adhering 400+ vintage stamps to our invitation envelopes
printing our wedding invitations
painting my new office
die-cutting & assembling fan wedding programs
contemplating life with my furry companions
eating the most amazing, homegrown heirloom tomatoes every night
Hello! I thought it might be nice {& about time} I share a few other things in this space aside from paper. Every time I try to add something new to the blog, I inevitably fall back to only posting about paper. Can you blame me when I live & breathe it {metaphorically speaking}? Rich & I have caught the DIY home improvement bug. Bad! It must be the whole "we-are-getting-married-in-two-months" thing, right?
When Rich bought his house in 2006, we had been dating for a few months & I was living in my own apartment a few minutes away. The house is a 1930s bungalow sitting atop a hill. It has a living room, dinning room, a large kitchen + pantry, two bathrooms, & six bedrooms. Huge! Not to mention a large front porch & cute space in the back for a garden. Rich decided he would rent the rooms. So six twenty-somethings {plus me, the constant house guest) in this big, old house that needed some love. The house had been flipped, & basic upgrades were done, at least by appearance. Four years later, & a lot of digging, we keep finding things that need major updating. Hello knob & tube wiring!
The first major task was tearing down the amount of rather hideous wallpaper borders that included hens, eggs, baskets, apples, pine cones, farm scenes, etc. in various rooms. The bathroom was perhaps the most terrifying room as the floral wallpaper was hiding all of the cracks, holes, & crumbles of the horsehair plaster {our poor housemates/friends Meg & Dave who tackled this project. Believe it or not, they are married now, so yay! for DIY projects}.
Four years & sixteen housemates later, the house is looking empty & in need of cosmetic improvement & rearranging. We have found ourselves in a house that, while it is not quite in the "Before" state, is far from the "After" state we would like it in. So, our adventures in home improvement finally begins & our house is a disaster {our poor, lone housemate Cirilia deals with something new everyday!}.
I have decided to tackle the first floor, back bedroom as this will now be my new office, shown in the photos above. Now that I work from home, sitting on the futon for hours on end like I used to is not conducive to any type of productivity. I had a desk in my studio, but I decided I would like the spaces to be separate, especially with a "new," huge press in there! As you can see, the only good thing about the room is the hardwood floors {& those two crazy dogs}. Even the light switch plate needs help! I already tore down the border, Rich filled in all the holes in the wall, & now I need to wash them & pick a paint color. At least the view is nice right now....
I spend a great deal of time perusing Briarpress & reading other letterpress printers blogs, reading stories of how fate effortlessly brings everyone & their presses together. I searched for months to find my first press, making sad faces at the stories of presses "appearing out of the blue!" & being "in perfect condition!" Seriously? But I found one & it look a full year of serious love, care, & getting to know the press, along with many letterpress classes before I dared print something that I could actually charge for {with many trusting friends willing to let me print their invitations & stationery}.
Fast-forward two & half years & my press is working great, however I decided it would be a smart business decision to have two presses. When you depend on a machine from 1898 for your income, the thought of it breaking makes you want to weep. I started looking, reached out to a few people, & found nothing. Then..."out of the blue" I received an email from a man named David who was selling a Golding Jobber #8 from 1906. He had found my website while doing some research & wanted to know if I was interested in the press.
Thinking to myself, "Things like this do not happen to me without a reason," Rich & I headed up to, of all places, Maine, where I am from & where my first press was! The press was living in a pig pen turned letterpress printery on the side of barn built in 1850. The press belonged to David's father, Robert, who bought it in 1935 for $150 a few years after graduating from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Robert began the Artcraft Printery in Riverside, Rhode Island. He ran the printery in addition to teaching, until his retirement. He then moved his entire printery to the family farm in East Waterford, Maine, where he was still printing until his death in the mid-1970s. David kept his father's two presses, the Golding Jobber {which you can see in the third photo on the left} & a smaller C & P {fourth photo}, along with draws for lead type, a composing stone, small guillotine paper cutter, & all the other tools to complete the printery.
David decided it was time for the Golding Jobber to go to a home where it would be used, & that is where I came in. After a few hours on the farm, Rich & I decided to take it. Rich hired riggers, experienced in moving houses, to move this 2,300 lb. beast from Maine back to its original home in Rhode Island. For weeks Rich planned & coordinated with the riggers how we would get the press out of a barn into my studio, which required going down steps. When the day finally came on Sunday, the riggers spent five hours carefully plotting their each move with nothing but four small palettes for each foot of the press, two 2 x 4s covered in soap & grease, two jacks, some cinder blocks, & their muscles {powered by Pepsi & a few cigarettes, of course!}. It was an amazing sight to see, & quite the feat! It was also a gorgeous day & we had our dogs with us so they spent most of the day running circles in the fields & chasing birds.
