Poppy Letterpress

We have moved!

2010-04-14T12:03:00.005+10:00

After much deliberation, we have moved our blog to here. If you're looking for new posts, please update your bookmark and head thataway.

Website temporarily down

2010-04-13T10:00:00.003+10:00

Just in case you're looking for our website and have ended up here instead, we're just fixing a couple of little problems, so the site is down temporarily.

Edit: All up and running again thanks to my genius husband :)

New shelves for studio

2010-04-12T12:32:00.004+10:00

As well as working on client work, we've been making little changes here and there to the studio. Oh, I've got big plans for it. Our latest addition is a set of 6 massive shelving units. The photo doesn't really show how big they are - only 4 of the units would fit next to the sink in the studio. That's the platemaker next to them. And yes, a gumball machine. Why? Every studio needs a gumball machine!

Master apprentice

2010-04-12T11:31:00.004+10:00

Here's Kynan, now 10 months old, sporting one of the new Poppy Letterpress aprons.

See that little dimple on his right cheek? We call that The Ladykiller. :)

Shop Handmade opening this week!

2010-04-12T11:16:00.004+10:00

I'm quite excited about the brand new Shop Handmade retail store that's opening this week. For those of you that don't know, the shop is the brainchild of the ever so lovely ladies that run the ever so popular Canberra Handmade Markets. There you'll be able to find so many handmade products from the talented designers that have stalls at the Markets.

We're very happy to be part of the new shop, and can't wait to see our brand new greeting card range on display (we'll be up near the counter).

Recently the girls asked us to design and print the invitations to the VIP Opening Night for Shop Handmade. I just loved printing these, the blue is just so soft.

And lookee who's behind window #14...

New platemaker

2010-04-03T22:45:00.003+11:00

So the blog has been exceptionally quiet lately. This is mostly because for a month I was printing for up to 15 hours a day to get all our weddings and market goods ready in time. When I get a moment free, I'll post about how wonderful the Handmade Markets were, as well as finally show you all those goodies we designed and printed in record time.

In the meantime, we've been counting down the days until we could pick up our brand new photopolymer platemaker exposure/washout/drying unit. We roped in a good friend of ours for a bit of extra muscle and today headed to Sydney and back to finally pick it up (7 hours almost continuous driving, sigh). What can I say -- it's a wonderful machine! I just can't wait to get it going (neither can Adrian, who is in love with the old-school coloured buttons). It's quite a hefty unit too, weighing 180kgs and producing plates up to A2 in size. Please excuse the dodgy mobile phone photo, but I had to share :) It's not even off the truck yet, we'll have to do that when we have more muscle around tomorrow.

Please please don't email us asking to do your plates though. It will take us some time to get it all hooked up to power and producing perfect plates.

Busy in the studio

2010-03-08T14:57:00.004+11:00

We've been busy little beavers in the studio lately. 28 A4 pages of plates to print in the next 3 weeks with more on the way next week. But I'm absolutely loving seeing the final pieces all printed and ready to send to clients.

On the press today are a few print proofs for Katharine & Murray, and Renee & Adam. Some lovely combinations of charcoal and old gold, and azalea pink and ruby red. Below are Katharine & Murray's old gold plates being printed on Collie.

Canberra Handmade Market

2010-03-06T10:09:00.005+11:00

While the blog has been extremely quiet lately, the Poppy studio has been buzzing. We're busy printing a few weddings, as well as our entire new greeting card range (OMG!) for the Canberra Handmade Market on March 28. Now, we don't normally get into the markets scene, but I've been to the last couple of Handmades now and absolutely loved what I saw. I just can't help but get Poppy involved. Plus, it gives me an excellent excuse to print some gorgeous new cards.

Normally we print just a couple of A4 sheets worth of plates at a time, but we've got a small mountain of 28 to do so far this month! And more coming! So while it's quite here for a couple more weeks, hang tight, there will be a lot to showcase very soon. Here's a sneak peek of just one of the designs.

Poppy sponsors the Canberra Cup

2010-02-08T09:35:00.008+11:00

Adrian and I have both been involved with the ACT Harness Racing for many many years now, so it was only fitting for Poppy Letterpress to sponsor the 2010 Cancer Council Canberra Cup on 7 February. It's been very exciting to see races named after us! And lookee - we're even on the tvc! (our logo, plus 18 seconds in, that's Adrian, Ky and myself with my father in law).

poppy Collection feature: Field of Flowers

2010-01-31T21:58:00.001+11:00

This sweet little design has been one of our most popular over the past year. Perfectly suited to a garden wedding, the colour can be matched to your wedding colour scheme.

If a one colour design isn't for you, Field of Flowers can easily become a two colour design. For example, this is Ruby and Silver:

Poppy Collection feature: Pinstripe

2010-01-30T11:53:00.001+11:00

This design is actually inspired by Adrian's business shirts. I love pinstripes - they have a real class about them, be it on a shirt, wallpaper, website background or printed materials. I don't know what it is that does it!

As this design is a little more formal, it works best in darker colours and as a one colour design. Which makes Pinstripe one of the most affordable designs in the Poppy Collection.

Vote for us in The Poppies!

2010-01-27T16:55:00.003+11:00

Voting for the Favourite Papergoods category of The Poppies is up and running. Please please do vote for us! You can do so here.

Thankyou! :)

Sexy Letterpress Video

2010-01-19T23:00:00.000+11:00

Just found this video on the Pistachio Press blog. Rachael originally found it on Sycamore Street Press blog. Snaps both Eva and Rachael for sharing their find.

I love this video, it shows how sexy letterpress printing can be (okay, I'm a printing geek so you might not find it as sexy as I do). Repeat Press use a Vandercook in this video, which is different to what we use here at Poppy -- we have platens, whereas the Vandy is a cylinder. But it still shows how easy it is to fall in love with the process of printing by hand.

Poppy Collection feature: Lovebirds

2010-01-19T10:38:00.004+11:00

Because letterpress printing is so tactile, wedding invitations don't need to be complex. With this in mind, we created the Lovebirds design. Sweet and simple, it lets the printing do all the talking.

Isn't it beautiful how birds pair off?

Poppy Collection feature: Leaf Drops

2010-01-18T11:43:00.000+11:00

Leaves always make a beautiful image. And they're perfect if you have a colour theme, but are unsure about using a specific pattern or graphic in your stationery.

The inspiration for this stationery suite came from all the gorgeous filigree jewellery that I've seen in stores recently. The design works well in a lot of colour combinations, making it quite versatile. Personally, it's one of my favourites. Visit our website to see the full suite.

Poppy Collection feature: Autumn Leaves

2010-01-17T22:35:00.005+11:00

I'm a big plant lover, so a lot of our designs use branches, leaves, flowers and nature. This design is no exception. These leaves actually come from a tree in another of our designs, but I loved them so much I had to create a design just for them. Originally designed for an Autumn wedding, the colours can be modified to suit any season.

Steel, silver and royal blue for a winter wedding:

Or watermelon, sunset and apple for a summer wedding, which is my personal favourite:

2009 Christmas Card

2010-01-14T10:58:00.003+11:00

I forgot to show you all our 2009 family Christmas Card. I must have been far too busy sending them all out. I'm sure this year I'll be far more organised and send them out at the start of December!

Nominate in The Poppies

2010-01-13T11:29:00.004+11:00

I'm a big fan of all things handmade, so I was quite excited to see the other day that the Poppytalk blog has introduced a cute little bag of online awards called The Poppies.

There are a variety of categories and nominations close midnight tonight. If you so happen to find yourself wanting to nominate someone, might I suggest Poppy Letterpress in the Paper Goods category?

Poppy Collection feature: Maidenhair

2010-01-13T10:16:00.004+11:00

I have a maiden hair fern that sits next to my bathroom sink, so I look at it while brushing my teeth and getting ready for the day (which, with a baby, can be mid-afternoon some days). I've always loved maiden hair ferns, but I have a real black thumb when it comes to plants, so I've also killed a few in my time as well. In November last year I decided it was time to use the fern in a new design. Mainly because I figured I'd unwillingly kill the plant soon so I should make the most of it.

So I took some photos and got to work.

Then created the illustration.

The final design is actually one of my very favourites. It's feminine without being too frilly, and would be perfect for a mild spring or summer wedding. These ferns look so fresh, and I think that lends well to the design.

I'm not sure why, but the fern has taken off. It's now far too big to sit next to my bathroom sink, and I actually have to move it if I want to wash my hands. I think it just likes being the centre of attention.

Claire & Adam

2010-01-10T15:42:00.002+11:00

Last year we worked with Claire and Adam on their engagement invitations. Today we finished printing their one-colour wedding invitations, accommodation cards and rsvp slips which we recently designed.

