HUMBOLDT PARK — Stacey Stern has hand-printed for some of the biggest names around, including Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey.
It's an almost inexplicable feeling, Stern said, to press a letter that she knows will be held by the president.
"Knowing that I touched this and printed it and it was something that my hands left and went to his is an interesting thought for me," Stern said describing the birthday card she printed for Obama's 50th birthday.
"I put a little bit of love into that," she said.
The newest press in the third-floor printing lab that is Steracle Press dates back to the early 1960s.
The nimble three-team member shop prints contemporary letterpress from the top floor of a former bike factory in Humboldt Park.
The machines hum and bang with each pull of the level churning out finely pressed pieces of craft.
A Heidelberg press from the 1950s in Steracle Press's Humboldt Park headquarters. [DNAinfo/Paul Biasco]
Stern, who bought her first press about 13 years ago, has grown the company from its early roots in her garage.
She said buying that first press while she was working as a studio coordinator at Columbia College the "best thing I ever did."
"It gets addicting," Stern said of buying vintage presses. "Once you have one you have your ears out for other equipment."
Steracle Press currently has four vintages presses, one from 1910, two from the '50s and a fourth from the '60s.
Alyse Benenson, a 27-year-old former intern turned full-time member of the team, called working for the printing company a dream job.
"It's pretty cool to be a part of something that's so important for the people we work for," Benenson, an Andersonville resident, said.
"It's timeless," shes said of making the prints by hand.
The process of creating prints for customers, mainly wedding invitations and high-end business cards, is a craft that dates back to the 18th Century of letterpress printing.
It's a time-consuming and detail-oriented process that requires patience and precision.
"There's instant gratification," Stern said. "You put something on press, you ink it up, pull a print and there it is. It's exciting."
The Obama 50th birthday card was commissioned by Organizing for Action, a nonprofit group with ties to Obama's campaign machine.
More than 700,000 people signed the digital birthday card back in 2014 and a few of the hand-selected messages to the president were enclosed in the card that was delivered to the president.
Steracle Press still hasn't been paid the $131.82 bill for that one, but that story is for another day.
A selection of Steracle Press prints including a birthday card for the president's 50th. [DNAinfo/Paul Biasco]
Stern, who spends her free time away from the presses as a roller derby skater who goes by Hell Vetica, fell in love with ink at an early age.
She had a rubber stamp set as a little kid of the entire alphabet.
She stamped everything.
A few years after starting Steracle Press she came across some old photos of a seventh-grade class trip to Colonial Williamsburg.
In the mix of photos of classmates goofing off were two photos. One of a book bindery and the other of a letter press studio.
"As an adult it's like wow is this in your blood somehow? Is this meant to be? How did you actually stumble from seventh grade into this? How did you make this into your path?" Stern said.
A collection of prints inside Humboldt Park-based Steracle Press. [DNAinfo/Paul Biasco]
Alyse Benenson prints a wedding invitation at Steracle Press. [DNAinfo/Paul Biasco]
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