A Year of Letterpress

January 23, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

When I redesigned my website a few months ago, I gave my card-of-the-month club a bigger presence. I love the idea of creating a relationship with stationery lovers and sending them a little something special each month.

However, the card club does skew toward gift giving, and if you know you’ll be moving sometime throughout the year, or you just want everything all at once, it wouldn’t work for you. So, I recently created a listing for a year’s worth of cards. The collection covers major special occasions—birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc.—and a handful of holidays, plus thank you cards and greeting-free notes you can use for any occasion.

Truth time, folks: I also have an ulterior motive with this one. I’m hard at work on a new collection for spring and I’m running out of space for all my inventory! So, for one more week, a set of 40 cards will run you just $80! Once things settle down and I find space for everything, they’ll go up to $100, so get them now! Go! Go buy them!

Stay Away From Crack

January 21, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

We had a tragedy here at 622 press about two weeks ago. I’ve been so stressed out about it, I barely spoke a word about it to anyone.

Bess has been put through the ringer in Bermuda, but nothing could be worse than a crack through one of two main joints (which create the pressure that makes the beautiful impression into paper). I had her all cranked up and off-kilter, trying to get a decent impression on an uneven printing plate. I knew what the awful sound was as soon as it happened, but I prayed “Don’t be broken. Don’t be broken.” as I opened the press back up anyway.

This had happened once before, several years ago, so once I finished a mini cry session, I started searching for a cast iron welder in Bermuda. Welding cast iron is requires more skill and equipment than your average metal, as the surrounding material needs to be heated thoroughly to bond with the new weld. Last time, my superhero dad just happened to know a guy who fixed it right away. This time, I had to disassemble my press and send it off in the back of a junky car with a stranger.

It turns out the welder (the only result when I searched for a cast iron welder in Bermuda) didn’t have a kiln large enough to fit the top bit of my press into, so he ended up completely taking it apart—but don’t worry, he sent me a picture that looked like a pile of scrap metal, as though that would ease my anxiety. Several days (more than three times as many as quoted) and several hundred dollars (more than twice as much as quoted) later, Bess is back home.

I’ve been quite timid with her so far, but I’ve been able to get two projects finished since she’s been back, so it seems like things will be ok. I’m trying to take the whole experience as a lesson in mindfulness—a reminder that unfortunately has been sorely needed. Not only would I never have broken her if I had really been paying attention, but I also let ink dry on several pieces of equipment the week prior because I got distracted during clean up.

DIY printing plates

January 11, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

Before the big move, I picked up a couple linoleum printing blocks at an art store in Madison. The printing plates I order from Owosso are expensive and getting pricier all the time, so I thought carving my own would be a great way to save a little money on simpler designs.

One of the components of my new collection happened to be perfectly suited to hand carving, so last week I sat on my porch with my Dremel and went at it! Below is the before and after—can’t wait to see how they print!

Readymade Wedding Invitations

January 8, 2015January 9, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in a few past blog posts, I’ve been working on wedding invitation designs that couple can just pluck off the digital shelf, send me their event information, and—presto!—their invites arrive within a few weeks. Last year I had several couple get in touch with too little time before their nuptials, so I thought these would be the perfect solution for last minute brides.

I’ve also recently realized that for non-designers, starting to brainstorm a design from scratch is totally overwhelming. I’ve had a few designs bopping around my head for a while that haven’t quite suited any of my clients thus far—so my hope is that by having a design in front of them, couples will find the process easier.

Find all current designs here—I’ll be adding more all the time! Get in touch if you’re getting hitched!

2014 in Review

January 6, 2015January 5, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

The title of this post isn’t exactly accurate… it’s really just a review of blogging in 2014… well really just the infographics WordPress generates to sum up your blogging for the year, and I assume motivate you to post more.

Since this blog was idle for much of this year, my stats are not all that impressive, but the infographic IS rather impressive nonetheless! Check it out here.