The couple invested in some seriously retro printing equipment: two Chandler and Price clamshell-style presses, a Challenge Cylinder press, a 1960s-era Heidelberg windmill, a century-old manual paper shear and an electric paper shear. Bliss initially found the antiquated equipment on a Briar Press website for printers, eBay and Craigslist. A press-broker from Indiana located another set of machines for the couple in an Indiana basement as well. Since there has been a renewed interest in letterpress as a fine artisan craft, the 2,000-lb. machines once considered for scrap metal are now being restored rather than melted down. Hobby letterpress boutiques have been popping up nationwide and there are even a few print operations running on wind or solar power to meet the new demands for the old in new ways.
“It has a really nice feel to it—the impression and the cotton paper we use,” explained Bliss. “When you look at it you can see the shadows around the impression. The whole process of being able to design something and instead of sending it off to an offset printer, we can design something, set it up order the colors ad supplies and print it ourselves.”
An item is printed.
Kelly Zaneto and Josh Vogel, owners of Blackcreek Mercantile & Trading Company in Kingston which produces handmade hard goods like wooden bowls, cutting bowls, said that they purposefully held-out ordering their business cards in hopes of finding authentic letterpress printing. Vogel said he felt “a spirit of what we do — a handmade spirit — that’s reflected in the letterpress,” he said. Zaneto said that she searched high and low for a letterpress companies, even looking as far as Brooklyn, but being a small business owner and former secretary for the Southern Ulster Chamber of Commerce, she wanted to “keep it local.” An Ulster County search found Bliss’ newly formed business, Wishbone Press, from which to order cards. The couple invested in a classic black ink print on ivory card stock. “The business card reflects the business that we do,” said Vogel. “It’s a beautiful card … They really did work with us to get the exact look that we wanted. There’s a designing aspect to it as well.”
“Everybody loves them,” Zaneto noted. “They love the feel of it. They’re impressed.”
Bliss explained that they print on 100 percent cotton paper from a heavyweight 220-lb. stock, use low-VOC solvents for cleanup and hand-mix their own ink colors. All designs are first created in Photoshop and Illustrator with the customer, citing a lack of space for lead or wood type in the shop. Then the prints are pressed from custom-ordered metal or plastic plates. Each color requires an additional printing and hours of setup. Venditti explained that aligning all the plates and design is not an exact science until the press strikes paper, and so must be adjusted multiple times until it’s perfect.
