Hearing the word vintage brings up images of trendy “retro” items being sold at small, often overpriced boutiques in the hippest parts of town. From clothing and jewelry, to records and even now cassette tapes, this trend for appreciating the leftover remnants of simpler times has been growing for years. What is generally not imagined, however, is vintage print shop machines. As the generation that first made “retro” popular starts to get married and have children, demand has popped up for authentic vintage feel invitations, announcements, and other printed items. When Nancy Hill and Beverly Wolfe found a listing on Craigslist from a long-time print shop closing its doors, they knew they had hit the jackpot. The machines, including a letterpress and a paper cutter, dating back as far as 1922, were the backbone for their new business Hazel and Violet INK.

Here is selection from “Hazel and Violet INK’s Vintage Printing and Modern Inspiration“, by Carrie Wheeler with the Phoenix New Times Blogs:

The women’s work flow is pretty close to how it was done a hundred years ago; they feed each page, by hand, into their 1922 Chandler & Price letterpress they affectionately call “Beauty.”

Most of their work has a decidedly vintage feel, after all, most of their equipment comes from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. “We have stuff from later years,” says Hill, “we’re just not as excited about it.” They have cases and cases of type in different sizes and fonts, plus some hard-to-find wooden type. At one point, they had so much extra type that they unloaded a bunch to the ASU print shop.

Paper Cutters

From Paper Accelerometer Could Mean Disposable Devices,  by Prachi Patel on IEEE Spectrum:

Paper-based MEMS force sensors are appealing because of their low cost, says Kevin Dowling, vice president for research and development at mc10, a flexible-electronics start-up in Cambridge, Mass. What is truly exciting, he says, is “if you can make such sensors on paper, you can make them on stretchable, biocompatible substrates like silicone, and then you can mimic the properties of skin.” These low-cost tactile sensors made on silicone could be used at the tips of laparoscopic instruments for surgeons so they could get a better feel of the tissue they touch, Dowling says.

The paper sensor, which is a bit larger than a dime (or a 2-euro-cent coin), is a cantilever cut out from thick chromatography paper, which is normally used for chemistry experiments. At the base of the cantilever is a U-shaped piece of carbon and silver contact pads. The researchers screen-print the carbon and silver contact pads on the cantilever’s base using graphite and silver inks and stencils cut out of vinyl film.

A force applied to the cantilever bends it and stresses the carbon piece, changing its resistance. In piezoresistive silicon sensors, the resistance change is typically measured using an electrical circuit called a Wheatstone bridge, which is fabricated on a chip along with the MEMS device. The Harvard researchers constructed their bridge circuit on the paper by simply gluing resistors at appropriate locations and then connecting them into the circuit using silver ink.

Whether you’re playing with an industrial paper cutter or bookletmaker, office machines are making their way into homes and DIY projects alike. Robin Eastwood in St. Louis has even turned crafting with machines like these into a business. She uses vintage book covers to make new, blank journals, and has made this her full-time job. With machines getting smaller and easier to use, more and more people are finding news ways to use them. Here she describes the process, in an interview by Karen Deer with stltoday.com:

I have a large industrial paper cutter, and I cut the spine off the book. Next, I take a chunk of paper (about 70 pages) and cut it down to size so that it will fit into the book. Then, I punch holes with an industrial hole puncher into the book cover and in the paper. Finally, I take a wire coil (the bind) and I line it up with the holes and use a binding machine to close the coil and create a complete journal.

With a little creativity and the right equipment, the possibilities are endless. We’d love to hear about your DIY projects using paper cutters, binding machines, laminators and more.

Paper Cutters

Binding Machines

February is just around the corner and for a lot of kids around the country that means winter break. With such seemingly unpredictable weather this winter many parents are looking for ways to keep their children entertained other than just propping them up in front of the TV. Paper cutters, which years ago were relegated to just schools and offices, have found their way into homes with the rise in popularity of scrapbooking – and may be just the right tool for both entertainment and sparking creativity. Here are a few fun projects using yours:

How to Make Crafts From Your Kids’ Art – by Natasha Lawrence at eHow.

Paper Mosaics – from TLC

Paper Cutter Art Projects for Kids – from Artists Helping Children

Porcupine or Hedgehog Paper Plate Craft – from DLTK Crafts for Kids

Guillotine Cutters

Trimmer Cutters

Suite101 – Choosing a Paper Trimmer

Factors include: Size, Safety, Cost, Performance & Appearance

Size – Smaller paper trimmers are best for crafters who are on the move and pack their tools into a tote bag. Scrapbookers who attend crops may want a small trimmer. Alternatively, larger paper trimmers are more stable and provide more accurate cuts. Larger trimmers also generally have higher quality blades, which stay sharper longer. Also, crafters who work with 12 in. paper sheets will require a paper cutter that has a cutting length of at least 12 in.

Click on a type below to see different types of paper cutters:

Guillotines

Trimmers

Stack Cutters

Reprinted from MBM Corp. Website

Click here for the original Japanese story