Ink in Our Veins

Holiday Sale v. 2012

2011-11-29T19:30:00.001-05:00

These rainy days are making us think the holidays are weeks, nay months away! We all know of course that the holidays are right 'round the corner and so is the Annual Pantry Press studio sale. We're postering the neighbourhood and wanted to share the poster with you too.

FOODSTOCK, OCTOBER 16, 2011

2011-10-14T10:53:00.001-05:00

Our work with the Canadian Chefs' Congress takes us around the country meeting food producers, growers, fishers and the chefs and cooks who work with the bounty of our beautiful land. The land that feeds us. . .
Recently, we learned that a Boston based hedge fund called Baupost was working with the Highlands Company on a proposed mega-quarry in Ontario that will chew up 2,300 plus acres of prime farmland that sits on the headwaters of 4 major water systems and 1 sub system. Some of the purest water in the world is threatened as the mega-quarry, deeper than Niagara Falls, will pump 600-million litres of fresh water out of the pit.
Julie and I have devoted the last 4 months to the organization of Foodstock with the CCC and the event celebrating and hopefully protecting the land from foreign owned multi-nationals. If you're in the area, stop by and if you're not, visit www.canadianchefscongress.com and consider making a contribution.

‘P.S. Elegant Stationery Returns’ per The Wall Street Journal

2011-08-29T09:55:00.000-05:00

Well you social networks, get ready for the ink to hit the paper!

‘P.S. Elegant Stationery Returns’ per The Wall Street Journal

We're going to New York City! National Stationery Show.

2011-02-18T17:07:00.000-05:00

May 15 - 18, 2011 we'll be at the Javits Centre showing our wholesale lines of invitations and cards. Will we see you there? We're in booth # 1875.

This is our booth from the show in 2004, the last time we exhibited there. We've got lots of ideas about how to use the counters this year and we'll be adding new display areas up top.

New Toronto retail locations for Pantry Press

2011-01-27T16:41:00.000-05:00

We are two of the luckiest letterpress printers in the world! Our cards are now being carried in Toronto by The Paper Place and Red Pegasus. We haven't had a retail outlet in Toronto for a few years now. It's given us the impetus to start thinking AGAIN about the National Stationery Show this May in New York. Pondering, pondering, pondering.

Every Image has a sound.

2011-01-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

Limited edition prints by Saxsofunny. What a great video.

Toronto Life Magazine Wedding Guide 2010

2011-01-24T15:46:00.001-05:00

It's not too late to catch two of our invitations in the Toronto Life Wedding Guide.
torontolife.com

Christine and Hutch's wedding invitation: a video

2011-01-24T11:47:00.006-05:00

Here is a video of the process of making our clients' invitations. The video covers the duplexing of paper (which yields a very thick card stock), platemaking, cutting, ink mixing and printing processes. It's a short video and at times (when I'm shooting) shaky, but it sums up the start to finish of a typical job in the studio. The process took four days, not including the design of the project.

Ray Fenwick featured in Grain Edit blog

2011-01-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

Hey, check out the Grain Edit post today at http://tinyurl.com/4mgb4kj where Ray Fenwick's UH / SO coasters are featured.

2010 World Vision Fundraiser

2011-01-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

We purchased 2 Hens and a Rooster, and a goat for communities looking for self-reliance, health and hope in Africa, Asia and South America. The funds for this were raised by selling cards we designed specifically for the purpose. We're so proud of our customers who joined with us to make the project a reality.

Score one for the cards: Xmas CARDS 1 : Xmas EMAILS 0

2010-12-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Mail, Canada's National newspaper, said it! More folks would rather send cards than e-greetings. Check out the article here.

15th Anniversary Holiday Studio Sale

2010-12-02T11:14:00.000-05:00

Pantry Press was founded in 1995, in the pantry of our house on Virtue Street in Toronto's west end. We're still in the west end and now working in our studio at the back of our place on Pearson Avenue. For our 15th Anniversary studio sale we're reprising our fifteen favourite holiday card designs from the past fifteen years. We'd love it if you could come for a visit, a glass of wine or hot cider and look at the new work and the work of the last fifteen years. Julie and I would love to see you.

Contractor's stationery

2010-05-17T17:09:00.000-05:00

We're still trimming the letterpress business cards, something you know we "love" to do, and they're turning out great as is the rest of this two colour business stationery package. Here are some shots of the the letterhead as I was printing.

Sourdough: The Next Generation. Erin Turcke at Mildred's Temple Kitchen

2010-05-03T13:57:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, May 25th 7:00 pm

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is hosting a night of culinary discovery at The Kitchen Table. Join us for a delightful look into the mystery of sourdough; the alchemy of transforming bubbly goo into a crusty loaf is revealed by professional baker Erin Turcke. The evening includes a culinary demo by Erin, a sumptuous meal paired with some of Ontario’s finest wines and an autographed copy of Erin’s book – Sourdough: A Recipe For Life.

$100 per person – limited to 25 guests.

Call 416-588-5695 to book

Click for more info on Erin’s book from Pantry Press Editions.

April is the cruelest month-htnom tseleurc eht si lirpA

2010-04-06T16:56:00.000-05:00

Says it all.

What would Friedrich Nietzsche do?

