Cranberry Press

WHAT'S NEW AT CRANBERRY PRESS

I N T E R N E T   V O L U M E   6 ,   N U M B E R   1 . . . . S P R I N G - S U M M E R   2 0 1 0

NEWS --

Our cards are now available through Dard Hunter Studios as well as from a wide variety of fine gift and stationery shops around the country. Please click on the website above to order, or inquire about a source near you.

.

OUR STUDIO

Visit us in Kingston, NM

Well, we've really done it this time! You can now find us (if you're adventuresome) at 6000 ft. in the Black Range of the Gila Wilderness -- the Ghost Town of Kingston, New Mexico, to be exact.

Here we design and print our cards on old turn of the century equipment. Marilyn takes charge of quality control and much of the design and concept work, while Mark does the heavy lifting and runs the press. Marilyn's work has been exhibited at the Geronimo Springs Gallery in Sierra County. In addition, Mark Nero has been a Visiting Artist and Asst. Professor at New Mexico State University and has shown work at the Southwest Regional Invitational at the NMSU Art Gallery.

As Seen in the
Las Cruces Sun-News


by Jim Luksic, Business Editor
photos by Jim Luksic

Kingston Couple Provides Handmade Cards, Gifts by using Antique Presses --

In the battle of Man vs. Machine, the Cranberry Press favors the human element.

That's because Mark and Marilyn Nero, co-owners of the Kingston-based company, use old-fashioned presses and elbow grease to create their handmade cards, print books and produce a variety of other stationery items.

"I don't think we're competing with big retailers," said Marilyn. "We're providing hand made products that are specifically sought after by a targeted market."

Nestled between Hillsboro and Silver City, in the small village of Kingston off Highway 152, the Cranberry Press studio shelters an antique flatbed press and an 1889 letterpress. "This location struck a chord with us. This is where we need to be," said Mark.

Although the studio, built in the early '90s, doesn't officially open until Aug. 25, the Neros' products are available in various shops throughout the nation. According to Mark, the company's name is derived from its original setting - amid the cranberry bogs on Washington state's coast.


Mark Nero, who co-owns the Cranberry Press with his wife, Marilyn, feeds handmade cards into a letterpress inside the couple's Kingston studio.

The Neros were from New Mexico and decades ago moved to Seattle and then, three years ago, relocated to Arizona. The couple is now in the process of moving everything to Kingston. They specialize in making designs from the turn-of-the-century arts-and-crafts era. Wedding invitations, notes and limited-edition books are among the Cranberry products, many of which are inspired by - and patterned after - the work of artist Dard Hunter.

The antique presses enable the Neros to print their hand-made cards one at a time. The type is hand-set and colors are applied by press runs or by hand, using stencil and brush. "Printing has changed more in the past 15 years than in the previous 300 years," said Mark, who previously used computers for his graphic design company. "But I've always preferred working with type and letters. I like the hands-on, planning and problem-solving aspects of our business." He added that he especially appreciates the history and texture of recycled, handmade and acid-free archival papers.

The Neros acknowledged their manual labor takes somewhat longer - requiring patience and discipline - to create products than national chains like Hallmark do. The couple believes, however, their unique merchandise atones for any lack of speed and mass production. "I think it can be a profitable business," said Marilyn, who described herself as the company's organizer and quality-control person. "Customers recognize the handwork and are willing to seek out quality work. They realize it's one-of-a-kind, but still affordably priced."


Some of the couple's cards and other stationery items are displayed in the studio.

The business has developed name recognition over the years, Mark pointed out, in part because they attend Arts & Crafts conferences around the country. Cranberry Press ads appear in programs at the conferences, and the Neros distribute a catalog once a year. "We're fairly well known among enthusiasts and collectors in the industry," said Mark.

According to Joseph Galli, owner of Illinois-based Oak Park Home & Hardware, the Neros' merchandise sells very well in his shop. "I love the Cranberry Press products. The notecards are really popular at our store because we have other Dard Hunter-style items," Galli said. He pointed out the Neros have no trouble delivering their goods to Oak Park on time. "They are always very efficient," said Galli.

At this point, the Neros have no assistants, sales force or distributors. But that could change, Mark added, once the holidays arrive and they need help with shipping. He will start working on Christmas items as early as this week.

By its nature, the company is self-restricting. "We do a limited number of mats, frames and special orders," he said. From a business standpoint, Mark insisted that quality is critical. "Marilyn and I believe that we increase profitability by adding value," he said, noting that Cranberry Press is somewhat "archaic and static" for a reason. The manual labor serves a purpose. "Our reward is creating by hand, doing it right and enjoying the work. I know there are easier ways to make money," added Mark.

Cranberry Press can be reached at (505) 895-5032, or via the Web at www.cranberrypress.com.

Jim Luksic can be reached at jluksic@lcsun-news.com.

The following article appeared in the Columbus Dispatch and several other eastcoast papers.
It gives some interesting history and background on the work we are doing with Dard Hunter Studios.

by Bill Eichenberger -- Dispatch Book Critic
photos by Matt Sullivan

Chillicothe, OH -- Dard Hunter III had everything figured out. The day he graduated from college, where he was studying business management, he would put on his stockbroker's suit and take Wall Street by storm. No way would he follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. No way would he have anything to do with papermaking.


