Subtle Glances Letterpress Blog

Neighborhood Stroll

We were walking around in our neighborhood from brunch and stumbled upon a beautiful blossom tree. I just had to snap a few shots because it was definitely breath taking and a pleasant surprise. 

Have a tall frosty at Shotwell's Bar

We had the pleasure of printing these vintage style business cards for Shotwell's Bar in San Francisco. These cards were designed by Joshua Pfeffer and were letterpressed on a 100% recycled stock.

Location Inspiration: Carmel Valley

When we were asked to design invitations for a destination wedding to the Carmel Valley, we were absolutely inspired by the natural landscape of this locale. The valley is known for the beautiful cypress trees as you drive along the hillside. We also received this great inspiration board from our bride-to-be which really set the tone of this outdoor wedding.  

Here are some sneak peaks of the finished product and the packaging:

National Stationery Show 2009 | NYC

Subtle Glances is heading to the Big Apple for the 63rd Annual National Stationery Show. The show is probably the largest platform worldwide for companies to showcase their products to manufacturers, retailers, distributors, etc. We're excited to meet our fellow designers and printers out there whose work we definitely admire! Stay tuned for some post show entries about our experience at the show.

Window Shopping

I just had to share this really great wallet by Loop. I love the mismatched patches, especially in the two pinwheels. Wallet envy...

Tea Time

My favorite part about tea (high tea or afternoon tea) is all of the absolutely beautiful diningware, silverware, tea pots. There's something about the mismatched cups and saucers that make me smile. Lately I've been on the mission to visit all of the great tea houses in the Bay Area. Here's a list of places I've been able to try thus far and also places I'm hoping to go to in the next few weeks. 

Lovejoy's Tea Room

This place was definitely really cute. It was definitely more like going to someone's house and having afternoon tea than going to a restaurant. 

Crown & Crumpet

Their tea house was a bit more modern in the sense that there were brighter colors, more modern patterns, but it was definitely a fun environment. They had some great Crown and Crumpet branded tea pots and cups. There was a really great print on the wall by BluLima that can be found on Etsy. It was very fitting for this tea house.

Lisa's Tea Treasures

I definitely want to try this place. The thing that really intrigues me is the menu here. They have Irish Tea, Venetian Tea, Californian Tea, and lots of different offerings from all of the places I've been thus far. 

A Letterpress Quinceañera

For those who don't know, a quinceañera is when a Latina turns 15 and signifies her entrance into society as a woman. The celebration highlights God, family, friends, music, food, and dance. The colors of this invitation are traditional in the sense that the young woman typically wears a pink and white dress at the celebration. 
Here are some shots of the invitations from this weekend. The wax seal was probably a big highlight in this particular process. It added that secondary texture to the invitation which was subtly rich in patterns and color. It added an old time tradition of sealing letters and stationary with wax, in a modern way through the juxtaposition of a pink patterned band. 

Christine & Hayden: Travel Inspired Wedding

These two met overseas while at culinary school in France and decided to use this as their inspiration for the invitation suite. We were inspired by passport stamps, and old style planes. I can't imagine the great food these two will have at their big day! We got to have a little taste of the day as Christine made us some really delicious key lime truffles which the couple perfected themselves. They were so good that our friends and family devoured them before we could even include this in our photo montage! 

Schaedler meets letterpress

Most people don't realize the process that is involved in letterpress so we thought we'd give our readers a little sneak peak! We'd have to say that the Schaedler ruler is our dearest tool during the registration process. If you're going to buy a ruler, this is definitely the way to go.

Quince - Sweet 15

A fun project we get to work on this month is Mario's niece's Quinceañera invitations. This is SG's first Quince! Hopefully plenty more to come. Maybe some of those kids on MTV's Sweet 16 will hire us :) Anyways, it's been really fun getting together an inspiration board for this one. It really is about the young elegance of a teen coming into womanhood. We really wanted the invitations to be something that showed a blossoming maturity, yet still had a the sense of a young girl's childhood.