For inquiries email info@signalreturnpress.org.

Guided Shop Time

Overview

If you want to learn letterpress printing and have a specific project you’d like to produce, we offer guided shop time with our Printer-in-Residence, which is a unique, fun, and affordable option. You will learn how to set up your printing elements on the press, ink the form and then print your project. A guided session is $300, which includes design consultation, a 4-hour private lesson, and in-studio supplies. You provide the design, plates, and paper. When you complete this focused instruction, you are then eligible for Open Studio.

Specifics

The guided printing session is essentially a private lesson geared toward realization of a specific project (business cards, save the date cards, wedding invitations, posters, etc). They are scheduled in four-hour blocks and cost $300. Consultation, ink, solvents, rags, and general shop needs are all included; the client provides paper and printing matrix (if they are printing from a digitally-derived image). If the project is text-based, and the client wants to set wood or metal type from the shop's collection, that is covered in the guided session. In some cases, the setting of type ends up taking a few hours in which case we might need to reschedule the printing part of the session for another day. Overflow hours are charged at Open Studio rates. After the guided session, the client eligible for Open Studio, where they are able to reserve a particular press, and to use the equipment for $20/hour, or to set type/carve blocks for $15/hour. Our Printer-in-Residence is available for consultation to help you determine which plates to order, and can recommend papers for your project to help you prepare for the guided session.

If you are interested in having plates made from digital files to print from, we recommend Boxcar Press' photopolymer plates. They are also a very accessible company, with extensive information on how to set up files on their website. We use KF-95 plates.

Magnesium or copper plates can be ordered from Owosso, slightly more expensive but if you need your matrix to have a long life (be printed for years to come), we recommend type-high mounted magnesium.