2010-04-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

Well if he had a digital camera and not enough light in our living room to illuminate these easter objects, I just don't know. Change the ISO of the camera I bet, or brighten them in iPhoto like I did. They're hideous photos, but I was feeling particularly Existential yesterday.

Lately Pink's been HOT at Pantry Press

2010-04-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Some of our clients have been leaning toward the pink end of the Pantone Book. Paper and envelope colours have ranged from frankly purple and violet all the way into the rose-slash-rose hortensia of the Clairefontaine papers from France.

Pantry Press Emporium new letterpress products added today.

2010-02-05T11:07:00.001-05:00

Screenshot of some of the work being organized in Aperature, after editing in Photoshop

Well, if you've visited www.pantrypress.com lately you'll have noticed a new tab on our menu "Emporium." This is where we feature new stuff in a little gallery as well as linking to our new online store. Liz photographed some posters and letterpress Valentines yesterday, and I'll be getting them on the shop today, please drop by and take a look.

If any of our friends out there have a suggestion for the website or a product, we'd love to hear from you. It's always great to keep in touch and what better way than to tell us something you'd like to see.

Finally snow, and it's February!

2010-02-03T10:20:00.000-05:00

We're getting a dusting, this isn't anything like last year, of snow and we've scraped the walk so clients and deliveries can arrive sans broken bones.
The biggest deal, when you work for your own small design business, is getting clients to sign off and get the jobs on press. We have tons of projects on the go, but nothing to print! Frustrating when we have our presswoman extraordinaire on a regular shift. But now that I've moaned about it, the sign-offs will pour in and the phrase on the lips of our bewildered clients shall be, "How soon do you think I can get this?" It happens every time.

On an amazing note we got a mention, penned by Jenn Hannotte, on the Arren Williams Design Lab blog http://tinyurl.com/y86w55o
We have a couple of new samples shown on the blog post there and we're going to add them to the pantrypress.com site as soon as we're finished sweeping the front steps!

We had a few soul searching days over the National Stationery Show in New York City, and despite our best efforts and the assistance of the incredible Kelly Bristol of GLM Management, the decision was to stay home this year. It's heartbreaking for us, but the numbers just don't work. In part, its because of our printing method using the Vandercooks. We have to compete with, and this is no knock against the big boys and girls, people who print on much larger scales of economy. Our real speciality is custom work, and that's a fact. We've got to work harder shifting products from the Emporium on pantrypress.com. We've got to continue doing the small runs of cards and posters when we can and keep customers coming and shopping.

Pantry Press 15 years young: 1995 to 2010 and beyond

2010-01-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

We're getting our party hats out! You know, for the sweet fifteen party. Oh yeah, we're fifteen years young this year. Actually this month sixteen years ago, Annie Morrison, Christian's daughter gave us a little letterpressed book she picked up at a flea market. When we opened it up and saw "Printed by Morrison and Gibb" we knew our experiment with letterpress needed to be incorporated and the dream made real. We even went to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit Morrison and Gibb printers. The M and G printworks was closed, it now houses Standard Life Insurance offices, but the former employees' social club was alive and well. We visited the M & G Social Club, a cross between the second level of hell and the pub in Coronation Street, only smokier than hell and more booze than Coronation Street. We introduced ourselves as Morrison and Gibb from Toronto, Canada and proffered our humble printed samples to the disinterested staff and members assembled. We then, in the awkward silence that followed, made our exit wondering, "Maybe Morrison and Gibb were crummy bosses?" Whatever the story was, we still felt enlivened and excited to return to Toronto and get our design and printing enterprise going. Now 15 years later, Pantry Press is shacked up in its third address and we're its obedient workers, parents and protectors. It's a daunting job, maintaining two old presses and a cutter with the combined age of 250 years. That of course means that we've got to take extra good care of these monsters and make sure the oiling happens very regularly. We're still a small studio, Julie and Christian primarily with press woman extraordinaire, Liz Macinnis putting in a couple of shifts or more a week. We're trying to identify more markets for our products and more products for the market too. Our posters have been selling steadily from our studio and on Etsy. We're in the process of setting up our new online web store at pantrypress.com and it should be fully stocked and operational by the end of the month. We're thinking about exhibiting again at the New York (National) Stationery Show in May. We haven't shown in the stationery show in many years, but maybe it's the right recessionary thing to do. We love going to the show, we always see our pals, letterpress printers and suppliers alike.

Happy Holidays 2009

2009-12-22T14:09:00.002-05:00

We're pretty much out of here now. Just finishing up a few quotes and proposals. Tomorrow we'll start making our cookies, cakes and savories for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We're hoping to spend a little time together without our big old baby, Pantry Press, pulling at our sleeve wanting attention and pampering. We've all kinds of ideas that we'll let percolate too, and maybe we'll even win the lottery. In the meantime, we've sorted the ink cans out and put them all on the shelf for another year. Have a wonderful and safe and happy holiday.

It snowed today, so we put up some Christmas stuff

2009-12-09T17:40:00.003-05:00

We actually put the Christmas stuff up on Sunday so we wouldn't have to do it in the snow slash rain. Oh yeah it rained today too. If it wasn't still a little bit white out there, you'd think it was spring. Well, you would if you'd been asleep really deeply for a long long time and just woke up, I guess.

