New Website & Blog

We've moved! – we moved the studio and our website too. Come check out the new site & blog over at www.silverplatepress.com. There are lots of cool new things that's we've been up to – like our first ever wedding show and launching our very own line of templated wedding stationery. Check it out here.

Letting the dust settle down.

Even though it's been quiet here, it's been the complete opposite for me outside of the internet. I'm busy trying to finish up a few last letterpress projects before my life has a complete make-over.

For starters, in a little under a month, Justin and I will be moving into our first real house! Over the last 6 years, we've jumped around from apartment to apartment, moving cities, and jobs and shifting careers... and now it finally feels like the dust just might settle down a little. Not before one last hurrah of all sorts of big life changes. As you may have read in the past, my studio has been basically in our living room in this really industrial (and slightly unsafe and uncomfortable) loft. It was great. I'd wake up on many occasions and still be surprised to see the giant letterpress standing comfortably just a few feet from our couch. It sounds like a dream, right?! And it worked for us.

Until it didn't.

I think it hit both Justin and I around the same time. All of sudden we both had this urge to keep moving and that this leaky loft wasn't the right place to settle in for good. So we started looking for a home. A real home. One where we could see spending many years in... and to be able to grow a family in. Our hunt started over a year ago, and there was NOTHING! Nothing we liked, nothing that worked well for both us and nothing that had both space for a car/workspace for Justin and a separate studio space for the presses. Toronto is pretty ruthless when it comes to real estate. The good places are snatched before they're even on the market, and the only way to get in on those is to be at the right place at the right time. It was totally discouraging and we gave up quite a few times. Until we found out that our family of 2 was soon going to be a family of 3. That really lit the fire and we were looking like crazy. We found an amazing agent (through a letterpress client actually! Hi Jenny!). Maybe he was just a good luck charm, but somehow in the span of about a week we found IT! A lovely little town house in the east end of Toronto with a workspace/garage for Justin and a storefront/studio space for me! Yup! I said storefront! It's like this letterpress thing that has been an "on-the-side-gig" is getting a whole lot more serious! It's perfect. And we're beyond thrilled that this will be our new home!

Here's a sneak peak of the front of the house and soon-to-be new home of Silverplate Press. We're expecting our little bundle of joy about 3-4 weeks after we move in. So I may be a little light on the posting for a few more months yet. I am hoping to have a fun grand opening near the end of the summer/early fall though. (If all goes as planned) I'll try to keep you posted of any fun letterpress shenanigans! Ciao for now!

Woodgrain Save the Dates

This last little while has been busy to say the least! For starters, I've been finishing up projects that started quite some time ago. Like this little number that I designed and letterpress printed for Temerra & Marc. They're a really cool couple that wanted a rustic and natural looking save the date. They are lovers of the outdoors, so naturally I thought it would be so amazing to print woodgrain. At first I thought it would be neat to just print the woodgrain as a blind impression on thick kraft paper, but it just wasn't showing up as much as I wanted. You could totally feel the grain, and it was amazing... but I thought it needed a bit more. So I use a bit of clear varnish to bring out the grain a little more on the dark paper. I love the way they turned out! A note for printing on kraft paper, however, colours absorb easily in this kind of paper, so the orange for instance turned out darker than what I had hoped. I'll be doing some test prints on kraft to see if I could somehow "brighten" it up for next time. I'm looking forward to finishing the design and printing for the rest of this wedding suite. Stay Tuned for more.

Thanks a bunch!

There's only a week left before the holidays begin and I'm so excited to kick back and relax for a couple of weeks! The last little while has been super busy in the studio and this week isn't any different. There are lots of last minute printing jobs that I'd like to get done... like my holiday cards for instance! I can't believe I've procrastinated this long on them. I'll just blame it on pregnancy brain... lol.. just kidding. I still am so incredibly amazed that I get to print as much as my little heart desires... I have lots to be thankful for, and this time of year always makes me reflect on those things a little more. 

Anyway last week I printed these very special thank-you notes, that I was asked to make as a Christmas gift. I didn't have any restrictions on the design or even the colour, so I chose a lovely violet that turned out just so beautifully! (Although it totally stained my press and I needed to use heavier-duty cleaner to get it off – well worth the extra effort). I especially love the imperfection of the 'S' and the mixed use of wood and lead type.

I'm off to print my holiday cards... wish me luck that I don't crash from this sugar-high that has been rampaging the office!

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday season so far!!

Sandi & Nick's wedding invitation workshop

Back in the summer, I helped out my very amazing friends Sandi and her (now) husband Nick with letterpress printing their wedding invites. It was a full-day extravaganza and was basically an all-day letterpress workshop... complete with some paper cutting, ink mixing, polymer aligning, caliper measuring for accuracy and general letterpress finessing. The invites turned out amazing! It was the first time that I printed on French Paper's muscletone line of papers, but I had wanted to for sometime already. (I had read it was great for letterpress) It's smooth to the touch but super sturdy, not at all like cotton papers (like Lettra), it is still perfect for letterpress. Leaves a nice bite in the paper without tearing.

It was nice to help out these two very dear friends of mine, and give them hopefully a little gift of letterpress know-how and the pride that they printed their invites themselves. They printed like champs!  And once they really got things moving, they only needed a little help when things went astray... which usually took a press adjustment to fix.

What a fun memory!

We are so good together

I had the last couple of days off from my day-job, with big plans of spending time with my vandercook. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but it was still a much needed few days to just relax and re-energize my creativity. I got around to printing these posters today in a lovely violet colour. I love how woodtype is never perfect and brings so much character and meaning to a print. I try not to fiddle with making every letter look the same (in this case), since I was loving the unevenness that the type was giving me. Every print is a little different, and I love that about it. I did a limited run of only 10 prints of these, which will eventually be available on my online store.

Cheers to a happy Friday!

Daniella & Rick ~ the invitation

This is long over due but a while ago, dear friends of mine, Daniella & Rick asked me to letterpress print invitations for their wedding. I loooove the way they turned out – especially with that beautiful blind-printed emblem. The off white cotton paper was perfect for the deep brown and lavender. They're super classy, and lovely, just like Daniella. :)

Doesn't Daniella looks just stunning?! The wedding was gorgeous! Every detail was perfect.