We’re in the process. . .

/

In January, 2024, the task of removing everything (equipment, machines and presses; cabinets—both empty and with type; shelving, counters, tables and tools; dozens and dozens of cartons packed/palletized with inventory supplies, books, paper, ephemera and more) from the Store in Chicopee, MA to a nearby temporary storage facility began.

In late May, an impromptu visit to a former Letterpress Services’s print-shop customer led to awareness of available space in their building.  Following a brief tour, and several hours of intense, freewheeling discussion of all the possibilities the space offered both parties, Letterpress Things had a new location! Holy smokes, in Holyoke - 01040 - just across the Connecticut River, less than a mile from the Chicopee location.

So, when the build-out of the new space has been completed, and stuff in tempory storage has been transferred and unpacked, you’ll be welcome to take a drive over to our new location at 8 Hanover Street, Holyoke, MA, to say “Hello” and experience an all new and refreshed Letterpress Things!

John B / JoAnn

letterpress things' new home
8 Hanover Street, Holyoke, MA 01040

Two Special Saturdays

/

This Saturday — the 18th — is our 23rd Anniversary! Today’s Anniversary Year Gift List details “Air” as the theme. Appropriate this year in an odd way!
The weekend before Thanksgiving in 2000 we walked up four flights of stairs to begin setting up the Store. It was warehouse space, and therein, heat was set at about 55 degrees. Period! For the next 20 winters, we existed wearing layers, wool socks and finger-tip-less gloves. Many of our letterpress visitors through the years can remember — and take pride in — having experienced and persevered the chill of the winter months.

 

Our Meter

OuR HEATER

In 2019, a new heating system was installed throughout the building. Yet, because it’s “warehouse” space, the temperature setting stayed the same. Fast forward to present times, new building owners installed a brand new gas meter just for our space. And for the first time in 23 years, we have a gas bill! But then again, we now have heat!
Now, it’ll be kept cool most days; layers, wool socks and gloves still in use. But come an Open Saturday, our teeth will no longer be chattering. We’ll keep it in the “balmy” 60’s.

The following Saturday — the 25th — is “Small Business Saturday”. As a small business, we appreciate the recognition. For years we’ve been open Thanksgiving weekend; and it’s a wonderful, crazy shopping weekend! But more so, there are letterpressers returning home for the long weekend, or others coming to the area to visit friends, families or take in some of the local Holiday events.

 

One such event is “Bright Nights” in Springfield’s historic Forest Park area and it’s been named as one of “America’s Top Ten Holiday Happenings in America”. Experience 700,000 lights along a three mile woodland drive. It’s a joy for children and adults alike. Check out the brightnights.org website for more details.

So there are two great Saturday Open Dates coming up. JoAnn and I would love to have you stop in and visit. . . and yes, of course, pick up a “thing” or two. And even if you can’t stop in, have a wonderful, safe and happy Thanksgiving!

John B - JoAnn - Vincent - . . . and the elves!

LA Printers Fair

/

It’s October. . . and we’re westward bound once again to Carson, CA for the 2023 edition of the International Printing Museum’s Annual Printing Fair. Dates for the event are Saturday, October 21st and Sunday, October 22nd - both days 10 am to 4 pm. As in years past, our location is in one corner under the tent in the parking lot, near the stockade fence and benches where all our pizza boxes get lined up.

(1) Preparations begIn about three weeks prior to the event and we start with an empty crate, lots of small boxes and larger cartons.

(2) All sorts of letterpress stuff — type, icons, wood type, plates, tools, supplies, books, ephemera, and more — get boxed, put into cartons for added protection and placed in the crate.

(3) The top goes on and, this year, after a dozen+ securely wrapped open cases of our metal fonts are stacked on top. Wrapped with corrugated, tightly banded and completely encased with shrink wrap, it’s ready to travel.

(4) The final step—call the carrier, load it and watch it pull away for its 3,000-mile journey west. Next time we’ll see it is in the parking lot at the Museum in California.

And that’s when preparation 2.0 occurs. It all comes out, cartons and boxes opened, contents removed and organized on brightly covered tables. Friday night the 20th we hunker down for a good night’s sleep ‘cuz, come Saturday morning, the letterpress community shows up in droves!

If you’re in the region, hope you can come by and renew old friendships. Or if we’ve communicated by email, phone or texts, it’s always nice to meet face-to-face. Looking forward to being there!

John B - JoAnn - Johnny B - Mar

Bon voyage. . .

