Today, Brad’s grandfather passed away.

Hank was a collector, a lover of old things. He and his wife spent a lot of time together at garage sales and estate sales, finding treasures. Hank was really good at Wii Bowling. (This past Thanksgiving, we had so much fun playing with him – and he beat us almost every time.) Hank is man who leaves behind a legacy – kids, grandkids, and a sweet great-granddaughter that will miss him dearly.

When Hank and his wife moved out of their family home last year, they shared some of their treasures with their kids and grandkids. The stately eagle that hangs in our studio was once hung in their kitchen for many years.

When my parents moved to Washington a few months ago, they also brought along the eagle that my grandfather once hung on the front of their family home in Florida. It struck me today that these eagles have such a place of prominence in our studio – here to remind us of those who’ve come before and laid the way for our life together. We are so grateful for these men, and glad to have these remembrances of them, always here with us.

We’ll be away for a few days, attending Hank’s funeral and spending time with our family. Thanks for your patience as we take this time away.

In addition to our original 11×18 print, we now offer two 8×10 prints: on 100% recycled chipboard or Crane’s fluorescent white 100% cotton Lettra.

We’re also excited to announce a 5×7 greeting card version! We’ve had lots of requests for a mailable card version, and we’re thrilled to finally offer it.

These prints and card are available for wholesale purchase as well. If you’re interested in carrying them in your store, e-mail us (wholesale AT constellationco.com) and we will send you our most recent catalog.

Some history:
I designed the first (and very limited) edition of “You & Me” for a local art show with a love letters theme soon after Brad and I got married. During the design process, I tried for days to think of the right words to say. It was quite a challenge. How does one put into words the kind of love that I’ve found with my Brad? That long-awaited, unexpected, best friend-become-spouse, always and forever love? After lots of failed flowery attempts – lots of silly, ridiculous tries at cleverness… this simple list is what I came up with. And two years later, those words are even more tried and true today than they were then.

Today, I’m humbled and happy to share that in these last 2 years, hundreds of people have used my words to share love with their someone. This is the epitome of success for me – that my heartfelt words have been shared and cherished – used to bring people closer together. I started this company and continue to work hard to grow it because I love what I do. I believe in the power of the written & printed word in people’s lives. Today, and want to give my thanks to everyone who has purchased one of these prints. Thanks for sharing your life with us – we’ve loved sharing our life with you.

One last thing:
I want to thank my sweet Brad for his love, support, and encouragement these last few years. He makes all of this possible, and inspires me to keep going. Babe: You (still!) are patient with me, encourage me, amaze me, mean the world to me, complete me, always impress me, take care of me, surprise me, are home to me, and I adore you.

Last week, we were given a type cabinet.

Now, I’ve been looking for a type cabinet to purchase for some time – and they don’t come up particularly often. When they do, they tend to be one of two things: 1) in terrible shape – filthy, broken, missing parts, etc. or 2) ungodly expensive. Until last week, we’d pretty much resigned ourselves to a shop without a type cabinet and a workflow of setting type in an unorthodox and inconvenient manner.

But last week, a gentleman who had attended our 57 Biscayne grand opening gave Jane (our lovely landlady) a call. He’d been driving that day and spotted a lady wheeling a type cabinet out to the curb. He remembered us, and called Jane. The lady had this type cabinet in her home (it had been there for several owners, apparently), and was concerned about being around an object that had once contained lead. She was convinced that being in the same room with the type cabinet made her feel ill. Her solution? Wheel it out to the curb. I’d love to see the garbage men try to throw that hunk of steel in the back of their truck. (NO WAIT, I wouldn’t love to see that!)

Sidebar: Lead isn’t good for you. I concede that fact. But unless she was licking the interior of the case or using it to store food, there’s no chance it could have affected her. However, I’m okay with it, because now this lovely type cabinet lives with us and holds type again! But seriously, don’t eat lead. Because it will make you go crazy/kill you.

This wonderful gentleman loaded up the type cabinet into his truck and delivered it to us. We all lugged it up the stairs (darn you stairs!), and later rearranged the studio to give it a place. Since then, I’ve been enjoying organizing our type in the traditional California Job Case system, and i’ve been inspired to start setting type again. It just blows my mind that the “letterpress fates” had this great gift for us. It was a really tough week (feeling very overwhelmed, getting behind, and spilling things on my desk), and I really appreciated this unexpected gift.

Jenny came in last week (her last day!) to take these photos of another new configuration of our space. Jenny and her husband Mike headed out on Saturday to live in Portugal for a few months. It’s a bittersweet goodbye for sure. Jenny has been such a huge help to us, and will be sorely missed! I am so thankful to call her my friend. Jenny will be writing and sharing photos of her time in Portugal on her personal blog. You should definitely check it out. And also take a look at an adorable photo shoot Jenny & Mike did with Karen K. Wang Photography. They are too cute. Good luck friends, and come back soon!

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 203rd birthday! We’re big Abe fans over here at Constellation & Co. So in honor of the big guy’s big day, here are a few Lincoln themed activities for your celebration and enjoyment.

Send a fellow Lincoln-lover our “Abe’s a Babe” mini card (better late than never!),
Buy some Abe swag from this Abe Treasury on Etsy,
Listen out this great song by Sufjan Stevens that mentions our favorite 16th president and his epic “great emancipator”-ness,
Or listen to this mediocre and slightly bizarre song that is actually about Abe Lincoln’s Birthday…
And while we’re at it, here’s a Civil War era song about how Jeff Davis tore down the government and Abe built a better one…

(We found the printer’s block above awhile back, and absolutely had to bring it home with us. I would most certainly shop there.)

