Pens for Lettra

Today we had a great question come to us via twitter from Kelani Irene (@KIFN) about which pens are best for writing on Crane Lettra. At Backyard we are frequent users of ball point pens and have typically used them - like thousands, if not millions of others - to write on our letterpressed card with no real issue (other than them dying on us mid-word). So,to try and help Kelani out, we gathered up a small sample of pens with different tips and nibs to showcase potential differences of their inky impressions on lettra cotton rag.

Here are the writing candidates (right to left in photo):
1) Straedtler Norica 132 46 HB2 pencil - freshly sharpened.
2) Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip - our daily user
3) Uni Jetstream - our secondary daily user
4) Straedtler Pigment Liner 0.3
5) Sharpie twin tip - fine tip used here
6) Prismacolour 005
7) Bic Velocity 
8) Pentel Brush pen

Sorry no fountain pen on hand - but maybe we'll update this list to include it in the future.
And here are the results:

As you can see most of the pens we had on hand wrote very well on the smooth cotton surface of the lettra. The Straedtler Pigment Liner 0.3 (4th line "a test of pens"), Sharpie twin tip (6th line "on lettra"), and Pentel Brush pen (last line "what fun!") appeared to have more 'bleeding' into the paper, but nothing to make the writing incomprehensible. The lettra seems to absorb these felt tip, more ink saturated pen types.

Our personal choice is the old fashion trusted ball point, like the Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip and Uni Jetstream, or the Straedtler Pigment Liner for a deeper black . However, saying that, we have by no means presented an exhaustive list of pens. If you have any suggestions of pens (or other writing implements for that matter) to try out we are happy oblige. So send us an email with your pen suggestions. Ultimately though it's not what you use to write with, rather the sentiments written that will hit the mark.

Hope we guided you a little Kelani in choosing a pen for your lettra letterpress paper needs.
Happy letterpressing!!

The letterpress card upgrade

There are some great cards in our collection that we originally produced through digital or silk screen printing processes. These include such favorites like our holiday venn diagram cards and our recent glow in the dark creations. These were originally designed with letterpress intentions, but with our excitement and eagerness, produced them by other means to share our joy when letterpress wasn't a viable option. 

But that was yesterday!!

Today these cards are getting the upgrade they were made for - printed on 100% cotton rag lettra, smashed with VanSon custom mixed inks and lovingly press by our hand fed C&P. There's just no matching letterpress!!!

There are quite a few cards getting the upgrade and we are ridiculously excited for them to be printed in the fashion for which they were designed. We will be posting pictures via twitter and adding posts to the blog as we go through the stack. So, look forward to seeing some oldies getting a letterpress face-lift in the next couple weeks and all of them will be added to our shop just in time for the holiday season.

Happy letterpressing!!