/

In a few days the Barrett’s will slip out-of-town for a long awaited, dearly needed vacation. Historically, we’d close our businesses - Letterpress Services and Letterpress Things - the latter part of June and travel off to some far-away place to rest and rejuvenate. No difference this year, , , in a few days we’re on a plane once again to a funfilled location! Destination, , , well, we’ll tell you all about it in a couple of weeks. One of the great things during vacation. . we always celebrate our Anniversary while away. No difference this year. . . except this year it’s our 50th!!! So, we wish you a long, pleasant, safe and healthy summer season. We’ll be back in a few weeks and raring to start another letterpress year, and another year of partnership!
John B / JoAnn

A Letterpress Swoop...

/

This weekend — Saturday and Sunday, June 3rd and 4th — we’re having a good ole’ fashioned “Letterpress Swoop.” What’s that you may ask? That’s when a large assemblage of letterpress stuff is gathered up in one place. In the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, often times it was right in an actual print shop that was closed, or about to close. Word would spread throughout the letterpress community; on the given date(s) the shop owner opened the doors and, like locusts, letterpressers would come in swarms.
Many of today’s “mature” letterpress craftspeople got their start or greatly enlarged their shops by attending such events. Many, many treasures would be found, prices haggled, handshakes given and a lot of stuff got hauled away. They were indeed social events; letterpressers came from miles around! Truly win/win situations for shop owners and for letterpress practitioners.
Forward to the present day, long time friend and associate — Dave Donahue — has resided on the second floor of the building [Letterpress Things is on the fourth floor]. Dave is presently downsizing and relocating to a different, nearby building. Over several decades an impressive collection of letterpress and bookbinding equipment has been amassed. To lighten the “load,” a month ago much of his bookbinding stuff was auctioned through “High Bids Win.” Now it’s time to dispose of a portion his letterpress stuff.
Ten+ cabinets of type, a variety of table top presses, boxes and pallets of “letterpress things” are being hauled up to the fourth floor. The next few days will be helter-skelter arranging things and laying out small stuff. Sorry, this event developed very quickly so there are no lists of fonts or items to share. Best we can offer is come on by Saturday or Sunday, 9 am to 3 pm. There’ll be lots to browse through and we can all enjoy reminiscing about letterpress as it was 40 years ago!

John B / JoAnn

Ten+ cabinets with type

Large size type in galley trays

Wood Type fonts

table top presses

Open this Saturday, October 1st

/

Admittedly it’s a bit late getting this blog post up for Saturday. Our focus since our return from the Lancaster Fair is on gathering/boxing stuff to be crated for shipping to Carson, CA in about a week. But we are open this Saturday the 1st as well as October 15th and 29th. Of course, you’ll see us on the West Coast at the International Printing Museum in Carson on the 22nd and 23rd.

For Saturday, there are a few wood type fonts left from Lancaster. Two small shops were retrieved recently; both had some additional fonts are now out on the floor. And we’ve been working doggedly to process out more icons, borders, plates and type onto the counters. so stop by, say hello and take something home with you so you can start printing for the upcoming holiday season.

It’s Fall in New England now, tell-tale signs are popping up all around. Nights are chillier, bright colors are creeping into the woods. October is a busy month but just a prelude for the next two months. Letterpress activity starts to build; thoughts begin to turn to. . . ye gads, Holiday cards!. Keep us in mind for suppllies. . . print an extra card, send it to us, we enjoy posting them in the Store.

 

A quick reminder: it’s become necessary to change our Instagram Account User Name from “Letterpressthings”. The new Account User Name is “letterpressthingsjsb”. Our Facebook Account remains the same.

Follow us on the new Instagram account & we’ll follow you right back!

Stay safe, print soon and often! JB/JoAnn

The Lancaster Fair

/

So we're gathering/packing for the Lancaster Printers Fair this Saturday, Sept. 17th at the Ken Kulakowasky Ctr, 117 Parkside Ave, Lancaster, PA. Coming loaded with lots and lots of letterpress "things" for you to look at and take home with you at the end of the day. We are bringing:

  • 20 cases of type;

  • 30+ fonts of type;

  • 20+ fonts of wood type;

  • 80+ packs of icons;

  • 200+ plates. A dozen plus books.

    Plus a variety of "one-of-a-kind" items: miter, slug cutter, brackets, etc. And as usual, a heaping table full of supples for the working printer. Weather will be 10+. Looking forward to seeing you all again!!! JB/JoAnn

John carefully packages all of the wood type for the trip down to lancaster.

