Creating Value :: Paper

Paper choice. It's an important part of what pushes your work towards sophistication and something your client can value. Some of the considerations when choosing paper are its weight, color and texture, or/and taking it a step further by understanding the paper manufacturer's history and culture.

Italian Paper Choices to Devour

Paper choice - we’ve heard of and absolutely love Neenah, French and Mohawk and not to mention their amazing creative marketing teams behind their collateral products, but Italian paper is pretty fine too. Even if it can lack in assertiveness or edgy on-line appeal, they make up for in innovation and bare bones history and culture.
Italian paper innovation, print techniques and graphic design is a feast, buon appetito!

FABRIANO’S TAKE ON
LA CUCINA ITALIANA - REPRINT OF THEIR FIRST ED.
VIA FABRIANO BOUTIQUE

Letterpress Insert Covers :: Traveler Notebooks

NOTEBOOK INSERTS FOR TRAVELER NOTEBOOKS
LETTERPRESS COVER

I’ve been delving and developing notebook inserts. It all started with a bullet journal article I read. Like many of us we have a note book or ten floating around us at any given moment. They are promisers of taking a load off our brains, getting things better organized and the added bonus of sitting pretty on a table, but after a few pages filled they can be like an old toy left alone.

Letterpress Planner and Methods

Paper, thinking and writing come hand in hand in planners, notebooks, calendars, journals...  I wrote in an earlier post of the newest wave, the bullet journal, bringing note taking all together. It’s a creative and tidy method to put all your projects, to do lists, sketches, calendar of events into one place rather than having sheets of paper, numerous notebooks or even bookmarked links all over the place. What’s is more, you have more control over what goes into it.

i.e. ABOVE ALL, ME
CUSTOMIZED LETTERPRESS COVER - PLANNER

Caro Babbo Natale

Kids enjoyed having the chance to dress-up in apron and gloves and play tipografo i.e. printer for a letterpress demonstration yesterday. I helped kids get their Santa letters started and taught a thing or two about letterpress and Gutenberg. In no time, with the occasional backward b and fantastic typographic mix of lower and upper case lettering, kids jotted down ideas.

L-R CHILD CAREFULLY STUFFS SANTA’S BAG,
TIPOGRAFO, WRITING SANTA LETTERS
AT CONFABULA LIBRERIA MONDOVì

Lettera di Natale

Pop up laboratory for kids set for the 4th December at Confabula bookshop. Children and I will write our “caro babbo” i.e. dear Santa letters for the season followed by Christmas stories.
Rsvp!

POP UP WORKSHOP LETTERA DI NATALE
"CARO BABBO” MONDOVI, ITALY

Letterpress Chalkboard :: Beer On A Curve

My recent explorations in chalkboard paper for a client has been satisfying. On an earlier post I wrote about making your own chalkboard paper rather than downloading a digital file. At first I started off with hand lettering and a paper wire bound construction for the drink menu, but with the client we thought it wouldn’t survive the wear and tear. Back to the drawing board...

MY VANDERCOOK MAKES BEER ON A CURVE

Turntable Tuesday :: Paper Chase

What is the most important factor when designing a stationery project? Some would say the concept others would say resources. I would have to say paper a lot of times. It communicates feeling, craftsmanship and richness that is hard to convey with ink and ideas alone.

Italy is an old country and along with it come craftsmen from generations down. They have their methods, and imbue soul into what sometimes seems a soulless market place. This is indeed why we, paper lovers, are so inclined to them. They are elusive, plainly dressed and always at the dinner table to share a story.

DETAIL WINTER WEDDING Piedmont, Italy
 Letterpress silhouette bride and groom
Magnani’s Etrusca - textured Italian paper

Turntable Tuesday :: Letterpress Seed Packages

This post is long overdue, but hey really relevant come next spring! I organized a letterpress seed project with other European letterpress gals, except for two ladies who came from California and Mexico City. There is a brief description of the concept and list of participants here. It was fun collaborating with these talented people. I even managed to eat some of the fruits of our labor and have seen some of the plants come back to flourish again in 2015!

EUROPEAN LADY LETTERPRESS PRINTERS 
FROM GERMANY, ICELAND, BELGIUM, ITALY, NETHERLANDS, CALIFORNIA AND MEXICO

E-mail Newsletter :: Letterpress, Workshop & Handmade

Pirouette Press is located in Piedmont, Italy. A very special place and just a skip from the Langhe wine hills. For those of you planning a wedding, or for those of you planning a special event I would love to work on your stationery designs. I also conduct letterpress workshops in my studio if you are more interested in learning the craft. Keep up with latest and subscribe to the email newsletter. 

What I Love About Letterpress :: Messy & Wonderful

What I love about letterpress.
Playing with paper-its colors and textures that come in direct contact with ink. The results are often surprising and even the mess ups are wonderful. They often times encourage your creative impulses. I think I’ll dedicate a few posts to the messy and wonderful!

Letterpress Summer Camp :: Risparmiate DIY Inviti

Save money on your special letterpress prints for a special event and come to a two day letterpress summer camp! By the way, I’m located in north Italy -- just a skip away from the wine hills. Letterpress by morning and sip outstanding Italian wine from the tons of wineries in our area. Sounds like my kind of camp.