We did not get back to Rhode Island until almost 9 pm, & the riggers decided it would be best to take a rest & move it in on Monday. During what was one of the worst thunder & lightening storms we have had so far this summer, the press arrived at our house & after a few hours, made it safely into my studio! As some may have noticed, some major pieces are missing from the press. On Saturday, Rich went up to the farm to take apart what he could from the press, being very careful to document each step along the way. Over the next couple of weeks he will be putting the press back together & we will have the motor cleaned & refurbished. The press & rollers are in "perfect working condition!" but need a little cleaning. Once it is back together, it will be ready for its first job! The platen is 12 x 18" which is a mind-blowing amount of space compared to my 8 x 10" platen of my current press. I already know that part of the first project to be printed on the press will be something for our wedding invitations - it is only fitting!
I have to say thank you, first & foremost, to Rich for dealing with me, the crazy, letterpress printing lady, in my unyielding pursuit to find a second press, & for his determination & patience to make it work for me {including cutting down part of a door frame, removing part of a floor, spending a day taking it apart, & for the days he will spend putting it together!}. A thank you to David, of course, for contacting me about the press, for sharing the history of the press, & other wonderful stories & for opening his home to us for a few days {& to his wife for all the snacks & water for our dogs!}. Finally, not that they are reading, a thank you to the riggers. Seriously, if you ever need to move a huge, heavy, & awkward object, I will give you their contact information!
Once the press is back together & cleaned-up, I will share more photos.
Hello! Marva & John are a creative couple getting married at the beautiful Patrick Haley Mansion, built in 1891 & full of Victorian decor, original wood carvings, stained glass windows, intricate friezes, ornate adornments, & six fireplaces {fancy!}. The mansion is surrounded by beautiful stone patios & gardens.
For their invitations, Marva was looking to continue the feeling of a laid-back Southern wedding full of historic charm. Marva is planning to incorporate some wonderful details into her wedding including a display of her three living grandmothers' wedding dresses by their escort cards, the guest book is going to be a vintage typewrite with a long scroll of paper & the centerpieces are going to be gold metal votive holders.
Using their color palette of ivory, gold, navy blue, & a peachy-pink, I designed an invitation with bold floral & leaf scrolls to mimic the interior of the mansion. I paired the images with bold, serif typefaces accented with a swirling script typeface. The suite included an invitation, RSVP, & information card which included the couples website. Everything was gocco screenprinted on 100% cotton Lettra paper in pearl with navy blue and peachy-pink inks with a coordinating envelope. For the return address I had a custom rubber stamp made & Marva stamped them herself.
I have some fun news to share! So, some people who have been reading this blog for quite sometime may have known {or, if you know me in real life, of course!} that I was working for a local non-profit doing event planning & marketing. I started working there in 2005 & then started my studio in 2007. I continued both...for three years! My daily routine has basically consisted of 9 - 5ish work at the non-profit, come home, eat super quick, 6ish - whenever I was done, usually 1 - 2 am work in my studio, sleep for 5 - 6 hours...do it again! Weekends were spent entirely in the studio as well.
The last year of my life has been, in a word, crazy. Notice there is no mention of: spend quality time with Rich, walk the dogs, see friends....plan my own wedding!! So, after my last big event was over in April, I finally gave my notice & started working in my studio full-time last Monday. Now my days look like this: Yesterday - shopped for wedding-related things including a veil with my mom & sister, came home, worked on some designs; Today - walked the dogs {for the first time since I fell three weeks ago, yay!}, worked on a few invitation designs & revisions, buying a new copier, & printing a wedding invitation & baby announcement followed by...a date with Rich...in the middle of the week. I think this is going to be a very good thing!
I began the year in a blizzard, safe & warm at home & I ended the year the very same way. In 2008 we got engaged, in 2009 we planned & had engagement photos taken, & in 2010 it will {finally!} happen. We continued to travel to our favorite Maine & Vermont spots, & I went to California for the first time. We grew beautiful peonies & zinnias along with the most delicious tomatoes in our garden. Friends & family got married, including my sister! We even expanded our little family & Simone got a new brother, Scooter.
As for my design & print studio...where to even begin? How the name change? My studio grew in leaps & bounds. I did a complete redesign of my website. I had the opportunity to collaborate with artists & wedding professionals including Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio, Jennifer Judd-McGee of Swallowfield, my sister, Jessica Parrott Robitaille, of Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott, Caroline Colom Vasquez of Paloma's Nest, Grace Edmands, & Betsy Dunlap. I became a Weddingbee Pro, one of the greatest honors since my studio began. I became a preferred vendor of my Kate Parker Wedding, which just launched today! I began Press & Post. I printed my first letterpress calendar & received my first mention in print! I participated in Craftland for a third year & will have some of my stationery there year 'round now.
Like I mentioned, the bar for 2010 is pretty high! Last year I said 2007 was all about experimenting, 2008 was some of the same, but some establishing as well, & 2009 was "going to be wonderfully busy with creativity." Indeed! So what will 2010 be all about? More letterpress. More weddings. More invitations. More collaborations. More time spent in this space sharing more inspiration behind my work. More about what I do including more tips & advice on weddings & stationery. More time with Rich, our pups, & our families.
I hope 2009 was kind to you. I thank you for visiting me here in this space & sharing the past year with me. I wish you a 2010 that is full of joy, peace & everything you love.