Joann makes sure every plate and cut also are handled with care. it takes a village.

typefaces (some “families” in different sizes) include: Liberty, Weiss, Boulevard, Globe Gothic, Pepita, Devinne, Maxim, Goudy handtooled, columina, Gallia ,Caslon, caslon italic, arrighi, goudy open, centaur, caslon openface. Other fonts are boxed and appear below.

Saturday, August 20th...

/

Letterpress Things will be doing letterpress business at two locations — on the East Coast and the West Coast — at the same time on the same day. It’ll be a first for the Barrett family! The Store - in Chicopee, MA - is typically open every other Saturday during the year [varied by Holidays and personal events]. Throughout the year, you can find us at various letterpress events and Fairs across the country.

 

In Carson at the Museum we’ll have plates, wood type fonts, icons, kits and supplies. Emphasis will be on “things’ and tools needed by “newbies” who maybe purchasing presses and for others who are equipping new setups.

Occasionally an event will fall on a scheduled Open Date so we juggle things around to support the organization holding the event. This August 20th, the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA is holding their Fifth Annual Wayzgoose Celebration & Surplus Sale. It’s a day filled with special tours, printing and book arts demonstrations, including large wood type posters! The Wayzgoose is also the Printing Museum’s annual sale of surplus printing presses, type, printing cuts and more!

What makes this August 20th unique is there’ll be a “John Barrett” at both locations! In Chicopee, at the Store, “John B” [the ole’ man]; and in Carson, at the Museum, “Johnny B” [the son]. Johnny B grew up in the family letterpress business; many friends of the Store will remember him from retrievals and helping out in the early years. Now living/working in SoCal, many West Coasters will recognize him from recent Printing Fairs, pitching in to help JoAnn and me with the “heavy lifting”. [What good sons are supposed to do!]

come cruise our tables of wood type fonts, icons, plates, kits and a variety of supplies you use and new ones you might need.

In Chicopee it’ll be “Things” as usual. There’s a lot more metal type in the store for you to look at and want to take home; we have a good quantity of wood type, plates and icons on the tables and counters. We’ve recently established a Book Section with a variety of printing books. And work is underway building a poster and ephemera library.

The 20th is just around the corner! East Coast or West Coast, bookmark your calendar and come by to participate in another milestone for the Barrett’s and Letterpress Things.

John B. . . JoAnn. . . and of course, Johnny B!


More "Things" online. . .

/

After the first of the year, a concerted effort was started to upgrade and expand our website. As with any IT project, setbacks have been inevitable. [Especially for an old man with limited computer knowledge.] Establishing pages for various letterpress stuff wasn’t just a matter of crafting a Page with infomation and photos. Each Page details specifically chosen, tangible items — lots of them — for sale! To support an individual Page requires gathering like things together to create both a detailed online inventory and an efficient, physical storage system.

For example, to create a Page for type, fonts in cases, packages, tied-up bundles and on galleys needed to be sorted, inspected, identified, logged into an on-line inventory, and then conveniently stored for quick, efficient retrieval. Fonts needed to be priced for resale; select fonts chosen, cleaned when neccessary and photographed. In short, it takes a helluva lot of time and physical work behind the scenes to support the Type Page - all the product Pages - you see here on the website.

At the moment, nine pages of letterpress “things” are now live and current on our website: LT-Type; Wood Type; Swamp Press; Icons; Full Case Fonts; Books; Market Place Things; Assembled Kits; and Single Item Supplies. There are two more - Cabinets and Machines - being worked on now and soon to be posted. Take a minute to check out the various Pages [the links below work]. Bear in mind, everything shown on the website [right now] is on-hand. Items, as they sell, will be quickly marked “sold” and we’ll attempt to replace things as tmely as our life and schedule permits. And if you can, plan a visit to the fourth floor on one of our Open Dates; it’ll be an “experience” you’ll enjoy and brag about once you return home.

JB and JoAnn {and sometimes Vincent, 3rd generation letterpresser!]

Letterpress Things Website

PAGE CONTENT. . .

Updated 5/13 > Open Date Info
Updated 5/7 > John’s Blog
Current > Single Items
Current > Assembled Kits
Updated 5/13 > LT Type Fonts
Updated 5/13 > Wood Type Fonts
Updated 5/6 > Full Case Fonts
Updated 5/13 > Icons
Updated 5/6 > Books
Updated 5/13 > Swamp Press
Updated 5/6 > Market Place Things

Story of a retrieval. . .

