Letterpress Openhouse — Saturday, July 11th!!!

Starshaped Press is hosting a letterpress open house!

Saturday, July 11, 2009
11:00am - 5:00pm
starshaped press
4636 N. Ravenswood #103
(on the west side of Ravenswood)
Chicago, IL

Come check out (and purchase) letterpress work from a handful of Chicago's talented ladies!

Printers include....
Starshaped Press
a. favorite design
Rar Rar Press
Shimmer Studio
Cindy Tomczyk (Paper Parasol)

with sweet treats by Sugarkist

and Starshaped Press will have the studio open for folks to see how printing works

Announcement Postcard

I turned one of the Shimmer Studio designs into an announcement postcard! This postcard features the jasmine flowers design on the front and the client's information on the back. The card was letterpress printed with two colors on the front and one color on the back — the ink colors are turquoise and teal. It is a standard postcard size and can be sent at the USPS postcard rate.

To celebrate the custom project Shimmer Studio is going to offer a summer postcard sale! Choose any Shimmer Studio design for the front of the postcard and I'll customize the front and the back. Contact me for special pricing. I'm going to offer the sale price through September.

Thanks for taking a peek at the new project! Contact: info@shimmer-studio.com

hot off the press

Here's a little peek at three brand new letterpress cards for 2009. All the cards are fold overs and include envelopes.

The above card is gold ink printed on turquoise cardstock.

This is the newest card design and I call it "My Melancholy Butterfly" because she is thinking "Le Sigh." Teal ink on turquoise cardstock.

This last card is named "Cherry Glow" and features pink and gold ink. It really pops!

color studies

Another method to my madness is how I do color studies. I like to do my color studies by flipping through magazines and pulling out the colors I like and then I glue them in a hodge podge mess and throw them in a sketch book. It looks like controlled chaos but I like doing them this way because I can open a few pages and look at a lot of my personal color picks and see how they interact together at a glance. I do need to focus on doing some more specific color boards right now, specifically a fall color board filled with oranges and reds. I tend toward the cool side so I am going to conciously focus on warm tones. The second color study spread is the one I used for the current Shimmer Studio line of stationery.

a little belated studio tour

The above pics are of my studio at The Splat Flats. I totally enjoyed my time there and I will miss my cute little studio. But it is time to pack it up and move to Ravenswood and get the letterpress going and the paper flying.


The new digs are at 3729 N. Ravenswood Ave., Suite 135A. I will try to do a better job of posting the move and the new space.

big BIG news!

So the big mama printer hanging on a country road in Indiana is Shimmer Studio's new big mama printer! Yo! Ed Regan of Regan Printing Machinery Movers took the above photo outside of his warehouse in Indiana (And yes the press is being stored inside—it only had a short stay outdoors on a nice sunny spring day—we did have one of those. So nobody panic). The press technically only had to be moved about 15 miles but because of conflicting schedules it needed to be removed from it's original print shop in Cicero and stored in Indiana until it can be delivered to my new studio on Ravenswood in Chicago. See—big news! The press is a 10x15 Heidelberg Windmill and it is in need of some TLC.

This month Shimmer Studio will be moving into a new studio space we are sharing with Paper Parasol Press. Yay! So here's to letterpress and paper goodness all around. Cheers!

What comes first? The studio space or the letterpress? These were the questions I have been pondering for well over a year. The answer? I don't think it matters. Paper Parasol Press had their press before the space and as soon as we joined forces to find space I got mine. Although there were set-backs on space and press, in the end I think it will all work out super duper coolio! Needless to say I am very excited as you can tell by the unnecessary abundance of exclamation points and extra special descriptors.

Shimmer Studio will be starting a great new chapter this summer. While it will take us some time to get up to speed on our new press and to get our studio set-up again we look forward to taking your orders! Wholesale and custom orders will continue to be printed at the time of order so please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. All Etsy and online sales will continue to be shipped out within 2 business days of order. If you have any questions please email me: sales{at}shimmer-studio.com

some new Greetings

A few new letterpess stationery designs available in the etsy shoppe! All three designs are flat and letterpress printed onto 100% cotton paper and include a 100% recycled envelope.

