Letterpress Playing Cards

There are a handful of activities tailor-made for the basement: tasteful boudoir photography, printing, and card playing. While he may not be able to help you with the first one, Stuart Bradley at Railway Station Press has produced a wonderful set of letterpress playing cards on his C&P tabletop Pilot. Aside from being a darn good printer (having been a student of his, I can tell you first hand), Stuart has a keen eye for producing interesting pieces. Here's his description:

a letterpress printed deck of 54 playing cards based on the Midway Midgets, a set of ornaments cast by BB&S in 1893 in honor of the Chicago World's Fair. These characters were actual participants on the Midway of the Fair. "Midget" referred to the size of the type ornament and not the person portrayed.

Aside from the cards themselves, there's some nice historical information on the fair, as well as the production of the set itself.

For those in the DC area, Stuart teaches printing on the same press he used to create these cards. The classes run 8 hours, covering all aspects of printing from typesetting to lockup to printing. Best of all, you get to create your very own printed piece. (Sorry, tasteful boudoir photos not included.)