The calligraphy was done here at Poppy. Not something we normally do, but these guys are good friends of ours :)

And we're live!

2010-01-08T16:20:00.005+11:00

Our brand new website is finally online. There's still a lot more work to do on it though, but once it's all up and running, it will have a few swanky new features.

The most exciting of these will be an instant quote feature. This will allow visitors to the site to have a look through our designs and services, decide what they'd like, and find the pricing for it immediately. However, it's the most code-heavy part of the site, so Adrian's going to be working his magic with it over the next couple of weeks, so you'll have to stay tuned for it's arrival.

Last night we uploaded the first 4 of 36 new designs as part of our new Poppy Collection. Until now, we have only offered custom design and printing, but have had many many requests for a template collection to choose from. The Poppy Collection is ideal for couples who:

- would rather not spend time working with a designer to develop a custom design

- would like to receive their final product sooner, and

- are working to a tighter budget, but would still love to have the luxury of letterpress.

So you will be able to choose your design, choose the items you require, choose colours to match your wedding, so that we can contact you to get started straight away. It couldn't be easier!

Every day or two we will be uploading a new design to the Poppy Collection. We'll be featuring each design on the blog, so you'll be able to hear all about them right here.

We also have sections on the website for custom design - which we'll still be offering as before - and information on how to supply your own design for printing. These will hopefully be live by the end of the weekend.

Also yet to come are a stack of photos. They'll be online in the next few days too.

Phew! Busy busy!

So even though there are still a lot more goodies to pop up on the site, we'd love to get your feedback on how it looks so far. And let us know if you think the text is too small. I, for one, like it, but we've had a bit of a debate here and I think I'm losing ;)

Emerging tomorrow

2010-01-07T07:48:00.004+11:00

The pressure's really on now to have the website ready to go live tomorrow. It may be at 11.59pm tomorrow, but it will be tomorrow! I must say that I'm stupidly excited to have a new site. We've really needed it for quite some time now, and it's far more dynamic than the last one. You'll probably all look at it and ask, "What was all the fuss about?" :)

One thing that I'm looking forward to is updating it daily for the first few weeks. You'll see what I mean tomorrow...

Sprouting...

2010-01-05T21:27:00.002+11:00

tease, tease

2010-01-05T00:07:00.004+11:00

Isn't it always the way? You plan and plan, only to realise that your little dream of a new website is, in reality, a huge undertaking that requires far more time than you originally anticipated.

But fear not my friends, the new website is coming. In 3 days to be precise. So while Adrian and I are being busy little bees, here's a little teaser.

2010!

2010-01-01T14:51:00.002+11:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and had a fun night last night. Have you made your new year's resolution? I'm not one for them myself, but I'm really looking forward to throwing myself into the studio and producing some gorgeous new work. Bring on 2010!

Countdown: One week to go!

2009-12-28T21:51:00.002+11:00

Greetings from rainy Brisbane! We're up here for holidays for a week, but of course, we've brought work with us (can't help ourselves). Still busily working on the new website (squee! So excited!), and new designs. Just down to the fiddly end of things now really. We're hoping to have everything working on the website by the end of the week, but there may be a couple of little things that need tweaking, as with any new thing.

Until then, have a fantastic New Year and I'll see you in 2010 for the relaunch of Poppy Letterpress!

Countdown: Two weeks to go!

2009-12-21T11:08:00.000+11:00

I'm quite excited about our little countdown to big changes. What changes, you ask? Well I suppose I can reveal a little more...

In two weeks' time we will be RELAUNCHING Poppy Letterpress!

Our workload slowed down considerably since our darling little boy Kynan arrived 6 months ago now. Feeding routines, appointments, playtime and lack of sleep really does take up all of a parent's time. However, Ky should be starting daycare in January, which means we can come back to Poppy with a lot more energy!

Firstly, it's no secret that we've been working on a new website for quite some time now. What I can tell you is that it will be much bigger, cleaner, and have far more content. Our new pricing structure is what makes it the most exciting though. Lucky for me, Adrian is quite the whizz with websites and all things digital. I love watching him bring my design to life.

Secondly, in two weeks' time you'll be seeing some fab new designs from us. But you'll have to wait to hear more about that.

The countdown continues!

Christmas Cards

2009-12-21T11:03:00.002+11:00

Today in the studio we're printing the family Christmas cards. Just a cute, simple design to send to all our family and friends. Maybe next year we'll run a set of cards to sell, but for this year, it's a family affair.

These are the plates for the first colour.

Sunflower inspirations

2009-12-18T11:25:00.002+11:00

Nothing says Summer like a big sunflower. This huge flower brings me joy every time I look out my kitchen window since it opened yesterday. I'm also quite proud that I managed to not only grow something that flowers so spectacularly, but also beat the little beetles that were determined to eat the whole plant. This flower marks my victory :)

Of course I'll need to use it in a design now, won't I? Better get drawing!

Kloe & Julian

2009-12-16T11:18:00.004+11:00

Recently we worked with Kloe and Julian on their fun 3-colour invitations and envelopes. Most designs that we work on are one or two colour, but I must say that extra third colour really gives a design a bit of 'oomph'.

We played with a few different concepts for Kloe and Julian, but this one really fit their vineyard garden wedding perfectly. The three colours matched three of the five bridesmaids' dresses and are so vibrant and happy. Yellow makes for such a fantastic accent colour and it really should be used more! The violet really stands out too, although the violet ink and I are NOT friends. I don't know what it is, but I always make such a mess with purple and violet. Good thing it's always such a beautifully vibrant colour in the end.

Calligraphy

2009-12-07T13:14:00.003+11:00

Today we're working on the calligraphy for Claire and Adam's wedding invitations. It's not something that we usually offer, but I'm always keen to give something new a go, and just love playing with ink and nibs.

Louise & Simon

2009-12-05T15:26:00.004+11:00

Recently we worked on these cute and simple little DL invitations. Louise liked the hand-drawn look of the names, and we loved working freehand for a change!

These are a great example of how you can still have letterpress invitations for your wedding even if you're on a tight budget. Using just one ink colour doesn't have to be boring! In fact, the tactile nature of letterpress means it isn't always necessary to have a detailed design to make an impact.

Countdown: One month to go!

2009-12-05T09:13:00.002+11:00

So yesterday marked exactly one month until a very exciting day for us in January. I can't tell you much more just yet, but stay tuned. The countdown has started!

Blog love

2009-10-21T16:28:00.005+11:00

For those of you doing your letterpress research on the net, make sure you check out this post from Ampersand Duck. Now, I haven't been a letterpress printer my whole working career (as you may already know, I worked as a graphic designer in private and government studios), so I don't have any formal education in the history of printing, but I do my best to extend my knowledge whenever possible. I often wonder if other 'modern' letterpress printers stop to think about where their presses came from and what they were originally used for. I was glad to see such a well-written post about the Common Press on &Duck's blog, so make sure you read it. It's tonight's homework. And there may be random quizzes in the following days.

Speaking of &Ducky's blog, lookie here. I've already put my name down for one of these gorgeous posters which were printed by &Duck on her Vandercook SP-20 press (affectionately known as Kitty, who I met at &Duck's studio warming). Oh yes, and the show looks good, too :)

Image copyright Ampersand Duck.

Fusion Photography

2009-10-21T16:11:00.005+11:00

Everyone knows how important a good photographer is on your wedding day. It's one of the most important days of your life, so you want a photographer who will capture the day honestly and creatively, as well as having a good "aisle-side" manner. And when two graphic designers get married, such as Adrian and myself, only the best will do. I didn't really expect to find a photographer who lived up to our high expectations, so we were pleasantly surprised to find Ben Kopilow of Fusion Photography. Ben was fantastic on the day, and the photos were exceptional.

Sunday afternoon I took my little family over to Barton, where we attended the studio warming of the new home of Fusion Photography. Both Adrian and I were deeply envious of Ben's new studio -- me for the sleek white furniture, Adrian for the drool-worthy monitor and projection unit. If you happen to be getting married in the Canberra region, I highly recommend you check out Ben's exceptional work.

One of my favourites from our wedding day

Image copyright Fusion Photography

I do love a good studio warming, and yesterday I was reminded that I still haven't had ours yet, and we've been in the new studio for 10 months now. I'm hoping to do a little work on the office and studio before the end of the year, so a studio warming (1 year late!) is probably a good idea...

Paper Boat Press

2009-10-18T16:47:00.004+11:00

I found Paper Boat Press the other day and just loved their cute ceramic wares. This little tag caught my interest, and I couldn't help but get one for my office.

The dried flowers are some that were in my hair on my wedding day.

