a tiny daydream
I’ve been playing with paper since I can remember. In fact, one of my most favorite holiday traditions as a child was visiting grandma & grandpa’s on Christmas Eve & opening my annual gift of construction paper & markers. I would retire in a corner for hours to draw, fold, cut & glue to my heart’s content. Then in high school, I was fortunate enough to enroll in a graphic arts program at our local trade school. That’s where I ran my first press, an AB Dick duplicator. I remember walking in the room the first day & standing in awe, gazing at the presses, light tables, stacks of paper & being engulfed by the scent of ink. It was magical; today instead of a school, it’s my own studio. I have yet to lose the feeling of awe or magic.
In college I studied graphic design & had the most amazing typography teacher. He was the first to introduce me to letterpress printing. I had of course seen it before in my art history classes, however, I had never experienced the craft until then. For our final project we had to handset a paragraph of type & print it on specialty paper with a platen press. From the moment I held the composing stick, I was hooked. Touching each piece of metal filled me with romance; who had touched these letters? What had been printed with them? The history of the fonts, composing sticks and press further sparked my interest & I began collecting wood type & books on printing, design & typography. It was official, I became addicted.
Once out of school, I worked in the agency, corporate & not-for-profit world for several years. I eventually decided that world was not for me. I began freelancing & picked up a retail job at a stationery store I frequented. The owner was very supportive of artists & his employees. He encouraged us to sell our handmade goods in the shop to help supplement our income. I had always made my own cards, jewelry, books & ornaments so I naturally started creating at every opportunity. First, I created cards using my antique typewriter which evolved to gocco, then I discovered Columbia College Book & Paper Center. It was there I took my first letterpress class… and my second… and third… and volunteered on my days off. I embraced letterpress printing & surrounded myself with it. Unlike my earlier experience with letterpress printing, I learned a more modern way to print using photopolymer plates instead of type & blocks. This opened a whole new world of opportunity for me. Instead of designing with existing fonts & images, I could create any design I wanted on the computer, then letterpress print it.
I had always dreamt of having my very own studio where I could create pretty, useful things. With the encouragement of my husband, family & friends, I made it happen in 2007. I purchased my very first press, a 1913 new style Chandler and Price platen press & quickly named her Wilamina. Shortly after, I quit my retail job & decided I would design & print for the rest of my days. I found a studio in a not-so-desirable area of Chicago & worked every moment I could developing my line & reaching out to small boutiques in Chicago. Slowly a. favorite design, inc. outgrew the studio. In 2009 I moved the business to the historic ravenswood corridor in Chicago. That same year we exhibited at national stationery show and tripled our business almost overnight. We’ve embraced that momentum & keep moving forward. We continue to design & letterpress print our goods in our shop, expanding our line seasonally. Visiting flea markets on the weekend for inspiration, filling notebooks with ideas & doodles, printing weekly & designing often has become my routine. I'm grateful to say, what once was a tiny daydream has become my reality.