/

After months of discussion, a trip to Saturn Press on Swans Island off the coast of Maine was scheduled for the weekend of December 18th/19th [2021]. The task was to pickup cabinets of type and printing plates no longer essential to Saturn’s greeting card production. [NOTE: Saturn is still in business: this project was to retrieve and pass along type and plates no longer used.]

As the date approached so was a snow storm creeping up the Atlantic coastline. The truck rental was moved up to Friday afternoon from Saturday morning. Loaded with pallets, tools and straps we left home Saturday morning at 2:58 am. under a full moon encircled with onimous storm rings. Eight hours later we arrived at Bass Harbor, cautiously boarded the Ferry, an hour later drove off on to the island to Saturn Press’ shop/store..

For the next six hours four type cabinets [with contents], four half pallets of assorted letterpress stuff and a four column, 12 x 18 galley cabinet [with contents] was stuffed in. From the way the vehicle looked, we were probably loaded to maximum weight! Once finished a hearty dinner was enjoyed with Jim and Jane, proprietors of Saturn Press, and then off to bed for a welcome night’s sleep.

Awoke before daybreak Sunday morning, and as anticipated, found about six inches of snow on the ground. The drive back to the Ferry was partially along an unplowed road! Cleaned off the truck, boarded the Ferry, watched the island slip away in the distance off the fantail, and back on to the mainland. Weather conditions for the return home: drove about three hours on snowy/slushy roads; then three hours under sullen, gray skies on wet roads; and the final three plus hours under clear blue skies towards the West, fighting intense glare every mile. Arrived home, safe and sound; tired and physically aching. Total statistics: 900 miles, 18 hours of driving; 88 gallons of diesel fuel. What was the worse part of the entire trip, you may ask? The truck didn’t have a working radio!!!

. . . and then Monday morning we had to unload. But that’s another story! Come on by this weekend to see all of what we brought back. JB

We've been a bit. . .

/

. . . low key for a couple of months; not to say we haven't been busy! Our attention has focused on two areas: website and incoming inventory. On the website, existing Pages — Individual Items — Letterpress Type — Swamp Press Type -- have been fine-tuned, better organized and more detail. And several new Pages have been added — Wood Type -- Full Case Fonts -- Market Place Things - take a minute to check them out, see what’s just been added.
From late November on several new type consignments have come in and two small press-shop purchases have been completed. Processing all this "new" stuff — logging items into inventory, pricing, sorting and putting things out on the tables and counters — takes time and energy. The short day light hours, the teeth-chattering low early a.m. temps and the frozen precipitation every week or so just isn't conducive to hours of physical effort despite having some heat now in the Store, [That's why the website has been expanded and is up-to-date, it's warm in the office!]
If you'd like to see for yourself all the letterpress "things" posted on the various website Pages - as well as hundreds of other fonts, tools, supplies, etc. come on by this Saturday, February 19th - 9 am to 3 pm. Weather for the day is looking good. So combat cabin fever. . . take a road trip and enjoy being immersed in things letterpress for a few hours! We’d enjoy seeing you. . .

John B/JoAnn

Our trip West. . .

/

The Barrett’s trekked West to attend the 13th annual International Printers Fair in Carson, CA on November 6th and 7th . Ahead of us went a crate of 750 lbs of type, things and supplies which proved to be not quite enough! Canceled last year, the Southern California letterpress community turned out in unprecedented numbers. By the end of Saturday a few of our items were sold out. Our heart-felt thanks to the dozens of people who stopped and shopped our tables. Best-of-all was the opportunity to greet the many friends we’ve met and know over the years in the region.

On the personal side: our son lives in Long Beach just few miles from the Museum.. We took some extra days to visit, relax and wander around the area.

 

Took a day trip out to Santa Catalina Island. On the way over we weaved in and around dozens of container ships – at least 50 counted. You see the video on TV News; being there, seeing it first-hand, was mind boggling.

Coming home, our connecting flight out of Dallas was canceled. The airline eventually got us to Reagan in Washington DC, but we had to hunker down overnight in the terminal. Gratefully, we found some comfortable armchairs. and settled in. Next morning, we continued on an am flight to Bradley/Hartford, and then home sweet home.! All-in-all, an awesome adventure for the Barrett’s!

A wood type weekend...