Floral inspirations

2009-10-17T17:11:00.002+11:00

I just love spring. For the first time in a long time, we're getting a lot of rain here in Canberra, which is a welcome relief during the drought. Everything is green and fresh, and smells spectacular. Our annual flower show, Floriade, has only just finished.

I can't help but be inspired by the flowers in my own garden. These little beauties will be featuring in wedding invitations very soon! And what better way to spend the weekend than by illustrating them?

Poppy on Twitter

2009-10-12T13:05:00.006+11:00

As a matter of principle, I generally avoid jumping on the bandwagon as it whizzes past, flaunting it's latest trend, so Twitter wasn't something that initially appealed to me, in either a personal or professional sense. However, after having a thorough look at it the other day, I've decided that it was time for Twitter to meet Poppy. So far, the only downside has been the character limit when choosing an account name, so we're known on Twitter as PoppyLetterpres. This irks me to no end, being the stickler for correct spelling that I am. Otherwise, I'm having fun catching up with friends of Poppy online, and meeting new ones.

So are you on Twitter?

Colours I'm in love with

2009-10-12T12:49:00.010+11:00

Is there a colour that makes you go all gooey inside?

I'm finding myself more and more obsessed with neutrals mixed with a splash of earthy greens and reds. I've always been a huge fan of sage green - in fact it was my main colour in my own wedding palette. The Poppy office is sage green too, as I find it's a perfectly calming colour for a work environment.

Neutral browns and greys make me giddy, I just can't get enough of them! My loungeroom is now a rich latte with white highlights. I find neutrals are timeless - warm, inviting, scrumptious.

So this is a hint of the colour palette for the new Poppy website. I'm so excited about launching it, but we're taking the time to make sure that it's just right, rather than hastily uploading it. When we've settled on the launch date, I'll be impatiently counting down the days, both here on the blog and on Twitter.

Missing in action

2009-09-17T18:30:00.005+10:00

Kynan is now 14 weeks old. Being the new mum that I am, I assumed that the older he got, the more settled he'd sleep during the day, and therefore I'd have heaps more time to work on all things Poppy. How blissfully naive I was! Ky now likes to feed every 1.5 to 2 hours, with over an hour of playtime in between, which leaves me little time to get any work done. It's frustrating because I miss my beloved Poppy, and the studio seems so empty and unloved at the moment. But who can resist a face like this?

As a business person, it's hard to let go of a fulltime job that I love so much. I'm really looking forward to the day when Ky is in daycare and I can spend all day in the studio. Until then, I've made the difficult decision to focus the majority of my attention on motherhood. Well, kind of. I've actually got a few printing jobs on the go (can't help myself really). Having just a few means that I can give each job the attention it deserves, so that the high quality of design, printing and attention to detail that we pride ourselves on here at Poppy isn't sacrificed. Eessu will be back on board when the studio is back in full swing, too, and we're both very excited about the many ideas we've got for the future of Poppy.

So while my mind is thinking up ideas to entertain Kynan (instead of thinking up new designs), and my tshirt is covered in vomit (instead of being covered in ink), stay tuned for updates and our new website. I'll also write up a little about the last couple of jobs that have been on the press once I get photos.

Thanks so much to all of your for your continued support and feedback. We won't be gone for long, I promise! If you have any questions about stationery for your 2010 wedding, please feel free to drop me a line still [louise at poppyletterpress dot com dot au], but just know that I won't be able to provide a quote at this time.

Naomi Murrell greeting cards

2009-07-31T20:28:00.007+10:00

Finally I can announce what we've been up to! For the past couple of months we've been working with the lovely Naomi Murrell to produce these gorgeous greeting cards. Naomi is one very talented lady residing in Adelaide. Her work includes wooden and perspex jewellery, screen prints, and canvas bags and cushions. We're excited that these new letterpress cards are part of her debut collection, A Little Love, which is featuring at the Life Instyle trade show this and next week.

I didn't get the chance to photograph all of the final printed cards together before they were shipped away, but the stack was quite big compared to what we're used to! 1,250 cards in all, it was quite a process to print them on Collie - especially at 38 weeks pregnant, and then again with a newborn baby!

You can find Naomi on her website and blog, and if you're interested in purchasing one of her designs, have a squizz at her on etsy.

As much as I absolutely love designing and printing wedding stationery, printing a wholesale job was a refreshing change in the studio, and we're looking forward to many more.

Sneak peek

2009-07-13T14:15:00.003+10:00

Here's just a little sneak peek of what we've been working on in the studio for quite some time now. I'm very excited that the project will be completed very soon, but until then my lovelies, I can't show you just yet!

It's our largest print run to date, and we've found it quite refreshing to print large quantities of such beautiful designs. Stay tuned for the unveiling!

A great day at the Wedding Fair

2009-07-06T14:33:00.002+10:00

It was fantastic to be able to talk to so many brides yesterday at the Hyatt Wedding Fair. I was surprised by exactly how many people visited the fair, much more than I remembered from when I was a bride-to-be.

Our stand was manned by myself, Eessu, Adrian and our friend Claire who came to help out on the day. We found that a few people had heard of letterpress before, but most people hadn't, so it was a great opportunity let more people know about it. Overall, it was a very successful day. I loved being able to get so much feedback on our printing and designs, and see which invitations were the most popular.

And Kynan was there to help too, but slept though most of it :)

Hyatt Wedding Fair, Canberra

2009-07-03T19:31:00.002+10:00

You can catch Poppy at the Hyatt Wedding Fair in Canberra, this Sunday 5 July.

We're thrilled to have been invited to this exclusive event. Personally, I'm looking forward to checking out all the beautiful dresses and goodies that the other suppliers have to offer (nothing beats wedding shopping, even when you're already married!).

If you're in Canberra, drop by and say hello!

Announcing the arrival of Kynan Glenn!

2009-07-03T19:18:00.003+10:00

Kynan doing his pirate impression

Born at 8.38pm on 6 June 2009.

4.045kg, 50cm long.

Ok, so we're a little late in announcing this on the blog, my apologies. But that's quite fitting, as Ky was 13 days late himself. It was quite a long day, which ended in a c-section. As a result, my recovery is taking it's time, so we haven't been online much lately. Sorry if you've emailed us recently and we haven't replied.

Closed for impending baby!

2009-05-04T14:16:00.002+10:00

After vowing I wouldn't keep printing in the last few weeks of my pregnancy, here I am, still going at 37.5 weeks! But at least it's on a big job that I really love looking at. Can't show you what it is just yet, but stay tuned! Hopefully I'll have time to upload the finished photos before bub arrives.

I also have a lot of photos to post of weddings that we've been printing lately. Eessu's a printing champion and has been such a great help in the studio.

So the studio is officially closed now until 6 July. We'll be checking emails a few times a week and supplying quotes. Please understand that it may take a couple of days for us to get back to you though!

I'd like to say a HUGE thankyou to all the beautiful clients that we've had in the past couple of months. You've all be so wonderful to work with, and very understanding when it's come to me needing a couple of extra days to print than normal.

Also, stay tuned - we've got a lot of exciting new developments planned for when we reopen the studio and I can't wait to share them with you!!

Sneak peak

2009-03-31T11:21:00.002+11:00

Today's sneak peak is of Megan's art deco invitation proof. We'll be printing the final run very soon, so stay posted.

Proofs

2009-03-25T20:13:00.002+11:00

We've had a busy few days printing proofs for current orders. Here's a sneak peak into one of them - wedding invites for Sharlene and Alex, who you may remember we worked with last year to produce their Save the Date cards. We've custom mixed the colours to match the table runners. Can't wait to have these invites printed, they're going to be quite stunning.

Wipe your feet

2009-03-24T09:00:00.002+11:00

Yesterday's lesson was an important one - if you're going to drop a little ink on the studio floor, make sure not to stand in it.

Especially if it's Pantone Violet. I'm normally very clean with my inks, but violet just gets everywhere. It took me over an hour to realise that I'd stood in a little violet blob, and then proceeded to walk it all around the studio, in the office, and in my kitchen. Being 31 weeks pregnant, I have trouble reaching my toes (*cough* more like my knees...) so Adrian was on the scene on all fours with a turps rag.

A tiny blob of violet can spread out to cover a quarter of a studio's cement floor when turps is applied. But let's just say that's arty, and that the studio's floor now looks a little more creative.

Baby Dolton

2009-03-16T16:27:00.004+11:00

I've just had the absolute pleasure of working with Victoria and James to design and print a set of baby announcement cards and note cards for their second baby. Until now, I wasn't really considering printing announcement cards for our own little arrival (due in 10 weeks), but now I'm convinced I will.

