Lunalux letterpress stationery

Stationery Saturday with Caravan Vet

Jenni — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 22:07:13 +0000

For the April 6 Stationery Saturday, we’re personalizing animal-themed lettersheets. Crazy for cats? You’ll love the sleepy kitten. Fancy a fox? We got that covered. And there’s a wiener dog, a chickadee and a squirrel too! Pick your favorite critter (or two) and we’ll imprint a set for you with the name or phrase of your choice. There’s two 18-point lead fonts to choose from (Goudy Oldstyle or Clarendon Bold), and two ink colors too (brown or blue). All the animals have been pre-printed in taupe ink on 80# natural white wove-finish stationery sheets, measuring 5.5×8.5 inches. We think it’s a great size for a letter – not too big, not too small! You also get your choice of 5 different textured envelopes to accompany your custom stationery. And we’ll tie it all up with butchers twine and a letterpress-printed tag, making a ready-to-give gift or a handsome treasure to keep for yourself.

From 11 to 6, we’ll have the Heidelberg Windmill and the Vandercook proof press inked up and ready to go. Guests can watch as we set type and run the presses, or just nibble on homemade cookies and browse in our shop while we do the dirty work. Whatever you choose, we’ll send you home with a set of custom letterpress-printed stationery for just $29. Do make sure you peek at our Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards while you’re here, we have a bunch of great designs in stock and they’re going fast.

Special guest Dr. Christa of Caravan Vet will be here too! Caravan Vet is the metro’s first full-service mobile veterinary clinic. You won’t be able to miss her big poodle-emblazened rig, which will be parked out front. Christa was a part-time worker bee here at Lunalux when she was a student of veterinary medicine, so we are excited to have her on hand for one of our weekend specials. She’ll be giving tours of the clinic, and handing out gift bags (full of pet goodies from our other friends at Urbanimal) to everyone who takes part in the Stationery Saturday festivities. Be sure to visit the Caravan Vet website to learn more about their services.

Check our Stationery Saturday page for additional details about the event, and upcoming Stationery Saturday dates. We’ve created a listing for the event on our facebook page, and we hope you’ll tell all your friends about it! If you can’t participate in the fun this weekend, you’re not out of luck. You can order your personalized animal stationery through the Lunalux storefront at feltandwireshop.com

Meet Reggie, our newest intern

Jenni — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 04:27:48 +0000

We knew we would offer Reggie an internship before his interview was even over. Like many we’d interviewed before, he brought samples of his work. He didn’t have any letterpress or printmaking experience, but demonstrated great attention to detail and a love of the hand-crafted when he showed us what he’d been making lately: paracord belts. Time-lapse photographic prints. And chain-mail neckties! All this in his spare time while he’s working on an undergrad degree in engineering! Chain-mail neckties?!? That’s so… unexpected. You’re hired! Since he started with us earlier this year, Reggie has been up to his elbows in type. We’ve set him on the long-term project of re-organizing and re-labeling our lead type collection, so he’s becoming very familiar with the layout of the California job case. He’s been helping out with lots of other odds and ends too, including researching materials and concepts for our Northern Spark project and fielding questions from guests who wander through our studio. As the type collection becomes more organized, he’s started to print full specimen sheets of some of our favorite fonts – specimen sheets on the merchandise bags we use in our store! We’re thrilled to send shoppers home with these intricate prints. And we’re thrilled that Reggie is helping make it happen!

Some of Reggie’s wares are for sale at his etsy shop, Reggie is White. Check it out!

We all do better when we all do better

Jenni — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:50:54 +0000

Big news: Lunalux will be part of the 2012 Northern Spark festival on June 9 and 10. Though the dusk-til-dawn arts extravaganza is three months away, we’re already planning and scheming. As a new partner in the event, our first contribution is a limited-edition print to support the festival’s fund-raising efforts. “We all do better when we all do better” was printed with antique wood type on our hand-operated proof press, using black ink and hefty recycled chip board. And it’s available exclusively through the Northern Spark kickstarter campaign – pledge a donation of $40 or more to the festival, and one of these signed and numbered prints can be yours. We would love to see our friends and fans snatch all these up, and make the Northern Spark folks even more happy that they welcomed us into their fold! Pledges must be made by the end of March, so don’t delay. Proceeds from the fund-raising campaign will go to the independent artists whose projects will be included in the festivities.

Northern Spark is a free dusk-til-dawn art festival. This year the fun starts at sunset on Saturday June 9, and continues until sunrise the following morning. For these nine hours, Minneapolis will be bustling with performance, visual arts, films, and interactive media, at dozens of sites around the city both indoors and out (check the maps on the Northern Spark website for information about what’s happening where). We are just beside ourselves with excitement to be a partner in this amazing celebration! For our part, we will be open all night long, printing a series of nine posters inspired by the ideas of that night’s visitors. And we’ll be giving them away for free. Details of the event – the whole festival, and our Letterpress Lock-In – are still developing. But it’s already shaping up to be quite an evening, and we look forward to sharing our craft with this great big creative community. Stay tuned for more details!

