I’m a big lover of type. Serif; sans-serif; kerning, everything and anything. I’d been promising to visit the Ireland’s National Print Museum LINK or a long time and I finally got around to it this week. I had a bit of a wander trying to find Garrison Chapel in Beggar’s Bush Barracks and it was tucked away in a corner.

They’ve over a half-dozen presses, all reconditioned and in perfect working order. The sheer size of these machines is something to behold. The Shaw Pen ruling Machine is simply a goliath. Who thought pen ruling used to be so difficult? There’s a couple of pics below, but there’s an album on Facebook LINK.

The Head Minion’s been picked for jury duty this week so production will be delayed. Y’know cats away and the mice playing and all that jazz.

Back to form next week folks!

The new badge machine is much more powerful than what we had before. One of the perks is being able to experiment with materials other than paper. We’re very happy to say that we’ve a range of fabric badges LINK now available at 99 cent each. You can choose between the Polka Heart, Daisy, Rosa and Galaxy badges.

Exciting news at the SB HQ, we’ve been working on this for the last few weeks.

When springs started snapping on the old machine it was definitely time for a change. We’ve got a new badge machine and now we can also make 50mm badges. There’s new category types, so you can peep at the new custom listings of 25mm badges or magnets LINK or the 50mm badges or magnets LINK. Still, it’s surprising to see how large the new badges are compared to our usual smaller size.

Woo! We got featured in the Irish Independent for a Valentine’s Day article. Along with the great picture we had a few words written too. They’ll be a picture of the article hanging in the SB HQ soon.

At the Spike Badges HQ, we’re gearing up for the most romantic holiday of the year. Yup, that’s right, Valentine’s Day. It’s only a small selection at present but I’m hoping to add more badges the closer we get to Valentine’s Day.

You can check out the selection on the Valentine’s Day category.

Hope you and yours had a great Xmas and New Year. I spent the holidays with the family with almost dial-up internet speed. It’s great to be back in the workshop with DSL internet. Just before Christmas the Galway Arts Centre got in touch for some custom button badges. My fave one is the bunny.

‘Tis Christmas Eve and nothing was stirring, not even a mouse…
But…all the minions in the HQ were frantically wrapping presents ahead of Santy’s arrival.

This Christmas will be the usual of turkey and ham. Also many card games and rounds of Monopoly in those disappearing days between Christmas and New Year. A new addition to the entertainment is cooking up food à la Come Dine With Me. Let’s hope it all works out well.
Catch you in 2013!