In an exciting turn of events, my parents and sister moved from Florida to Washington State a little over a month ago. They’ve been coming to help out in the studio about once a week since they arrived, and it’s been so much fun to share our space and our life with them. This past week, my sister spent the night with Brad and I, and came in to work with me the next day. Jenny was in the studio taking product photos that day as well, and captured some pretty wonderful “Beth moments.”

We brainstormed and made lists of new card ideas…

She explored our collection of printer’s blocks (many of which she’s helped find and purchase – she’s a great picker!)…

Picked out her favorite Pantone colors…

Learned about the basics of printing (by locking up and producing cards that she’d help think up)…

All the while, distributing high fives and having a print shop dance party!

We’ve never had a more fun day here in the shop. I think it’s really awesome having an 11 year old sister. Everyone else should be jealous!

Recently, we had the uncommon pleasure of receiving correspondance from the proprietor of Municipal Prints Company in Brooklyn, New York. Sheldon had an inkling that his Constellation Explorer series would be right up our alley – and he was definitely right.

Sidebar: As someone who’s never been to New York (shameful, I know…), this is what I picture when I think about Brooklyn. “Never fear, Brooklyn is here!”

We soon came to a happy agreement that outfitted us with this gorgeous deep navy star map…

And outfitted Sheldon with some new letterpress business cards! We really love having the opportunity to barter with our fellow artists and designers. It’s a win-win!

We’re enjoying our new print in the studio right now, but will soon be bringing it home to hang there. I’ll make sure to update you when it’s found an official place in our home.

For some time now, we’ve been spending our Saturday mornings digging through estate sales, browsing off the beaten path antique stores and finding lovely vintage things. Our favorite things to discover and collect are ephemeral items: books, photos, advertising, letters, pamphlets, playbills, board games, etc. Most of these items (from the 1800′s all the way up the 1960′s) were letterpress printed, just like how Constellation & Co.’s products are printed now. This knowledge gives us a special affinity for these pieces of paper and ink history. Some of these items have found a special place in our home and studio. But more often than not, we find something, fall in love with it, and then realize we have no room for it. That’s where our new venture comes in!

Constellation & Co. Vintage is an “all vintage all the time” Etsy shop. Here we’ll be showcasing and selling the ephemeral items we discover. We’ll do the dirty work (like browsing through musty, moldy basements) and you can reap the benefits – unusual vintage ephemera, delivered straight to you! The items in this blog post are currently available for purchase (along with many others) on our brand new store!

Useful Knots and How to Tie Them… for Rope Users

Set of 7 Yellowstone Postcards

As well as individual items, we’ll be offering boxed sets of vintage ephemera! Each box includes several pieces, for example: handwritten letters, misplaced book pages, photographs, game cards and pieces, and more. This is a rather fun and economical way to gather pieces to collect or use in your projects – scrapbooking, artwork, photo albums, collaging, or whatever your heart desires! Each box is 100% vintage and unique. Each order will be filled at random, so it’s an adventure to receive and discover!

Make sure to check back soon, we’ll be listing new treasures often!

We took the new addition as an opportunity to re-think the work flow in our studio, and reconfigure the way everything fit together. I’m glad we did, because the new configuration is a big improvement! I trip on things less, and have more space to lay out in-progress work.

We also took the opportunity to organize, categorize and catalog of our collection of type and printer’s blocks. We’ve taken a proof of each item, and will soon have a full catalog of vintage imagery to share with our clients!

The lovely and talented Jenny took these photos of the galley rack/studio config today, and captured some studio still life’s as well.

I love seeing the way other people look at the studio. Some of the still life’s to be found here are intentional (I like to organize things until they are the most pleasing to my eye), but many of them are the product of the work. Jenny always does a great job at finding the unintentional kind. For example: tools left in the place I last used them…

New-to-us items left out until we find a place to put them or a use for them…

There’s something really comforting about all the repetition in the shop. Furniture, reglet, galleys… they are organized and in line. Tried and true. Always in their place. Well…most of the time.

Perhaps your remember our exciting letterpress find from a few months ago? Well, we finally bought a new scanner and put together a pdf of the whole booklet! It’s giant (61.2 MB), but you can read all of the text and see all the great details! Download it in all its glory from our Dropbox.

And when you’re done reading up about the Kelsey presses, click over to the School of Visual Concepts and sign up for this Friday’s Zen and the Art of Letterpress Maintenance class!

Letterpress printing depends on machines that are often over a hundred years old. Technical information is difficult to find at best, as are professionals who know how to troubleshoot and repair such equipment. Still, press owners have a duty to properly maintain these irreplaceable antiques. In this enlightening one-day workshop, participants will empower themselves by learning the skills it takes to assemble a useful tool kit, perform routine maintenance and troubleshoot practically any mechanical device in their print shop.

I’ve signed up to take the class, and i’m super excited to learn more about the (literal) nuts and bolts of my presses! Unfortunately, the class is two people short and will be cancelled if two more people don’t sign up. This is such a great opportunity – if you’re in Seattle and have a printing press, you need to be there! Do it for you! Do it for me! And here’s an incentive: if you sign up and take the class, you can pick any one item from our Etsy store as your thank you gift from me. I hope to see you there on Friday!

Last week we had the rare pleasure/challenge of a LOT of snow. Seattle rarely gets much snow (the first year we lived here, it didn’t snow at all), so when it does, it’s exciting. It’s also dangerous, as we have lots of hills and very few snow plows. But those two elements (fun + danger) equal a stay at home snow week! We worked from home as much as possible – although most things I do aren’t really portable, so there was lots of time to enjoy reading, knitting, cat snuggling and snowy walks.

The cats really enjoyed having us home, and they took turns staring out the window at the snow falling. It was really lovely week, like an unexpected vacation from normal life. Now that it’s all melted away, we’re back in the office – and all the better for the rest. Big things coming soon, I promise!