Stationery Saturday: Two projects, one day

Jenni — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:52:42 +0000

Stationery Saturday on December 3 will feature two different projects. Personalized photo cards will be running on the Heidelberg Windmill, while the Vandercook cranks out Americana buckslips. Whichever you choose, you’ll go home with a unique set of cards, printed just for you. First up: Holiday Photo Cards! We’ve created three different designs, pre-printed with a seasonal greeting and a decorative border. Choose from the cherry red Merry Christmas, aqua Happy New Year, or lime green December Whatever. All cards measure 5×7 inches, are letterpress-printed on shimmery bright white card stock, and have room for a horizontal photo. The press will be inked up with jet-black ink, and we’ll print your family name or other brief phrase along the bottom. All you have to do is slap a snapshot on there when you get home, are they’re ready for the USPS. And to answer your question, we recommend a glue stick. The photo cards include matching white envelopes, but you can upgrade to even fancier lined envelopes for an additional $1 per piece. These are gonna knock the socks off everyone on your mailing list!

We’re also revisiting one of our favorite Stationery Saturday projects from this past year: Americana Buckslips! We created this suite of four designs over the summer, but we think they look pretty good this time of year too. You choose your favorite motif: patriotic bunting, arm & hammer, stars & stripes, or time flies. The name or phrase of your choice will be printed in black ink using 24-point Huxley Vertical, a slender & elegant font, on the hand-cranked proof press. You can even try operating the press yourself if you like! Cards measure approximately 4 by 9 inches, and will be paired with your choice of parchment-style open-end envelopes. We’ll tie a letterpress-printed tag to the package using lovely baker’s twine, and the set is ready for gifting (or hoarding).

While we try to change things up a bit each time we host a new Stationery Saturday event, some things remain the same. The presses run all day, from 11a.m. to 6p.m. We’ll have homemade baked goods and fresh coffee to nourish the body, and lots of good cheer to nourish the soul! Quantities are limited, and guests are served on a first-come-first-served basis. Cost is $29 for a set of 10 cards with plain envelopes (additional cards with the same imprint are available for $2.00 each). Visit our Stationery Saturday page for more details. We’ve even created an event listing on the Lunalux facebook page, if you’d like to R.S.V.P. and/or invite your pals to come along. Give us a jingle at 612-373-0526 if you have any questions.

Stationery Saturday: a collaboration

Jenni — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:18:05 +0000

Stationery Saturday on November 26 will be unlike any we’ve done before. Our cards this week are a collaborative effort between Lunalux and St. Paul-ite Lee Anne Swanson-Peet. This talented artist and seamstress has created two unique designs that we’re offering for personalization during this event. The retro Hotel Holiday design, printed in dark green and bright orange inks, has room in the marquee for two short lines of text. The more abstract Flight Map design, printed in red and dark aqua, can be personalized with a name, city, destination or other brief phrase. Cards will be imprinted using charcoal gray ink and 24-point open-faced lead type. Customers will have their choice of orange, sage, yellow or turquoise open-end envelopes. We love that these cards are so different from the styles we normally offer, and are thrilled to share them with our customers. We hope that this will be the first of many forays into collaboration with friends and colleagues whose work we admire.

Swanson-Peet will also be on hand with the fruits of her sewing studio too. For sale: totes and bags in a variety of sizes, and aprons and mittens for kids; all are crafted from her hoard of incredible design-driven fabrics (some vintage, some brand new). Between the Stationery Saturday cards and the one-of-a-kind textile creations, you ought to be able to knock a few names of that holiday shopping list of yours!

As always, Stationery Saturday will run from 11a.m. to 6p.m. Guests can shadow printer Jenni as she sets type and runs the Heidelberg Windmill, or enjoy complimentary coffee and homemade sweets in the shoppe while we make our printing magic happen. It’s a great day to check out our selection of holiday cards and 2012 calendars and datebooks, or stock up on papery treats for yourself and everyone on your Nice list.

Visit the Stationery Saturday page for more details about this weekend’s festivities plus future Stationery Saturday dates. You can also use the event listing on the Lunalux facebook page to RSVP to the event and tell your stationery-loving friends about this.

Stationery Saturday: wood-type folded notes

Jenni — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:13:26 +0000

Our collection of wood type has been a great source of inspiration for us lately, and it shows in this week’s Stationery Saturday designs. We filled a press with a bunch of orphan characters, and printed this mismatched pattern on folded cards. Saturday November 12, from 11a.m. to 6p.m., guests in our Minneapolis studio can get these woodtype cards personalized on the spot, for just $29. For the first time in Stationery Saturday history, two unique customization options will be offered: a monogram in bold aqua letters or a name/phrase in orange type. Here’s how this will work: first select tan or gray pre-printed cards. If the monogram design is calling your name, you’ll head to the Vandercook proof press where Morgan will be printing with aqua ink and sleek wood characters. If you need more than three letters to get your point across, Jenni will take care of you at the Heidelberg Windmill, with orange ink and a couple different 30-point lead fonts. You can tag along as we set type and bring your cards to life, or check out the holiday cards and 2012 calendars in our shoppe while we work the presses. And if you’re too busy to stay, you can place an order on Saturday and pick up your cards at a later date.

