I vote for note cards with matching gift tags, no particular holiday for the group.Ren

Do we want to vote?Note cards  (any card that goes in an envelope.. No real rules)OR THANK YOU cardsAnd OR Gift tags?I was think note cards & gift tags! (and your note could be any theme (such a thank you or no theme)What does everyone think?Angela

What about a thank-you card swap?

Hi Ladies,Coming at it from a slightly different angle, I’d suggest a C&P floor model, either an 8×12 or a 10×15. I’ve owned both, and you can’t beat a little 8×12 for kicking out business or calling cards at around 2500 iph, hand-feeding! On the other hand, the 10×15 will give you more image area and more impression strength. As for moving—oy!…[Read more]

I wrote an article about pricing a while back over on Letterpress Commons:http://letterpresscommons.com/pricing/

I would also love to know what other printers are doing for this. For myself, I currently offer designers a 20% discount on my retail prices, but that is for wedding invitations and not for greeting cards or pre-made type items. I’m a relatively new letterpress business owner so that discount was just something I came up with rather randomly….…[Read more]

I ended up usig Private Stock Gilding & Beveling in NY and the cards looked great.

Did you get an answer or did you end up doing it yourself?

I would charge them for the paper, plates etc at the standard rate (purchase price plus surcharge) and charge the printing hours at a reasonable level. I don’t what how high that might be in the States, but in The Netherlands I explain to letterpress printers that a mechanic for your car would charge about 60?/hour, only for labor. I believe a…[Read more]

This is a good question.I really struggle with this because you never know when you’ll see returns if you charge a percentage of sales. I’m hoping some other folks will chime in!

Thanks Jon!I bought a can, used it yesterday overprinting on an inkjet print. It worked really well and dried in two hours instead of two days or more on a similar project.Now I need to find someone to take the rubber-based stuff off my hands. Anyone interested?Ren

Hey Ren, I have been using the acrylic vs ink on and off for a few years and find it great everytime.It is a thinner ink than rubber base and rolls out quickly on the ink disc, dries quickly, stays open on the rollers and disc. yeah its good stuff

I also second the vote for a 6×10 C&P Pilot tabletop press. I absolutely love mine. It’s a great introductory size. If you are used to a Vandy proof press, there is also the Showcard. It requires inking by hand (with a brayer), but we have a Model B Special that weighs 200lbs and sits nicely on a worktable in our basement shop. Between our Pilot…[Read more]

A Craftsman is a very similar pull-lever platen press model to a Chandler & Price. They were just manufactured later and into the 20th century. You can lift most table top models very easily.You can disassemble a standing flywheel platen and get it through a tight place (says me who has one in my home basement.) It’s not ideal though, and very…[Read more]

Thank you for replying! I will begin looking for one. I keep seeing a Craftsman pop up when I search for the Pilot. Are they comparable or should I stick to C&P? And do the Pilots give a good deep impression? Is it more of a kiss impression?Thank you!

Turn around time for me depends on the individual job and how busy I already am, a week to two weeks is my usual quote. But as a general rule, I estimate how long it’s going to take me based on previous jobs (factoring things like set up and clean up time and how many prints I can do on average in an hour, time its going to take to make plates and…[Read more]

Thank you for your response!I haven’t even heard about the 6×10 C&Ps. Are they harder to find? As long as I can print wedding invitations, cards and business cards I will be happy.I’ve been printing for about 5 years now, but not on a C&P. I’m used to Vandercooks, but not the stand up presses.