The other Christmas stuff, the stuff you might come to Pantry Press for, like our cards are now on the website at pantrypress.com.

We're working to set up an online shopping cart on our website too. It's not that complicated to do, it's just that we're really busy with jobs on press!

So we're getting the Christmas stuff up as we can, everywhere.

Pantry Press Open House and Book Launch TOMORROW

2009-11-27T21:26:00.004-05:00

We're baking cooking and roasting pecans for the sale tomorrow. All the cards are printed and there are a lot of things on sale, at steep discounts.

Hope you can make it!

Here's how we cut and stamped our gingerbreads! It's like baking and printing! The best of both worlds.

Action shots of the hot gingerbreads hitting the cooling racks, we gotta work fast so we can get to bed!

Open House and Book Launch Saturday, November 28

2009-11-27T16:25:00.003-05:00

The 11th Annual Pantry Press Open House will be the happening Christmas shopping destination Saturday, November 28th from 10 am 'til 6 pm at the studio at 148 Pearson Avenue. Just a word of caution, Roncesvalles Avenue is northbound only due to construction. Also, Pearson's street sign is missing at the corner of Roncesvalles and Pearson!!! We're making a cardboard sign and will put it up, and hopefully it'll stay up for the day. Anyway, if you come after 1 pm cookbook author Erin Turcke will be in the studio signing copies of her new book, Sourdough A Recipe For Life. This is our first publication under the Pantry Press Editions imprint. We intend to bring out more titles with a concentration on food and travel. Erin is bringing a ton of her bread too, we'll be giving a free loaf with every purchase of a book. Also, all the new designs for the 2009 holiday season will be available for sale, 20% off Saturday only. We'd love to see you and be sure to leave us your mailing address so we can send you our letterpressed junk mail. We've been told it's the best junk mail in the city!

Les Halles at Night, Snow

2009-11-24T09:38:00.001-05:00

Les Halles at Night, Snow
Originally uploaded by tompalumbo

Taken before the whole place was razed to make, well, Les Halles. Paris' answer to an underground shopping mall. Sometimes progress sucks.

Flickr

2009-11-24T09:35:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Book Launch at Ravine Vineyard, St David's, Ontario

2009-10-21T16:30:00.004-05:00

Pantry Press Editions, along with Ravine Vineyard, and Olson Foods celebrated the launch of Sourdough: A Recipe For Life with author and baker Erin Turcke.

Weighing in at 72 pages our demure little book is packed with the tools needed to proceed with the care and feeding of the sourdough culture and the baking of very toothsome and delicious bread.

Erin Turcke, centre, with crusty side-kicks and fellow bakers, Chris, Heni and Lanny holding their signed copies.

Erin baked bread, lots of bread for the book launch.

Pantry Press Edition principal, Julie Gibb, at the sales table. Buy a book, get a loaf of sourdough for free!

Christian Morrison, Pantry Press Editions mascot, playing with other people's food.

But is it ART?

2009-10-11T13:17:00.002-05:00

Really excellent Etsy customer, Nikbee from London, England sent us this photo of how he transported his "Eat Your Peas" poster to its new home.

Our New Web Site www.pantrypress.com

2009-09-29T18:21:00.002-05:00

We've put up the website! It looks like it's working, though on my computer it bounces around a bit, can't figure that out. Ooof!

Please drop by and take a look. We'd love your feedback too. The address again is pantrypress.com our new domain. Thanks!

We have one of 103 award winning designs

2009-08-26T11:34:00.005-05:00

HOW magazine has awarded us a merit for our PEACE poster from last December's annual customer appreciation event. If you're not on our mailing list, that's a physical mailing list, send us your address and we'll add you. You never know when you're going to get another award-winning design from us, in the mail. Bring your copy of October's HOW Magazine by the studio and we'll sign it for you.

pantrypress.com that's DOT COM is LIVE

2009-08-25T16:30:00.004-05:00

Yeah, we know it's only an "under construction" page but you can email us and link to this blog from there. Listen, our web designer is an under-paid, over-qualified, middle-aged dude who'd rather be running the letterpress, so we get what we pay for. If you can, try clicking through to the site and let us know if the page looks okay on your browser.

News and a wee update!

2009-08-24T15:13:00.007-05:00

Hey, I know I use the word "Wee" a lot. Just try to imagine I'm writing everything with a Scottish accent.

News: We got a great write up in Saturday's (August 22, 2009) National Post newspaper. Nathalie Atkinson, a toronto-based writer, encourages readers to "Pick up a pen and exercise your cursive skills on stationery." To that end, Julie and I are considering how to approach personal stationery again. We used to offer personal stationery, with a limited palette of colours, motifs and papers but maybe it was too soon in the history of Pantry Press, we just didn't get the orders. Now though, with our new suppliers of eco-friendly paper and envelopes as well as old standards like Lalo and Clairfontaine from France, maybe we can begin to offer affordable and appealing products to our customers. We think we'd still limit the designs and formats (including paper, colours and designs) but try to offer a quick and easy way for you to purchase smaller quantities of high quality and environmentally friendly letterpress stationery for your correspondence.

Wee Update: We're also working slavishly on our new website, and have also come into ownership of the domain www.pantrypress.com and we plan to go live by early September with the new site. We'll announce it here too.