IT: Risparmiate soldi sulle vostre invite matrimoniale o qualsiasi evento speciale! Venite a un campo estivo DIY.

more info. pirouettepress@gmail.com

Baptism Letterpress Invites :: Inviti di Battesimo

Battesimi (baptisms) are a pretty big deal here in Italy. A Sunday lunch out in a nice restaurant is customary to celebrate after mass. I printed up our little one’s invites for the special occasion. It had been a while since I’d used my metal type/decoration opting many times to use cliches.

INVITI BATTESIMO | BAPTISM INVITE LETTERPRESS SUITE
METAL TYPE COMPOSITION | TWO COLOR PERIWINKLE & HOT HAUS ROSE

Organic Food, Italian Markets, Gardens and Printing Inspiration

Juggling a new little being in the house has made getting back to the studio slower than I first imagined. Actually just getting out the door can sometimes be tricky. Having said that, I do add on more responsibility to my “to do list” that increases the workload and perhaps marginalizes time in my studio.

It’s baby food making mode here lately. It’s a bit of a paradox finding organic food living in Italy, and you’d clearly expect for every Italian mother to make her own baby food (yeah, 25 years ago). I mean, EXPO is being held this year, and everyone should be conscious of healthy eating habits (that should start at birth) right? Still, there are two main producers of canned baby food and a lot of mothers opt for it. Actually I think it’s probably more of a trend in America making homemade baby food, but I could be wrong.

Another paradox I’ve found is locating organic food here. Yes, we have farmers markets and yes families in rural areas generally have plots dedicated to food for big folk, but living in the north means there are pockets when there are no veggies growing in the garden and all depends on the weather. This year, for instance we have tons of cherries! And like the weather, studio time comes in pockets when I can sit down to sketch or typeset and start to think about what colors to use on the next project. 

Letterpress Bomboniere

These letterpress “bomboniere” (fancy sweet box) were made for a baby who was born about a month after Maya. In Italy, it’s common to give back a little treat to those who gave you and your baby a gift. Here in Italy that gift is typically given after the baby is born...baby showers are a newish thing here.

I’d really like to add more of these wooden vintage toys to a collection soon!

LETTERPRESS BOMBONIERE | TWO COLORS BLOSSOM PINK & STEEL GREY
PRINTED ON CLASSIC CREST 110 LB PAPER | BESPOKE DESIGN

Letterpress on T-shirts

I had fun experimenting with letterpress on t-shirts with other creatives. The shirts were designed and made by Korai. It wasn't the easiest because letterpress in my opinion isn’t made for t-shirt type material. Still I had to try it out for myself to understand the pros and cons. The pros were the modern/vintage effects obtained. The cons were the difficulty in obtaining a clean print or making sure the roller didn’t get snagged on the cloth.

WILLIAM BLAKE’S ‘TIGER TIGER’
LETTERPRESS AND HANDSET IN WOOD  TYPE

Reminder Note & Letterpress Gift Idea :: Be Happy

A thoughtful reminder note and gift idea for your home, “Be Happy” during the holiday season and throughout the year! Happy Maker Station Market was created with the intention to highlight craft, design and their makers. We’ve opened up an online shop which we’ll be adding products to.

Pirouette Press has been collaborating with Paola Paoletti on limited textile print designs which are now on etsy. Letterpress printing on cloth isn’t easy, but we were pleasantly surprised at how well it worked for us on felt. This was also one of the first print jobs on the Vandercook!

LETTERPRESS FELT PILLOW | HANDPRINTED & HANDMADE IN ITALY

The Experience :: Letterpress Workers

The Experience with Letterpress Workers an international letterpress summit hosted by Officina Tipografica Novepunti has culminated in a book recounting their (our) adventures. I was fortunate to have been part of this experience and met many nice and talented people who gathered for several days under one roof in Milan to do what we are passionate about, letterpress.

The experience lives on, and as I wasn’t able to take part in the 2014 session due to my growing belly, I look forward to the next in 2015!

More photos here

Letterpress Basics: Time to Print

This is the fourth in a series of posts speaking about the basics of letterpress. I started off with how to use a composure stick, next working with metal type and then on to moving your composition from galley to chase ready for print. There are a lot of visuals taken from my own hands-on experience learning the basics of letterpress in Paris with Thomas Gravemaker some years back. This is an overview and would suggest anyone interested in the craft to take on a workshop for more in-depth knowledge. So without further ado, it’s time to print!

CUTTING PAPER DOWN TO SIZE

Letterpress Studio Visit: Resurgence of Letterpress in Italy

I was contacted for an interview by thesis graphic design student at the Polytech of Turin University, Alessandra, about letterpress. She and her boyfriend, Lorenzo, popped in Friday for a studio visit. We first chatted about her thesis paper; her topic explores the resurgence of manual printing in Italy. I then introduced her to some of my metal and wood type and presses. I had some time to put together a wooden composition on the proof press which she got to ink and print! Good luck to her her and her studies.

LORENZO LOVES ALESSANDRA - ONE COLOR PROOF PRINT TO TAKE AWAY