OBLATION PAPERS

A Portland staple built on sustainability and beauty

Jennifer and Ron Rich, the husband and wife duo who founded, own and continue to operate Oblation Papers, began selling their handmade paper goods at the Eugene Saturday Market in 1989 and began printing by letterpress in 1994, then opened their brick & mortar store in the Pearl District in 1998. Since its inception, the store continues to bring handmade papers from around the globe to the local community. They carry a wide assortment of stationery, pens and pencils, notebooks and journals, office supplies, refurbished typewriters, and gifts.

Oblation began by taking unwanted paper products, converting them back into pulp, and making it into fresh, new paper. In their urban paper mill, they employ traditional techniques to make handmade paper sheets with a 100% cotton, acid-free fiber source by using recycled remnants from the garment industry.

The team at Oblation has been designing custom wedding invitations and other custom projects for nearly three decades. Their letterpress print shop is home to two antique chandler & price clamshell presses and two Heidelberg windmill presses reflecting an era of quality and craftsmanship. This historic method of printing uses raised type and images, inked and pressed into the surface of heavy papers. Sheets are fed one at a time into cast iron platen presses.

Their process begins with original designs tailored to your occasion. For each order their production staff creates individual plates on location, prints with soy-based inks, and finishes every piece by hand. You can check out the presses in action through the windows from their retail store into the studio.

Be sure to pop in for a visit to play with the vintage typewriters and say hello to their three lovely parakeets, Claude, Vincent, and Pablo.