The Stationers Guild

From January 16th through April 12, Crane & Co. will offer two distinct promotional offers to Guild dealers who carry the Crane wedding, Kate Spade and Martha Stewart wedding collections.    If you are planning a wedding, drop into a Guild member store in your neighborhood to see these exciting Crane wedding invitation collections.

For all engraved and letterpress orders, you will receive  free invitation and return address dies (a $148 value for the two dies) on orders of 100 or more invitation.  Letterpress dies are not returned.

For thermography and flat print orders, clients will receive free return address printing on their outer envelopes (a minimum $58 retail value) on orders of 100 or more invitations.

Visit a qualified stationer in your neighborhood to learn more about Crane’s exciting new wedding invitation promotions.  See the difference in ink colors from live samples available at a qualified Crane dealer near you.  Remember, ink colors change dramatically depending on the printing process employed.  Expert advice is always welcomed on an occasion as important as your wedding.   Poor internet resolution distorts colors and the printed outcome will probably not conform to your expectations.  Some things are best done in person.  Selecting your wedding invitation is one of them.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

When I think of Crane – actually, Crane & Co. – I think of engraving.  I have visited their printing facility in North Adams, MA a couple of times and have always been fascinated by the artisans who create beautiful engraving dies and the craftspeople who use these dies to print Crane’s distinctive engraved stationery and custom  invitations.  Each year, I look forward to their their engraved  Christmas Tree which often  introduces their personalized holiday greeting card collection.  This year’s Classic Christmas Tree is just another example of Crane’s remarkable craftmaship:

Crane's Engraved Classic Christmas Tree

I think you will agree, that this year’s Christmas Tree is an outstanding example of Crane’s superior craftsmanship.  Each color on the greeting card requires a separate die.  Crane’s skilled printers must apply each color during a separate press run, careful to make sure that each color is  closely registered  to an adjacent color(s) to produce the finished design.   In this case, four separate press runs were required to produce this year’s colorful Classic Christmas Tree.

Peter Hopkins, Crane’s historian and Blogger, has made an instructional video that demonstrates the process of engraving.

Stationery, particularly fine stationery, is “touched” many times by skilled craftspeople.  The level of precision required to produce these beautiful holiday card designs is a tribute to Crane’s talented artisans and their love for fine paper.

For those of you wish to see Crane’s 2009 Holiday Card collection, please visit a stationery store in your neighborhood to discuss all of the customization features offered by Crane.

Blogger and Crane & Co. historian Peter Hopkins posted an interesting article on his “discovery” of several thousand old engraving dies at Crane’s printing facility in North Adams, MA.  Accompanied by Gayle Driggers, Crane & Co.’s Product Manager for Personalized Stationery, Peter uncovered some stunning steel dies from times past.  Samples of some these beautiful designs may be found on his blog.

While most dies are now etched on copper, engraving continues to be a popular and elegant form of printing.  Skilled artisans at Crane & Co. have years of experience in creating dies from their own proprietary designs or entirely new dies from artwork supplied by their clients.  Sheila May of Therese Saint Clair remarks “that Crane has produced some stunning dies based on ink drawings of stately homes, the recreation of family crests from old papers and even four-color plates for golf stationery.  Since each color requires a separate die and press run, it is quite remarkable to see these skilled craftsmen operate the presses to achieve the close-registration required in most multiple color print jobs.” 

The opaque color of the ink, raised printing and the slight bruising on the back of the paper is a sign that your stationery or invitation has been engraved.

Sheila May
Therese Saint Clair

Several years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to tour Crane & Co.’s impressive printing and paper manufacturing plants in western Massachusetts.  Crane’s facilities are spread throughout a number of plants and buildings in and around Dalton and North Adams in the Berkshires along the Appalachian Trail.  The rich traditions of this 200 year-old company are literally everywhere.  While most towns have a Main Street, Dalton has Crane Avenue.  For a delightful two hours of American history and fascinating insights into the art of making paper, we certainly recommend a visit to Crane’s Museum of Papermaking.

One of the more interesting aspects of our visit was seeing how engraving dies are made and watching Crane’s skilled craftsmen hand-feed paper through the printing press.  Together with letterpress, engraving is one of the oldest and most traditional forms of printing.  It is often used for wedding invitations, baby announcements and for both business and social stationery.  The raising printing, opaque colors and bruising on the back of the paper are signs that the paper has been engraved.

In this excellent video, Peter Hopkins, who writes the Crane Insider Blog, describes the process of engraving in exceptional detail.  Short of visiting the plant, Peter’s video illustrates the care, craftmanship and labor-intensive process of creating fine engraved papers.

To see the rich colors and beautiful samples of Crane’s engraved papers, contact a Guild member store in your neighborhood for more information.

Richard May
Founding Member