Betzer and Head Creative Studio
I recently spent the afternoon in the basement of a farm located in the outskirts of Ann Arbor -- the headquarters of Betzer and Head Creative Studio. There, I watched Sara Head, co-owner and head of operations, press 100 homemade cards.
Sara does not use conventional, modern day methods like printers and laser cutting to print her works. Instead, she harkens back to times long past by using her antique Chandler and Price platen letterpress- a machine first put into use in 1881.
Working with an antique letterpress requires a few important skills: meticulousness, patience, and the ability to embrace uniqueness.
Fortunately, Sara Head has all of these things and more.



Sara and the letterpress
Sara, on first impression, is overwhelmingly sweet and calm. This makes it all the more disarming when her sharp-wit comes out to play. She's always quick with a quip, and she loves to happily chirp "no!" when people make inconsequential requests (e.g. can you pass me the ketchup?), leaving a line of flabbergasted people in her wake.
The only thing that trumps Sara's humor is her creativity. A graphic designer by trade, her house is filled with small thumbprints of her artistic nature-- a small, paper hobbit door placed against the wall, a stack of parchment ready to be pressed, or the sounds of her humming a tune she learned during her musical days.
Sara first came upon the letterpressing when she designed her own wedding invitations. She realized halfway through that, if she had the right machinery, it was something she had the skill set and interest in pursuing. Then, only a couple of months later, she, her father, and her husband Seb were lugging a 2000lb machine into her basement.
Sara is methodological in her approach to printing, and she oftentimes finds herself contemplating her work for long periods of time. She told me that she once tried to take a time-lapse video of her 'printing process', but the majority of the time lapse was her standing in one place, thinking.
While her skill sets make her well-suited to letterpressing, it is passion that drives her. What she loves most about working with the printing press is the chance to give the machine and its history a new chance at life. But, the addicting, ambient sound it makes is a close second.

Sara and Seb
Alongside Sara every step of the way is her husband Sebastian-- the Betzer of Betzer and Head Creative Studio. Sebastian is Childcare Innovation Project Manager by day, and a staunch supporter of all things printing press by night.
On the day of this photo session, Seb was an integral part of the process. He sat at a desk near Sara, getting the company website in order and jumping in when the printing press needed to be reset or maintenanced. And, he also acted as quality control. After the first cards came off the press, Seb and Sara would press close together and analyze every millimeter, resulting in both a beautiful card and a ridiculously cute photo.
Seb is an incredibly warm, earnest person, and the company is all the better for his part in it.
Meet Johanna
The printing press, named 'Johanna' after the famous printer Johannes Gutenburg, is a Chandler and Price platen press. It is often referred to as a 'jobbing press'.
Chandler and Price platen presses entered the market in 1881, and they continued to be developed until 1964. They can be powered by both a treadle (a hand pump that spins the flywheel) or it can be run by the small motor it is connected to. Paper is fed into the machine by hand, and each card is made individually.







A look into the printing process
The following images are dedicated to describing the printing process. All descriptions are done by me. While I have done my best, the art of letterpressing is extremely intricate and sometimes hard to depict.
Oil it up
Before the machine can be used, every joint and moving part must be oiled. There are over 50 oiling points on the press, but not all joints need to be oiled every printing session.




Laying the printing plate
Every item developed by the press is created with a printing plate. The machine presses the printing plate into the paper, leaving behind an indentation. Before the printing plate is loaded into the machine, it must be properly placed on its base in the chase. In turn, this process takes a large amount of measuring to ensure that all parts of the plate are properly measured, placed, and aligned.




Ink it up
After the printing plate is placed on the press, ink is then distributed onto the ink disc. Around 3 small drops of ink are spread across it before the press is turned on. When the motor begins to run 3 rollers move back and forth across the disc, distributing the ink evenly.



Inking the printing plate and platen plate
After ink has been properly distributed on the ink disc by the three rollers, the rollers then move between the ink disc and printing plate. The rollers continuously get new ink from the disk and redistribute ink on the printing plate, ensuring that every printed item has an equal amount of ink.

Preparing the paper
Once everything is ready for printing, the paper (on which the design will be pressed) is placed onto gauge pins. These gauge pins hold the paper steady during the pressing process (Sara DIYs her own pins). Once the paper is placed, two metal strips, i.e. "grippers", are pressed onto the gauge pin material, acting as a secondary measure to ensure that everything stays in place.




Loading the paper
Finally, the motor spins the flywheel to move the press back and forth, pressing the printing plate to the paper. After the paper is pressed, it is removed and replaced with a new piece of paper. This process must be repeated each time until all copies are made.





Enjoying the final product
After all cards are pressed and inked, they are folded, tucked into envelopes, or simply hung up on display. Sara's work invokes a sense of nostalgia for old-fashioned craftsmanship while simultaneously embracing the modern designs of this day and age. The result is phenomenal.

Thank you, Sara and Seb!
I can't thank Sara and Seb enough for inviting me into their studio for the day. I walked away with newfound knowledge on the finesse and time a craft like this takes, and it has made me even more appreciative of the local artisans in Ann Arbor.


Interested in Betzer and Head's Creative Studio's Work?
Please check out their website at https://www.bhcreativestudio.com/ or follow Sara at @betzerheadcreative.
Or, have a look at some of their work below.