new presses!

we recently acquired two new presses on a total whim since they were such a deal. in order to make space for the new presses, all new electrical wiring and a lot of rearranging had to be done. it was nuts around here for a while, but then it was finally time to welcome home our new babies.

here are our old presses in their new location:


and this is the big empty hole the old presses used to live in that will soon be filled with pretty machines:


here's a shot of one of the new presses coming into our space. the guys who helped us were very sweet and worked surprisingly well together, even when faced with the difficult task of moving such heavy machinery. now that's patience:


our old chandler in press is in it's usual spot on the left, but now it has friends:


the first new press we got. see all that rust? eventually someone's gonna hafta clean it up, and it's probably gonna be me (it's actually a nice change from being on the computer all day):


it even has a cute little bell! it makes a very satisfying ding sound:


this is the second press. i like to call it our mystery press. we're not quite sure what it is. we've researched like crazy and even looked for help on professional letterpress forums, but we still have no idea. now we're thinking it's some kind of franken-press, pieced together from other machines to create one crazy scary press. spooky!

the velvet chocolatier

last week we launched the velvet chocolatier's website. we've been working with ruthie, the proprietor of the company, to make sure everything was in tip-top shape from start to finish. shooting photos of chocolate proved to be no easy task, but after making some mistakes and learning new techniques, we managed to pull it off. here's a shot of whitney and beth taking a photo of one of the tray options:



ruthie's chocolates are absolutely delicious and we never complained when she brought in fresh, new chocolates for us to shoot (we got to eat them after the photos were approved!) so check out how the site turned out and order some chocolate!

national stationery show 2009

so we're only a few weeks late with our national stationery show recap. that's not too bad, right? okay, okay, sorry about that. let's be civil and get on with it...

here's the nice mess we made before we left for new york. whitney took a lot of time to make sure every single sample was flawless. good job.



and here they are at the javitz center putting together the walls of the booth. for some reason they seem to be ENJOYING themselves. smiles are usually never seen on set-up day. be thankful i was there to capture this rare moment. and that drill right there? pretend you don't see that. tools aren't allowed at the javitz center but we trust you won't tell on us...





kat specifically asked me to take this photo to show you all how perfectly these boxes fit into the cabinets we brought with us. aren't we just so organized? we were very proud of ourselves!



more finalization of the set up. when samples started getting hung on the walls we got super excited. it's really fun seeing everything come together in just a few hours.







check this out. we got this awesome little ladder thing to lean against one of the walls to display our new notebooks! and of course, we had to letterpress the "new" sign on the top. consistency is key.



and this is how the booth looked when it all finally came together. ah, gorgeous.



woohoo! it was a lot of fun seeing old friends and meeting new people as usual.

PCB paper show / open house

here's my favorite image from the production club of baltimore paper show we were at about a month ago:



oh, hey! we've got an open house coming up!



the details: it's happening thursday, april 20th from 6:30 - 9:30 pm. this time around, you have to RSVP to get in. please send your RSVPs to info at gilahpress dot com by april 24th. (that's only two days away!) see you there.

aiga student tour / PCB 15th annual paper show

you poor little blog. i'm so sorry that i've neglected you. here, i'll make up for it with some lovely photos i took of an aiga student tour that came through here back in mid-february:









tomorrow is the production club of baltimore's 15th annual paper show. we're gonna be there rockin' our usual booth. it's happening at martins west (6817 dogwood road) and will last from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm. if you're already a PCB member admission is free; otherwise, you'll have to pay $25 at the door. we've got some nifty new posters to pass out that advertise an upcoming open house we're having at the end of april, so come by our booth, grab a poster and remember to say hi!

c&j graphics / the owls go

two weeks ago the production club of baltimore invited ron heddinger of c&j graphics to the admiral fell inn to give a talk about various finishing methods.



we were all amazed at what could be accomplished since we're pretty used to our letterpressing ways. we learned about holograms, foil stamping, embossing, uv coating (you can put glitter in it! and it comes in tons of colors!) and lots of other finishing services. we even got to handle some of the dies they use:



after the talk we headed to the ottobar and watched the owls go perform. our intern chris plays drums in the band so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him perform. they were so great that we decided to buy their cd! here they are being awesome:



tomorrow we will be opening our doors for a student studio tour put on by aiga baltimore. time to get everything cleaned up and ready to go!

justin's presentation / whit getting down and dirty

last tuesday, our old intern, justin, stopped by to give us a mock presentation of his recently-updated portfolio. we ordered in soup from our favorite place on the avenue, soup's on, and also enjoyed some leftover pound cake made by kat's neighbor:



(the guy in the back with glasses is our new intern chris. i still haven't gotten a good picture of him, but when i do i'll be sure to introduce him properly). when we finished chowing down, justin gave a run down of his portfolio pieces while the rest of us picked 'em apart and gave him lots of (hopefully) helpful and constructive feedback:



and totally unrelated: two cute photos of whit cleaning random press parts (first one taken in november 2008, second one taken in january 2009):

beth, our new gilah girl

please help me to welcome beth, our new part-time gal, to the gilah press + design family.



she actually began with us a few weeks ago but i never had a chance to take her picture until two nights ago when we all went out for drinks and exchanged gifts at woodberry kitchen.

it's good to have you with us, beth!

BINGE: a success

the BINGE open studio + holiday sale was a success. we had a lot of fun meeting all of the vendors that participated. kat even brought homemade meatballs and put together lots of other snacks to keep our stomachs from rumbling for the duration of the eight hour sale.

below are just a few of the vendors that took part.

gilah press + design table:



presto bingo, children's art division of spur design:



paintings by julia niederman:



erin of fitzbomb and katie of tu vida jewelry:



kimberly watson and her jewelry:



traci and her handmade/vintage stuff:



whitney checking out cory's paintings:

getting into the holiday spirit

after seeing a similar video on a friend's blog, i was inspired to make one of the gilah girls, plus one (you'll have to watch the video to find out who). bask in the crazy holiday goodness here. enjoy, and happy holidays!

(just a quick reminder that sunday is our BINGE open studio & holiday sale. read here for more information.)