A Visit from One of My Favorite Card Companies, Saturn Press

Perhaps the nicest catalog I get each year is the one from Saturn Press. 2010 was on beautiful pink stock, and featured their new Niagara Falls card, a shimmering mix of blue pink and orange. Saturn is our most popular letterpress line. I don't know how common it is in the midwest, but when I go to Boston, their bookplates are everywhere.

I was ready to place a reorder this weekend. Putzing around on Sunday at my desk in back (the snow left me a bit superfluous on the floor), I was surprised to hear Jason come back and tell me that the press owners were in the store.

"Really? You're kidding. They're from Maine. What are they doing here? And where are they?"

Not surprisingly, they were in the card deparment. I went over to say hi. It turns out that James vanPernis and Jane Goodrich were visiting their paper mill, and decided to visit a few of their customers on the way back to the airport. And no suprise, they use George A. Whiting paper mill, a family-owned independent in Menasha (and yes, one of the few independents left in the United States). Here's more about the mill. Is this cool or what?

I asked them what's in the pipeline for 2011, their 25th anniversary season. The answer is wild animals and mottoes. The latter is an all-type card. I'm not usually crazy about this sort of thing, but if anyone can change my mind, it's Saturn Press. There are also some new bookplates. I made a pitch for a bookplate with more space to write. Who knows?

I also asked what I should be carrying of theirs that I'm not currently. Goodrich had an answer right away. "Our luggage tag labels." Of course, I later learned that these tags are a personal passion, with over 8000 in her personal collection.

I sent them to Beans and Barley for dinner, another of their customers. I recommended the chicken burrito and poppy seed torte. Then I put together a Saturn Press order.

And though we carry a nice assortment, for the best selection of their cards in the area, I'm told you should go to Artist and Display. And you should go anyway, as they are a fabulous indie art supply store.