Easing into summer at the studio

2009-05-05T15:47:00.002-05:00

Had to share a shot of the studio today! The sun was out and the warm breeze made me a bit sleepy, ran inside for a shot of espresso and back to work. I love the oval dot below the light fixture, it made me think about Adobe Illustrator.

KO Market: PEAS ON EARTH

2008-12-19T16:54:00.003-05:00

We just finished this for our friends Clark and Joanne Ko at KO Market. This was a fun project that involved printing two green inks and a perforation we applied on our Rosback scoring machine.

Last but not least, because it comes first in the blog!

2008-12-08T14:08:00.003-05:00

Here's the last installment on the holiday cards. We dropped our camera, the mighty DSLR is now broken, and we're having a Charles Dickens of a time getting our photos to turn out nice a crisp. We'll be adding these products to our ETSY shop as soon as we can, in the meantime you are welcome to call us to order the cards directly.

That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly . . .

This card fits in a beautiful pink envelope from France. Sweet!

Snow card. What'll they think of next?

Jolly.

Even MORE 2008 Holiday designs

2008-12-08T11:21:00.003-05:00

PEACE

JOY

HOPE

Red Camera with die-cut opening for a favourite photo . . .

and a Green Camera with a die-cut opening for a favourite photo.

More Holiday Designs 2008

2008-12-08T11:12:00.003-05:00

Funny how with the blog format you work up rather than down, so our second post, which appears before our first post, includes more designs for your perusal.

Die-cut ornament cards, set of six.

Glad tidings

Dreaming of a Green Christmas

Although it's been said . . .

2008 Holiday designs.

2008-12-08T10:49:00.008-05:00

Here are the fruits of our latest labours. We're especially happy to have great coloured papers and subjects from which to take our inspiration this season. Proceeds from the sale of our donkey, goat and chicken cards go toward the purchase, for families in a developing country, of a donkey, goat and chicken through OXFAM's "Unwrapped" program. We want to knock people over the heads with our messages of JOY and PEACE with two new posters employing overprinting of three ink colours on lovely Italian printmaking paper. Simple phrases that we believe the world could use more. So, with that, see below for our newest additions to the lineup.

Peace and Love poster

Joy to the World poster

Our Goat, Donkey and Chicken fundraising designs.

Pantry Press meets the press!

2008-12-04T15:46:00.003-05:00

I'm channeling Jane Austin here as I write, "Dear Mr. Darcy, we've had some good notice, of late, in three colonial publications." The good and comely Martha Stewart; the sharp and eagle-eyed people at DesignEdge; and the stylish and stellar sages of Style at Home all had the good sense to include our work in their recent editions.

Missing our week of delights? Well go to Token!

2008-12-04T11:59:00.002-05:00

Our dear, dear friend Karen Sykes at Token has a wonderful selection of our holiday offering available for sale. Please drop in and visit her and the gorgeous shop on Queen Street West.

Located at 888 Queen Street West.

Holiday Event at Pantry Press Studio

2008-11-17T16:15:00.003-05:00

As has become tradition here at Pantry Press, we are holding our 11th annual customer appreciation event. This year's event will take place the week of Monday, December 1 to Friday, December 5th from 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM. This year's new assortment of holiday cards takes inspiration from — pure colour, peace, hope, and simple words that make us smile. We'd love to see you, so drop by or call (416-537-9977) if you have questions.

Organic Hemp oil delivery

2008-10-27T12:41:00.003-05:00

Gone are the days of lubing up the Vandercooks with 3-in-one oil! Our friend Greg Herriot, owner of oilseedworks.com and Hempola delivered two gallons of organic hempseed oil for greasing the wheels of industry at Pantry Press. The slightly alkali nature of the oil also cleans the press gently, something for anyone wanting to lubricate a bike should keep in mind too. Greg says to keep it away from rubber parts as it tends to cause rubber to break down prematurely. We're making sure it doesn't get on our rollers for that reason. The processes for growing and making the oil at Hempola net out to carbon neutral and Greg delivered the oil while in town on other business in his bio-diesel powered truck. A win-win for the environment all round.

New Website News: Photographing our samples

2008-08-27T15:33:00.006-05:00

Here's Margaret Mulligan photographing our samples for the new improved Pantry Press website. Soon we're going to have beautifully designed and implemented website with the assistance of our friend Robert Labossiere at Klooj.

Taking it to the street, literally, literarily, um . . .

2008-07-03T08:53:00.004-05:00

Repurposing old window washer or house painters' plastic roadside signs into works of genius, this our favourite street intervention of the summer. We have a roadside hero, in our neighbourhood!

Great gifts come in small envelopes.

2008-06-27T14:05:00.004-05:00

My mother, the late Carlotta Muñoz Morrison, always told us as kids that if we sent a letter we would receive one in turn. She was right, even Santa and the tooth fairy wrote back when we sent them notes of thanks or greeting. How wonderful it was, then, to have our dear friends Poppy and Charlotte come for a BBQ with their parents. And later to receive two such elegant and eloquent thank you notes from them. We were so excited that we had to put them on our blog, to share with all our friends. Enjoy!

Our new artist in residence just graduates from OCAD

2008-06-24T17:51:00.002-05:00

Well we're talking about a project incorporating silkscreen and letterpress, with Annie Morrison our daughter! We'll keep updates coming as we figure out the process.

