Behind the Stationery: Belle & Union

I have a soft spot for this next stationery team I’m about to introduce. For one, they’re based out of the great state of Texas (where I’m from) and two, the boss lady and I share the same name. I remember seeing Belle & Union at their first booth at the National Stationery Show, and ever since then I’ve enjoyed seeing the growth of their line as they continue to branch into new product categories. No matter what it is, they are committed to manufacturing 100% handmade in the USA products and walk us through the why’s and how’s of that process. Here’s Meg and Josh! —Megan

InStudio

Howdy y’all! Meg and Josh of Belle & Union, here to give you a small peek into our studio and small business life. We are a husband and wife team, Meg, the boss lady and doodler, and Joshua, the press whisperer, with moral support from our fur baby and shop dog, Ellie. Our studio is based in sunny College Station, Texas (whoop!), on the first floor of our carriage house apartment. We are busting at the seams with our new inventory, but are trying to make it work for the next few years before we settle somewhere post-graduation (for Josh, who is currently studying food science and technology. Yum!). We hope to open a little shop someday as part of our studio, and maybe even a little café next door.

Inventory+Cards

Desk

We letterpress print all of our greeting cards in house (over 100 of them!) on our 10×15” Chandler & Price letterpress. Every product we make starts with pen to paper, where one of my doodles comes to life. We’ve got a soft spot for vintage American wit and wisdom, and goods that tote a bit of a foodie twist. To us, the kitchen is the heart of the home and the memories made in it feed our souls.

TeaTowels+Recipes

Our recipe? Start with all-American ingredients: the papers we print on, the cotton in our textiles, and the wood in our handcrafted gifts. Mix in my doodles and season with Josh’s mechanical moxie. Everything we do is handmade right here in the USA of American materials. It is what makes our line a little something extra special. Josh served as a soldier in the United States Army, sacrificing his time and many comforts of home while on deployments in Afghanistan and Korea. It became important to us to honor our soldiers and their efforts, and valuing American Made gave us that purpose. Our commitment to American Made is written on our hearts.

Our tea towels are notably something we are proud of. We spent eight months creating our own supply chain, taking the raw West Texas cotton, watching it become greige then finished fabric in the Carolinas, moving along to Georgia where it is stitched into blanks in preparation for its final phase, the addition of our graphics in an array of beautiful screen printed colors, all before heading back to us in Texas for packaging, coming full circle. The business is truly a labor of love and pure homegrown goodness.

IfaLittleIsGood

While we love everything we create, the heart of our collection is rooted in our letterpress greeting cards. The cards are as storied as the words that get written on them. Many are based on Southern phrases and Americanisms handed down from generation to generation – meant to evoke a smile, a laugh, or even raise an eyebrow or two. I am always jotting down things I hear when out and about. One of my favorites is our “If a little is good, a lot is better” card – a phrase often heard in my grandmother’s kitchen. Usually a response to a little bit too much of an ingredient being added while cooking, specifically when a *certain* one of her granddaughters is adding sugar into suga – a sweet Italian spaghetti sauce, a family favorite for Sunday gatherings. Though I am sure she never meant it in reference to candles on a cake, it sparked a card and now hangs as a little art print in her kitchen, a place of honor.
Tea TowelsWe’ve really enjoyed taking our favorite greeting card phrases and breathing new life into them across various product categories, most notably seen in the kitchen. Josh loves to cook and I love to eat, so it is a natural extension of the brand, something really fun to see the doodles come to life in three-dimensional form. Included in the photos are some of our newest wares to the collection, including hand-carved kitchen utensils featuring our favorite phrases, laser-cut cake toppers, and even a ceramic salt and pepper shaker set (my personal favorite!).

Product_KitchenWares Product_SaltPepperSet

WithDogFollow along on our journey, @belleandunionco and @presswhisperer on Instagram and Twitter. All photos by Amanda Marie Portraits.

Interested in participating in the Behind the Stationery column? Reach out to Megan at [email protected]

Behind the Stationery: Ladyfingers Letterpress

Morgan and Arley-Rose are the incredible team that is Ladyfingers Letterpress. They have such a dear history with Nole and this blog, so I am especially honored to share their story with you today. The combined effort in their designs and production make for some of the most innovative custom invitations that will, no doubt, rock your world. Read on about their creative processes and how downsizing their business was right for them! –Megan

StudioShot

ArleyDrawing2Photos by Anthony Delao Photography

Our dreams all came true when we got married in 2011, not only because it was the year we tied the knot, but also because it was the year that photos of our wedding invitations were discovered by Nole Garey, who you all know as the editor of this amazing blog! Our unique poster-sized, hand-lettered and neon letterpress-printed invitations were featured right here and from that moment on, we’ve been totally inundated with requests for custom one-of-a-kind invitations. Our business began as we worked personally with each couple to design a totally unique wedding invitation and we soon had people returning asking if we had any greeting cards to celebrate a new baby, birthdays, holidays, and more. So we said, “why not?”.