A shimmer studio sun design and "Brilliant" is printed with a vibrant fuchsia ink. This is the perfect card to send to anybody who deserves a little pat on the back! Or go ahead and announce how brilliant you are. It's brills, baby. Purchase this card here.


This card features a lotus design and the word "om" printed in reflex blue. This makes a perfect note to send to someone who loves yoga or lotus flowers. The back is blank and waiting for your thoughts. You can purchase this card here.


Well, "hello sunshine!" This card is printed in bright orange ink and features the shimmer studio sunflower. It's a great card to send to a friend just because! And maybe it's a hint of warmer weather to come... someday... soon... I really hope. You can purchase this one here.

DIY Trunkshow pics

Here are a few pictures from my table at the DIY Trunkshow. It was a great show! I had a lot of fun and met great people! That was my one and only holiday show this year. Please visit my etsy shop if you would like anything. If you don't see the design you want please email me anytime! I will be adding a lot more to my etsy shop in the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of adding to my etsy shop. I designed a new poster and a sneak peak is pictured below. That will be going up in the etsy shop tomorrow. It is a limited edition letterpress print of 32 and it is printed on creamy white card stock. It is a Tina Fey quote from her guest appearance on Weekend Update on SNL this year (before all the great spots of her as SP).


Like I said DIY Trunkshow was my one and only holiday show this year but there are lots and lots more great shows coming up in Chicago. So if you have some free time check out these: the Bucktown Bazaar, the One of a Kind Show, the Renegade Holiday Sale, and many more! Metromix is a pretty good place to search for holiday happenings around town.

And I know this is not a handmade show but I just love this crazy little German Christmas town (christkindlmarket chicago) the city does from Thanksgiving through Christmas in Daley Plaza. Mmmmm... mulled wine and strudel!

news: DIY Trunkshow: Saturday: Chicago: Please come!

Hello, Hello! WOW, winter certainly has blown into Chicago and trees and holiday decor are going up around town. And even better Shimmer Studio will be at one of the first holiday handmade shopping extravaganzas — The DIY Trunkshow (woo hoo!). I'm really excited and I have been trimming cards feverishly all week. I will also be debuting my first letterpress poster design (it's a little poster but it's a lot of letterpress). There will also be some new pocket mirrors, buttons and, of course, HOLIDAY CARDS! The DIY Trunkshow is this Saturday, November 22nd from 10am until 5pm at the Pulaski Park Auditorium (1419 W. Blackhawk, Chicago, IL 60622). Shimmer Studio is Booth #11 in Gym 2. Please check out the DIY Trunkshow website and take a peek at all the great vendors!

update: the moving thing

The move into my studio is complete, other than a few odds and ends I keep uncovering around my house. Woo Hoo!!! It took longer than I wanted it to! We started with the most difficult thing possible — my cast iron table-top letterpress, Blu. It weighs over 100 pounds and was not easy to get up to the third floor (no elevator) but it is there in it's new home. I don't want to move it again!

I pretty much have everything put away but things are not quite organized very well. I need to make one more Ikea trip for some bulletin boards, a rug and an office chair. When I get the studio into a little bit better shape I will try and snap some photos.

The Splat Flats is having it's 4th Annual Open House October 11th from 4pm - 10pm. Please stop by if you have a chance!

news: the second holiday card is printed!

This is the second Shimmer Studio holiday card for this year. It also features a Shimmer Studio brocade design and reads, "Happy Holidays!" It is folded and the inside is blank for your personal correspondence. This holiday card is letterpress printed on Italian Startdream metallic cardstock and includes a coordinating envelope. The cardstock color is a light metallic aquamarine and the design is printed with a turquoise ink. Both holiday cards will be available for sale soon!!! Here is a link back to Shimmer Studio's Alternative Holiday.

news: Alternative Holiday Card

I just finished printing my Alternative Holiday card today and here is a little preview of it!!! I am so excited with how they turned out. These cards are folded and letterpress printed onto Italian Stardream cardstock and they come with a matching envelope. The cardstock is a metallic gun metal color and the ink is silver metallic. The envelope is also a metallic paper. The design is a shimmer studio brocade pattern and they say, "happy whatever & merry everything else." I can't wait to send out a stack of black envelopes for the holidays — how about you?

