The "Cleaver Greeting Card" Story
It was an ordinary day. I had just finished making our Christmas cards for the year. I taught Graphic Arts and Photography in high school and every year, one of my assignments was to make a greeting card. Didn’t have to be a Christmas card, but most people made th
ese. I always worked along with them so they could see what processes I was using. The front panels were usually block prints, etchings, screen prints, embossings or maybe offset prints. I had some really neat cards done in my class. Some students even mailed me one of their cards for Christmas. My wife would write the verse for the inside of the card and I would set the verse in type (this one fact should tell you how long ago I made cards), lock it in a chase and run it on the hand-fed letterpress. A lot of fun! As our kids got older, they helped decorate the front panel with markers and even did calligraphy on the inside of the card. When I had them in my class they would create the card that we went that year. Some of my favorites were: A card that pictured the inside of our house
with the tree decorated; A card made with a block print featuring a partridge in a pear tree which I powdered and heated to make the tree raised; A card that was silk-screened in three colors with a Santa holding gifts in his hands; 
Another silk-screened card with a brick wall with graffiti on it that said “Happy Birthday Jesus”; A blockprinted card of a group of carolers which the kids colored. Our most famous card was a very plain screened “Season’s Greetings” with snowflakes on the front panel. Inside Carol wrote a catchy verse for our greeting. We mailed it and
the next day he
r Dad, Charlie called and said to her how much he enjoyed it. “But, what’s up with the second line of the verse? The one that says ‘We rack our brains for gifts so cleaver’.” Remember who set the type. Carol looked at me as she said to her Dad over the phone, “What was that again, Dad.” It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Click on cards to enlarge them
ese. I always worked along with them so they could see what processes I was using. The front panels were usually block prints, etchings, screen prints, embossings or maybe offset prints. I had some really neat cards done in my class. Some students even mailed me one of their cards for Christmas. My wife would write the verse for the inside of the card and I would set the verse in type (this one fact should tell you how long ago I made cards), lock it in a chase and run it on the hand-fed letterpress. A lot of fun! As our kids got older, they helped decorate the front panel with markers and even did calligraphy on the inside of the card. When I had them in my class they would create the card that we went that year. Some of my favorites were: A card that pictured the inside of our house
with the tree decorated; A card made with a block print featuring a partridge in a pear tree which I powdered and heated to make the tree raised; A card that was silk-screened in three colors with a Santa holding gifts in his hands; 
Another silk-screened card with a brick wall with graffiti on it that said “Happy Birthday Jesus”; A blockprinted card of a group of carolers which the kids colored. Our most famous card was a very plain screened “Season’s Greetings” with snowflakes on the front panel. Inside Carol wrote a catchy verse for our greeting. We mailed it and
the next day he
r Dad, Charlie called and said to her how much he enjoyed it. “But, what’s up with the second line of the verse? The one that says ‘We rack our brains for gifts so cleaver’.” Remember who set the type. Carol looked at me as she said to her Dad over the phone, “What was that again, Dad.” It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Click on cards to enlarge them
No comments:
Post a Comment