Why Did We Create the L Letterpress?

In a nutshell…it was extremely difficult, expensive, messy, space-consuming, time-consuming and overwhelming for a basic crafter to letterpress at home. And as a creative person who likes to craft at home, I wanted to letterpress…

A Love of Letterpress…
I love the feel, texture and elegance of letterpress. A few years ago, the letterpress bug really hit me, and I became obsessed with making it my new hobby! I spent hours searching online for information about how to letterpress and began searching for an antique tool of my own. I knew I didn’t have the space to even consider a large letterpress tool, and I quickly found that the smaller, tabletop tools were difficult to find, especially at a reasonable price. Plus, I didn’t know enough about letterpress to be able to confidently purchase an antique tool and know that I could get it to work. At this point, I still had never actually used a letterpress machine. I narrowed my focus to finding a Chandler and Price Pilot which seemed to get the best reviews for someone who wanted to letterpress as a home hobby. After months of intensive research and searching, I eventually located a Chandler and Price Pilot in Canada that was being completely redone. I felt this was my safest option to get a tool that would work, bit the bullet and spent $2500 and another $800 to ship it. (Thousands of more dollars and a lot less space later, I've acquired 3 additional antique tools - but more on that in another post.)

Why Isn’t There A Letterpress Tool…
At the same time, I started thinking that there had to be a way to manufacture a new letterpress tool that would be easier to purchase in the marketplace. Of course working at craft company made it logical to begin this research process. I found a lot of people had this question, but no new tools had really surfaced. I knew the big challenges of creating a new letterpress tool were probably size, weight and the number of working parts. These factors would make it extremely expensive to create and manufacture a tool which in turn would make it extremely expensive for a customer to buy. As a consumer, I just wanted a small at-home tool that I could play with and create fun things.

A Simpler Way…
One weekend several months into this process, I decided there had to be an easier and faster way to create a letterpress tool. I spent the entire weekend playing with my QuicKutz Revolution tool, platform and metal dies testing different concepts and by Monday morning I knew we had a solution. We could create a letterpress tool that was easy to use, inexpensive and small enough to use at home on your kitchen table.

Next Steps…
Then came the fun (and hard!) part of designing, prototyping and redesigning again and again until we came up with what we have today. We also spent months and days working on the perfect accessories and complementary products for the tool. I knew the right paper and ink were essential to the success of this product and we worked and worked and worked until we finally created a paper with that fantastic soft texture crucial to creating a quality letterpressed project.

Today…
It’s been so exciting to see this product line released into the marketplace with such great response! We continue to work on refining the products available in the line to ensure you purchase the best quality product and can’t wait to continue releasing many more fun and exciting products we’re currently creating for this line!