This design incorporates the Palm Cockatoo illustration I produced a couple of weeks ago, scaled right down. I was excited to see it prints beautifully at this size. I'll definitely be illustrating a lot more for our work in the future.

These cards were designed to match the first set of cards that Victoria and James had printed in the US by Sesame Letterpress for the arrival of their first baby. Make sure you check out Sesame Letterpress's beautiful work on their website.

A little professional development

2009-03-04T20:42:00.002+11:00

It's an exciting week for us this week. Lots of gorgeous new designs and clients, as well as a 3-day course specialising in creative businesses. I love the opportunity to sit down with other creative business owners and bounce ideas off eachother. I always end up learning so much that I can take back to Poppy. So stay tuned - I've already got some great ideas on improving our processes and production, and can't wait to bring them on board.

The course runs Wed-Fri this week, all day, so please accept my apologies for being late to respond to emails and phonecalls during this time (but it'll be worth it!).

We love illustrations!

2009-02-27T14:31:00.003+11:00

Here at Poppy we think that there's nothing more special than having your stationery custom designed and printed just for your big event. Well, perhaps the only thing that could top that is to have a custom illustration as part of your design.

I've been illustrating and painting my entire life, and I'm just so happy now to have a job that lets me do it every day! And I've been watching Eessu's talent for art develop for the past 14 or so years (her drawing skills are far better than mine!), and you can bet that I'll be encouraging her to use these skills at Poppy Letterpress.

We've been working on designs for some baby announcement cards for an expectant couple, and have had the pleasure of developing a couple of illustrations for them to consider using on the cards. We started with a galah, but he didn't quite fit right, so we then spent some time on a Palm Cockatoo. I just love him, he looks so cheeky.

The original illustration is quite large and detailed and too good to just use only once, so we've decided to produce a short edition of prints. I'll be framing the first one off the press to put in our new baby's room. More details to come.

Claire & Adam

2009-02-12T17:40:00.004+11:00

I recently worked with two dear friends of mine on their engagement invitation postcards. Being the creative folk that they are, Claire and Adam designed and screenprinted a tree graphic on the front of the card, then had Poppy print the details on the back with the press.

I'd love to do more collaborations like this. I find that letterpress can look incredibly effective when combined with other types of printing. And it's quite easy to match the ink colours as well.

Rosemary & Kui

2009-02-11T21:56:00.003+11:00

I loved working on this design. The peachy colour was so unique, and I really enjoyed drawing flowers for a while. It turned out to be such a clean, crisp design, and is one of my personal favourites.

The font for the names printed so well that it looks like actual handwriting. I'd encourage more brides to use fonts like this. It's classy, but still has that personal touch to it.

You may recognise the flowers from Eessu's first print. I had the plates handy after finishing these invites, and couldn't help but print from them again. Even in black they still look so feminine and soft.

Poppy on Canberra's Got Style

2009-02-10T17:18:00.003+11:00

Today Poppy Letterpress is proud to be featured on Canberra's Got Style, a great site showcasing the many talented folk here in Canberra. I find it incredible that for such a small city, we have so many crafty people, which is easy to see when you visit one of our markets on the weekends.

Kate & Rob

2009-02-09T12:56:00.002+11:00

We had the pleasure of working on this design with Kate and Rob recently. Like many couples these days, Kate and Rob wanted to steer clear of complicated and elaborate designs, and instead focus on the country garden theme of their wedding. Kate is lucky to have an aunt to handle the calligraphy of the guest's names. The names were written in a yellow, so the invitation needed to be simple and neutral.

Meet Eessu!

2009-02-08T11:09:00.003+11:00

I'm so excited to welcome Eessu to the Poppy Letterpress team!

Eessu has been one of my dearest friends since we were kids, and she's got to be the most creative person I've ever met. Sporting a visual arts degree in printmaking, Eessu will be here helping me print while I'm pregnant (and hopefully for much longer!). This means that we won't have to shut up shop for the last months of my pregnancy, and we can still offer full service to all clients. It will also give me more time to work on exciting new designs.

We've been doing a little training in the studio, and Eessu completed her first print run today: black peony notecards.

Keep your eye on this girl, she's going to be printing up a storm!

Rob & Elizabeth

2009-02-07T23:03:00.002+11:00

We love printing our own designs here at Poppy, but clients also have the option of submitting their own artwork, which is exactly what Rob and Elizabeth opted for. It was so refreshing to print this sunny yellow and charcoal combination straight after printing black only for a couple of days. I think yellow is really going to be big this year, and you can see why - it's just so happy!

Sharlene & Alex

2009-02-05T11:20:00.003+11:00

I ended up going mad for squirrels over this design - they're just so cute. Sharlene loves squirrels, and really got me hooked. This simple and quirky design let the couple have a bit of fun with their stationery, before needing some more serious invitations later on.

The little squirrel was hand-drawn at Poppy. We love creating custom illustrations for designs. It's one certain way to ensure that your concept is original and fun!

The backs of the Save the Dates held adhesive magnets, so family and friends are able to stick them to the fridge for reminders.

Gift registry alternative

2009-01-19T14:38:00.004+11:00

For any brides out there trying to work out what to put on your gift registry when you both already have everything you need, here's a great idea - get your guests to donate to a nominated charity instead. Today I'm posting off some invitations and gift suggestion cards to Sara-Jane and Esther, and I've just loved working on the designs. This card is just a teaser though. The main photos will be up shortly.

It's funny how sometimes the most ugly things end up looking so beautiful. Take this rag for instance. The combination of pink and green made it look more like a lovely flower. I just had to share.

A treasure-trove of ink

2009-01-16T13:57:00.003+11:00

I had a few boxes of miscellaneous items arrive with Plan B, and I still haven't got through them all. I've just opened one of them now to find 44 cans of inks, deglasers and varnishes. Some are probably dried right out and useless, but there's definitely a few in there that I'll be using a lot.

I just love the variety of old labels though. Also note the "Collies Ink" label - from the research I've done, it looks like they're the company that manufactured my Collie's Paragon press.

Popplet JAN 09 out now

2009-01-15T23:00:00.003+11:00

The first edition of Popplet, our email newsletter, is out now. Leave us a comment with your email if you would like to be added to the mailing list (don't worry, I won't publish your email in the comments). Alternatively, drop us an email at louise [at] poppyletterpress [dot com dot au].

Presses in position

2009-01-12T14:16:00.011+11:00

After a hot afternoon yesterday, the two presses are finally in their final positions ready to work. It took 5 people, one engine hoist, hired chains and a pallet jack to get them there. My anxiety levels were at an all-time high as we had each press dangle 1.5 feet in the air. When lifting Collie, we had four people standing on the engine hoist to counter-balance the lift, but still managed to (slowly) drop it on the ground, sending the skids through the wooden wall behind it.

All ended well though. No people or presses were harmed.

Here's a basic floor layout of the studio so far. The left side of the studio near the sink is still taken up with our housemate's storage for a few more weeks, but eventually that's where the platemaker and other units will go.

The new positions are great - lots of lighting and space around each press.

After thinking about the best name to give the new press, I've decided on "Plan B", since that's what I've been calling it anyway. And it was bought just for that - a plan B in case something goes wrong with Collie. At least that's how I like to justify this purchase...

It's great having another press here that's so similar to Collie. All rollers and chases are interchangable because they're the same size, so that makes parts easier. Plan B does have some lovely little features though, including the shots below: original 'lids' on some of the oil holes to prevent dust and debris getting in the holes, an original counter, and a foot treadle complete with the Chandler & Price logo as the grip. I'm not too impressed with the condition of the rollers though, so I'll be recovering them this year. In the meantime, I've still got great rollers on Collie.

Pregnancy and printing

2009-01-05T11:49:00.001+11:00

It’s going to be a hot day here in Canberra today (32C/90F) and it’s just going to get hotter as the week progresses. I’ve got the new house all locked up in an attempt to trap what cool air is left inside.

Heat is just one of the problems pregnant women face. It always seems so much hotter than it really is, so now that summer’s in full force, I’m finding myself hot an exhausted all the time.

I posted a while ago about how temperature affects printing. Yes, printing is better for the press in summer, just not me when I’m pregnant! (Also, note the last paragraph of that entry – me dreaming of having a new studio. See? Dreams do come true!)

Another big factor that affects pregnant women in the studio is toxic fumes. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started wearing a respirator to block out the fumes. It works exceptionally well, and it’s nice finishing up the day without having a head full of toxic smells. The downsides? They’re hot, and it’s like having a mini steamroom on your face. You can’t sing with it on (which I do a lot of when I print) because of the restricted airflow. And sneezing is like a monsoon. Ew.