Here she is graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design with a BFA in Printmaking! We're very proud!

Alas, we've left Paris

2008-05-26T15:08:00.003-05:00

Well, we're back in Toronto enjoying a real spring finally. We had a great time in Paris and found ourselves so completely wrapped up in living and walking in that great city that we didn't have a chance to post any news while we were there. Sorry about that. We did visit a bunch of our favourite markets though and the photos here are of some of the great paper goods we were able to nab as inspiration! Yum! Stay tuned for new products inspired by our favourite pastime Travelling!

Nous restons a paris, pour deux semanes!

2008-04-29T13:42:00.004-05:00

Julie a place des vosges, au premier jour.

Allo, allo? What's this on the bank of the Seine?

300 cups of coffee a day?

A visit to Pere Lachaise without a visit to . . .

Here we are, chilling our heels in the city of lights! In the first couple of days were were really pooped from all the work we'd been doing trying to get ready to leave! We finished more work in three weeks than we normally produce in two months! Just shows it can be done, but at a price of major exhaustion when we got here. It's been amazing though, the weather oddly enough only chooses to rain when we're indoors or on the metro.

Darcy Miller party favours

2008-04-21T19:12:00.002-05:00

Our friend, Martha Stewart Weddings editor, Darcy Miller was honoured by the Jewish Women's Foundation recently. Darcy asked us to help out by printing some of our cone shaped boxes with one of her own illustrations, as favours for the guests at the event. We were only to pleased to assist! Read more about the event, and some of the other contributors to the project here.

Lena Corwin design on a folding card

2008-03-24T15:20:00.008-05:00

Some of you may remember our collaboration, a few years back, with Brooklyn-based designer Lena Corwin. We traded the printing of her wedding invitations for one of her amazing patterns. We have, since then, printed panel cards in a number of colour combinations.

This is our latest colour combination in red and black. Sophisticated, we think, but really fun too. We enjoy the unexpected black foliage in the pattern, contrasting with red ink, straight out of the can.

This year, we're formatting the cards as folding notecards and soon, like this Wednesday, as flat inkjet compatible "imprintables." The imprintable cards have a space that you can imprint with your own printer some text, an invitation, note or even a photo. You'll be able to buy the cards soon on our Etsy shop, we're waiting for an order of envelopes to arrive. In the meantime, here are the folding cards, sans les enveloppes. Oh, if you're interested, Lena Corwin has a great blog well worth the visit.

Yellow and black version. We're loving really contrasting colours, especially these bright primary colours paired with black.

Sweet Cherries: #2 in the Eat Local Poster series

2008-03-21T11:27:00.003-05:00

This poster is the second in an ongoing series of posters celebrating eating local, supporting bio-diversity and organic growers. Printed letterpress in three colours. We have a couple listed on the Etsy store, if you think you'd like one.

Eat Your Peas!

2008-03-10T12:47:00.005-05:00

As many of you know, we started Pantry Press in, well, the pantry at our old place on Virtue Street. There's always been the odd nod to the beginnings kitchen-wise in our displays, designs and products. Lately, especially after reading Michael Pollan's amazing book "In Defense of Food," we been thinking about ways to get the idea of eating local, organic and sustainably across to our friends and everyone else. We like the idea of posters, they work on the street, in a washroom at a club and in folks' homes. This Peas poster is the first in an ongoing series. Printed letterpress in three colours. We've a couple listed on the Etsy store, if you think you'd like one.

Emma Goldman and International Women's Day 2008

2008-03-10T10:15:00.005-05:00

This poster celebrating International Women's Day 2008 incorporates a quote from one of our favourite feminist/anarchists (how many favourite feminist/anarchists can one have?). Pick one up at our online store.

Pressed Tin Pattern Cones

2008-02-28T17:41:00.002-05:00

A while back we did a little gig for Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. We created our popular cone-shaped boxes with a pattern we described as "Pressed Tin." The pattern was sent to us by Jaime who works at the mag. We've reproduced them here and they are for sale on our Etsy store, here.

City of Infinite Pleasure NOW IN ORANGE!

2008-02-28T17:37:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we've done a short run of Ray Fenwick's "City of Infinite Pleasure" print on orange stock. The yellow version was such a hit we ran more copies of that one as well. You can find them for sale here.

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER print for sale on ETSY

2008-02-21T11:15:00.003-05:00

We've put a few copies of the "Be Excellent to Each Other " print by Ray Fenwick on our Etsy store. It's a great message, our video store has a copy on its counter, for friends, places and even situations.

Twelve new items on Etsy store

2008-02-20T17:54:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! We've been so busy with custom orders lately that we haven't had time to photograph anything, post to this blog, and/or add items to our Etsy store. At last, we're happy to report, that has changed and we've managed to put a small group of new items on our shop. Have a look and let us know what you think. We'll be working away the rest of this week getting things onto the store and hopefully adding to this site as well.

It's SHIPPING TIME!

2008-02-08T15:54:00.000-05:00

Whew! After the seven hours it took to compile all the information, gather shipping materials and actually package all the Fenwick stuff we sold on our Etsy store yesterday, our packages are going out. Here's Tina and Christian getting ready to trudge out to the post office. Good luck little packages!

A few words about the process

2008-02-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

These are swatches called drawdowns that we used to determine the outcome of certain colours' overprint values.

