DIY Letterpress Printing?

i haven''t done gocco, but do letterpress printing. i REALLY don''t recommend buying a table top press + all of the supplies just to knock out your own invites. first, it''s very costly. second, you really need professional training to do letterpress printing.

You could do the design and then have them printed if you really want letterpress. Part of what makes letterpress so wonderful is the indentation - for that you need a big machine, not a little home press I'm guessing. I've have seen some lovely and cute gocco stuff, but it is different aesthetic than letterpress. Letterpress can be precise, Gocco is a bit less precise, works well when there's more of a country-craft aesthetic... I also remember (back in the day when I was looking at such things) some brides that went to the trouble of buying a Gocco and had less than stellar results. I'm sure if you are talented, artsy and flexible in what you want (some designs DO NOT work in Gocco - you need to think about your medium when designing!) you can make something wonderful, but I was afraid I would invest all this money in a Gocco and the supplies and it would turn out like my efforts at caligraphy... ie. not so well. in fact, quite like kindergarten writing/art.

I did, however, have more confidence in my ability to draw things in Adobe Illustrator and send them off to get printed. I was thinking of using Mercurio Bros Letterpress but then found Wildflower Press, which was a little cheaper for my specs and they came out lovely! And not exactly cheap, if money is a concern, but cheap for letterpress.

We did do homemade printed + stamped Save-the-Dates with a rubber stamp, which were also cute and fine, but the Letterpress was a different level. I letterpress!

I gocco''ed a lot. It was a lot of trial and error and frustrating at times. I actually disagree that it looks country craft (I think it has the potential to, but we liked it for the ability to pick any design/paper/font), but it doesn''t have the elegance that letterpress does. If you want elegance, you should get professionally done letterpress. If you want quirky and different, that is when you gocco.

I attempted to DIY letterpress my STD and intended to do my invites. I made a table top press, order plates from Boxcar Press, and followed the directions I found online to a tee.
To say it ended in disaster would be the understatement of the century.

I ended up placing a request on Etsy''s Alchemy and found an amazing local artist. He finished my STD''s and we are now working on my invites.

I would never try to do it again. Somethings are best left to the professionals.

Date: 9/19/2009 3:02:48 PM
Author: katamari
I gocco'ed a lot. It was a lot of trial and error and frustrating at times. I actually disagree that it looks country craft (I think it has the potential to, but we liked it for the ability to pick any design/paper/font), but it doesn't have the elegance that letterpress does. If you want elegance, you should get professionally done letterpress. If you want quirky and different, that is when you gocco.

Yeah, I couldn't find exactly the right word for what I meant - country-craft and rustic looks work well with Gocco, but there are others. Its more that certain aesthetics will work well in that medium and certain ones will work better in a different medium. There is some amazing Gocco work posted out there which tempted me, but then I found some pics of the efforts of the more 'average' talented first-time users and looked at my own calligraphy attempts and reconsidered! LOL. Well, for me I had always longed for letterpress so I'm glad I went with it. Especially if I forget about the price.

Hi Everyone!
Jcrow Thank you for letting me know! :)
Cara Your invitations sounded beautiful! Thank you for the information about Gocco!
Katamari Quirky and different sounds really nice since I'm having a theme... I may have to check into that :)

sugarjo Thank you for your experience! I'm sorry it ended in disaster, but I am happy everything else worked out!

After reading all your insights and suggestions, i think i may be leaning away from Letterpress :)

Since my theme is 1920s Shanghai, I am leaning towards Chinese invitations. I was thinking of these in navy blue

with matchbox save the dates :)http://www.eleganthandmadecreations.com/SFGoldenDragon.htm