We fulfilled one of our dreams in life yesterday: we bought a little tiny letterpress. It’s a 5×8-inch Kelsey Excelsior O that dates to the late 1920s or early ’30s. We ordered new rollers today, so with a little luck, we should have it up and running in a couple weeks. Thanks to the good folks at Porridge Papers in Lincoln for rescuing it from the scrap heap and selling it to us.
We decided to build matching dining and coffee tables. So we modified A Beautiful Mess’ plan and build to suit our needs. A friend delivered a bunch of century-old 5.5-inch tongue-and-groove fir subflooring from Lincoln’s old Bike Kitchen. We used that as the table tops, and some harder oak as rails for contrast and durability. Also, we used hairpinleg.com’s badass (and affordable) legs on both.
This Friday marks Arbor Day, and we’ve had this block print in mind for months. We took a slice of an old landscaping timber, cut out the shape of Nebraska (home to Arbor Day) with a bandsaw and used that as our block. Simple, grungy, texture-y. We love this sort of stuff. 
Another house of Hanscom Park.
A quick sketch.
couple weeks ago, Porridge Papers in Lincoln showed a poster I designed in an opening of letterpressed, beer-related prints. The opening itself was a riot: beer, brats and polka-punk rock. And it was pretty cool to finally see the printed work, on hand-made paper, surrounded by other awesome posters. Word is mine is one of the better-selling prints they have, too. So, to shamelessly plug what I’ve done; give Porridge a call (402.742.5415) or send them a message on Facebook and order one. They’re $25, most of the profits make it into my beer fund, and they make good Christmas presents. You’ve got two weeks left to get your order in.
Credit to Ben Vankat for the photo of the opening.
ext Friday, Oct. 5, Porridge Papers in Lincoln is hosting an opening for an awesome show: Hoptober Pressed. They’ve asked a bunch of artists to submit posters promoting the glory of beer for them to print with their letter presses into paper “made with the finest quality spent grain from an Octoberfest Lager brewed here in Lincoln by Modern Monks Brewery.” I’m lucky enough to have a poster hanging in the show, and will be at the opening next week. Which means you should be, too. Come by and buy a poster of mine, and I’ll get some beer money. It’s the circle of life. Friday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m. Porridge Papers, 1422 South Street.