Here's the rhodamine red being laid down on the "The Truth" print.

The second colour, veridian green laid down over the rhodamine ink.

While Ray was here, the main process we were working with was called overprinting. Overprinting is where two or more solid colours are printed on top of each other to create another colour or shade. An example of how we applied this is the print "The Truth" where we printed with rhodamine red and a veridian green inks. The result of the overprint areas was a third colour, deep purple. The same is true of the coasters where the common colour yellow was overprinted in a deep red and grey. The result of the yellow and red was a surprising deep magenta. The combination of the grey and yellow produces a subtle green shade.

Also, with the box for the "Epic Notes" printing the process blue on the orange card stock produced a deep charcoal blue-grey shade.

Here's Julie's sister Tina, who's worked with us for about six years, die-cutting the "Epic Notes" boxes on our Vandercook SP-15 letterpress. We must thank Tina for all her work in the background of the Fenwick residency. She die-cut boxes and coasters, assembled, folded, shrinkwrapped and packaged, coordinated mailings and otherwise kept products on the shelves at Pantry Press. Design and Letterpress printing are only two of the many aspects of what is a very labour intensive process that goes into the making of our products.

Thanks Tina, we love working with you!

Shrinkwrapping UH and SO coasters.

Artist in Residence Reception

2008-02-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

Well here it is Feburary 6th and it's just Julie, Tina, Liz and me in the studio, working.
Ray Fenwick has left the building! It's a little more quiet than usual, we all miss him drawing away in the corner by the Vandercook. Lunchtime will be a less ebullient and well, Coronation Street just lacks the same old intensity and high drama without Ray's commentary.

So the reception took place Saturday, February 2 at the studio. We cleared the snow for the fifteenth time and Ray and I made shelves for the beer and drinks. Ray drew signs inviting the reader to "Help Yourself."

The event was very well attended! A few of Ray's friends from NSCAD were here, as well as folks from his mailing list, our mailing list and friends of the press.

Peter Wagner, Liz's friend with our friend Michael Torosian of the brilliant Lumiere Press.

Ray's friends Dan and Shelley.

We've set up our Etsy store!

2008-02-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

Finally, our Etsy shop is up and running. We've put one set of cards up so far, more to come. Right now, we're getting ready for tomorrow's reception for Ray Fenwick. There's just the most fabulous snow storm going on outside and we've all shoveled at least two times each.
Hope that you'll be able to join us tomorrow. If not, watch this space for pictures of the proceedings.

EPIC NOTES

2008-01-30T14:34:00.001-05:00

Here's our latest release in the Ray Fenwick series we've been working on these last two weeks. Epic Notes is a letterpress printed die cut box containing eight cards and envelopes with four different designs. Ray says, "Unleash the majesty of your words!" We totally agree.

Ray Fenwick reception at the studio this Saturday

2008-01-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

New wrapping paper/print by Ray Fenwick

2008-01-26T09:29:00.000-05:00

Here's the new wrapping paper/print or "wrappingprint" or "printwrap"by Ray Fenwick.
The colours in the photo are kind of wonky, they're printed in Pantone® #423 gray, on sunflower yellow and mint green paper stock. The print is 16" x 23", the largest image we've ever printed on our Vandercook Universal III.

So, Uh . . . finished coaster!

2008-01-25T14:49:00.000-05:00

So, uh this is the finished product. Call or email if you want a pack!

Ray and the really, really big film

2008-01-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

Actually the film's not that big, but this is the largest piece of film we've every made for a printing plate. We're very excited about making the plate and printing.

Yesterday's lunchtime outing

2008-01-24T16:51:00.002-05:00

Ray and Julie at lunch at Buddha Dog, on Roncesvalles Avenue.

Ray, Christian and Liz at Cherrybomb coffee shop on Roncesvalles Avenue.

Here are some photos of our luncheon outing on Roncesvalles Avenue. We like to get away from the press every few days for lunch in the "Real World" and yesterday we took Ray (Fenwick) to Buddha Dog and Cherrybomb for organic hotdogs and chili (Buddha Dog) and cookies and coffee beans (Cherrybomb). Ray's worked out the operation of our Dura coffee maker, and so we need to keep the bean supply topped up. We're loving CB's Extra Butter, it's a French Roast with a temper.

A new card idea by Ray Fenwick

2008-01-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

I know you're all going, "Yeah, Ray. . . Ray Fenwick, we know who Ray is." I'm trying to adhere to some of the norms of proper form while writing my posts. So, Mr. Fenwick has been working up the drawings for some Epic Cards to be packaged in sets. There'll be lots of printing in this series. May have to work some evenings, after "Coronation Street" of course. By the way, seems our pal Fenwick also watches "Coronation Street." Makes for a pleasant evening in at Pantry Press.

Some new designs

2008-01-24T15:54:00.001-05:00

We've been working the Vandercook hard this month. It's been a lot of fun taking some of our vintage papers as inspiration for card designs. We have this Belgian candy bag that inspired the yellow striped card. The weird corner notches and semi-circle cutout allude to the original.
I loved taking this photo, the sunlight was strong and picked out the impression so well.