There have been studies into the affects of offset printing ink fumes on the unborn baby, and it’s all bad news, so putting up with the respirator is worth it. I also wear an apron and gloves, which is a good idea when printing regardless of who you are.

Morning sickness and constant tiredness have been the biggest issues though. I was one of those unlucky women who gets morning sickness for a few months, and it was the sickest I have ever been. It started at the busiest time for Poppy, too. Now I’m not sick anymore, but the tiredness looks like it’s here to stay. So I’m getting used to limiting what I can do in one setting, and how much work I can take on.

Of course, the most obvious thing I’m dealing with though is the big belly. And it’s already big at 20 weeks. Very cute until you need to stand at the press and reach for the paper while the press is running. Or stretch up to grab the guillotine handle. Or reach across the desk to grab a pen.

I’d love to hear about the experiences of other women who have worked through pregnancy, whether in printing or elsewhere. What restriction did you have? How did you cope?

Painting the office, Part 2

2009-01-02T22:28:00.003+11:00

One of the most exciting things about buying your first home is that you can paint the walls whatever colour you want. What's even better than that, is being able to paint your own studio office walls.

We're keeping the house interior white, but I was keen on a colour for the office. It's a great space as it is -- away from noise, and a door straight into the studio -- but it needed some sprucing up so that I'd feel more at home in it. After all, I'll be spending a lot of my time in there on the computer and guillotining paper. I chose this soft green as it's one of my favourite colours (was even our wedding colour), and it's so calming.

Here are the before photos, followed by some after-the-first-coat photos.

Moving Collie

2009-01-02T22:15:00.004+11:00

A couple of days before Christmas, Collie arrived at the new studio on the same truck that brought over the new C&P (yet to be named). They took great care with him, so I was happy, however one of the guys almost crushed the other guy behind the press when he released the brake on the pallet jack. My heart went through my mouth. He was okay though, but if I'd had the flywheel turned to a slightly different position, he would've crushed his ribs.

It took them quite a bit of fiddling to get Collie into the studio. Now that both presses have arrived, I need to hire lifting equipment to get them off their pallets and into their final positions. We've got a bit to clear out before that can happen, but hopefully in the next few days.

I'm just glad that I don't have to move any more presses!

My little press dog, Taylor, is currently on holidays taking care of her beautiful puppies, and in the meantime we're living with two golden retriever boys. Above is Basil, who sniffed Collie all over on arrival.

And for any of you who are interested, here's just one of Taylor's cute little pups:

Painting the office

2009-01-01T18:56:00.003+11:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year brings you all that you wish for and work towards. I know it's going to be a huge year for myself with the arrival of our baby in (hopefully) May, and an inspiring new year for Poppy.

I don't do new year's resolutions, but if I did, I'd promise to blog more and post more photos. That is on the big list of things to do in the new year though. For now, let me update you on what we've been up to.

The Collie's Paragon press arrived safely from our old house, so now both of the platens are in the new studio, albeit still on pallets waiting to be placed in their final positions. Having just moved house, and still in the process of unpacking endless boxes, the studio itself is full of bikes, boxes, tins, a Harley, and some random bits and pieces.

The new studio has a sink, separate toilet, office, and ample shelving. The office currently contains my desk, bookshelf, chair and guillotine. I got a blast of inspiration this morning and bought some sample pots of colour. Now that I've decided which to go for, tomorrow morning I'll start painting the office. I'm stupidly excited about this for two reasons: 1, it's my first private office, and 2, it's all mine so I can paint it whatever colour I want! Having been a renter for the past 10 years, this is quite a thrill :)

So this first week of 2009 is dedicated to cleaning out the new studio and office so that I can get all of the equipment into place and start the year fresh. Feels good!

New press arrived

2008-12-02T17:56:00.004+11:00

After a long wait, the new Chandler & Price 10 x 15" platen press arrived this afternoon.

The driver mentioned hearing a thump during the trip, which made my heart beat double time when he told me. We opened up the back to find that the press had been incorrectly placed on the pallet by the drivers in Melbourne, and as a result, its two front feet had dropped between the wood slats onto the floor of the truck. It was originally on skids, but the Melbourne blokes had taken them off for some reason. The packing of the entire delivery (3 crates worth) was done so poorly, I'm surprised there's no obvious damage. Moving the press with the pallet jack was a little hairy because the press was now leaning on a tilt and slats had broken off the pallet. But the delivery guys were excellent, and moved the press into its temporary position in the new studio. I'll be calling the operations manager of the transport company tomorrow to let him know how unhappy I am with the packing, and that if I find any damage to the press, they'll be paying for it.

You can see in these photos how the front feet have slipped down.

The good news is that the press looks good, and it's in much better condition than I thought. Very happy! I'll get some better photos once we finish moving house.

Waiting for the press...

2008-12-01T17:06:00.002+11:00

The new press was picked up on Friday and is on it's way - currently in Sydney. It will arrive at the new studio tomorrow and I can't wait! Will take photos of it's arrival and post here...

Surprise!

2008-11-26T11:45:00.001+11:00

Well, a couple of you on facebook already know, but the great news is that I’m 15 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately, I’ve had the most exhausting morning sickness, which is now in its 10th week – hence the lack of blog updates and photos of work I’ve been doing. Luckily though, the sickness is starting to taper off, and I’ve been able to work a little more. This has also been the reason for the ‘fully booked’ status on my website. I’ve needed to cut down the amount of weddings I’ve been working on so I don’t compromise the clients that have already booked in.

I’m still working everyday, just not as quickly as usual. I find that I need to lie down for a while after working at the press for an hour or so. I really didn’t think that printing would be such as exhausting process when pregnant, but I guess my disturbed sleep patterns are also contributing to that. I’m sporting a definite baby belly now as well, so I need to stand at the press side-on a little, which isn’t very comfortable! From 5 weeks onwards, I’ve been printing with gloves and a respirator on, because of all the fumes in the studio. I could switch from turps to Crisco oil, but I’d still have to wear the respirator for the ink fumes. Ink can be quite stinky on a platen press, as the ink disk is exposed and you stand very close to it while printing. I’ve done a lot of reading on how offset printing ink fumes can cause fetal defects, so I’m very careful.

The cute news is that Taylor, my little press dog, is also pregnant, so she’ll be having her puppies in 2 weeks. She loves sleeping in the kennel next to the press while I’m printing, but I’m sure all the fumes aren’t doing her much good either. We have ventilation in there, but not a lot (trying to keep dust out).

So that’s Exciting News #1.

Exciting News #2 is that we’re moving studios! Actually, my husband and I have bought a new house not far from here, and it comes with a workshop/studio space. Originally, it would’ve been a large double garage, but it’s been converted into a workshop with excellent lighting, ventilation, a sink, toilet room and office. So the entire Poppy operation will be moving into that space. The office is a good size and is insultated, carpeted, and has an intercom to the house, tv antenna, security system, and broadband outlet. There’s more than enough space in the studio for all of my equipment, and heaps of shelving for all the ink pots. It’s an absolute dream come true for me, and I’m really going to enjoy working in there.

Exciting News #3 (I’ve been busy...) is that I have a truck of new equipment arriving next week. Actually, it was supposed to be arriving at the new studio tomorrow, but the transport company messed up. It works out to be able 1.5 tonnes of equipment, including the new press that I bought MONTHS ago. I’ll be posting photos of it’s arrival when it does come. I’m really going to love setting it all up in the new studio. I love starting a new space from scratch. But of course, I’ll also be moving house in 2 weeks, so I’ll be unpacking everywhere.

So now you’re up-to-date with my news. You can see why I haven’t been on the blog a lot lately, which I really do apologise for. I have really missed it. I’ve been working with some truly lovely clients in the past couple of months, and they’ve been really understanding when it’s taken me a little longer to respond to emails, etc.

Once the new studio is set up, I’ll be holding a Studio Warming Party, most probably in January. I’ve had a lot of people ask to see my current studio, and while it’s been suitable enough to work in, it’s not a space that I was proud to share. Baby is due 21 May, and I’ll be doing as much printing as possible during this time, but I’ll definitely be at reduced capacity. I’m looking forward to using this time to re-evaluate our processes and making them more streamlined for next year.

Seven Things Meme

2008-11-26T11:42:00.001+11:00

Ok, in an attempt to get back to my beloved blog, here’s a work-focussed meme, tagged to me by Ampersand Duck, who is oh so good at making the rest of us look bad for not updating our blogs regularly. As with Ducky, I’ll be sharing 7 things about my studio/working processes.

Seven Things Meme.