/
WT for 10_16A_web.jpg

Saturday, October 16th and Sunday, October 17th — “Orphans” and “Broken Fonts” Clearance Sale

“Orphans” are randomly assembled in pizza boxes and displayed by Line size. There’s more than twenty 18” pizza boxes crammed full to browse through and select from—even a few almost-filled open cases. 3, 4, 5, 6 Line up to 18, 20 Line, even a few “big” ones. They’re all spread out on counters in “The Room.” To buy, you’ll purchase an 8 1/2” x 11” x 1” [letterhead] box and you’ll fill it. If you want to do a second box, you purchase another one, and then fill it. But, you’ll only work on one box at a time.

“Broken fonts” are packaged in various conveniently sized, covered boxes for secure transport. As of this writing, while we’re still sorting and processing, there looks to be at least fifteen or more broken fonts — most missing only one letter, some 3 or 4 characters. The broken fonts will be located elsewhere in the Store and individually priced according to the face, it’s character, completeness and condition.

PLEASE NOTE:
At this time we’ve no complete fonts available for sale. This is a ‘ORPHAN” and “BROKEN FONT” clearance sale. For all you designers out there, this is a chance to let your creativity to run amuck. We strongly suggest that you wear a mask while making your selections in “The Room. The number of individuals browsing at the counters will be limited at any one time. Gloves will be available for you and we suggest they be worn. This will be a unique event; so come on by to enjoy the experience and the day.

JB & JoAnn

Post Labor Day. . .

/

the heat/humidity has final abated; working on the floor will be much more enjoyable now! We took some down time the past week, poked around a bit, just veged out .

But we're back at it again. First up is this Saturday's Open Date - September 11th from 9 am to 3 pm Doing some reorganizing of tables and counters; bringing out stuff brought in during the summer from several retrievals and consignments.

Next week we begin gathering and packing stuff for our trip to the Lancaster Printers Fair,117 Parkside Ave,, Lancaster, PA. A two-day event; Friday, Sept 17, 5 - 9 pm, Wayzgoose and Open House. Saturday, Sept 18, 11 am - 5 pm, the Printers Fair [same location]. More info at lancasterprintersfair.org.

Letterpress Things will be there with a bunch of tables and supplies, type, tools, books, etc. for "mature" letterpress printers and "newbies" alike. This Fair has grown since its inception; a great venue to visit, hang out at, meet fellow letterpressers, pick up supplies and letterpress treasures. Hope to see you during the day!

We enjoyed a different view from the 4th floor this morning, September 8th. . Somewhere across the CT River in that fog is the City of Holyoke, once known as "The Paper City". Always enjoy that view when I come in in the morning; one of the perks of being on the 4th floor of a New England mill building.

9_8_21.jpg

APA Wayzgoose. . .

/

The Museum of Printing will be the focal point of letterpress activity in New England this weekend. The Amalgamated Printers Association - APA for short - is holding a four day Wayzgoose at the Museum at 15 Thornton Street, Haverhill, MA 01832. The first in-person Wayzgoose in several years, of interest to members and letterpressers locally/regionally will be Saturday’s events: a good-ole fashioned letterpress SWAP MEET opening at 8:30 a.m., and a letterpress AUCTION starting at 1 p.m. These events are always lively and are a superb venue to acquire letterpress stuff. Truly a letterpress experience for beginners and seasoned printers.

InkedAugust 14th_LI.jpg

One word describes. . .

/

July on the 4th floor - HOT! And this year - WET! For most of the month temps have ranged in the mid-nineties; nothing out of the ordinary. Average July rainfall in Western Mass is about 4 inches; with 10 days to go in the month rainfall total is now over11 inches. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a leaking problem in several areas that have become a bit frustrating.

End of June, JoAnn and I slipped away to visit friends in Northern ME. Relaxing location, perfect weather, much good food and a bit of drink. Took a day to ferry over to Swan Island in the fog to visit Jane and Jim at Saturn Press. What an awesome letterpress business!

Past couple of weeks been working on the third floor moving, organizing, processing, cleaning, caching up with a lot of stuff brought in over the past six months. This activity has taken us much to long to complete! Our goal is to expand on-the-floor inventory by 25% or more in August which includes presses and equipment. At least working on the third floor is cooler than on the fourth.

Come August 'letterpress events start to pickup. First event is the APA Wayzgoose at the Museum of Printing, Haverhill, MA August 12th to 15th. We’ll be there on Saturday the 12th. An APA Swap Meet is quite an event, come on by!
JB/JoAnn

Earlier this week. . .