So, Uh . . . coasters on press

2008-01-24T15:46:00.000-05:00

We've started working on press with some of Ray Fenwick's artwork.
This is the plate for a set of new two-colour coasters were producing.
I'll drink to this! We're getting through a big pile of italian printmaking paper, thick enough to absorb a pint of beer!

Here's the first colour, pure Pantone® Yellow that Liz has printed. Photo by the artist!

Ray's working. You call this WORK!

2008-01-22T11:24:00.000-05:00

We're into our second day of the Ray Fenwick residency. It's going very well. Plans are for new wrapping paper designs, cards, box designs and prints. Here he is working away on the first wrapping paper design. Below, we've made ink draws of some pure hues from the Pantone® matching system. Christian printed some and then we used the ink knife to pull some of the proofs too. It is going to be so great to print with these colours on the letterpress.

Our Junk Mail is printed by hand!

2008-01-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that you are welcome to forward your email address and/or mailing address so that we can add you to our mailing list? We do, with fair frequency, send out mailings to our friends all over. We'd love to include you!

Printing an Invitation

2008-01-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

Here's Liz MacInnis printing an invitation for the February 2 reception for our Artist-in-residence, Ray Fenwick. We mixed an opaque violet ink that sits in a wonderful matte finish on the coloured card. We'll be mailing this out as a postcard, tomorrow!

Making Plans for 2008

2008-01-07T17:10:00.000-05:00

Well the new year has slouched in all slushy and damp, but undeterred we're busting out the ink cans and hitting the boards ready to roll up our sleeves and make our new year resolutions come true! Whoo hoo! In the next few we'll be putting up the webstore and getting ready for the New York Stationery show. Meantime, if you're in town on February 2, drop by and meet Ray. He should be pretty tired of us and ready to see a few fresh faces!

Hot off the Letterpress

2007-12-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

Our newest publication for Canadian chef Michael Stadtländer and Eigensinn Productions is "The Islands Project." This is the second publishing project we've worked on with the chef. The enclosed DVD with a hand-drawn label by Michael, documents a trip the chef and his crew made across Canada in a bio-diesel powered converted bus. Once the group arrives in British Columbia they set out to create menus using locally grown, fished and harvested ingredients. The video has shown at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film and Video Festival in Toronto, as well as the Bali International Environmental Film Festival in Bali, Indonesia.
Included in our letterpress printed and die-cut package is the DVD and a 48 page four colour litho printed booklet that we designed.
For more information about Michael Stadtlander, Eigensinn Farm, and Eigensinn Production please call or email the chef directly at: 1-519-922-3128 or wagen@bmts.com

Final Day for Shipping before . . .

2007-12-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

So today is the last day we can possibly hand off any packages to Ashley, our friendly UPS driver, for delivery on or before December 24.

Let us know if you absolutely must have delivery on Christmas eve and we'll do our best.

Otherwise, Happy Holidays! See you in 2008!

Bright, Brighter, Brilliant . . .

2007-12-10T14:08:00.000-05:00

This is how we wish you a Bright . . .

Brighter . . .

Brilliant . . .

. . . Royally Spledid Holiday!

The Forest for the Trees

2007-12-10T11:32:00.001-05:00

When we were in Paris, we found a wonderful shop that sold vintage papers that were used for wrapping cheeses. The paper had a faint but distinct pattern of wood grain printed on it. We brought it home and scanned it to beef up the image and we applied it to the cards above and to to these packages of tags below.

The cards are printed on 100% cotton card stock from Crane's Papers. We like the irony of using a tree-free paper.

Personal Cameo Stationery

2007-12-06T23:02:00.000-05:00

We know many of you like the idea of personal stationery either as a gift or for your own use. We are pleased to offer this new
line of cards and prints. Supply us with a digital photo of the subject in profile and we will create a custom silhouette which can
be reproduced either as a print suitable for framing or letterpress printed on Crane’s Lettra pearl white notecards and envelopes.
Pricing follows:

Creation of a custom silhouette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$125
8”x10” archival ink jet print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$30
framed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .additional $20
50 letterpress folding cards in two ink colours . . . . .$375

Please note that this is the only personal stationery we are currently offering.
A sample of our Cameo stationery will appear in the January 2008 issue of Style at
Home Magazine.

You can download a copy of our .pdf "Cameo How-To Instructions" by clicking here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11/28/1612734/Cameo%20howto%20sheet.pdf

Ray Fenwick: Watch those prints fly!

2007-11-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Wow. We knew Ray had a following but. . .

In the interest of those of you, who, like me sit on their hands a good deal of the time –what are you waiting for? Ray's "Be Excellent to Each Other" print is going places, mainly in the hands of his fans and collectors. So get one while the getting's good.

Call us at 416-537-9977 or 1-800-511-4767.

Okay, so I started this post 10 minutes ago and the phone's ringing off the wall with orders. Gotta run!

Go Ray! Go!

Don't put that drink down without a COASTER!

2007-11-29T17:25:00.000-05:00

Last season we put up our "c'est fromage" coasters in wooden Camembert boxes from Québec. These coaters, each celebrating a different cheese and wine or beer pairing are printed two colours and incorporate our own illustrations.
$28.50/box of 8 coasters

This year we've introduced two new designs, in the same round cheese boxes, incorporating our popular "old Canadiana" pattern and wood grain pattern.
Priced at $22.50/box of 8 coasters

Annual customer appreciation event

2007-11-29T16:39:00.000-05:00

Every year for the last 10 years, Pantry Press has hosted a small event celebrating our new holiday designs. It's a great opportunity to get back in touch with past and present clients, friends and colleagues, and share a bit of hot cider and home baking. This year was special, too, because we now work from our new studio at home. We offer our clients a preview of our new products, and a chance to do some early holiday shopping.