1. I’m not a clean person at all (though really wish I was). The house is always a mess, my computer desk is always a mess. But if I work in an office, the office desk must be spotless otherwise I can’t focus. I’m a bit the same with my studio space. If it’s not clean, with everything in its place, I get uncomfortable, and really don’t enjoy the work as much. Saying this, the past few months it’s been pretty grubby.

2. I’m a listmaker. Everyday I need to pull out my notebook and write a to-do list for the day. Sometimes I’m guilty of writing everything possible little thing that I can think of that needs doing, just so I have more to cross of the list to make me feel like I’ve achieved more during the day. For the things that don’t get done, they get added to tomorrow’s list. If I’m stressed out about a really long list of urgent tasks, I think of more creative ways to present the list, such as writing each item on a separate card and sticking them on the door under headings or priorities. Of course, I’ll use that for a day, then the next day I’ll need to make a new list somehow. Note: this does not necessarily make me an organised or efficient worker.

3. For the past 11 months, my ‘studio space’ has been my one car garage in our rental house. There’s enough space for the press, shelving, a large desk, bins (in my endeavour to keep it *cough* clean), and the dog kennel. It’s a HORRIBLE space to work, and I find myself spending as little time in there as possible. My computer desk is inside, so I’m often in there if there’s no printing at the time. In winter, the temperature in the garage gets to -1C in the mornings and I need to take my ink inside and heat it up to be able to scoop it out of the tin and work with it. The press is freezing, but still works very well. My hands are so cold that I find it hard to grab the paper out of the press in time, and have no grip on my fingers. In summer, the temps get to 34C or more, which the press loves, mind you. The ink is the perfect consistency and the press and rollers move freely. I, on the other hand, sweat like a pig. But as long as I’m prepared for the hot weather, I don’t mind it too much. The garage really isn’t weather-proof. If there are strong gusts of wind (as there usually are in Sept-Oct), I can’t print because it blows so much dust onto the press. I’ve also had problems with humidity during storms, but I can deal with that now. I always find it amazing that my press can produce such gorgeous work in such horrible conditions.

4. I love mass-produced things. I think that’s part of why I became a graphic designer. I always used to love designing a brochure or something similar, and then having 8 million of them produced (well, that was my record). It was a keen interest in the printing process that really set me up for letterpress. At any excuse, I’d go on a press check for a job, just so I could see the setup, smell the ink, gaze in wonder at the 10-colour Heidelbergs and see my job half printed. Of course, I don’t print large runs on the letterpress, it’s just too time-consuming, and I can only spend so many hours in front of the press a day. If I had a Heidelberg T-platen however...

5. I enjoy printing a mixture of my designs and other people’s designs. Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone send me the complete file, so all I have to worry about is the printing. It is always more satisfying to print my own design that I enjoyed creating though. Especially printing one colour at a time and watching it come together as a final piece.

6. Guillotining is the worst part of my day. I love my little guillotine and don’t know what I’d do without it, but really, I spend far too much time cutting those large sheets to size. Because the sheets are larger than the guillo’s blade, I have to cut them down by hand first. Sure, I could take them to someone else to get guillotined by one of their huge industrial-sized guillos, but that works out to take just as long when I factor in driving time. I’m sure eventually I’ll get a huge guillo for the studio, but for now, I’m terrified of anything bigger than the one I currently have, and really don’t want to go near those automated ones.

7. Running your own letterpress studio can be a lonely venture. As much as I hated working in government studios with all kinds of mindless morons interrupting my work for a pointless meeting, or to discuss timelines that I’ve already emailed to them, or tell me about so-and-so who’s sucking up to the boss, or even just to tell me about how their daughter went at netball last night... BREATHE LOU, BREATHE... having a few (quiet) people around can really improve your workday and make it go faster. Don’t get me wrong – I really do enjoy the peace and quiet during the day, and I have Tiger the cat, and Taylor the dog to keep me company. But another person or two would be nice to have around. When I’m in the house on the computer or guillotining I have the tv on, and when I’m out on the press, the radio is cranked up on Triple J. However, right now I’m sitting in silence at my computer, and it’s only just occurred to me. I won’t tag anyone else for now, but feel free to leave a comment if you’re attempting this meme as well :)

Public Holiday - 4th Nov

2008-11-03T08:30:00.002+11:00

Ah, my poor neglected little blog. Never fear, I have a stack of prints that will be photographed this week and uploaded for all to see. I've had a lot of fun with our most recent weddings, and worked with some fantastic couples. Promise I'll share very soon!

Meanwhile, just a quick notice to say that tomorrow is a public holiday here, so please be aware that I may not respond to emails for the day. If you have the day off, lucky you! If not, you'll be here in spirit :)

Lara & Adrian

2008-09-09T15:56:00.003+10:00

Click on images to enlarge and see in better resolution

This is a print proof of Lara's rsvp card. I've made it a bit of a policy now to send proofs so clients know exactly what to expect. It can be a lot of extra time and hassle for me, but worth it in the end.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this wedding set. The pattern I took from the moorish screens in the restaurant where Lara and Adrian will be having their reception. I'd just love to see the guests arrive and make the connection on the night.

I have quite a few items to print for this set, so stay tuned, as I'll be working on them in the next few days.

Talia & Grant

2008-09-09T15:41:00.003+10:00

Click on images to enlarge and see in better resolution

We actually printed this set a couple of weeks ago but it's taken me a while to get the camera out. This design was supplied by the client, and it was great to work with. Clean lines, crisp black ink, and the press was doing a great job of behaving itself for once.

Talia's set also included rsvp envelopes with return address printed.

No reply - it's late.

2008-09-08T22:07:00.002+10:00

If you email me at 10pm and I don't respond straight away, it's because I should getting ready for bed, or in front of the telly, or out drinking with friends. You know, what normal people my age do.

Up until now, you'd normally find me at this time of night working away at the computer, or even out in the cold on the press.

From now on I will be trying to resemble a normal life, which hopefully includes weekends. Ah, I remember them well.

So please, email away at any hour, but please note that I may not respond out of business hours. Don't worry - this won't mean that I'm working less. No printing will be harmed in the pursuit of sleep!

Too busy to blog?? gasp!

2008-09-05T20:20:00.002+10:00

I know. I've been a bad blogger. I've got so much I want to blog about, but a huge list of to-dos before I can get to it.

Will tell you all about the latest projects when I get a spare minute, as well as the fabulous time I had in Brisbane with Alischa of Bespoke Press. More soon..!

Poppy on 'holidays' 29 Aug - 1 Sept

2008-08-26T19:09:00.003+10:00

It's about this time of year, when I'm sick of the frost and freezing mornings, that I dream of flying off to somewhere much warmer. So the fact that my husband and I are jetting off to Brisbane for 4 days is a godsend.

We'll be there for a number of reasons, including to stay with Alischa of Bespoke Press for a night, and for a bit of instruction from a printer up there who is more than willing to teach us a thing or two. It doesn't matter how much you think you know (or don't know!), a lesson from someone who's been doing it a lifetime is worth it's weight in gold. So we're looking forward to a weekend full of sun, letterpress, good wine, family (who I'm also visiting), relaxation and a funky PT Cruiser convertible which I just HAD to have for the trip :)

I'll be taking Ranga, the macbook pro, with me so I will still be answering emails and writing quotes, but not sure how much time I'll have to work on anything else.

Kelvin & Michelle

2008-08-20T22:11:00.003+10:00

I'm very happy with how the illustration on these invites turned out. You may remember that I posted the sketch of these flowers in a previous post. We discussed printing the flowers as a blind deboss, in transparent white, or in a light beige. In the end, we went for a transparent white with a hint of beige, and the result is subtle, but still allows the ampersand to be dark enough to link the two names. The text is printed in a chocolate brown.

Design, illustration and printing by Louise Redman of Poppy Letterpress.

Susie & Matt

2008-08-16T18:27:00.004+10:00

Our latest wedding invitations are for Susie and Matt in Brisbane. Matt's grandmother is Chinese and they wanted to incorporate some Chinese tradition without it dominating the look and feel of the wedding. Susie is a goddess of decorating and will be arranging Chinese lanterns around the restaurant for their cocktail reception, so we've kept that theme running with the invitations.

Text is printed in charcoal grey, with the lanterns in transparent white. We will be following these up with booklet covers in coming weeks.

Maria & Glen

2008-08-11T13:39:00.004+10:00

I had a great weekend printing Maria & Glen's invites for their October wedding. There's still a few more items to come, but here are some pics of their invitation, RSVP postcard and directions map. Design is by Poppy, from Graphista Design. It was wonderful working with Poppy, as she had such beautiful artwork and it was supplied in a lovely clean file. I'm really quite particular about keeping files clean and ordered, and Poppy's artwork made my job so much easier.

