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Copper Willow Blog
More remodel reveal - Our new consult room!
Continuing the tour of our newly redesigned studio today! Welcome to our consultation room. Also, home to creative favor and gift ideas, and photography! We've loved welcoming our guests into this cozy space.
We have lots of DIY ideas in here too - afterall we did all of this ourselves! We did have a tiny bit of husband help finishing off a new door and window, but everything else - us! I'm happy to share the fun finds and easy ways to reuse. Our space is a green one!
In this photo you can see a lovely printed curtain - this was a super sale find. Just a rustic khaki linen that we hand stenciled, added a satin trim and hung!
The meeting table is made of some glued together shelving and a piece of wood on top. We sealed the wood and painted it with chalkboard paint. The perfect solution for easy idea sketching with our clients
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. A lot of our furniture was already ours, we just freshened it up and moved it around. The stools at the table are older than our business, handed down to us. We peeled off a cracked brown leather covering, added some cushion and covered them in burlap. Our white hutch and corkboards were in our studio before too, just moved around.
Oh and see the shelving in the table - we're using old fruit crates to hold paper decks, ribbon samples and more goodies!
And a garage sale and flea market? That's where we found our settee and coffee table. The coffee table is a little end table that we bought for $30, sanded and repainted white. So sweet now. The settee is on its 3rd covering. We tore off the original when we bought it in 2007, from a garage sale, and recovered it a second time to coordinate with our new space. The beautiful gold mirror - drove by it and picked it up on the side of the road. Seriously! It's moved with us for the last 4 years.
We freshened up our frames with some new typography prints (on sale too in our retail room!), and some vintage letterpress prints. Notice the glass bottles? That's one of our personalized gift and invitation packaging ideas! The bottles are personally etched.
This was our cute little window display before, and we still have it up - but with new items! The "shelving" are old desk drawers.
We've been in love with silhouettes, so check out the bags and stationery!
And just for a tease, the frame has a picture of our press - housed in the back room for all to see! - and an ink knife and a letterpress plate.
Our hutch is filled with eye candy - as well as the boards on the wall! Full invitation and wedding day sets, favor packaging and personalization, paper flowers, painted and wood burned signs.
Special thanks to our friends at Rrivre Works for the amazing table display and chandelier in our window!
Welcome to the new face of Copper Willow!
Here at Copper Willow, our summer has spelled out one word - REMODEL! What started as a small idea became a complete face lift and we couldn't be more in love with the finished result! We were thrilled to present the space to the wedding industry and the general public in the first week of August. We'll be unveiling the new look here on our blog over the next few days. So, here we go!....
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Come in!
This is our new retail space, filled with all things paper!
Detail shots to come!
And our refreshed consult room!
Just a quick look, lots more pics to come.
History of letterpress
We are thrilled to be celebrating our 5th anniversary at Copper Willow. Everyday, we enjoy working with beautiful paper, vintage printing presses and creative clientele. We love what we do and it's probably about time we share the ins and outs of our hands-on studio!
Every Thursday we'll be writing about the art of letterpress, the creativity involved in being green, and the ins and outs of running a paper studio.
But to start, you have to go back to the beginning - so here's a little history of letterpress!
Before the invention of the printing press, the reproduction of the written word was done by hand, in monasteries. Talk about a hand cramp! The remaining books now are priceless works of art and you can imagine why. Making books this way was really expensive, so only the wealthy were able to read. Enter the printing press to bring the written word to the masses!
In 1457 Gutenberg invented the first printing press with moveable type. So each letter was carved separately and could be plunked in and out to reuse and create endless letter combinations. Gutenberg lived in Germany in the wine region, so he created the press with the same operation concept as the presses used for juicing grapes.
Fun fact - as early as 1564, sea vessels used to travel with a letterpress on board! They documented the journey and was used for printing poetry, the bible and maritime dictionaries. The first press came to California via boat mid-19th century.
Eventually the process of using this raised type, rolling ink over it and squashing it to paper became the most popular method of printing until about the 1950's.
Not much has changed either, letters can still be created from woodcuts, photoengraved copper, linoleum blocks, magnesium plates, and zinc or photopolymer plates. Paper can be fibrous or smooth, machine or mold made. And of course the ink rolls over the letters and presses into the paper by hand today. New to the scene: the much sought-after deep impression that has made letterpress printing an artform.
We have 3 machines on site and are happy to demonstrate the use of our little guy - an 8x12 Chandler and Price. Even more curious? Take a workshop and get a little taste of printing yourself!
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Every Thursday we'll be writing about the art of letterpress, the creativity involved in being green, and the ins and outs of running a paper studio.
But to start, you have to go back to the beginning - so here's a little history of letterpress!
In 1457 Gutenberg invented the first printing press with moveable type. So each letter was carved separately and could be plunked in and out to reuse and create endless letter combinations. Gutenberg lived in Germany in the wine region, so he created the press with the same operation concept as the presses used for juicing grapes.
Fun fact - as early as 1564, sea vessels used to travel with a letterpress on board! They documented the journey and was used for printing poetry, the bible and maritime dictionaries. The first press came to California via boat mid-19th century.
Eventually the process of using this raised type, rolling ink over it and squashing it to paper became the most popular method of printing until about the 1950's.
Not much has changed either, letters can still be created from woodcuts, photoengraved copper, linoleum blocks, magnesium plates, and zinc or photopolymer plates. Paper can be fibrous or smooth, machine or mold made. And of course the ink rolls over the letters and presses into the paper by hand today. New to the scene: the much sought-after deep impression that has made letterpress printing an artform.
We have 3 machines on site and are happy to demonstrate the use of our little guy - an 8x12 Chandler and Price. Even more curious? Take a workshop and get a little taste of printing yourself!
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stamp beauty
Oh the beauty of stamp collaging! our lovely diy bride (getting married in ketchum, idaho!) took our letterpress invites and paired them with home-made tied bags made from bandanas. totally rustic, totally sweet.
Tables - Part 2!
This table design, again by Rrivre Works, is rustic glam. So beautiful with natural colors, giant wood elements, real trees and a gush-worthy chandelier. Our menus for this table featured bronze wood-grain paper with hand-dyed silk and calligraphed tags. Love. Check it out. Thanks again to Callaway Gable for stunning pictures.
Designing a Table-scape
We were pleased to be invited to take part in not one, but three table designs for the WIPA last week. Working with creative professionals is such a fun cherry-on-the-top for us! Here's a look at the two tables from Rrivre Works - (gorgeous photos courtesy of Callaway Gable)
The fish table - yes there were fish in the center! I want that table.
Letterpress Workshops
We love sharing our craft with you! Our workshop series gives you the chance to put your hands on antique metal type, play with polymer plates, select your perfect ink and design your very own stationery. On March 5th, we even had some coasters on the press. Good times, I say! Here's a sneak peek at our workshop and "students" in the pressing trenches. You might get dirty, but all for a good reason - pretty personalized papers! Sign up for our next workshop - bookmaking! April 2nd.
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