Speaking of Kelseys . . . a teacher in CT contacted me to ask if any of you had a Kelsey that you’d be willing to swap for some other equipment and a below-market payment–he’d like to do small-scale, hands-on, die-cutting with his graphic arts students. If so, contact me and I’ll give you his contact info!

That is an amazing price! What are they made out of, and do they ship? 🙂

There is a reclaimed cotton stock! It’s made by Arch Paper (http://www.archpaper.net/servlet/StoreFront), and even comes in colors. Their website says:”ARCH paper is a beautiful, archival, 100% cotton text- and cover-weight paper made from recycled clothing and textiles. It has a beautiful textured finish appropriate for business cards, greeting…[Read more]

This just popped up on the listserv–I’m amazed at the badness of this idea. I guess if I wanted to print one of something . . . I also didn’t realize that we are all part of a Printing Lifestyle!http://lifestylecraft.com/

I imagine you rub a little warm wax on the edges, and then rub with the flat side of the bone folder . . . someone want to give it a try and report?

This tip just came up on the listserv today:”I use water-based leather dyes applied by hand with a cottonwool swab =(squeezed out until almost dry) then, when dry, I burnish with warm =beeswax and a bone folder. (When I say ‘warm’ I mean softened up a bit =by being placed near a heater. Then apply with cotton wool. It doesn’t =take much.)”And Dave…[Read more]

Hi Cory,I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this, but depending on the kinds of repairs the damaged press needed, I’d probably go for the close/expensive/not damaged one, especially if they deliver. Moving a press can be a hassle, and it’s stressful–fixing one can be even worse if you have to search everywhere for a part or a welder who makes…[Read more]

Hey Kathryn,I guess it’s also depends on where you see your business going . . . Photopolymer is quick, easy, and now recyclable, and, though it pains me to say it as well, its results can be indistinguishable from lead (a printer I knew occasionally substituted a plate for type with type-only customer). If you wanted to use photopolymer, you…[Read more]

The only way to get halfway decent results with Lettra is to score it with the grain, which on the 22×30″ and 20×26″ sheets runs long (not sure about letter sizes, but testing will tell!). It seems to crack least when scored–hard–by hand with a bone folder, though I’ve had ok results with a scoring matrix (followed by a gentle bone-folding) as well.

Hey Emily,I saw something about this in How Magazine a while back–it seems like it’s pretty dependent on where you live (people charge more in San Francisco than in Des Moines, for example). There’s a survey of designers, what they charge, and how they break down their billing here, and some pointers for how to bill time here. Probably applicable…[Read more]

Atlantic Paper does this with the papers they have in stock–I think the best way uses heat for a really permanent bond.

I recommend Atlantic too! There’s also a new paper from Manifesto Press called Holyoke Fine Paper–it’s 140#, and it comes in three whites. I’ll put up a blog post about it early next week, but you can check it out on their site:http://holyokepaper.com/

The customer might not only feel duped, but disappointed when they see that the mixing of media in this way is not attractive. The super-deep impression next to surface-sitting ink to me is not only a no-no, but bad-looking. It ought to be called de-boss with laser, or laserbossing, or something.