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December 3, 2007
Talking Letters with Breck of Sesame Letterpress
MLP: Hello! Please introduce yourselves.
Breck: My name is Breck Hostetter and I run Sesame Letterpress along with the help of my husband, Matt. We live and work in Brooklyn.
MLP: How did you two get your start in printing? What is your training?
Breck: I went to the Museum School/Tufts in Boston and studied artists’ books and photography. I moved to New York after college and started printing as a way to produce editions of my book projects and fell in love with the medium. I find the slow process of feeding each card into the press to be very conducive to daydreaming and love knowing that we make a living using a press that has been working since the 1880’s (and has provided a living for a couple printers before us). Matt started printing after spending many late evenings napping on a couch in my studio, waiting for me to finish my work. I introduced him to the hand press and a stack of coasters to keep him busy and he got hooked.
MLP: What inspired you to start Sesame Letterpress?
Breck: I started printing for clients as a way to pay for my studio and supplies for my own edition projects. There was more and more demand for letterpress printing and we officially formed Sesame Letterpress (named after our beloved, late parakeet) about 4 years ago.
MLP: Many of your designs feature animals, from deer to pheasants to cranes to frogs. What about animals inspire you?
Breck: Everything about animals inspires me! I like knowing that there is an alternate world of furry (or feathery) creatures that have nothing to do with computers, rush orders, traffic, cell phones etc… Our work is heavily rooted in the 19th Century and is inspired by Victorians’ fascination with collecting animal figurines, taxidermy, bugs, butterflies, and other specimens of nature. We build our designs a bit like curio cabinets or display cases with lots of imagery framed with decorative borders.
MLP: What types of presses do you use?
Breck: I am wedded to my original press, a Golding Jobber #7, a Victorian era press from the 1880s that I use for all my custom work. Matt uses a C&P Pilot for his coaster production. We also have a Vandercook No. 4 that we use for artists’ editions, a Heidelberg Windmill that we use for our wholesale line, a Kelsey Star that we don’t ever use but it is so pretty, and a smaller Golding Jobber No. 6 that we keep in my dad’s basement in New England so we can print while we’re on vacation.
MLP: Are you native New Yorkers? What are some of your favorite spots around town?
Breck: Both Matt and I grew up in Wisconsin and each lived in a number of other cities before finding our way to New York in the mid and late 1990s. I lived in the East Village when I first moved here and DUMBO was only a couple subway stops away. At that time, studio space here was pretty affordable. We lived in Williamsburg for a few years and then to the super baby-friendly Carroll Gardens where we live now with our daughter, Greta. Through all the moves, we’ve kept our studio in DUMBO. It’s an easy neighborhood for clients to travel to and we’ve amassed a lot of awkward machinery we don’t want to have to move!
Hmm, our favorite spots around town… First I’d have to say Jacques Torres Chocolatier in DUMBO as their hot chocolate and iced chocolate have helped me get through some long days of printing. Other favorites include John Derian & Co. and New York Central’s paper department, Sleep, Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers and Catbird (all in Williamsburg), Swallow and Bird (both in Carroll Gardens) and of course Cursive at ABC in Manhattan.
MLP: You offer note card making classes at your studio. Can you tell us what that entails? And when are these offered? Do you have to have any previous experience?
Breck: Our note card printing classes are really fun. We offer the classes through Make Workshop, a crafting school, on the Lower East Side. It’s a 2-part workshop where participants design and print a set of 50 custom note cards and learn to line envelopes. The first class we demonstrate how the presses work and we talk about the history of letterpress printing and how the traditional methods differ from current letterpress printing practices. Students can pick from our library of images and fonts to design their cards, or they can create a totally new design on their own and provide us with the digital file. Then we order the plates and do the printing and envelope lining during the second class. No experience is necessary.
MLP: Do you have any special cards and designs coming up for the holidays? Where can we find those?
Breck: We have a line of holiday cards we produce for our Cursive line (available at Cursive at ABC Home in Manhattan) and we sold 3 holiday card designs to Target that are in the stores now. We’re also working on a couple Christmas ornaments and a letterpressed 2008 calendar. Both will be available in a couple weeks at a sale we are doing on December 16th at Devine Studios on East 4th Street, NYC. It is an annual sale featuring really great designers and we tend to buy all our holiday gifts there each year.
MLP: What do you forecast for trends in letterpress and note cards?
Breck: I am not sure what to predict for this… The number of boutique print shops is growing rapidly and yet there are a finite number of presses in the world (no one manufactures letterpresses anymore). I hope all the new printers will continue to care for their machines well and help this business stay strong. I am eager to see what sort of new creativity people can bring to this traditional craft.
MLP: Any favorite cards and designs from your own collection?
Breck: My favorite design ever is the baby announcement we printed to welcome Greta. We also made her a calling card for networking at the playground. I also still love the collection of cards we do on bright paper for Cursive. The Foxy, Peony and Forever and Ever Birds designs are my favorite pieces.
MLP: What’s the most bizarre order you’ve ever received?
Breck: One of our first printing projects was to print an edition of sewing kit cases and we also produced a set of volvelles, or paper information wheels which was cool. We love discovering new things to do with our presses and try to work letterpress into as many products as we can.
MLP: Walk us through an “average” day at the studio.
Breck: Sesame Letterpress has two typical days as some days I am home with Greta and some days I am at the studio. On the non-baby days, I go to the studio around 10, check emails, discuss the projects for the day with our excellent assistant/master printer Amanda, cut paper, mix ink, print, pack, ship, order paper, return calls, realize at 4 that I haven’t eaten lunch, wonder if I can get a hot chocolate and call it lunch, print some more and rush home at 5:30.
On the days I am home with the baby, I go to the playground at 10, call Amanda at the studio to check in and see if she has any questions, play with Greta until she takes a nap, then I return calls and emails, play with the baby when she wakes up and do my design work in the evenings when she is in bed.
Matt has a day job so he checks in with his coaster-printing staff during the day and then goes to the studio an evening a week and on the weekends to pack and ship orders and set up work for the week ahead. All in all, we do a lot of juggling which can be taxing, but we are grateful that we are able to work at something we really love and we continue to be excited that people like our work.
MLP: Who are some of your favorite card/stationery designers?
We love
Moontree Letterpress
Binth
Hello Lucky
and Paper + Cup.
MLP: And last, but not least: are you a letter-writer? Note passer? Package sender?
I used to be an avid letter writer but now I limit my written correspondence to a few big mailings a year. We print an annual holiday card and calendar that we send to family, friends and clients and we usually do a Valentine mailing and we started letterpressing invitations/prints for Greta’s birthday so we’ll be sending those to family and friends as well.
