Cleanwash Letterpress: A Refreshing Spin on Life and Letterpress

Cleanwash Letterpress was started by a fellow SCAD graduate, Colleen Walsh. I met Colleen in the Fall of 2003- the beginning of our Sophomore year of college- through some mutual friends. I have a particular soft spot for her because we’re both the youngest of big families and she’s just really fun and talented. She was a Fibers major in school, but when she moved to Philadelphia in 2007, she went to work in a print studio. She started Cleanwash Letterpress in 2010 and things have really fallen into place for her. Probably because she’s really, really awesome.

Her studio is located in Kensington (North Philadelphia) in a huge warehouse space shared with other artists, welders, carpenters, and musicians. Every time I visit, Colleen has expanded and redecorated her space in some way and I always end up staying at least an hour longer than I intended, just chatting, checking out her upcoming interesting projects, and brainstorming the newest additions to the Franklin Square-Cleanwash collection.

Colleen makes our price tags, business cards, and a line of really cute cards. All cards come with a kraft paper envelope in a biodegradable plastic sleeve!! Her mission statement really sums things up for her, “Cleanwash is a one-woman press, specializing in animals, pattern, cute humor, and back-handed compliments.”

Aside from the hilarious cards pictured above, Cleanwash Letterpress creates a lot of custom event invitations, stationery, journals, business cards, and anything else your heart desires! Check out her website at http://cleanwashletterpress.com/ and her blog at http://cleanwashletterpress.com/blog. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry (only because you’re laughing so hard- her stuff is so good!), you’ll want to have everything she makes in your life at all times.

Allow me to introduce you to Will and Lauren Stichter- two of the loveliest people I’ve ever met and the brains behind HYMY Industries (http://hymyind.com/index.htm) and Lauren Ingalls Pottery (http://www.lingalls.com/), our newest locally made products!

Will’s HYMY is an art/design/fashion/architecture collective who designed and created the awesome t-shirts, cards, wall calendars, and aprons that we now carry in the store. Everything is of a very limited run (and some are one of a kind!), so you’re sure to impress your friends by snapping up something from his collection before they’re all gone.

The shirts are $36 and come in men’s small through x-large, women’s small through large, and we even have 3 in kid’s sizes!

We have two styles of cards: letterpress “Thank You” cards come in a pack of 3 for $10, and the letterpress/hand-spirographed (!!! remember spirographs??) “you are awesome.” cards are $4 each (and make me want to say, “no, card, YOU’RE awesome. For real.”)

The calendar posters are only $25 and we only have 9 left (HURRY! HURRY!). Luckily for all of you out there, Will gifted one of these to us, so you don’t have to fight me off as you reach for the last one!

The aprons are completely handmade from start to finish by Will and his mom (I know, it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard, too!). Will screens each one after they’re cut out, so each apron is unique in pattern placement and then his mom sews the pieces together and her perfect craftsmanship makes my picky heart sing! $45 (and worth every penny!)

Lauren’s eponymous line of pottery lanterns is handmade in her classroom studio (Lauren is an art teacher for special needs kids) and not only are these lanterns super cute, they’re surprisingly affordable ($15- 60!!!). I’m having a really hard time not buying all of them for myself! They come in a variety of colors and sizes and would really look great in every room of my house (err, your house)! I’m really in love, and you will be too. There really is such a thing as love at first sight!