Local business embraces art of vintage letterpress
At Somersault Letterpress, “Touching the goods is appreciated.”
Owned by Las Vegas couple Mitch Hanson and Amy Pienta, the studio has been supplying the community with handcrafted paper products using antiquated techniques for three years.
And when the presses aren’t humming, it’s the couple’s minds that buzz with new creative ideas.
“People seek us out when when they want something unique and extraordinary,” Pienta said. “They come to us when they want things like wedding invitations or birth announcements because they’re meant to be more personal and special.”
Like two halves of a brain, the duo takes advantage of their individual strengths. Pienta, the right side, hand-designs each product while Hanson, the left side, focuses on the mechanics.
“We take an idea, and we pull it from our brains and out through our hands onto paper,” Pienta said. “We put things out into the world where it never existed before. From start to finish, products are born in this studio. It gives me chills thinking about it.”
Like actual employees, the business’ letterpresses also have names. “Peanut” is a hand-fed Chandler & Price Craftsman from the 1930s, and “Eva” is a 1950s auto-fed Heidelberg Windmill.
Although the machines and techniques are dated, Pienta is adamant the art is still alive.
“Even though it’s only a small niche, paper companies are still creating products that only our industry can use,” she said. “I don’t get how people say this is dying out when there are still new things being created for it.”
Depending on its complexity, a job can take up to two weeks. Each design is burned into a metal plate using ultraviolet light and water. The plate is aligned onto a frame, which is covered in ink from a rolling lever.
Using about 3,000 pounds of force, the frame is pressed against sheets of paper, leaving behind ink-filled impressions.
“It’s liberating when you’re using your whole body to focus on something and not just one part of it,” Pienta said. “You’re lifting things and using your brain and hands, and you’re constantly standing and using your whole body to produce something. It’s amazing.”
Hanson said he lost 35 pounds in the first four months of running the business.
“It’s physically a lot of work, but we could never go back to having desk jobs,” Hanson said. “Hell on earth for us would be working in a cubicle all day and never getting to touch paper again.”
The duo met more than 10 years ago when the agency Pienta worked for hired Hanson as its printer sales representative. But when the economy crashed a few years later, the couple lost a large portion of their income.
“We had to find out what we were going to do because what we were doing was not fun anymore, and it wasn’t making any money,” Hanson said. “We visited some friends that had a sheep farm in Minnesota, so we were ready to buy our sheep farm and live that farm life.”
As the couple prepared for the trek back east, Hanson met a woman who mentioned she was selling her letterpress business.
“The lady just mentioned that (she) and her husband were retiring, and it all weirdly, kind of cosmically fell together,” Pienta said. “Eventually, the farm idea fell out the back of our brains, and the letterpress became our full focus, and it still is. We’re way too passionate about it for it to only be a hobby.”
After cashing out their life savings, the couple purchased their home/studio near Windmill Lane and Las Vegas Boulevard, and the business was born.
“We wanted to get away from that corporate economy because it became very cutthroat,” Pienta said. “Everyone was looking for jobs that were fast, cheap and easy to get out the door, so we started this business with the intention of taking it down a notch and really making things as beautifully and perfectly as they could be.”
From the studio’s shelving to the letterpress plates, Hanson and Pienta try to reuse and recycle everything.
“There’s not a new piece of equipment in here that is brand new, except maybe our ink jet printer that does the proofs,” Hanson said. “Everything else is used and brought back to life from an old print shop or an old barn. We hand-make everything. It’s all blood, sweat and tears in here.”
Hanson and Pienta plan to attend the 54th annual Art in the Park in Boulder City on Oct. 4. They also plan to attend the Vegas Valley Book Festival Oct. 16-18.
For more information, visit somersaultletterpress.com or call 702-405-0501.
Contact Henderson View reporter Caitlyn Belcher at cbelcher@viewnews.com or 702-383-0403.
