blackbirdletterpress.com.In May 2007, Blackbird moved! We're now set up in a cool mural-clad metal working shop in Baton Rouge. We specialize in original, fine art printmaking. We offer custom letterpress printing and design, from classic business cards to elegant wedding invitations and small runs of posters/handbills. Our new collection of lovely letterpress cards and screen printed and letterpress flags is now available online at blackbirdletterpress.etsy.com.In 2003, I started Blackbird Letterpress in Lafayette, Louisiana, in my friends house (Pudd and Leigh Anne, from back where my people are from). I was trained as a printmaker and have a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1999) from Montana State University, Bozeman in Printmaking and a Master of Fine Arts (2003) from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge also in Printmaking.Blackbird began after the purchase of a Chandler and Price, Old Style, platen letterpress (built in 1899) from a long time printer in Hammond, Louisiana. The method of letterpress printing here is still quite old school or you could say, "traditional", using lead moveable type, old vintage letterpress printing cuts, and woodcuts/ linoleum cuts created on site. Though the computer is used in layout design and the like, it isnt used to expose plates for printing. Which means the type (font) used is limited to whats in the drawers. The type came from a long time printer outside of Chicago. One crisp October weekend (well, crisp in Illinois, not necessarily in Louisiana), Pudd and I flew to the big midwestern city, loaded a couple tons of type and cabinets and other goodies out of a basement into a moving truck, and drove it back to Bayou Country. A collection of vintage printers cuts came from a long time printer in New Iberia, Louisiana (the trip was luckily much shorter that time). The shop continues to grow and is threatening to bust its seams. We are proud to say that everything here is (almost) hand set, hand fed, and treadle driven. (and none of this would be possible without the great generosity of Pudd and Leigh Anne!)I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.1Check out our stuff on etsy!
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