Jan 22, 2010
I just finished printing a small run of business cards for Ann Arbor-based Communications Designer, Rebekka Kuhn. Rebekka designed the cards and placed an order with Elevated Press to have 150 of them printed. They were printed with black ink on a super pale blue paper with natural flecks in it, and I think the cards turned out great!
The flat box with the scores and cuts.
I did encounter one tiny problem when it came time to pack-up the order for her. I just didn't have a box small enough for the small run of cards. I always try to recycle packaging materials whenever possible, so I came up with the idea of creating a custom box out of a flat piece of cardboard that I had in the studio. I started with the base of the box, and scored the areas that would create the walls on two sides of the box. Then I scored and cut the two remaining sides. Without getting too detailed (i.e. boring), I basically scored and folded the cardboard around the stack of cards, as close to a standard box type as possible.
The finished box!
Here is the finished box, which I wrapped with packaging tape to cover-up the rougher scored edges. Not perfect, but it does the trick... Next time, I think it'll turn-out even better.
Nov 05, 2009
In September, my husband Pete and I drove to Cleveland, OH, headquarters of Chandler and Price Co., to pick-up our very own C&P platen press from a retiring printer. Weighing in at around 2,200 lbs, it was definitely a tough piece of equipment to move. Luckily there was a forklift rental place about a mile down the road from the former print shop.
Since there were no drivers available to drop it off at the shop, Pete very bravely decided to drive the forklift on the major 5 lane road connecting the two locations. I drove behind him in the huge pick-up truck we borrowed from Pete's Dad, with hazards blinking. Topping out at somewhere around 10 miles per hour, we slowly made our way, all the while the forklift bouncing around like crazy after hitting every little pothole and manhole cover. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was raining the entire time!
Once we got there, we loaded the press in the truck without a hitch. Phew, big relief!
The journey continued with returning the forklift to the rental place, our truck stalling out due to a weak battery connection, and a stressful 3 hour drive back to the studio, BUT we made it just fine! I'm just sorry that I didn't get any photos of our adventure...
Moving the extremely heavy and bulky equipment needed for letterpress printing has proven to be much more difficult than I ever expected. But it's so worthwhile because this stuff is built to last. I just hope that we won't be moving studios again anytime soon!
Here's a photo of the press safe and sound in the studio.
Sep 02, 2009
On September 1st, Elevated Press took the next big step, signing the lease on a new studio space! The space was formerly a woodshop, and we soon discovered the evidence of that... so after quite a bit of sawdust clean-up, we were ready to move in.
It's been a bit of a slow transition moving everything from our home studio to the new space, but once we get it all set-up, it's going to be great. I'll post some updated photos soon.
Jan 31, 2009
In mid-January Elevated Press bought a Vandercook #3 press (circe 1937) near Pasadena, CA. We arranged freight shipping for the press to our home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a week later it arrived in front of our house on a full length semi-trailor truck.
Ok, well it wasn't quite that smooth... the press was picked-up 3 days early without record of the pick-up, and was "lost" in a freight shipping warehouse for a weekend before being officially located. Then, I was told that there was a hold-up in Chicago, possibly due to damage to the press. Then when the press finally arrived, I discovered that the legs had punched through a plywood layer on top of the pallet. Needless to say the whole freight shipping process was super stressful. I'll definitely avoid doing anything like that again in the future.
Since the press was going to the small studio shed behind the house, and there was tons of snow on the ground, we devised a ramp system on the driveway out of pieces of plywood to roll the press from the road to the studio on a pallet jack. After literally stopping traffic and a couple of tense moments where the pallet jack broke through the plywood under the 1,200 lbs of the press, we finally got it in place. Yay!!!
Unfortunately, we later discovered that the press suffered a bit of damage to the two front legs when the legs punched through the plywood on the pallet. But we arranged for a fantastic welder to come out on-site to repair the damage and reinforce the legs to make them even stronger than before!
The flat box with the scores and cuts.
The finished box!
