Not some stationery boutique, just real presses, hard work and reliable service. Slow, but reliable.
One hundred business cards. Real letterpress, printed one at a time on a 1960s Heidelberg Windmill. One color of ink, which is black. Your choice of eight typographic templates. Your choice of stock from what’s currently on the shelf. Cut, banded, and shipped from my building in central Louisiana.
That’s the whole product. I don’t do color matching, custom layouts, or rush jobs. I print on Tuesdays.
Printed Tuesdays
I’m Mr. Beaux. I run a small letterpress shop in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
I make my own plates, ink my own press, and pack every order myself. I started printing cards this way because it’s the part of the craft I actually enjoy.
The rest of the stationery world can have the rush quotes and the custom color matches. I’ll be here printing black ink on good paper. Consider every card a little lagniappe from the shop floor.
Every press has a personality — just like me. Some days they run better than others — just like me. You have to know how to work with them — just like me. Two Heidelberg Windmills, both older than I am, and both still pulling their weight.
Barton spent his first forty years down in Abbeville printing raffle stubs, parish fair tickets, and the occasional funeral program. He came with a full suite of tools and a book called Hints for the Pressman. If I were prone to reading instructions, I’d read that. His last pressman retired at ninety — I hope I live that long. He runs a little loud, but he hits the paper square every time.
Miss Georgia lived two blocks off the beach in Pascagoula, Mississippi for most of her life. Salt air and all. You can still see a faint line of rust along her feed table — I left it on purpose. She did a lot of numbered forms in her day, and I still find red ink in new places every time I clean her up. She’s the quieter of the two and handles the finer templates.
