(drum roll please) Introducing Morgan!

We’re happy to introduce Morgan, the newest Lunalux intern. Morgan is a recent MCAD graduate, and has a wealth of experience in print-making and paper-making (she’s been interning for a while at Cave Paper). She’s a real gal about town, perhaps you’ve seen her waiting tables down the block at Joe’s Garage, or working the coat check at First Avenue. She’s been helping out around here for a couple of months, and we are thrilled to have her on board. She has a great attitude and we appreciate her cheerful, creative energy. You can see pictures of some of her previous artwork on her blog (which she doesn’t update very often, but nobody’s perfect). Until now, we’ve kept Morgan busy with the basics like packing orders and assembling products for the shop. But yesterday we finally set her loose in the type department, and she created a couple of great cards that we’re now selling in the Lunalux studio store. Both cards shown below were printed on our Vandercook proof press, using a combination of wood and lead type. So funny! We look forward to seeing more additions to her series.

Saving second base, one muffin at a time

Got a sweet tooth and a heart of gold? Lunalux can satisfy both this week! We’re hosting a bake sale on Thursday May 7 to raise money for breast cancer research. We’ll have tons of home-made muffins, bars, cookies, cupcakes and breads available for your purchasing pleasure, 10a.m.-6p.m. The best part is that 100% of the money we raise will be donated the the local affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a national organization that funds breast cancer research and outreach to breast cancer patients and survivors. Our bake sale is one of dozens of bake sales happening across the nation this week, organized by Bake for Hope. A big thank-you to all the friends, family members and business associates who have agreed to donate baked goods. Our first donation (pumpkin muffins and banana chocolate chip bread – both vegan!) was delivered to the studio today, and we’re expecting visits from a couple dozen more volunteer bakers over the next 36 hours. With your help, we’re hoping to raise a nice chunk of change!

Because we can’t do anything around here without printing something, we decided to make commemorative letterpress-printed posters for the event. A few will be posted around the neighborhood to drum up traffic for the sale, and each baker who donates baked goods is receiving a signed and numbered poster as well. If there are any left over, we’ll be selling them at the bake sale to raise additional funds for the cause. These posters measure 10×18 inches and were printed in pink and chocolate inks, using antique wood type and our Vandercook proof press.

Letterpress haiku posters

Last week we waved goodbye to Carrie Phillips. She interned here for nearly a year, after earning her degree in graphic design from the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2008. This week she’s headed to Seattle, where we hope she has great adventures! We’ve been enjoying the play-by-play of her Westward road trip, you can follow along too on her blog. Carrie came in for her final shift last Thursday, to finish the fifth in her series of haiku posters. We love the green and yellow inks on the buttery yellow felt-finish cover – the color scheme is perfect for this on-the-verge-of-spring time of year.

Carrie started her haiku series in November. Each of the five limited-edition posters is set in assorted vintage wood type. She printed them on the Vandercook and used a fun inking technique: a different ink color was applied at each end of the cylinder, so the inks mix together during the printing process. She’s pictured here with the very first haiku, which is still my favorite. All five haiku posters are for sale at the Lunalux studio store, for just $10 each.

Stationery Saturday: woodtype buckslips

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we all know what that means: time to start shopping for Christmas presents! Skip the malls and the big box stores, and head to your favorite local card and gift shop. Saturday November 29 we’re hosting Stationery Saturday again. The offering this time around is very cool. We’ll print the name or word of your choice on a 4×9 noetecard that’s been pre-printed with a collage of mismatched vintage woodtype (click on the image to the left for a larger view – we already printed a set of cards for our friend Renate in Switzerland). So come on in, enjoy a cup of coffee, and get a quick tutorial on letterpress printing. $29 gets you a set of 10 personalized letterpress-printed notecards, with matching envelopes. We think it’s the steal of the 2008 holiday shopping season.

Visit the Stationery Saturday page for full details on this event. For you plan-ahead types, mark this on your calendar: there’s one more Stationery Saturday on our schedule this year. December 20, our friends from eat.shop guides will be co-hosting, so we’ll be offering custom letterpress-prinetd stationery AND the full line of eat.shop city guides, AND champagne AND cookies. Stationery and books and champagne and cookies? I’m pretty sure that’s everything we need, ever.

Documentary about Hamilton Wood Type Museum

While letterpress printing is an ancient process, we do it the modern way – invitations and cards are designed on the computer, then the designs are transferred to steel-backed photopolymer plates that we can use in our Heidelberg Windmill. We still have a modest collection of wood type (including the font pictures at the left), which we use for posters and other small projects, but we rely on the photopolymer plates for our day-to-day work. This new way of letterpress printing has all sorts of advantages, but it’s important to understand and appreciate the roots of the craft. That’s why we’re excited to go to the Walker Art Center next week to see Typeface, a new documentary about the Hamilton Wood Type Museum.

Typeface promises a fascinating peek into this unique institution, which houses an incredible collection of wood type for letterpress printing, and is the only place in the U.S. that continues to manufacture and sell wood type. A must for graphic deisngers, type geeks and letterpress enthusiasts. The film shows at the Walker on Thursday November 6, at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The 7p.m. screening will be followed by a discussion with the Justine Hagan (the film’s director), Blinc Publishing’s Bill Moran (designer, letterpress printer, and co-author of a book about the museum), and Greg Corrigan (designer and technical director of the Hamilton Museum). The early show is sold out, but tickets should still be available for the second screening.

You’ll also see Lunalux in the lobby, along with a few other local letterpress studios, displaying work we’ve done with wood type. You can read more about the film and purchase tickets at the Walker website. Visit the Hamilton Wood Type Museum website to learn more about this one-of-a-kind organization.

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