Click on the images for detailed view:

The press is behaving exceptional well at the moment, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the printing process - even when it started snowing halfway through printing these cards. No, my print room doesn't have heating, it was about -1C (30F) in there on Sunday! Amazingly, the press still works fine. The ink is a lot harder to mix as it's really thick (like mixing brie), but once on the press, no problems.

Samplers and preparations

2008-08-07T12:13:00.005+10:00

Today is yet another fabulously busy day at Poppy. I've been sending out samplers left, right and centre, and have now officially run out. I'm hoping to get some time spare on the press to run some more, but until then, photos may have to do. Above are the last of the samplers printed in transparent white, and black ink. The lanterns plate is for the gorgeous Susie of Brisbane's wedding invitations which go on the press today. The 'thankyou' is from my wedding set, but the plate seems to be indestructable, so it's used a lot for samplers these days.

Click on the photos to view in detail.

My hands are red raw now after a morning spent guillotining paper for Susie's invites, but at least I have a lot of cut paper now!

There will be quite a few exciting developments at Poppy over the next few weeks. We're looking at revamping the studio space. This was on the to-do list already because it's a small, cramped space, and less than ideal, but now it's an essential thing that need to be done sooner rather than later. Why? Because I've just bought another press :)
More on that later....

Studio update & first newsletter

2008-07-30T20:21:00.004+10:00

The print room has been a little quiet of late as I'm spending the majority of my time working on invitation concepts (which I love doing). I just love the variety of styles that each couple has chosen, and I can't wait to show them to you.

Above is a sketch that I've been developing tonight for a floral-themed letterpress invitations. When I have a little more time, I'll create a small suite of floral templates for couples to choose from. Flowers are always popular and never go out of fashion - you can't go wrong with them. But they don't have to be traditional illustrations, they can still be quite modern and funky.

This is the last week of my current 75+ hr/wk run of work. A few months ago I signed up for some temp design work, only to find myself up late every night working on Poppy. I think I underestimated how much spare time I had! So in 3 days from now, I'll be back to working fulltime at Poppy during the day (as opposed to fulltime at night after a full day in the temp job). Squee! Yes, this really excites me because I have lots of new things to do and plans to fulfill.

Also ~ The first of our Poppy newsletters will be emailed out shortly. The newsletter will contain an update of what's going on in the studio, photos and tidbits that won't be on the blog or website, and the occasional discount or special offer. Perhaps even a competition of sorts. We're planning to send the newsletter out every 2-3 months. We're also keen to hear suggestions of what you'd like to see in the newsletter.

Interested? Send me a message here or via our Contact Form, with your name and email, and we'll send you some newlettery goodness.

Re-Surface Re-print

2008-07-27T12:43:00.002+10:00

I reprinted these for Donna a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't had the chance to upload the photos yet. We tried a stiffer, more textured card this time, and it worked a treat. BFK Rives is a perfect stock for inviations and such, but just doesn't cut it as a business card stock - it's not hardy enough.

Poppy in Canberra Times

2008-07-27T12:34:00.003+10:00

It was just a small mention, but we were happy to have a short story about us in The Canberra Times wedding liftout, A Day To Remember. There are only a few stationery options for newly engaged couples in Canberra, and hopefully this page in the paper lead a few couples to consider letterpress for their stationery set.

Ranga, the Macbook Pro.

2008-07-27T12:30:00.002+10:00

I know this isn't directly letterpress related (but I did buy it for the business, so technically it is somewhat related...), but I just had to blog it. For all you Mac fanatics out there, here's Ranga, my new Macbook Pro.

For all those non-fantatics out there, don't worry, it's a short post.

Canberra Times Wedding Liftout

2008-07-22T22:32:00.000+10:00

Update

2008-07-16T21:42:00.004+10:00

I've been meaning to upload some photos for the past few days, but I can never get organised enough. The blog's been full of text-heavy posts lately, and no graphic designer likes that.

We've been busy little bees here at Poppy (70 hrs/week busy!). I'm currently working on concepts for 6 weddings and loving it. There's a real variety too. Not to mention my personal favourite theme at the moment: SQUIRRELS! Cute little buggers, they are.

Somewhere between Canberra and New York are some letterpress business cards on their way to Donna - a reprint, which was great to work on. We've gone for a stiffer card stock this time. Once again, haven't taken photos yet, but I'll be sure to post them shortly.

Other updates are:
- I'm on the hunt for another press. If anything ever happened to Collie, I'd need a Plan B.
- Also actively looking for a photopolymer platemaker. Have looked in India and the US, but if you know of a supplier in Aust, do let me know.
- Still debating if I should try rubber based and soy based inks.
- Will be importing Crane's Lettra in the next few weeks. BFK Rives is great, but I really need a bright white alternative. I've just ordered a stash more of it, and the nice guys at MES have also sent some samples of a white alternative to test out.
- I'll be getting a quote to from my metal machinist for new roller cores and trucks. They'll then be sent to a roller maker who will rubber coat them for me. It's still cheaper than importing a set from the US. I suspect that my current rubber rollers have a flat spot each, but I can't send them away yet as I can't stop printing for a whole two week period that is needed to get them done.
- Heading up to QLD shortly to visit gorgeous Alischa, of Bespoke Press. It'll also be the closest I'll get to a holiday for a long time.

And finally, I've had an excellent response to the new Poppy website. But I have still yet to hear some critisism, so if you have any suggestions for the site, please let me know.

Oh and PS: I love love LOVE my new laptop. His name is Ranga.

Judy Stone Makeup Artist

2008-07-05T13:20:00.003+10:00

I actually printed Jude's cards a few days ago, but hadn't got around to blogging them yet. I used the same stock as I did for Kate Luke's business cards, and probably won't be doing that again. It was a Canson card from memory, and although 300gsm, it's really just too stiff to get a decent impression out of. BFK Rives is a beautiful stock for printing on, but gets damaged too quickly for business cards, so I'm on the lookout for a great new stock.

If you're in the Canberra area and need a makeup artist, Jude's fantastic, so give her a call!

My new mac

2008-07-05T12:50:00.002+10:00

Behold - My new Macbook Pro!

Well, actually that's not it, that's just a pic off the mac website. Mine should arrive on Monday. So after years of wishing, I finally have my own mac. I use mac and pcs, but have always been fond of the macs. We've got a few PCs at home (yes, we have a dedicated computer room).

The lappy should help a lot with Poppy computer work. I'll be able to take my 'office' to a café, sit down with a coffee and work on designs, quotes, and my website. Ahhh, sounds glorious, doesn't it?

Tagged!

2008-07-05T12:32:00.002+10:00

I think this will be a day of a few posts, so bear with me. Will I go from not posting enough to posting too much?

I've been tagged by Megan, and as it's been a while I thought why not? I'm not tagging anyone, as I'll leave it up to those who want to have a go instead.

What were you doing ten years ago? Finishing year 12 at school and trying to decide if I would go to Art School, or study graphic design or architecture. I think I made the right choice (after all, I met my now husband on the first day of graphic design), but I've always wanted to go to Art School.

Five items on my to do list: Only five? But it's so long! Ok, quotes, clip the dog, test prints, package Judy's business cards, and go visit a friend at his property out of town.

Snacks I enjoy: Anything chocolate. I really need to stop though. And chocolate coated coffee beans - best of both worlds.

What would you do if you were a billionaire? Buy a big studio! Well, actually I'd probably buy my husband and I a big property and house just out of town, where I can keep my horse, watch the dog run around like a maniac, and have a whole building dedicated to letterpress and design. Oh, and buy more chocolate coated coffee beans.

Places I would live: See above, or on a few acres somewhere, or Fiji.

Jobs I've had: Customer service at a chicken takeaway place, newspaper photographer and designer, stablehand, facepainter, harness racing photographer (still current), graphic designer (still current), letterpress printer (still current).

Quoting

2008-07-03T21:15:00.002+10:00

I'm learning a lot about the quoting process. Of course, I've done a lot of quoting before as part of being a graphic designer, but those quotations always ended with a final dollar amount, and were rarely negotiable.

With printing quotes, however, prices are itemised as brides usually don't know exactly what they want or can afford until they see prices.

There are many things to consider when quoting, many of which people don't realise:
- paper cost (including the freight I have to pay)
- guillotining (this can be up to a couple hours of work)
- ink (especially if the customer requires a specific colour I need to order in)
- press maintainence (solvents, oil, my hours, cloths)
- plates (which includes paying someone else to make the film, and another person to make the plates. Preparing plate artwork can take an hour or two depending on artwork)
- graphic design/illustration (I actually don't charge extra for my design and illustration services, which saves the bride a lot, but also means I often don't get paid for hours of concept work and artwork setup)
- electricity (to run the press, studio and my very loud radio)
- mistakes (especially if Collie is misbehaving. I might have 2 bad prints for every good print sometimes, which is wasted paper, time and energy. Never fear, it's my own fault and I'm getting better, so wastage is being reduced gradually!)
- petrol (to go deliver/pickup artwork, film, and plates. I travel across town doing this sometimes).

