Printing the Covers for The Kind of Girl

It's that time of year again! When we leave our desks and put on our printing aprons to letterpress the covers of our contest-winning chapbook! On June 11 and 12, Kathleen and I joined our head designer and letterpress printer extraordinaire Rebecca Saraceno in North Andover, Massachusetts, to print covers for Kim Henderson's The Kind of Girl. This was our seventh year printing at the amazing Museum of Printing—thanks again to them for their support and use of their Vandercook presses!

In seven years we've tried a number of exciting letterpress techniques, including using metallic inks, wood type, hand-carved artwork, and an array of paper shapes, textures, and colors. The new challenges we took on this year were using linen paper (Silvertone, by Neenah Paper) and using both ink colors on the artwork by employing an overlay technique. It was an exciting and busy couple of days and we can't wait for you to see the finished covers, available wrapped around Kim Henderson's equally gorgeous stories! Preorder is available now and the book launches August 5!

Here are some photos and videos of this year's cover printing:


Rebecca printing the first color ink (silver) on the Vandercook.

The silver ink and artwork on press

Special thanks to RMP designer Heather Butterfield and RMP intern Becca Pollock for their help on the 11th!

Dry and ready for the next ink color

Rebecca printing the second color—purple!

Kathleen, Rebecca, and me (Abby) with in-progress and finished covers

Here's a tour of the finished covers drying all over among the Museum's amazing presses

The finished cover!

Reserve your copy of Kim Henderson's The Kind of Girl here!