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Wild Ink Press is a little letterpress studio in Chico, up in northern California. We design and manufacture (made in our space from start to finish): witty and pretty greeting cards, stationery and other paper goods in our downtown shop renovated from an old soda bottling plant. We keep old printing machines and techniques alive, but liven them up with fresh artwork and zingy prose! Our paper goods are eco-produced from recycled stock and also 100% made in the USA (by us) for you.

Owner and designer Rebekah Tennis started Wild Ink Press­ in 2009, springing out of a desire to create a cherished, finished product. Rebekah has a BFA in Graphic Design, and after working both in a corporate design firm and as a freelance designer, while she loved her job, she found the nature of branding design to be a frustrating factor - Websites getting tweaked over and over, logos stretched out of proportion, with no finality to the work. She longed to create art that was both finished (forever!) and cherished. Hence, Wild Ink Press was born, to create beautiful paper goods that others would value and enjoy. Her husband Matt listened to her wild-haired ideas and they both took a series of letterpress classes at the San Francisco Center for the Book, then made the plunge and purchased a 1908 Chandler and Price Platen Press on Ebay. That was what started it all!

When not designing and printing greeting cards, Rebekah and Matt can be found wrangling their three young boys, running a tractor on the family rice farm, or attempting to travel the world.

The company has grown and expanded over the years, and we now are a staff of seven, have a retail and printing space in downtown Chico where we still do just what we started at the beginning: design cards, print them on old presses, one ink at a time, and package them with care for you to give and receive.

  • We all know you came here to see the shiny letterpress beasts, right? Wild Ink Press uses six presses almost daily: our three Heidelberg Windmills - C3PO (the Shiny Guy), R2D2 (the one that fell over), and Alpha (our first), a Vandercook Universal III proof press (which could have been it’s own mortgage), and our original Chandler & Price and Golding Jobber 10 x 15 platen presses. The seventh is our Kelsey 5 x 8 hand press and we mostly use that for wee visitors to our shop.

    We mix inks, by hand, one color at a time. On any given day, we can be found drawing, plating, printing, packaging and shipping cards. You can check out our Brick and Mortar store in Chico and pay us a visit to see our little shop in operation!


Charlene, fulfillment coordinator

virtue/vice

Double check / Triple check

job haiku

Fulfill the order.

A handwritten thank you note,

It's in the details.

Daily Zen

Packaging calendars

favorite wild ink press card

Carrol, stationery finisher

virtue/vice

Cookie Baker/Used Books

job haiku

Check cards for print flaws

Recycled Paper has blobs

OK? Pack them up.

Daily Zen

Lots of cards to package

favorite wild ink press card

Rik Pape (Pape®), head pressman

virtue/vice

Wanting Perfection / Wanting Perfection

job haiku

Blend the ink just so

Music of the Heidelberg

Pull the Devil’s Tail

Daily Zen

Parking Bicycle in the the Pressroom or using the 100 year old cutter

favorite wild ink press card 


Charity, packaging

virtue/vice

Productive/Particular

job haiku

Hands work in time with

The kuh-shwee-shwooo of the press.

The old song of ink.

Daily Zen

When visitors ask about the presses, I get to explain the process, and their faces light up when they realize what they are holding.

favorite wild ink press card

Rebekah Tennis, boss lady

virtue/vice

Renaissance Woman/Compulsive Straightener

job haiku

Hm. Good Idea?

Sketch it out. Pretty it up.

Making cards is art.

Daily Zen

Pantone Picking

favorite wild ink press card

Natalie, photography

virtue/vice

Appreciating the little things / Noticing the little mistakes

job haiku

You may not see me

But my styled shots greet you

On our cute website!

Daily Zen

Camera in hand and Photoshop open

favorite wild ink press card


Matt Tennis, cook & bottle washer

virtue/vice

Funny Guy/Joker

job haiku

Drop in to say "hi"

Mess up Rik's nice area

Print on tympan sheet

Daily Zen

Using Geometry on a daily basis

favorite wild ink press card

Charlotte, shop baby

virtue/vice

Full of joy/Sticky-fingered

job haiku

My mom works here so

I tag along sometimes too.

Mostly to play ball.

Daily Zen

Playing twine ball soccer with Rik Pape

favorite wild ink press card