WholesaleInventory Photo by Anthony Delao Photography
Planisphere

Photo by Arley-Rose Torsone

In 2013, we launched our greeting card line at the National Stationery Show in New York with about 70 products which included cards, booze bags, art prints, drink tags, and a line of custom hand-lettered rubber stamps. When we returned in 2014, we edited down our line and added a bunch of cool new stuff — including a line of Deluxe cards which feature moving parts, fun pop-outs, and 3D paper magic!

Drawing

PolymerPlatePhotos by Love Roots Photography

Since all our design and production is done in house, we use many tools to create our work! It all begins with a Micron pen and a sheet of paper, where Arley-Rose creates her hand-lettered and illustrated designs. She then scans her drawings and digitizes them so we can produce films from her black and white PDFs. With those films, we create our polymer plates and when those plates are dry, we mount them to a type-high printing base and lock them onto the printing beds of either our 10” x 15” Chandler and Price, Vandercook 219, or Miehle v40 letterpresses. We mix all of our own inks, cut and score every sheet of paper, and hand pack each box with the same love and care that was put into creating each piece.

MiehlePhoto by Anthony Delao Photography

People ask us all the time, “You’re married? How do you guys work together without killing each other?”. Luckily we are very different people with different talents and we don’t try to do the other persons job. Each piece that we create – whether it is a custom wedding invitation or a new holiday card – begins with a brainstorming and planning session by the two of us so we’re both on the same page about what will be created. Finding inspiration in a good pair of headphones and a fleeting melody, Arley often finds that the rhythm of a song and the way a pen dances on paper are not too different from each other. She then gets to work with the lettering and illustration and calls Morgan in during the final stages to help tweak the design to perfection. Between piloting a hot air balloon that she built herself as a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design and thinking about the ways that uncommon materials come together to make something new and beautiful, Morgan handles the printing, production, and project management. Together, we keep a journal next to the bed so that when an idea strikes (usually right before we’re about to nod off) we can scribble it out, often finding in the morning that we are totally nuts. And what the heck is that drawing of a cat with cucumbers over its eyes supposed to mean?

MorganMeasuring

MadelineBrimmerPhotoPhotos by Anthony Delao Photography

We recently relocated from Rhode Island to Colorado to be closer to family and in the process re-evaluated the size of our studio and number of jobs that we take on. Back in Rhode Island, our team consisted of seven amazing folks who we were thrilled to work with every day. Once we made it out to Colorado, we realized that for us success wasn’t measured by how big our studio was or how many people worked with us, but rather by how happy our work made us. We realized that we preferred working with each other in a smaller environment, similar to how we got started. We now take on fewer custom clients, which allows us to work with people who are excited to give us a lot of creative freedom and are also looking to redefine what it means to invite their loved ones to a special event.

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Photos by Arley-Rose Torsone

We now basically operate two branches of Ladyfingers: our custom invitation service, which we still create on a one-on-one basis with a select number of clients per year, and our greeting card line which can be found in over 200 stores worldwide and in our online store. Of our custom invitations, we’ve had a terrific response to our own wedding invitations, Sophie’s Constellation Starfinder Birth Announcements, as well as Kate and Alex’s Elegant Rustic Wedding Invites and Shelley’s Destination 40th Birthday Party Invitations. Of our greeting card line, we’ve had the best responses to our Deluxe line where the card is often the gift (our Baby Bump Surprise! for example!) as well as some other punny letterpress cards such our Dog/Cat Love Card.

BabyBump

Photo by Arley-Rose Torsone

 Interested in participating in the Behind the Stationery column? Reach out to Megan at [email protected]

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I’m so excited to introduce a brand new column (and something that I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time): Behind the Stationery! Every month we’ll be giving you a peek behind the scenes of some familiar faces – the stories behind how they came to be stationers, a little bit about how they manage work and life, and of course a peek into their creative processes. Today we’re kicking everything off with a company with a long history here on OSBP (they were featured in my very first week of posting in 2008!) – Sycamore Street Press! –Nole

As a stationery obsessed girl in digital world, there are so many companies I follow and admire wondering how they do it all. How did they start their business? What’s their design process like? To me, the behind-the-scenes is the heartbeat of small business so I’m extremely excited to bring you this new column on Oh So Beautiful Paper highlighting the stories of different stationers, starting with Sycamore Street Press. Take it away, Eva! â€“ Megan

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful Paper Photo by Jessica Peterson

Hello. I’m Eva Jorgensen, founder and creative director at Sycamore Street Press. Back in 2007, I moved a hand cranked Vandercook letterpress into our dining room and launched the company. By 2009, my husband Kirk joined me full-time, and it’s been the family business ever since. Our goal is to somehow, in our small way, help people to live a simple, beautiful, quality life through the goods we create.

