We’re excited to report that our shopwarming party turned out to be quite the event. No thanks to the Hamilton board of directors, the cancellation of the Hamilton Wayzgoose conference in Wisconsin left us (and many others) with nothing to do the second weekend of November. We opened our doors on Saturday the 8th to welcome friends, clients and fellow printers to visit our new shop. A whole lot of folks showed up. It’s all a blur, but we’re pretty sure everyone had fun.
We frequently find ourselves unable to appropriately thank the amazing humans who have welcomed us into the letterpress printing community. For that reason, we were excited to host some of these absolute legends at our shop for once, and give them a chance to relax and socialize. Of course they all immediately started being helpful, because I guess that’s what we do. I love printers. All in all it was a great crowd, maybe a couple hundred people over the course of the day, including other printers, friends, family, clients and even a few new faces!
All afternoon, Matt was demonstrating the Vandercook, engaging visitors to help print our event poster (left). Bryan had a harebrained scheme that involved people casting their name on a Ludlow slug, then sliding it into the tabletop Kelsey press to print a card celebrating the shop opening. We asked everyone to make an extra card, we’ll hang them in the shop to constantly remember the party and who was there.
All that (and Super Smash Bros.) kept us (and our guests) pretty busy until dinnertime, when Tracie (New Rose Catering) arrived with smoked pulled pork nachos. As we cleaned up the ink, the DJs took over: MK-Ultra, Corpse Fingers, and Ziggy and friends from Needle Search. Most of the crowd cleared out by 9pm, and we joined a 9:18 (get it!?) Zoom call with a bunch of #HamFam across the country. The DJs kept spinning as we cleaned up and wound down. Bryan finally dug into Tre’s punch and he, Matt, and MK dimmed the lights and cracked wise late into the night.
A few months ago we started moving stuff into a big open room in a ramshackle warehouse, and it took a while to get settled, but now, after the party and Matt’s touches of actual decor, it really feels like we belong here. We’re very thankful for our friends, family, and clients — keep in mind, those categories definitely overlap — for making this space a home. You’re all welcome back, anytime.
Photos by S, who was supposed to be at a teambuilding meeting.
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