Chandler and Price 10 x 15 Platen Press

The workhorse in our studio is our massive Chandler and Price 10 x 15 Platen Press. This was the second press we ever purchased and you can see from the pictures that it is quite a large upgrade from "Siggy". Our C&P  is known as the 'New Style' - and is easily recognized by its increased size and straight spoke flywheel compared to the 'Old Style' C&Ps (Check out a sweet photo of the C&P Old Style press flywheel here from the people at Duet Letterpress). The 'New Style' C&P is the most common type of hand fed semi automatic platen press, but has not been made for nearly 50 years and in fact ours rolled off the line in 1927.

We had been on the hunt for a C&P for a long while, but soon learnt that they are difficult to acquire. Often these beautiful machines sell via word of mouth or through forums that see them sold within days of their posting. We were fortunate to have come across a graphic designer from Courtenay, British Columbia selling his press and we quickly snagged the opportunity to purchase this bad boy. How excited were we?!? Now all we needed to do was ship our newly acquired humdinger. For those of you unfamiliar with the 'New Style' C&P, it weights 2500lbs (~1100kg) crated with a 55x48x60 inch footprint. To top it off our press was situated in a remote studio located in an open field. This presented us with a whole new set of logistic hurdles. The first shipping attempt played out like Corb Lund’s song Truck Got Stuck, with a total of three trucks getting stuck in an attempt to reach the site (with no success) where the press was located. In trying to arrange a second attempt, we discovered that because the press was located in a fairly remote part of Courtenay, BC all major shipping companies outsourced the initial retrieval of the press to the same local carrier, which after the first dismal attempt refused to pick up the press from its current location. Instead, arrangements had to be made to forklift the press from the studio, placed in a truck and then transported to a loading dock where the press could then be pick up by the local carriers. After much headache and extreme patience our press was successfully loaded and shipped to us in Saskatoon in March 2012, where it lived in our backyard garage and served as the grounds for our humble beginnings. The C&P has since been moved, along with "Siggy", in December 2012 to our current studio space.

Our C&P currently remains the backbone to all our letterpress products. If you listen close, you can probably hear its satisfying metallic clanking in the heart of Caswell Hill in Saskatoon.

Show exclusive cards

Unreal City in Saskatoon is having a new exhibition called Wild in the City featuring the work of 25 sweet local artist. We are super pumped to participate in this awesome event. In our excitement we have created new show exclusive cards featuring Shauna's illustration that is on display at the exhibition. 

Come grab 'em up for the hip fox in your life today and until July 20th only at Unreal City!!!

Our Presses - Sigwalt Chicago #11

At our sales we often get questions about the type of presses (and where they came from) that we currently use  to create our wonderful letterpressed products. Since it's such a common question we thought we'd share a little detail about the Sigwalt Chicago #11, the Chandler and Price 10x15 and the Kesley 3x5 that we currently own in the next few blog posts.

The first press we ever purchased was a tiny 3x5 Sigwalt Chicago #11 table top press (actual printing area is 2-1/2 x 4 inch). We purchased this from an individual from Atlanta, Georgia. Below are some pictures  of "Siggy" as we first unwrapped it.  As you can see it was in rough shape - needing new rollers, some oiling and some rust removal - but it was operational. What we didn't know at the time was that not all the pieces of the press were original, and at some point replacement parts had been added that did not fit quite properly. When squaring the platen to the bed in preparation for our first impressions, one of the replacement parts snapped the column that holds the platen to the impression lever, rendering "Siggy" nonoperational!! You could imagine our dismay. We didn't even have an opportunity to create an initial impression and see what this little guy could do!! We have been on a search for a replacement part ever since, but because the #11 is a less common table top press, parts are hard to come by. So, currently "Siggy" serves as an ornamental press in our studio, soaking up the rays  near the studio windows, as his bigger brothers, the C and P and Kelsey, do most of the dirty work in the shop.

Even though our little Sigwalt is down for the count, this little guy is a much loved reminder of our humble letterpress beginnings!!

We are continuing to update our website. Things are coming along with some fun developments taking place in the background. We hope to add some of these new features/images/details in the upcoming weeks. So exciting!!!

We also recently received our first large shipment of French Paper Co stock. Muscletone Sno Cone, Hot Fudge, Whip Cream, Black, Kraft and Dur-o-tone Butcher Orange. Too excited to start pressing with these beautiful papers!! Keep an eye out as we will be posting things as they are produced! In the meantime, here's a picture of our head receiver checking that the boxes match the ordered stock.

Hello Hello!!
We are in the process of building our website and creating our blog for all of you to be able  see all the fun and exciting things that are happening at Backyard Letterpress and Paper Company.  Please come back soon to see how all these things are shaping up!!