Here's a photo of our guest enjoying some of our homemade ginger cake, chestnuts roasted by vendor Elia Tsiktsiris, and a (paper) cup of hot mulled cider.

Inside, where it was a lot warmer, we had our products displayed on our newly painted shelves.

Boxes printed, die-cut and assembled by hand

2007-11-29T15:09:00.000-05:00

When we saw that butter wrapper in the port de vanves flea market in Paris, we could just imagine it wrapped around a big block of lovely french creamery butter. That's what gave us the idea for our first box design. We chose a Christmas theme for the label and after we designed the card, shown below in a previous post, we applied it to a new box template. The lid and base are diecut by hand on our little hand-cranked Vandercook. The lid is printed letterpress in two colours.

Since we designed the box dies, we'd been looking for a way to incorporate new artwork to expand the line. Our red and sand coloured boxes, riffing off the brick and mortar pattern of our new studio space, include two gift tags and a length of bakers' twine for making up a perfect gift parcel.

We created our "old Canadiana" pattern using a photo Julie took of wallpaper at the Palace de Versailles. We wanted to play with iconic images like spruce trees, polar bears, elk and deer in the new pattern. We like how the polar bear seems to have the Northern Lights blazing behind him as two stags stand on either side.

New Holiday Designs: Pantry Press close to home

2007-11-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

We moved our first printing press from the pantry at our home on Virtue Street to the old shop on Roncesvalles where we were married in July of 1997. Over the past 10 years we designed and printed thousands of cards, invitations and stationery.

After 10 years we have moved and are embarking on a new chapter in our story. Our new location, a restored stable behind our home on Pearson Avenue, is a bright airy incubator for our new products and ideas. We're excited to see how Pantry Press will change and grow in the next 10 years.

The story behind the new designs.
Each year we concentrate our holiday card designs around a theme. This year, having moved Pantry Press closer to the kitchen at home (where it all started) our designs are inspired by the packaging and labeling of seasonal foodstuffs.

#H07012

#H07007

#H07002

#H07014

#H07001

#H07006

#H07013

We have also paid homage to some of our favorite store signage, vintage wallpapers and the five month renovaton of the new workspace.

#H07008

#H07008A

#H07005

#H07003

#H07009

Each card $5.95 includes envelope (of course)

Call us at 416-537-9977 or toll-free at 1-800-511-4767 to order.

Our trip to Paris, 2006

2007-11-26T17:22:00.000-05:00

When we travelled to Paris with our kids in 2006, the four of us were so inspired by all that we saw, tasted and experienced. Julie and I loved visiting the marchés aux puces (flea markets), where we found a lot of vintage paper products. Our cards for chestnuts and Christmas pudding found their source in old Brie and Camembert labels.

Milk and Cookies for Santa is based on a vintage butter wrapper. We made it two colours and took some liberties with the type.

A visit to the palais de versailles gave us the ideas for the chandalier cards.
Our holidays now always include our fond memories of the most amazing family holiday.

City inspires holiday card designs

2007-11-26T17:10:00.000-05:00

We started looking at the city in the winter in a new way. Julie and I started thinking about how much we love being here at the holidays.

"Joy to the World" and "Peace on Earth"
SOLD OUT

These cards were designed to embrace our urban surroundings, inviting you to pull up a chair, pour a mug of hot chocolate and say, "Ahhh! Home. . ."

SOLD OUT

Each card $5.95 includes envelope (of course)
Call us at 416-537-9977 or toll-free at 1-800-511-4767 to order.

Ray Fenwick: Artist-in-residence

2007-11-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

For two weeks in January, Halifax-based illustrator, Ray Fenwick, will join us to edition 12 letterpress prints. One print in an edition of 100 will be released every month throughout 2008. The prints will be available exclusively through our web-store – www.pantrypress.net.
To introduce Ray's unique and inimitable hand-wrought style we are reproducing this print in an edition of 100 specifically for the holidays.
Printed in three ink colours on Crane's white cotton Lettra paper.
Image size is 9" x 8.5".
Get yours today for $45 plus shipping and applicable sales tax.
Call us at 416-537-9977 or toll-free at 1-800-511-4767 to order.
We accept visa/mastercard/amex.

New Studio for Pantry Press

2007-07-24T13:17:00.000-05:00

Here's a shot of our new studio in a converted horse stable at the back of our house. We're still in progress, but our shop on Roncesvalles is scheduled to close on September 30, 2007.
We're planning to work from our studio exclusively and forego the retail store side of the business for now.
Our new website will also have a retail portal. It's all in the works.

Our coaster sets put-up in Camembert boxes.

2006-12-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

We designed coasters with graphics and notes on pairing various cheeses with wines and beers. Here are the finished coasters put-up in beautiful wooden Camembert boxes from Québèc.

Here's Julie diecutting labels for the coaster boxes on our Vandercook SP-15 fitted with a stainless die jacket.