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.

A road trip & a new addition (or 2)

It's been a little while since I've been around this blog, but I want you to know it's totally not you, it's me... I went through a few months there where I was focusing on tasks at hand and just working through the days. Lots of projects and exciting workshops have come through the Silverplate studio over the last couple of months and I plan on sharing as much as I can with you over the next little while.

Firstly! A couple of months ago Justin and I took an impromptu road trip to Chicago. We borrowed a truck and trailer with the hopes of returning with something great. We left early on a Saturday morning, back when there was still leaves on the trees, and drove 8 hours straight (with a few breaks) and ended up in the coolest city!

The architecture was so incredible. We only ended up spending a couple of hours touring the city, but it was enough for me to fall in love with it. We'll have to come back and spend a bit more time there.

Our first stop in Chicago was this old warehouse, where we met with a letterpress printer. I seriously can't go to a new city without meeting one.

He was selling his lovely 1880's Challenge-Gorden press. It had been with him for about 30 or 40 years and it was time to find a new home for it.  I can't believe that no one in Chicago wanted this lovely press!  Anyway, I'm not complaining! I gladly brought it home to Canada.

We strapped it in, good and tight, and we were on our way. We drove around Chicago with this amazing piece of history. We stayed at the Hilton downtown, and of course they couldn't accommodate allll thiiiss.... so we had to find a parking lot somewhere that had 3 car lengths of space for us to fit in. I was SO nervous leaving this press outside over night in a city that I didn't know. We put a tarp over it to protect it from any rain (and it's a good thing we did!). I could hardly sleep that night. I kept wanting to go out and check on it to make sure someone hadn't driven off with it. The next morning we woke up good and early (because we needed to put more money in the meter), and set out to see the sights. It was like 7 am! We walked around and just marveled at the architecture. Of course we saw the bean, and a Frank Gehry building. We also took a walk down by the river which was nice... went into a Target (first time ever!), saw the world's first sky-scraper! The whole 8 stories! It was amazing. We chilled for a little while in a starbucks with some americanos and bagels. It was nice and relaxing... until about 9:30, when we realized that this was the first day that the Chicago Bears were playing a home game! We walked to the parking lot where the press was, and tailgating was already well on it's way! Serious boozing was going on... at 9:30 in the morning!!! We knew we had to get out of there quick before the streets got any busier. So we left Chicago – on Sunday morning. Only about 24 hours after we had left Canada. 

It was a nice trip. And it got even better on our drive home. It's a bit of a crazy story, but anyway, as it turns out at the side of the road in Kalamazoo, we found out that the press wasn't our only new addition. We're having a baby!!!

So I'm 16 weeks along now and totally have the energy to print again, and to write on this blog... :) 

Thanks for stopping by! More to come soon!