not clear when Gutenberg conceived the Bible project, but for this he borrowed another 800 guilders from Fust, and work commenced in 1452.
...
Sometime in 1455, there was a dispute between Gutenberg and Fust, and Fust demanded his money back, accusing Gutenberg of embezzling funds. Meanwhile the expenses of the Bible project had proliferated, and Gutenberg's debt now exceeded 2,000 guilders. Fust sued at the archbishop's court. A November 1455 legal document records that there was a partnership for a "project of the books," the funds for which Gutenberg had used for other purposes, according to Fust. The court decided in favour of Fust, giving him control over the Bible printing workshop and half of all printed Bibles.

Okay, so the page you see here was printed with Gutenberg's type, on Gutenberg's press, however, it was done after Gutenberg had been booted out of the picture.

Holy holy holy! Gutenberg!

What's black and white and red all over?

Today I had another wonderful opportunity to infect four new students with the letterpress bug. Carol, Jesse, David and Jennifer spent the day learning the trickeries of hand-setting type and finessing both the Vandercook and one of the Kelseys in printing their work.

David began the day with show and tell, whipping out (or rather, very gently setting down) a gorgeously framed page printed on an original Gutenberg press (circa 1460). See the next post for details. If nothing else, the red and black color palate of the day's printing was inspired by the work.





No day would be complete without another example from the "Learning How to Read Backwards" lesson book:



My favorite design of the day was an absolutely lovely bookplate by Carol - what a great use of ornaments! She was ever-so-patient, despite registration frustrations, and I hope she's as delighted as I am with the result (perfect timing as well, given the bookplate workshop we'll be having at the end of the month).



Jennifer is the new proud owner of a C+P pilot (lucky girl!), looking to pick up a few pointers before diving into printing on her own. The pressmark on her card was not printed crookedly, or in a swayed way - I just couldn't take a straight picture.



Jesse made the most beautiful pyramid lockup I've ever seen, though of course, I neglected to get a picture. Bravo anyway, Jesse!

Thank you to all four, for a stupendous day of letterpress!

Say cheese

It seems I'm collecting photographers. This is a set of business cards just finished for Joshi Radin (talented chica who shot just about all of the custom work on the official website). Love the pink, love the impression.