Kickstart These Awesome Letterpress Punch Toys!

One of our clients, Leafcutter Designs,  has a very fun project up on Kickstarter. It will be up through mid November. I’m very excited that we’ll be doing the letterpress and die cutting for this project. Check it out and let us know what you think! Our Bill Denham is featured in the video, standing at our Heidelberg press.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leafcutterdesigns/retro-punch-boxes-for-valentines-day

Rough prototype of Leafcutter's Punch Toy

It’s so unusual, it’s a little hard to describe, but when you see the video, you’ll understand. It’s very versatile, and I can see it applied in so many situations . . . A special valentine for your son or daughter away at college, a gift for your kid’s classroom teacher that you know s/he hasn’t received yet, wedding favors, stocking/basket stuffers, business promotions . . . This particular kickstarter project is for Valentines, but Leafcutter also makes custom versions for clients who are buying large quantities.

We’re at National Stationery Show 2011!

Ladies of Letterpress at National Stationery Show

We’re exhibiting with Ladies of Letterpress at the National Stationery Show this year. It’s our first time at the show, and so far has been a terrific experience. The gals from the other 10 small letterpress shops who are in our booth have been wonderful to work with. We never would have made it here without them! Our booths are 2362, 2364, 2366, and 2368. If you’re at the show, come by and see us!

Painted Tongue botanical cards on display

Painted Tongue botanical cards on displayPainted Tongue Studios at National Stationery Show

See our Artwork at Comerica Bank

Through the months of December and January, come to Comerica Bank in San Leandro to see the wall hung paper sculptures by one of our letterpress printers, Bill Denham, the San Francisco photographs by another of our printers, Bettina Pauly, and mixed media prints by owner Kim Vanderheiden.

The paper in Bill Denham’s sculptures is from the scraps of our Painted Tongue Studios projects. Bill can tell you which project from which each set of papers originated.

Bettina Pauly’s photographs depict scenes around the Golden Gate Bridge, and compliment Kim Vanderheidens prints, which include the Bay Bridge, the cranes at the Port of Oakland, and other urban landscape.

If you get a chance to stop by, let us know what you thought of our work!

Open Study Letterpress Workshop

Please join us on Saturday mornings from 10-1, from January 15th through March 5th for an 8 week open study workshop. Open study means you get to tell us what you are there to learn, and we’ll tailor your syllabus accordingly. This is a small class setting, well suited for both beginning and advanced students, lead by Eva Hamden. Tuition is $280, plus materials (paper and plates, amount dependent on the needs of your chosen project.) Learn the Vandercook or the Heidelberg, platemaking, design for letterpress printing, and other related skills. Use this course to learn or expand new skills, develop your dream card line, print broadsides, invitations, stationery, or fold letterpress into your artwork. To ask questions or sign up, please email us at info@paintedtonguepress.com.

The Fourth Amendment

Join us in defending our rights by wearing this card as you travel through airport security this season. It is inspired by the recently instituted TSA x-ray screenings that show private parts of the body, and pat downs that include touching such parts.

The card is 3.5×5″ on an extremely thick, cotton cardstock. It is sold with hole punches and a cord to wear around your neck. It’s letterpress printed just as Ben Franklin would have done! Please visit our Etsy site and purchase this card: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintedTongueStudios.

Here are ways you can use this card to voice your protest:

Christmas Cheers!

Looking for beautiful letterpress holiday cards? Come and shop at our Etsy Store! We just uploaded our holiday designs, including our newest holiday card, White Spruce, shown above. White Spruce features a special “rainbow roll” garland. Rainbow roll is a printing technique where half of the press is inked in one color and half in another color. The two colors mix and blend in the middle. Much care must be taken to keep the vibrancy of the colors at either end of the card, for as the press runs, the colors continue to mix.

Back to the cards on the Etsy site, there are some great options there for Winter Solstice and Hanukah, as well as Christmas.

Please visit us at http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintedTongueStudios

Announcing Prix Fixe – Affordable Letterpress!

Brides, grooms, and friends of brides and grooms, we are excited to present our new Prix Fixe line to you! For the first time ever, Painted Tongue is offering letterpress printed template designs for your convenience and pocketbook.

We’re offering 100 beautiful letterpress printed wedding invitations for $500! Choose from 8 designs, 24 colors, and two paper shades to make a unique invitation perfect for your special day. Our Prix Fixe includes your invitation panel, rsvp cards, and blank envelopes. Additional wedding pieces, quantities, color and font options can also be included at affordable prices.

See Us on TV

Here is the link to episode 2 of the “days with Zahrah” show on Kron 4. (Be sure to click on “episode 2.” The default is whatever show is most current.) We’re the last segment, at the end of the 1/2 hour show. If you’d like to skip ahead, you can use the sliding bar at the bottom to zoom over to us, or you can enjoy the whole episode. We are not on the October 12th, 3rd episode, as originally planned. If we find that footage running on a different date, we’ll post it here as well.

Sneak Peeks

We should be able to post the segments aired on the days with Zahrah show very soon. In the meantime, here are two links we found that are related to the story:

Here is a transcript of the first segment. The written transcript is not very intelligible, actually, but there is a picture from the interview (also shown above). If you do decide to brave the “writing,” the letterpress talk begins at 00:21:00.

On Zahrah’s Facebook page, about halfway down on the left, is a video called “days with Zahrah 2010 episode #2 (HD).” It’s a short clip and if you watch to the end, you’ll see our Bill Denham printing on the Heidelberg.

More to come . . .

New Pictures, New Work

This colorful vegetable themed wedding invitation is one of our favorites, for its color and uniqueness, as well as the personal connection it has to the bride and groom. The bride’s owns an organic produce business and the groom is a sommelier. In addition to the vegetables, grapes are featured on the envelopes.

Another of our favorite recent sets, this gate fold invitation opens onto a peaceful grassy field. This couple loved to take pictures of magical and whimsical looking garden doorways and gateways when they encountered them on their travels.

This wedding took place in the garden at the family home. There was a theme of white flowers, and we selected botanicals that were in white, in the family’s gardens, and in season for the ceremony.

This elegant style of Florentine invitation is very versatile. It works well in many different color schemes, and for different seasons. That’s why it’s one of the designs we’re showcasing in our new Prix Fixe offerings, which will be released next week. (Stay tuned!) This was also featured on Style Me Pretty a visually sumptuous blog about beautiful weddings.

This invitation was designed to match the urban chic, fun, cool, retro-modern look of The Smogg Shoppe in Los Angeles, where the reception was held. The venue displayed a wonderful blend of decor, including seemingly otherworldly plantings of succulents; vintage rugs, chairs, and signs; and a converted industrial urban loft style structure and fixtures.
Olive trees lined the drive to this wedding location in Napa Valley, California. We developed this stylized burled tree with with a contemporary boldness to match the couple’s aesthetic.
Maidenhair fern swirls around the text of this art nouveau influenced invitation, bringing a wonderful sense of flow to the image and text. The two elements work together with give and take, almost as if dancing.

These cherry blossom branches in raspberry and violet brought a stunning richness to this traditional style invitation.