Our stationery is sold in Anthropologie, West Elm, Paper Source, hundreds of independent boutiques around the world, and on sycamorestreetpress.com. I also teach an online class called Stationery Business 100: Starting Strong.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful PaperPhoto by Jessica Peterson

We’re up in the mountains of Utah in a small town called Heber City. We love it up here away from pollution and crime with beautiful scenery and wild animals at our doorstep. We’re only about an hour away from Salt Lake City, so we still have access to just about anything we might need.

We used to have a separate studio space, but when our first child was born we decided to move the business back home to make it easier to juggle the business and the baby. Four years later (and a second child along the way) we’re still here and it’s working well for us. To give us the best of both worlds, we will soon be joining a shared studio space called Hinterland to use for photo shoots, workshops, events, etc.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Jessica Peterson

I went to school for a BFA and MFA in art with an emphasis in printmaking, so it wasn’t much of a leap to start designing and printing letterpress cards. The business side of things, however, was a big leap! I wish I had taken some business classes in school. That said, my dad is an entrepreneur and gave me a lot of great advice about going that route. As for Kirk, he got his master’s degree in Slavic linguistics. While he was working on that, he was helping me at shows on weekends. Although he loved speaking and teaching Russian, he was really drawn to the idea of doing something more hands on and building a family business.

Kirk and I love working together. When we were a young couple, we took a backpacking trip around Europe. One of the highlights was working on an organic family-run farm in Denmark. We loved how the couple worked together to take care of the kids and household and provide a living. Kirk and I decided then and there that that’s what we wanted for ourselves. We’re fortunate that Sycamore Street Press has allowed us to do that.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful PaperPhoto courtesy of Eva Jorgensen

For the first 5 years of our business, we printed every single Sycamore Street Press product on our hand-cranked letterpress, but we got to a point where we couldn’t keep up with orders. At the same time, I wanted to try and branch out creatively. I love letterpress, but using it exclusively came with limitations, such as only printing in 1 or 2 colors per item. We decided to start partnering with a few other local print shops; they’ve been able to help us handle the workload and fulfill bigger orders while also opening up the possibilities in terms of medium. Now I can go where my inspiration leads me to choose whichever printing method seems best to execute my idea – from a simple letterpress print in one color with a beautiful impression to a 4 color process offset print to capture the nuances of my ink washes, overlaid with foil stamped typography. For an upcoming project, we’re looking into screen printing. Each process has unique strengths that can be used to our advantage depending on the design. This doesn’t have to be the way for everyone, but it’s working well for us.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful PaperPhotos courtesy of Sycamore Street Press

I am constantly looking for inspiration — travel, film, fashion, art, decor, folk art, and vintage books are all things I look to. I actually make a point to go outside the world of paper and stationery for inspiration because I think it helps me have a fresh approach. Recently, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of the West – the character and history of this region where I live. I’m reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner and plan on going back and reading all the Willa Cather books I loved in high school and college. And really, I only have to look around the high mountain valley where we live to feel inspired.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful PaperPhoto by Jessica Peterson

It’s true that it can be difficult to balance running your own business with having a family (or just a life in general!), but we find it really rewarding. It’s been so important for us to learn when to say no, especially since the kids came along. Sometimes you have to cut a lot of good things out of your life in order to make room for the best things. And of course it can be difficult not knowing exactly how much money will be coming in each month, but somehow it always works out one way or another. Our faith and trust in God has always brought us together and guided us through hard times where we wondered if we should throw in the towel.

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Jessica Peterson

For the most part, we have our separate duties. Kirk is over wholesale accounts, retail sales, and operations. I’m over design and marketing. We work together on big picture stuff. It took us a year or two after Kirk joined me full-time to really get that sorted out, but now we’ve got it under control for the most part. (Neither of us likes finances! We have a bookkeeper and an accountant to help with that.).

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photos by Jessica Peterson

A lesson we’ve learned in working with loved ones is to make sure that you are hiring or going into business with someone because they are well-suited for the job, not just because they are family. Kirk is a natural at operations and working with accounts. His brother Karl does our shipping and has a really organized kind of brain that a shipping manager needs. A bookkeeper needs to be level-headed and completely trustworthy, and our sister-in-law Kate is both of those things. Our design assistant, Natalie Fielding, isn’t a family member, but she has the skills necessary and works well with the team. And she’s a part of the Sycamore family now! â€“ Eva Jorgensen

Behind the Stationery: Sycamore Street Press via Oh So Beautiful PaperPhoto courtesy of Sycamore Street Press

Interested in participating in the Behind the Stationery? Please email [email protected].