I do have another holiday card option that I will be printing next week. It is also on metallic cardstock and comes with a matching metallic envelope but the paper color is light blue and it will be letterpress printed with a turquoise ink (shimmer studio's signature color). The design is a different shimmer studio brocade pattern and it will simply say, "Happy Holidays!"

one: Corner Rounder

I spend a lot of time rounding corners and here is my corner rounder — Model 50B by Lassco. It makes me happy because rounded corners make me happy and they give that little extra something something to shimmer studio stationery. Spending hours rounding corners has to be love.

photopolymer plates can be recycled!

Photopolymer plates are awesome! I love these crazy yellow sheets of plastic that you process in a plate maker machine with your negatives. For letterpress printers it means we can digitally design projects and then make plates or have plates made for us to print from. I have kept every single polymer plate I have ever made because I did not know what to do with them after I was through. Incidentally you can keep your plates a pretty long time and print a good number of prints with one plate.

Most of the ones I no longer need are ones that (a) I messed up (which means I messed up the film and previously the digital files which does happen when I try to do things at 2am and (b) the plates can get dry and cracky. Plates should stay nice and flexible and even though I have stored my plates in complete darkness they have dried out enough that I can not print from them any longer and I can even snap them into pieces which is very very bad. The other thing about polymer is after I've processed my plates I cut a lot of waste away that in the past I did not know what to do with.

So where I am going with this tangent? Boxcar Press will recycle letterpress photopolymer plates, either exposed or unexposed! So I can send my hard cruchy plates and my polymer waste pieces to Boxcar for recycling—I feel better now. Well I am a little upset about my dry crunchy plates. So why did some of my plates get dried out? I think my apartment is not humid enough for them. I solved this by moving all my new plates that I made this year into my bathroom—seriously! Goodbye xtra hair products and hello plates! So far that really seems to have solved my dry plate problem. Funny but true. I've read basements work really well too. The keys to preserving those plates is dark plus some humidity. Of course all this being said everyone's places are different so experiment for yourself where to best keep your photopolymer. If you are just starting out with photopolymer keep a close eye on it to see how it is holding up. Here's the link to the recycling program at Boxcar!

don't forget! booth 7-4065

Beckman's Handcrafted Show starts Saturday July 19th at 9am and runs through Tuesday July 22nd. Shimmer Studio is booth 7-4065 on the seventh floor!

Above is a photo of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It is a convenient location and there are plenty of amenities for a day of perusing giftie goodness. Starbucks is on the first floor as well as a wine store that has yummy gourmet paninis.

I am excited for the start of Beckman's and I start setting up tomorrow so expect pictures (I hope I can find my battery charger)! Of course I am overwhelmed doing another trade show but I can't wait to meet new people and talk to other artists. I think my booth will come together nicely if I finish my boards (LOL)! Time to start wrapping up all those loose ends.

website updated

The Shimmer Studio website has been updated! It is just a little modification — I added a couple of pages and made sure users could get to the stationery catalog from the home screen. There is also a new wholesale page! In the future I plan on adding search functionality and an online store. I plan on using the free Google Custom Search (which was hard to find so I've attached the link in case you want to muck around with a search feature too!) The free version pops-up with advertisements so I'll see how that works. I couldn't launch the new version of the site with the search functionality because I need to submit a sitemap so it works properly. Currently Google does not have much of my site indexed. I will see how it all goes!


I added this photo I took in Florida to the wholesale page.

hot off the press

Well, maybe not hot of the press but it was just last week!

Beckman's Handcrafted Show :: Booth 7-4065

Shimmer Studio will have a booth at Beckman's Handcrafted Show July 19th – July 22nd. Our booth number is 7-4065 on the seventh floor of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Beckman's Handcrafted Show is part of the Chicago Gift Show: Living and Giving.

We are very excited to be a part of this show on our home turf.

Printing*Printing*Printing

I have been consistently printing since I returned from New York and I will be at it again next week (and probably the week after)! I love the process of printing so I am not complaining! For now I rely on renting letterpress time at some fantastic local Chicago spots but I hope to purchase my own press soon! Below are some photos of the Vandercook Universal I at the Center for Book and Paper Arts. I hope I can find myself a Vandy one day!