And of course, add my own time and salary to the list.

Each colour can take up to 3 hours to prepare for printing, depending on the design and specific job. There's makeready and proofing before it officially goes 'on the press'. Letterpresses aren't like the gorgeous computerised offset machines that you see in print factories these days. Letterpresses are still a handmade craft, which takes time.

So someone may order just a few items in 3 colours or more and pay a higher amount than someone who orders more but in one colour.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm not whinging! Not at all. I just wanted to explain what goes into a printing quote, and why letterpress costs more than, say, digital printing. But I'm enjoying the quoting process, and love seeing new queries in my inbox -- so keep them coming! :)

How temperature affects printing

2008-07-02T20:43:00.000+10:00

When the Collies Paragon first arrived, it was the middle of summer and stinking hot. Although I tried to print mainly in the evenings, sometimes it was 35C while I was in the studio. I was worried that the high temperatures would make printing difficult, but the press seemed to love it. The ink was almost fluid at times, and I didn't have to use much at all to get a good even coverage.

It's now winter, and I'm printing in temperatures of down to 3C or so. The ink takes a long time to warm up on the press, but still covers the ink disc evenly. However, I think some of my plate inking issues may be due to the cold temperatures (as well as other problems I'm addressing). It's quite thick and not very tacky at all, which makes it a little harder to spread and take to the plate.

Of course, humidity plays a big part too. In summer, if there's a storm hanging around, I won't even try to print. The plates curl up off the base, which present a danger of them being wrapped into the rollers. Now I'm avoiding printing during winter rain. Humidty causes grief for both plates and paper - letterforms can peel off the photopolymer, serifs can break off, and paper can swell, causing registration nightmares. If you have a job with tight registration, try to print it all in the one day, or on days with similar conditions.

So my preference is definitely summer printing. It may be stinking hot and you'll be sweating away, but the ink will distribute nicely. Another things I've noticed, in winter my hands get so cold that it's hard to grab paper as I feed it in and out of the press. At least in summer my hands are grippy.
:)
In an ideal world, I'd be setting up a more permanent home for Poppy, with ample space, lots of natural lighting, shelves upon shelves for storage, and a dehumidifier and heater. I can dream, can't I?

Busy busy

2008-06-30T17:49:00.000+10:00

Thanks to the genius of my husband, the website now works in every available browser. But of course, let me know if you pick any problems.

We've had a great response from the launch of the website, with many people contacting us with comments or quote requests.

This week I'm busy printing business cards and hopefully a couple of illustrations. A designer in Melbourne has created the most gorgeous bird illustration, and I can't wait to show you the printed piece... but I'll have to hurry up and get the plates made first, won't I?

Also, I've been having a recurring inking issue with the photopolymer plates, which may be solved by using roller bearers. So this week I hope to unlock my chase (sigh, it's so perfectly set up now that I don't want to move it again) and lock in some bearers... If I can find some. Roller bearers help the rollers to touch the plates at exactly type high, which inks them up evenly. I have a suspicion that the rails on my press have worn and are no longer perfectly flat, so bearers would help a lot.

Teething problems

2008-06-25T09:41:00.002+10:00

Like any new thing, the website is experience a couple of settling in problems. If you're viewing it in IE6, it will appear like a scrambled puzzle. In any other browser, it looks great, but loads a little slow. Never fear, we're aware of the issue and we're onto it :)

Website launch!

2008-06-23T19:03:00.003+10:00

After months of planning, and a few last days of tweaking, the Poppy Letterpress website is now live.

.>.>.> www.poppyletterpress.com.au <.<.<.

There's a .com version as well, but give that an extra day or two.

I'd love to hear your feedback on the design of the site and its content, so drop me a comment or email through the Contact page on the site.

Yay!

Kate Luke Photography

2008-06-22T18:11:00.003+10:00

After messing up the guillotining on the first print run, Kate's cards are now ready and I'll be delivering them tonight. There's just something so satisfying about seeing a completed job.

Today's tip

2008-06-15T21:59:00.002+10:00

My tip for today: when you're printing something small that requires a bleed (and therefore trimming afterwards on the guillo), add a bit more bleed than you think you'll need.

If you do this and you stuff up your guillotining, you'll then be able to fix it because you have the extra space.

Printing Kate's cards today was already a nightmare because of inking issues that I've been having with the press for a while now (that's a whole other story), so imagine my relief when they were finally done and looking good. I wasn't so impressed when the paper slipped under the guillo and there was no way to rectify the problem. So I'll be reprinting the cards during the week!

Gotta learn the hard way sometimes :)

Concepts and cards

2008-06-14T17:16:00.002+10:00

I've finally got the chance this weekend to sit down and get some serious design and printing work done. First on the cards are my two wedding designs, and then printing two 2-colour business card designs for Judy and Kate. Business cards are a fun and quick job to do on the press, so I'm looking forward to them.

These are the stock for the cards, sitting in the afternoon sun, all guillotined and ready for printing:

Update

2008-05-26T10:06:00.002+10:00

No, I haven't forgotten about my blog, promise!

The website is coming along nicely. My husband's putting the final touches on it at the moment, so we should be live very very soon. I'm quite excited, as the site will serve as my new 'shopfront' and be packed with information and photos. I'll be updating the portfolio section often, so it will be one to check regularly. There's also information on international wedding invitation and stationery orders (yes, I'm just as keen to work with overseas clients as the local ones) which will hopefully answer a lot of questions that I regularly get asked. I'll also be asking for opinions on the site when it's up, so stay tuned.

The other exciting news are Poppy Letterpress's very first two wedding clients, Laura in Canberra, and Susie in Brisbane. Both of these girls get me so excited about their designs, and I just love hearing about their wedding plans so far. It's a great privilege to be involved in their weddings. I can't wait to print their sets! More to come...

3 new wedding invitations

2008-05-14T21:53:00.005+10:00

I'm having a far more productive week now that I'm over the flu. I finished off the leaves invite, yesterday I printed the butterflies, and today I printed the decorative border. The border's my favourite, and the registration wasn't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. The pink turned out particularly vibrant, it's almost fluoro against the beige.

I've only printed about a dozen of each, as they're just samples. Can't wait to do a whole wedding's worth. There's just something so exciting about wedding stationery.

I may print one more of my 6 new designs before I run out of paper and have to order more.

Poppy Letterpress

We have moved!

Website temporarily down

New shelves for studio

Master apprentice

Shop Handmade opening this week!

New platemaker

Busy in the studio

Canberra Handmade Market

Poppy sponsors the Canberra Cup

poppy Collection feature: Field of Flowers

Poppy Collection feature: Pinstripe

Vote for us in The Poppies!

Sexy Letterpress Video

Poppy Collection feature: Lovebirds

Poppy Collection feature: Leaf Drops

Poppy Collection feature: Autumn Leaves

2009 Christmas Card

Nominate in The Poppies

Poppy Collection feature: Maidenhair

Claire & Adam

And we're live!

Emerging tomorrow

Sprouting...

tease, tease

2010!

Countdown: One week to go!

Countdown: Two weeks to go!

Christmas Cards

Sunflower inspirations

Kloe & Julian

Calligraphy

Louise & Simon

Countdown: One month to go!

Blog love

Fusion Photography

Paper Boat Press

Floral inspirations

Poppy on Twitter

Colours I'm in love with

Missing in action

Naomi Murrell greeting cards

Sneak peek

A great day at the Wedding Fair

Hyatt Wedding Fair, Canberra

Announcing the arrival of Kynan Glenn!

Closed for impending baby!

Sneak peak

Proofs

Wipe your feet

Baby Dolton

A little professional development

We love illustrations!

Claire & Adam

Rosemary & Kui

Poppy on Canberra's Got Style

Kate & Rob

Meet Eessu!

Rob & Elizabeth

Sharlene & Alex

Gift registry alternative

A treasure-trove of ink

Popplet JAN 09 out now

Presses in position

Pregnancy and printing

Painting the office, Part 2

Moving Collie

Painting the office

New press arrived

Waiting for the press...

Surprise!

Seven Things Meme

Public Holiday - 4th Nov

Lara & Adrian

Talia & Grant

No reply - it's late.

Too busy to blog?? *gasp!*

Poppy on 'holidays' 29 Aug - 1 Sept

Kelvin & Michelle

Susie & Matt

Too busy to blog?? gasp!