The Norlu Press

With our 1863 Geo. P. Gordon platen jobber, we are letterpress stationers and job printers who produce accurate reproductions and contemporary interpretations of ink on paper.

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Oathborn Bookmark Swag

Magic and machines. The Norlu Press has both.

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Handbill-Inspired Erie Canal Print

I was happy to be selected as a contributing artist to the American Printing History Association (APHA) Upstate New York Chapter’s “15 Prints on the Erie Canal” project in 2022. Now that the canal is celebrating its 200th anniversary, I wanted to share some of my submission’s background and technical details. Detail of the Erie Canal print on my circa 1863 Gordon Jobber press. This was the run…

Handbill-Inspired Erie Canal Print

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Bradley’s Beetles

This post describes the creative process and some technical aspects of my submission for the 2025 Panama City Publishing Company Letterpress by the Bay exhibition. “Bradley’s Beetles” Mixed media letterpress print on 5”x7” White KromeKote cardstock and 3.5” uncoated pulp board. Printed from antique metal types and electrotype engravings. What do an eminent 18th Century zoologist, a 20th Century…

Bradley’s Beetles

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Lafayette Comes to Fayetteville Commemorative Art Print

My 5”x7” print, inspired by ephemera from the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824-1825 tour of the United States. Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, known in America universally as “Marquis de Lafayette,” made a thirteen-month tour of the United States from August 1824 to September 1825. Nearly every place he visited greeted him as the hero of the American Revolution and relics of the honors he received…

Lafayette Comes to Fayetteville Commemorative Art Print

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More About Livermore

Composition of the beautiful 30 point Livermore Outline in a 2024 Norlu Press greeting card. If you enjoy reading blogs by talented and interesting graphic artists, chances are you subscribe to Brian P. Lawler’s The Blognosticar. In 2014 and 2022, he wrote six posts about the beautiful Livermore typeface. In great detail and highly readable language, Brian described the process of digitizing a…

More About Livermore

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Snow for Christkindlmarkt

The Ninth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the 2024 Christkindlmarkt This evening’s view from inside the chilly Norlu Press chalet, just as the first snowflakes began falling. The snow that hit the south towns of Buffalo and New York’s southern tier finally made its way to the city of Buffalo, where we have been selling letterpress greeting cards, coaster sets and Christmas ornaments at the 2024…

Snow for Christkindlmarkt

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At the Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt

The Eighth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the 2024 Christkindlmarkt The Norlu Press chalet with Mrs. and Mr. Claus.

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Der Weihnachtsmann Greeting Card

The Seventh of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the upcoming Christkindlmarkt On the eve of the Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt, I present the first German language printing I created: Der Weihnachtsman A6-Size (4.5”x6.25”) Christmas Card. Der Weihnachtsman is the German personification of the relatively recent (about two hundred years ago) secular Santa Claus/Father Christmas tradition. Owosso…

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Joy Variation of Festive Greeting Card

The Sixth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt We are packing up the 5×8 Kelsey Excelsior press and plenty of beautiful greeting cards, coasters, ornaments and prints tot this weekend’s Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt. One of the designs available is a variation of a card I have printed for several years. In my post from earlier this week, I described what I believe…

Joy Variation of Festive Greeting Card

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Page Wood Type Bookmark Stocking Stuffer

The Fifth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt Holiday greeting cards are a big part of what The Norlu Press is offering at this weekend’s Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt, but we also will have several other interesting letterpress printing items for sale. One of them is a handsome bookmark that will appeal to the typophiles and bibliophiles among us and make a…

Page Wood Type Bookmark Stocking Stuffer

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Banner for the Chalet

The Fifth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt The Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt is a premier event in the western New York holiday shopping season. Vendors will be located in 4’x8’ “chalets” with a large open window through which they will do business with their customers. A vendor chalet from last year’s Christkindlmarkt, The entire property will be made ready…

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Holiday Card with All the Bells and...Holly

The Fourth of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt This holiday card, which will be available at my chalet during the 2024 Hofbräuhaus Buffalo Christkindlmarkt on Thanksgiving weekend, may be the most festive of the many greeting cards I have designed and printed. It has the nostalgic Christmas bases covered, with green and red holly and berries, gold holly, silver bells and a…

Holiday Card with All the Bells and...Holly

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Traditional/Contemporary and Festive/Spiritual Card

The Third of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt Not all of my offerings at the Buffalo Hofbräuhas Christkindlmarkt are in the German language. Among the greeting cards and other items I will have for sale are several cards that capture the spiritual or festive nature of the Christmas season. At least one card combines both of those elements and today’s post introduces you to…

Traditional/Contemporary and Festive/Spiritual Card

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Christmas Ornament from a Coaster

The Second of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt Today’s post is about the commemorative paper Christmas ornament I designed and printed for the 2024 Buffalo Hofbräuhaus Christkindlmarkt. I posted previously about the 1895 introduction of a typeface called Bradley, its German fraktur characteristics and how Michael Moore of the Letterkraft Press found me a font of the…

Christmas Ornament from a Coaster

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The Christkindl[markt] Card

The First of Ten Posts in Ten Days for the Upcoming Christkindlmarkt With the Buffalo Hofbräuhas Christkindlmarkt just ten days away, I am beginning a series of short(er than usual) daily posts that feature one of the items I will be purveying at the big event. Today I am featuring a Nativity greeting card that is one of several German language items that I printed in my shop. This Christmas…

The Christkindl[markt] Card

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Christkindlmarkt Art Print

An art print from The Norlu Press that celebrates the upcoming season of the Christkindlmarkt.

In many German towns, the Christkindlmarkt, or “Christmas Market,” is the harbinger of the winter holiday season. According to Elizabeth Djinis in Smithsonian Magazine, “Scholars are often reluctant to definitively identify the first official Christmas market. (Cities themselves are less reticent, with Dresden proudly proclaiming its title of ‘the oldest Christmas market in Germany.’) Still,…

Christkindlmarkt Art Print

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Organizing a Fraktur Font

Getting closer to printing with these Fraktur types...

This is the fourth post in a series that documents my preparation at The Norlu Press for a special event that will take place later this year. More posts to follow as the big days get closer. Previous posts have explored German typography as I integrate several typefaces into a series of Christmas-themed printing. I have learned that working with historic calligraphy-based Fraktur types, like…

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