/

JoAnn and I went over to Nantucket to visit Mary Lacoursiere and spend a few minutes checking over her 8 x 12 C & P. A nice unit, very actively used from the many printed things seen all about the shop.

Mary is staff with the Nantucket Historical Association. Over time she's been the force for accumulating an array of platen, proof and etching presses, physically laying them out and planning programs for their use for workshops, hands-on and classes. Final touches are being completed now for summer activities; there's a lot of enthusiasm now with Covid restrictions being relaxed.

Stayed overnight; awesome room overlooking the harbor. Hobbled about town in the morning; the brick/cobblestone walks/roads were treacherous! In the afternoon toured the island with "Barrett's Tours", yup! Even found our own sitting bench. And encountered a reminder - the Windmill - of our now closed commercial shop and the Windmills we relinquished.

TAKE NOTE: our Store - Letterpress Things - will be open next Saturday, June 26th - 9 am to 3 pm. Stop in! JB/JoAnn

We all have 'em. . .

/

Once in a while, the perfect Sunday morning!
Mine started last night. Casual dinner with JoAnn; nice restaurant, light background music. Cold beer, delicious salad; yes, dessert too. Awoke shortly after daybreak, fully refreshed, mentally alert . Morning air cool, crisp, clean; sky clear, bright blue. Sunlight beaming! Quick English muffin, hot cup decaf, few minutes on the deck. Then. . .
Into the van, put on some light jazz. Roll along up Pine Street to the highway. Through stretches of green, lush trees canopied over, past open fields of young growing vegetables. Onto interstate 91, no traffic, through downtown Springfield past the Basketball Hall of Fame, skirting the expressive skyline. Slight jog to the right I-391, off at Exit 4, staring across the Pioneer Valley to the ridge running from CT to the South along the Connecticut River North past Mt Tom. Pull up to the building, park, up the elevator to the fourth floor. . .
Step out, quick glance to the left for "The view from the Fourth". The floor is quiet, no fans, temp is perfect, everything in place for todays visitors. To the front/right tables and counters are loaded with of sorts of "things". I'm here - Letterpress Things. . . my nirvana. . . it's all good. What a perfect Sunday morning! JB



Two years out. . .

/

May 22, 2019 -- May 22, 2021

My two-year "re" birthday from double-procedure, open heart surgery which was followed with three kidney operations over the next four months. I'm about to turn 80 and frankly, I couldn't feel any better!

During the mid nineteen-fifties the first open heart procedures were done; recovery and anticipated life expectancy was limited. Never, never did I foresee that 70+ years later I would be the beneficiary of many advances in medical technology. And thereafter, be able to resume my letterpress life which is at times very physical.

JB -- Letterpress Things

Consignments. . .

/

A new service as a way to increase our inventory of items for resale. There’s a new Page under “Supplies” on the Nav Bar - CONSIGNMENTS. The link takes you to a Page with six Lots taken in the last few months. Each Lot includes brief details and
photos.
So what’s our intent? In years past, most new inventory came from buys of single items to purchases of smaller lots to large or complete shop acquisitions. After two back-to-back years of not being able to buy or sell much of anything, we find ourselves in a position of needing more letterpress inventory. But we also find ourselves without much cash to make purchases. By offering to take in letterpress items on consignment, our hope is to refresh our on-the-floor inventory and at the same time start building up more operating cash.

The Pandemic this past year has been challenging. Travel has been greatly curtailed; work and life styles have been impacted. But with several vaccines being administered more and more every day, things are improving greatly. Travel restrictions are being loosened, quarantine mandates are being reduced or eliminated. Bit-by-bit our lives will begin to resume a more positive, less stressful style. By no stretch are we over Covid! We must proceed with an abundance of caution; continuing to wear masks when and where appropriate; staying socially distanced; washing and sanitizing hands. For businesses, paying close attention to cleaning and sanitizing touched surfaces well and often.

Today I am very bullish on the state of letterpress in the months ahead. Can’t help but sense a pent-up urge amongst letterpressers to open the doors and windows of shops in garages, basements, etc. to let in fresh air and light. There’s an eagerness building to expand knowledge, type, tools and print, print, print! Already organizations are planning for events during the Summer, Fall and beyond. To that end, we’re now planning and working hard to prepare for this resurgence. . . by taking in Consignment Lots and soon adding more Kits and Supplies. More detail will be coming in weeks ahead.
Our thanks to all for purchases made this past year; your support has really made a difference. JB