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Kathryn started Blackbird Letterpress in Lafayette, Louisiana, in her friends’ house (Pudd and Leigh Anne, from back where her people are from) in 2003. Blackbird began with the purchase of a Chandler and Price "Old Series" platen letterpress (circa 1904) from a long-time printer in Hammond, Louisiana. The type came from a printer outside of Chicago. One crisp October weekend (well, crisp in Illinois, not necessarily in Louisiana), Pudd and Kathryn flew to the big midwestern city, loaded a couple tons of type and cabinets and other goodies out of a basement into a moving truck, and drove it back to Bayou Country. A collection of vintage printer’s cuts came from a long-time printer in New Iberia, Louisiana (the trip was luckily much shorter that time).
We now work out of a mural-clad building in Baton Rouge, which we share with a cool metalworking business, two frisky guard dogs, and a sweet little puppy that was dumped into our yard—really, no joke. It’s pretty much a two-girl show: Kathryn handles and designs the custom printing, and Kathryn and Jessica work together to create our product line.
Kathryn Hunter was trained as a printmaker and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking (1999) from Montana State University, Bozeman, and a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking (2003) from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
Jessica McDonald took two years of art classes in college but then changed her mind and got a law degree instead. She’s happy to be back to making art.
The three pups below are the original guard dogs. To see a fun trick that these three dogs like to do, check out this video, Jaws of Doom. But be prepared, it’s a little scary! |
