I’d like to highlight some beautiful work that has recently come across my desk. Anybody who spends any time on this site, or knows my work, knows that I have intense passion for recording and music packaging. In fact, I’ve collected music packaging, making the distinction that it’s not been about the music, for over a decade. Throughout my collecting I’ve come to some conclusions about what I like in music packaging. I like hand work, craft, individuality, nuance, subtlety, and an imperfection that alludes to the touch of human hands. In our current state of mass production automation, especially in printing, getting quality work that embodies these qualities is often difficult. This is especially true in the areas of homemade where haphazard crap is passed off as one-of-a-kind or unique. It’s true that something can be homemade and unique, but also missing the elements of craft, nuance and subtlety. Therefore, it’s a rare opportunity when I come across a package that seems to hit all of these criteria, let alone two.

In this instance, I’m talking about the releases of Evan Bartholomew and his Somnia Sound releases. These releases, Somnia Sound 001: Caverns of Time and Somnia Sound 002: Secret Entries Into Darkness, which I’ve taken to calling just 001 and 002 are a packaging examples par excellence! These packages embody nuance, subtlety, hand work, individuality, and slight enough imperfections to know that these originated from human hands.

Each of these releases is hand-sewn by Ray Massini, Evan’s partner. Each of these releases uses a fold-over style self-assembling package that’s bound by sealing wax. 001 utilized handmade paper from India and a beautiful relief print done with a rubber stamp, same for the text under the flap. Now the execution of the rubber stamp is nothing short of fantastic, but when this is combined with the excellent hand-sewn quality in the Indian paper and the wax sealed flap this is a real beauty. 002 is much like the 001, except that for this run then went with a French Paper mill that has been beautifully offset printed. Again, this one is hand-sewn, and bound with sealing wax.

These two packages are some of the best that I’ve seen in a long time. In my mind these releases herald the return of the handmade, if only as a neo-luddite response to automation and imperfection in every aspect of our daily lives. Ray and Evan collaborated on the package, with Ray focusing on the illustration and sewing and Evan focusing on typography and other aspects. Inspired by labels like 12k, Raster Norton, Fax which do limited copies, and quality packaging, they work to create organic packages that also offer an element of environmental sustainability.

I’m extremely pleased to have the opportunity to experience these release. Not only is the packaging great, fans of ambient music will truly enjoy the dense and organic CD that this excellent packaging houses. Visit them online at http://www.somniasound.com .

So in a rare act of exploring You Tube I found some more Hatch Videos with Jim Sherraden talking about the letterpress process. This first one is a pretty nice one from a North Carolina television station in 1991, and then a newer one below. Again, Jim’s talking about “preservation through production”. This first video clearly illustrates that even nearly twenty years later Jim doesn’t tire of talking about Hatch, printing, and the letterpress and wood-carving process. Not only is Hatch an institution, Jim’s an institution, as well. The last video here is especially cool, because it really puts Jim in more of a craftsperson, rather than a spokesperson, light. Enjoy.

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Unfortunately, we’re not currently doing wedding invitations. *Unless* you’ve been referred to us by one of our friends or past clients. Wedding invites are referral only. If you’re looking for Letterpress Wedding Invitations, click on one of the Google ads here on the site, as there are many quality letterpress wedding invitation printers.

We’ve been getting a ton of requests to quote letterpress wedding invitations lately. Frankly, I wasn’t prepared for the deluge that you all have sent in so far; because of that I need to set up a protocol for quoting these kinds of projects.

If you want us to quote on a job we need these things from you:

- A PDF or Jpeg of the design/s
- Quantities needed
- Date needed
- Name of paper you’ve selected
Also, it’s best for your graphic designer to contact us directly, as there’s a lot of jargon in printing and an experienced graphic designer will save you loads of time, trouble, and money throughout the process. You can contact us via email matt (at) thehandworkpress (dot) com.

It was with great anticipation that I showed up half an hour early on a horribly rainy, yet warm Michigan winter night. I was going to see legendary proponent of Letterpress Jim Sherraden speak about his tenure and his experiences at Hatch Show Print in Nashville. I was first turned onto Hatch by my letterpress mentor Arie Koelewyn of the Paper Airplane Press here in East Lansing.

At first it looked kind of glum with only myself and another gal there – typical Michigan turnout, I thought bitterly to myself, but was also over joyed that I might get to pick Jim’s brain a little more if there was low attendance. However, things took a turn for the best as we moved to the eight o’clock hour, and the place was reduced to standing room only.

Jim made a lot of good points about printing, design, etc… as he spoke, but it was his enthusiasm, passion and dedication both for the work and for its preservation that really struck me. I talked with Jim very briefly after the presentation, and after the folks in attendance cleared out. We talked only briefly, but his enthusiasm really rubbed off, and left tossing and turning through the night contemplating the possibilities of letterpress in my future. Every few months I need something like this. The daily minutiae of quoting jobs, getting stuff procured for those jobs, and then running those jobs (the best part being the pulling of the first print) it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture – Preservation. Jim made quite a cogent point about preserving through production. I liked that. It’s stuck with me.

What also really stuck with me was how dedicated to preserving this old style approach Jim was. He’s definitely dedicated, no neo-Luddite here, just a Luddite. I say that somewhat tongue and cheek, and without any patronizing cynicism. Like me, this guy see the value in doing things the old fashioned way, not always the quickest, or most profitable, in fact usually neither of those, but you get something from doing the work, and holding the work. There’s a tactility that comes through the work. Being on the other side of the press now, I know that it’s also there when you’re doing the work. With letterpress now in full vogue mode, I can see how preservationists could take a position similar to Jim’s about preserving both Hatch and the process, but to think he took this attitude when letterpress wasn’t the coolest thing in fresh design, but rather it was an antiquated production style that was being replaced (quickly) by offset printing presses. These old letterpress machines weren’t worth much more than highest scrap yield that a printing business owner could negotiate just to be rid of the things… However, at that time, Jim was working to preserve not just the process, but this way of printing life; not just this aesthetic, but the old wood type to make sure the process would have the tools for the years to come, and not just a print shop from yesteryear, but a small slice of Americana.

I think that letterpress enthusiasts like myself will be thankful to Jim Sherraden, for his tenacity and foresight for decades to come.