Dard Hunter III in one of the libraries of Mountain House, his residence in Chillicothe.
"I was never one to do anything I didn't really want to do," Hunter said recently at Mountain House, the family home in Chillicothe for eight decades. Then, in 1989, when Dard Hunter II died, everything changed. "I saw the light," the son said. The light guided him back to hs grandfather's legacy as a graphic designer and the world's foremost authority on the history of papermaking, and to his father's legacy as a bookmaker and craftsman of the highest order. And so Hunter founded Dard Hunter Studios at Mountain House, where paper is still made by hand and 175 original designs by his grandfather are still applied to cards, prints, stationery, ceramics and jewelry.

At the turn of the century, grandfather Hunter, an artist, was working for his father's newspaper in Chillicothe. In 1904 he joined the renowned Roycrofters, an arts-and-crafts community in East Aurora, N.Y. Later he studied elements of graphic design and bookmaking in Vienna, Austria; worked in Austria and England; then returned to the United States, where he founded a paper mill in Marlborough, N.Y.

At the time, in 1912, not a single mill in this country was producing handmade paper. Hunter eventually traveled the world studying papermaking techniques. He wrote 20 books on the subject, including eight that he made entirely by himself. Mass-produced books can be beautiful, although many aren't; but handmade books can be stunning as works of art. The only entirely harmonious book, Hunter thought, is conceived, written and manufactured by one person.


Mark, left, and Marilyn Nero of Cranberry Press, inspect color prints on handmade cotton rag paper.
The first order of business when Dard Hunter III chose to pursue papermaking was to restore Mountain House; the second was to figure out how to use printing equipment nearly 100 years old.

He happened to run into printers Mark and Marilyn Nero of Cranberry Press, who now visit Mountain House three or four times a year to work the manual printing presses.

"We met on an Internet news group," Mark Nero said recently during a break at Mountain House. "Dard (III) asked a question about adjusting the press roller and signed off, 'Dard Hunter.' I sent him a message back asking, 'Dard Hunter who?' And he sent me the reply 'Dard Hunter III, that's who.' Of course I knew all about the Roycrofters and had collected their stuff. And I knew about Dard Hunter."

The two struck up a friendship that in turn inspired Hunter to hire the Neros. "We're making reprints rather than reproductions," Nero said. "It's a fine distinction, but we use 100 percent of Dard's designs, down to the colors. And we use the same press Dard used." Papermaking and printing by hand are labor-intensive: The Neros take an entire workweek to produce 50 or so three-color prints.

They are in good company, though: Hunter II and his father worked for years producing the 1950 magnum opus Papermaking by Hand in America. The two earned 5 cents an hour for their effort, they estimated.

"Doing all this by hand has never been a get-rich-quick scheme," Nero said with a laugh. Hunter concurred: "My father actually lost money on his (1981) book The Life Work of Dard Hunter." The limited-edition biography, handmade, features all 175 of Dard Hunter's original designs. Papermaking by Hand and Life Work sell for as much as $12,500 apiece in rare-book catalogs.

Still, the Hunter designs have never really gone away. "They have been imitated so much that they have always been here, there and everywhere," Nero said. "Lots of people will look at one of Dard's designs and say, 'Oh, I recognize that.' But they won't know who Dard is. We're trying to bring the name Dard Hunter back."

Although he seeks to preserve his grandfather's legacy, Hunter doesn't see himself as someone on a mission. "I never knew my grandfather. He died before I was born," he said. "Whenever I talked to my father about my grandfather, I was interested in Dard Hunter the man rather than Dard Hunter the achiever. So, in a strange way, I feel something of a curator of a site; in a crazy way, I don't feel a family connection when it comes to my grandfather's work."


Detail from the book
Paper Making by Hand in America,
written and hand-printed by Dard Hunter.
Handmade type punches
made by Dard Hunter II.

His grandfather and father had a passion for handmade books and other objects. (His father made furniture for Mountain House.) And, although they understood the practicality of automation, they harbored a prejudice. "My father's biggest complaint was about softbound books. He didn't care for them at all," Hunter recalled. "He never sold reprint rights to his books, because he didn't want to see them produced in paperback."

He did make an exception: "He sold the rights to Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft to Dover Publishing. And when he saw the paperback edition of it, he almost flipped out. "But he understood the need for it, too. He understood that a $15 paperback edition made it possible for students to buy a book they couldn't afford if it were a $100 hardcover."

Thanks to his ubiquitous designs, Dard Hunter has cast a long shadow on arts and crafts in the United States. Dianne Ayres, owner of Arts and Crafts Period Textiles in Oakland, Calif., uses two of the designs for her linens. "We use the tulip design and the rose design," she said. "You see Dard Hunter's rose everywhere in arts and crafts. I think his designs are really striking in their simplicity."

Hunter is pleased that Ayres credits his grandfather by name in her catalog and on her Web site. "And as a way of saying thank you," he said, "Dianne sends us the textile scraps, which we use to make paper." Paper that Hunter didn't intend to make -- no, sir -- until he saw the light.