What is Letterpress
In 1440 letterpress printing was invented with the then modern technology of movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image.
Ruff House Art is currently a three-press shop, operating a 10×15 Chandler and Price Platen Press from 1915, a 12×18 Kluge Platen Press from the early 1900′s and a 5×8 Kelsey hand-operated Platen Press from the early 1930′s. The modern wedding invitations and letterpress home & gift accessories that come off our cast iron beauties are absolutely gorgeous and unmatched by any other printing process.
What does that mean, you might ask? Everything on a vintage letterpress is printed one color at a time, one sheet at a time. Each piece of paper is hand-fed in and out of the press. The process requires constant attention to ensure there is proper ink coverage, alignment and impression. Any product that has more than one color will get run through the press multiple times. Once the first color is applied and all pieces are pressed, the letterpress must be fully washed. This entails removing the three large rollers for cleaning, removing and cleaning the design plate and cleaning the inking plate. Once clean, it must be reassembled and the second design plate aligned and mounted and the press reinked with color number two. Then every piece has to run in and out of the letterpress a second time. Quite the process, but the end result makes it all worth while.
Our Chandler & Price has been the heartbeat of our shop and is what the majority of our retail line is pressed on as well as all of our letterpress modern wedding invitations. Tipping the scales at over 1500 lbs, she purrs along at roughly 15 hand-fed impressions a minute.
Our Kluge is our newest press and shadows the Chandler & Price. At around 3800 lbs, she isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With a variable speed motor she’s great for training the newbies and will go as fast as you dare to feed the paper. With 6 roller options and a bit extra reinforcement, she can create the smoothest and deepest impressions for high density designs.
Our Kelsey press is a kid-size version of the Chandler & Price and is 100% hand operated. No electricity, no motors, just raw man power. At a more manageable weight of just over 100 lbs, she sits on the counter and can only go as fast as her operator. While she doesn’t get used as much as her mama and papa, she is perfect for very short runs of coasters.
Any of the affordable wedding invitation designs available from Ruff House Art are available in Letterpress, or custom orders are always welcome.
If you want to know more about how the letterpress printing process works here at Ruff House Art, we are happy to entertain your curiosity!
