Deb Bastien and Kate Saliba have been teammates for decades, first as varsity field-hockey players at Bates College, and now in their Boston-based stationery company, where they produce offset-printed and letterpress notes, invitations, calendars, gift wrap, and holiday cards. The business originally started on Cape Cod, where Deb had relocated to be closer to family. […]
Deb Bastien and Kate Saliba Photo Credit : Michael Piazza
Deb Bastien and Kate Saliba have been teammates for decades, first as varsity field-hockey players at Bates College, and now in their Boston-based stationery company, where they produce offset-printed and letterpress notes, invitations, calendars, gift wrap, and holiday cards. The business originally started on Cape Cod, where Deb had relocated to be closer to family. (“Translation,” she jokes: “We needed free rent while we got this thing going.”) But they found the perfect headquarters in a renovated textile factory in Charlestown.
The pair have a particular fondness for letterpress. “It creates a three-dimensional impression, which we think is beautiful,” Deb says. So they print about 60 percent of their products in house on antique cast-iron letterpress machines. The remainder are produced by a press in Maine, which also handles offset printing.
Bastien and Saliba continue to be team players: They proudly note that their staff includes a talented violinist, a portrait artist, and a mathematician. And in recent years, Smudge Ink has also created two lines of vibrantly designed cards whose proceeds benefit local charities: WE CAN, a Cape Cod group offering mentoring, legal counsel, and education to women in transition; and Circle of Women, a Cambridge-based organization that funds schools for girls in developing countries. $8–$13. Smudge Ink, Charlestown, MA. 617-242-8228; smudgeink.com
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