Can’t make it to our studio on November 12? You can still get in on this action! We will continue to accept orders (while supplies last) from customers in our shoppe, through November 18. Far-away friends can order online through the Lunalux storefront at feltandwireshop.com.

You’ll find details about this week’s designs, along with our plans for the November 26 and December 3 events, on our Stationery Saturday page. If you’re a facebook user, we hope you’ll connect with us there too. That’s often the first place we reveal Stationery Saturday designs, and we always create events listings so our friends can help spread the word. Visit the events tab on our facebook page if you’d like to RSVP to one of our upcoming events!

Lunalux in Twin Cities Business magazine

Jenni — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:01:36 +0000

We get Twin Cities Business magazine each month, and always find interesting stories in here about developments in the broader community. We’re thrilled that a few of our letterpress stationery products were included in the November 2011 issue, in a story about holiday gifts in the work place. The story includes a brief Q&A with Daniel Post, the great-grandson of manners maven Emily Post. Mr. Post gives this advice regarding the best gift for a colleague or employee: “Stick to items that can be used in the office like stationery, paperweights, et cetera.” That being said, we’re pretty sure we’re ground zero for all your office gifts this year! Look for Twin Cities Business on newsstands near you, or check out the mag in digital format. Lunalux products are on page 26. Other recommended reading in this issue: there’s a story on page 16 about our pal Barry Rubin, who’s now both a pen seller AND a pen DESIGNER. Way to go, Barry!

Old client = new intern

Jenni — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:35:55 +0000

Our call for interns this summer garnered a lot of compelling inquiries from interested parties. We were most thrilled to hear from Ritalee, who is no stranger to these parts. She is, in fact, a former client! She had fond memories of the wedding announcement we created for her in 2009, and her interest in letterpress was further fueled by taking a class at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. One brief interview later, and she was hired! She instantly fit right in. Since her internship began this fall, she’s been rocking the bottom spot on the Lunalux totem pole, attacking each task we give her with enthusiasm and creativity. Just before Halloween, she blurted out a great idea for a card and we said “Let’s make that happen. Today.” So a few hours later, her Crappy Halloweiners card was born. If you haven’t had a chance to meet this newest member of the Lunalux team, do look for her next time you visit. Tuesdays and Thursdays you’ll often find her manning the shop.

Welcome back, Morgan

Jenni — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:00:39 +0000

Many changes afoot at the Lunalux studio. John, our beloved printer who ran the Heidelberg here for nearly 10 years, has left the studio to invest more time in his own card line (you may have seen it in our shoppe – Dude and Chick). This left studio owner Jenni in need of a new wing-man. And we’re thrilled to announce that position is being filled by a familiar face, former intern Morgan. Morgan rocked the Vandercook for a year or so after graduating from MCAD and before pursuing an advanced degree. But grad school wasn’t her cup of tea, and it just so happened that we had a position to fill right when she wanted to move back to the cities. We’re thrilled to have her on the payroll now, helping around the studio with all manners of tasks, chores, projects and jobs: typesetting for Stationery Saturday, processing orders, cleaning up Jenni’s messes, and getting to know our excellent customers. Since she came back a few weeks ago, she’s already had her first lesson on the Golding jobber. Here she is scoring Lunalux greeting cards on our hand-fed job press. If she keeps going at this rate, pretty soon she’ll be running the joint! Next time you visit, be sure to give her a high five and welcome her back to the Lunalux team. Watch for more personal news soon – we have at least one intern joining the rank this fall too.

Stationery Saturday: Patriotic Buckslips

Jenni — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:38:08 +0000

As the summer winds down, we’re feeling nostalgia for mom-baseball-and-apple-pie kinds of comforts. With love of country in our heart and the national anthem on our mind, we created a series of four red-white-and-blue buckslip notecards. During the September 10 Stationery Saturday event, all four designs will be available for personalization while you wait! The 4×9 flat cards will be pre-printed with navy and scarlet icons. The Heidelberg windmill press will be loaded with gray ink, and our case of 14-point Caslon Italic will be at the ready. Stop by our shop between 11a.m. and 6p.m. and we’ll do your stationery biding – the name or phrase of your choice can be printed on a set of 10 cards for just $29. Cards will be paired with parchment-style number-10 envelopes (your choice: gray, tan or natural white). It’s gonna look nice and old-timey!

Our store is jam-packed with great greeting cards, notebooks and other papery treats right now, so there’s good shopping to be done while you’re waiting for your turn at the press. And we’ll have coffee and homemade cookies to share as well. There’s really no reason for you to not stop by this Saturday.

We’ve created a facebook event for this weekend’s Stationery Saturday, in case you feel like RSVP-ing and/or inviting all the stationery-o-philes you’re connected to. And if you can’t come in this Saturday, no worries – you can order on line! We’ve added this weekend’s designs to our online storefront at feltandwireshop.com.