On the Press: Ex Libris

Typographic bookplates

On the Press Now are some three color bookplates. I was looking over at (Oh so) Beautiful Paper and saw these Harry Potter book covers reimagined by M.S. Corley.

AMAZING! So I grabbed some of my old books down from the shelf, remembering how wonderfully some of my Science Fiction paperback book covers were designed. Then I set to work making these bookplates, that would look so beautiful pasted inside vintage books with Mid century designs.

Typography rules! I’ll post the third color and the complete plates when they are finished.

Problematic Prop Card

In order to complete my membership requirements for the Amalgamated Printer’s Association, I had to print up 155 copies of my proprietor’s card. It is like a business card, but in 3×5 format, I assume for the extinct Roladex…

Prop cards have to have your contact info, a bit of press info and exude your image. I’m pretty disappointed in how this card came out.

Prop Card

The type I have is old, and well-used, so finding crisp undamaged characters is difficult. The underline of “Lock and Key Press” is the only one I have, and it is nicked and dinged up in several places. I don’t mind that so much… My pretty pretty shadow font is so beat up, I can’t set more then five letters without one of them having a big old gash in it. Such is the nature of these utilitarian antiques, though.

I’m also disappointed in my lack of typographic skill here… I’m a great typographer, good with layout and have an eye for figure ground relationships. This arrangement of type on the left hand side bothers me. Its cramped, and dense. It looked good on proof, so I don’t know why I changed it, and didn’t pay any attention to how awful it looked.

First Proof with mispellings etc.

But this is the 1stgen prop card, and will serve its purpose for now, but I will be redesigning and reprinting the whole thing because I don’t want this to represent me for long. I’d like to actually have my lock logo on the card, similar to my banner here and in my Etsy shop. I should know better than to make something like this. Ugh.

Hey Baby…

Hey Baby...

Check out these cute baby announcements I printed for my friend Ann, who’s good friends just adopted a newborn baby boy! Printed on the Greengrocer’s Brown Bag 100% Recycled paper (which I LOVE), all hand set type. The dots were a little challenging to line up perfectly, don’t know why they misbehaved so much. Personally, I like the slight imperfections of hand printed ephemera. Shows you it really is hand made, and not mass produced. No really, that’s not an excuse… I like it. It has become part of my ‘style’.

Congratulations to the new Family!

Hey Baby... Colophon

St. Louis Art Museum Demo with Firecracker Press

Pulling a print for the kids.

On Sunday I was invited by Eric of Firecracker Press(where I teach letterpress printing classes), to participate in some demonstrations of printing techniques to coincide with the opening of the Ming Dynasty Exhibit and the on-going Nocturne of Printmaking at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Matty at the Baltimore

We dragged two small presses to the museum, a 100+ year old Baltimore table-top press, and a flat bed proofing or sign press. I had a few wood and linoleum cuts to put in the proof press, and Matty manned the Baltimore with hand set wood and metal type. The kids were either very impressed or not impressed at all, and most of them were happy to receive a print or two that I made right in front of them. I love kids and it was a LOT of fun to show them how I do what I love, answer their questions and make sure they used their pleases and thank yous when requesting prints. :) One little African-American girl, maybe 4 years old with super cute hair in tight little pipe curls watched intently and as I lifted a print form a wood block she literally squealed in and jumped up and down in amazement. That cracked me up. I think her mom was surprised at the reaction. Perhaps we had a future print maker in our midst!

Printing on the proof press

Showing the print

The Post-Dispatch was there filming too, so when the video and story are up I’ll post the piece.

Look at Me! I’m a Featured Artist!

A fellow Craft Mafiosa, Courtney W. of Twisted Handmade, has featured Moi on her weblog! Head on over there and read my babble about design, letterpress and the economy!

Inspired: A Moment with Lock and Key Press

Open Craft Night at Soulard Art Market

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Come Craft Your Guts out at the STL Craft Mafia‘s first traveling Open Craft Night!
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On Thursday Feb 19, at Soulard Art Market, from 6:30 to 8:30, we’ll be hanging out and making stuff – this is our first traveling Stich ‘n Bitch ‘n Drink (bring your own drinkies) and everyone is invited.

Bring whatever you want to work on and chat with your fellow crafters. There are plenty of outlets, so sewing machines are welcome! We’ll be knitting, scrapping, beading, sewing, gluing and more…

Tell your friends, bring some drinks and snacks. This is a free and open Craft night. See you there!

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The Soulard Art Market is on the corner of 12th & Russell in Soulard, it’s very easy to find.
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Valentine’s Are UP!!!

Here they are! Check them out in Lock and Key’s Etsy Store!

Click this image to go to the flickr page and see more detail.

Candy Colored Valentines!

Click to visit my Flickr and see more images of these being printed.

Finally! I’ve been slacking on these like, big time. Remember those sheets of Valentine’s you’d give you friends in elementary school? My little sister inspired them, so here they are!

Candy Colored Valentines in sheets of six candy-themed tear-apart cards. Front of cards say “I’m sweet on you!”, “Be Mine, Sugar.” and “I’m a sucker for you among others. Reverse has To and From spaces to write your name and the name of the lucky recipient. Two holes will be punched on the edge to allow a lollipop to be attached!

Check my Etsy on monday to get your in time for Valentine’s Day!

Spring classes update

Third week of classes and they are going well. Everyone is working hard on their personal projects.

Letterpress Fundamentals, with only two students, is really cooking. They learned to lock u a forme, and register two colors, from which we printed a collaborative broadside.

The Digital Letterpress class made a bunch of photo polymer plates of their unique art work, and are working on printing their projects.

These back-to-back classes wear me out, but its a lot of fun. We’re starting a Student Collection of prints created by the individuals who take classes at Firecracker. Its growing steadily and is full of beautiful pieces of art! i’ll take some pictures next week.