So, this is probably the strangest encounter with another printer I have ever come across in my 25 years in business…

I recently purchased a home in the Santa Cruz area and have a full time dedicated letterpress studio where Ive been working for the past year or so. My husband and I just found out we were pregnant and wanted to move the studio closer to our new home in the mountains. It would just be less driving and more space to work in the detached garage and save us some $$.

Part of our move involves meeting the neighbors and frequenting the small main street shops to get a feel for the place. My husband stopped in on a local paper and printing establishment where he could have a few things notarized. The shop owner was very nice to my husband who asked if they did any letterpress printing? The owner said no and that he out sources his letterpress projects but isn’t to happy with the cost or quality. My husband mentions that we run a shop in town and if he would be at all interested in a local printer. The owner sounded very pleased and excited by the thought of collaborating and asked to have me stop in sometime and talk more about the details. 

My husband comes home and was super excited saying he has a lead that would be a great opportunity. So I go down to the shop and ask for the owner. This is where the story gets weird. 

As i walk in the owner is sitting in the back.. its a simple print shop, copy machines, fax machines, laser printers…kind of a copy shop really. I introduce myself and he invites me to the back and says in a sharp tone, “Come here and sit down…I have something to say to you”.

It was as if I was in trouble, like a kid in the principles office. He then spends about 20 mins berating me about how I cant just come up to his town and start stealing his clients and taking the food out of his children’s mouth. He goes on to say that he is the president of the chamber of commerce and he will never let us ever open up shop even in our own garage. Im shaking by now and tearing up.. I respond with whimpered tones… (mostly because his bullish like behavior was very intimidating and caught me off guard and I was 5 weeks pregnant at the time) … I tried to explain to him that we are just artists and this was a hobby. I also mentioned that I saw his company as a resource for paper and die cutting and wanted to collaborate, that the letterpress community is one of education and preservation of an antique craft, and that Im not a threat to his business because he doesn’t even own a letterpress.

Then he says.. well we are going to buy a press in the future and I don’t want you snatching up all the clients in the area. I was really confused at this point and felt like I just wanted to leave. There were other customers in the store waiting for service and I saw my way out. I got up and left immediately.

So much crazy..there was no possible way to convince him that I was an ally not a threat. At this point I’m shaking and crying in the car. It felt like a set up. It took everything I had to keep my husband from going down there and god knows what he would have said. 

So in the end… after some long discussions with colleagues, family and friends… we concluded that we will just do what we want with our letterpress shop and not be intimidated by others. But the real point I want to get across is that we are all working for the same goal. To preserve a craft, restore presses and explore the antique printing process. To share with each other our techniques and ideas are not threats to ones business but builds the industry and upholds an institution and way of life as artists and makers.

Be kind to your fellow printers.