Ephemera Custom Letterpress

We were pleasantly surprised last night. We were notified by Weddingbee that we won one of their vendor contests (see link). As a rule I do not enter every contest I see, only the ones I want to win. On Weddingbee I enter everytime they offer Rariteas and there was a store credit to get an embosser a few weeks ago. However, Ephemera Custom Letterpress has some really cute designs and I love the old machine they use. So I entered and we won.

I have since had a couple of interactions with Tara, the company owner, to ask about her business. I figured that using a cast iron machine dating from 1912 might have some environmental benefits over more modern methods of printing and she was cool enough to give me a brief breakdown of their developing kind practices (she is working on an environmentally practices section for their "about us" page):

• Current research for ink alternatives. Right now there is responsible disposable of materials. They aren't using soy-based inks yet because the soy washes may degrade the press and rollers and given that the press is vintage they can't afford to degrade the parts. I know, soy degrade stuff, WTH? It is a possibility based on degradation on steel machines that cannot be taken or else a machine that is almost 100 years old could be ruined.
  
• Re-use of paper not suitable for the client order
• Use of 100% cotton paper which requires fewer chemicals and produces less waste than tree based paper
  
• Eco-friendly paper source - Crane paper has an entire department devoted to minimizing their environmental impact (they even compost)
• Option of Porridge Papers (handmade, recycled paper)
• Ephemera is also a small-business that is operated out of a garage. They are small, local benefits of not commuting and using extra resources with being off-site are eco-friendly.
  
  

A tri-fold wedding invitation on recycled paper with a perforated RSVP card.

For winning a contest Ephemera Custom Letterpress is being really easy to work with in offering us options for the note cards. Some of the added value of working with small retailers is ability to get an order you really want. Now my fiance and I need to figure out what we really want. The original reason I signed up was because they have a lot of design options, now we actually do have to narrow those options down to one choice. I'll keep you posted on what we select.