letterpress

I have always been drawn to letterpress. I love the detailed, traditional process involved with the craft. When I see a letterpress design that I admire, I instinctively find myself running my fingers over the indentions of the print to thoroughly experience it’s beauty. If you don’t have this fondness for paper, you may think I’m nuts – I’m guessing most people never understand or they are well into their adult life till they have an idea of how much work is involved in this method of printing. Hard work and dedication goes into every letterpress piece.

All of this lead me to this idea: with Sela’s birthday approaching, I wanted to use letterpress invitations for her birthday party – created locally. And, I thought it would be so cool if my kids and I could experience the process of the cards being created. With this idea, I turned to a local letterpress studio – Paper Bandit Press. I shared with them my idea, and they warmly welcomed us into their studio last weekend.

By visiting this studio, Kim and Brett Borup, the owners, allowed us to peek into their life filled with works of art. They were so kind, and patient explaining the meticulous attention to detail that is required with each step of the process.

Sela and KJ ran from one step to the next they were so interested and amused with helping.

The simple and complex tools of letterpress are an equal beauty to the works of art they create —

I was thrilled that my kids were able to experience first-hand the work that went into creating the invitations. Paper Bandit Press was so generous to allow us into their world. And KJ now believes he was meant to grow up and become a letterpress printer.

Photos by: the talented Mindy Johnson.