PHOTOS: Printing the old fashioned way at Tin Can Valley Printing
Craig Kotasek uses presses from the late 1800s to early 1900s he has rescued from closing newspapers to create posters and announcements at Tin Can Valley Printing, housed in a renovated granary at his family farm near Le Sueur.
Tin Can Printing 1
Craig Kotasek, owner of Tin Can Valley Printing Company, looks at a card he printed in his shop near his Le Sueur home. The shop used to be a soybean granary on his family’s farm.
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Craig Kotasek, owner of Tin Can Valley Printing Company, prints cards on his 1923 press in a shop near his Le Sueur home. The press is the newest one he owns.
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Some of the letterpress posters Kotasek has made at Tin Can Valley Printing.
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The first woodcuts Kotasek carved were a guitar and a banjo, which he used on music posters.
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Letters wait to be used in one of Tin Can Valley Printing’s posters.
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Craig Kotasek, owner of Tin Can Valley Printing Company, prints a card in his shop near his Le Sueur home.
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Some of the woodcuts Kotasek uses in his poster and card printing.
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Craig Kotasek, owner of Tin Can Valley Printing Company, works in his print shop, a remodeled soybean granary on his family farm near Le Sueur.
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A woodcut and resulting Valentine’s Day card.
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Cans of ink wait to be used.
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Red ink is ready to be used on a card at Tin Can Valley Printing Company.
Pat Christman
Photographer for the Mankato Free Press.
As featured on
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