We’re so excited to announce that we have a few brand new shear collars in stock for the Heidelberg Windmill. It seems like maybe once every couple years we end up popping a collar and that means we’ve slowly been making our way through the last of our old stock. These collars can get pretty expensive when shopping directly with Heidelberg. At the time of this post, the retail price was $346 a piece! This pricing hike and shortage of local availability led us to go on the hunt for a new local solution! Minnesota has always had a long standing tradition of experience, knowledge and production in the machine industry. We didn’t have to look very far to find a proper reproduction for half the price!

Check your press drawer. If you don’t have an extra collar, we highly recommend you picking one up sooner rather than later to avoid the unnecessary down time. Click here to place your order!

Just a few images we snapped over the last week or so. Although running a letterpress shop all day takes a lot of focus and attention, we always squeeze in time to play with our baby boy, Sonny. Usually, he's hanging out in the lounge area tearing up dads books!

The other day, the smart and quirky writer of Flotsam Blog, Alexa Stevenson, came into our shop to order business cards. Her upcoming appearance at the BlogHer Convention 2009 in Chicago inspired the creation of these awesome cards and we all can agree that they turned out great.

BlogHer 2009 is a business conference aimed at teaching an ever-growing web demographic—online women—how to improve their blogs, while also engaging in group discussions and networking opportunities.

Dick and Jane Letterpress has been good to us. Natalie and I have met some wonderful couples, business owners, and received recognition from all sorts of unexpected places. All of which we are extremely grateful. Our blog is intended to let people in to our world, share in our joys and experiences. We want people to get an inside look at what exactly goes on in a family run letterpress shop quietly located in a midwest town. That said, we wanted to announce something that is just a little out of the ordinary of the letterpress wedding invitation theme.

I (Brian) recently received an award for web design by the AIGA Boston Chapter. Coming from Boston, I work with a business partner who is based there (in Boston). Our firm is called Dirk+Weiss. We develop web sites for upscale salons and marketing companies along with the super popular iPhone aps. It's pretty much the exact opposite of a letterpress life but hey... You've got to have variety. Every two years, AIGA hosts the Bone Show (Best of New England). This year we were selected to receive the award of best web design for a project called anyonecanswiss.com. (I'll save you the description of the site) We were completely surprised by the unexpected win. Much love and appreciation to Boston, AIGA, Bone Show Judges, friends, family, and mentors. Included are images of the award and catalog.