Artist Spotlight: Meshwork Press

Meshwork Press was founded by artist and teacher, Haylee Ebersole (right) in October 2018 to create a space to teach her love of art and printmaking to youth in the neighborhood. Kyrie Bushaw (left), with a background in stationery, design and business management, joined the budding venture in June 2019. Together they make up the heart and head, brains and brawn of the storefront studio in Wilkinsburg, PA.

When not creating their own cards or printing client work, Meshwork Press partners with the Wilkinsburg Youth Project (WYP) and the Braddock Youth Project (BYP) to provide year round art, design & printmaking programming. They are committed to empowering youth with access to resources so that they can grow their creative talents and use them to build the future!

Tell us about the birth of Meshwork Press!

We had worked together previously and found that alot of our skills were complimentary. Plus, we just loved each other's company and appreciated the other's skill sets and work ethic. Both of us were driven to create a company that also operated as a community hub. Haylee left to take a job providing art and design programming to youth in the city and Kyrie followed shortly after with the dream of creating a business around that art programming to sustain and uplift it as well as providing a potential platform for youth and local artists' work to reach a larger audience.

Business duos are the cutest (though we might be biased...) How did the two of you come to join forces?

It felt like a very natural progression after working at a letterpress company together for a number of years. We have very twin energies when it comes to interfacing with the public and moving one million things forward at once to get a job done. We also have found open communication to be central to our relationship so it's paved the way for us to move thought all the decision making that we've had to do in the last 3 year. Somedays it feels like we make 85 decisions together, everything from budget, to future markets, to dialing in an ink color, to studio space issues. It's so much! We are trying to mind meld for efficiency.

How did you discover and learn the art of letterpress? Describe your process.

Haylee studied printmaking at Metropolitan State College of Denver and refined her letterpress skills on the job Sapling Press. I (Kyrie) discovered letterpress printing while working at a rad stationery store Wordshop in Denver, Colorado during design school and fell in love with the medium.

Your card designs are refreshingly clean and minimalist! Do you find that the nature of the letterpress process informs your style, or did your style inspire you to print on a press?

I'm dazzled by the process of letterpress printing and enjoy the ultra simplicity and beauty of it. I wanted to see how much warmth, fun and positive energy I could fit onto a 4.25” x 5.5" card while staying true to the letterpress medium and really using all of it's strengths. It was definitely the print method that informs the style of our paper products.

What does a typical day at your studio look like? How do you split duties and manage your time?

Haylee is usually working on the press, pulling orders, cutting paper or generally anything that involves our products directly. I (Kyrie) work more on my laptop updating our website and various wholesale platforms, running our social media, editing photos, returning emails, and coordinating with clients and buyers. We come together alot to make decisions about the business and rely on each for dialing in the aesthetics of all the goods we produce. It's so great having a built-in sounding board!

What do you enjoy doing in your “free time?”

Haylee is a runner, excellent host and enjoys weekend trips with friends to rest and recharge. Kyrie likes a long yoga sesh, finding a solo adventure with her pup and dreaming up the next overwhelming personal project to take on.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced to get to where you are now?

We've done a lot of work in understanding each other's communication and encouragement styles. That's required the most work and energy and has been the most rewarding to move through. We built more trust, respect and understanding between us and I think it's stunning to both of us. Once there is flow there, everything else is just decision making and scheduling.

How does the culture of your city contribute to the development of your independent business?

In our experience, Pittsburgh (and Wilkinsburg where the business is located, just outside the city) is a very supportive place to run a small business. We've had nonstop, tag teaming support since we began and it's made our business feel like it belongs not just to us, but everyone. There's alot of responsibility that comes with that but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We hear you also do a bit of teaching and workshops with local youth groups. Tell us more!

On a rotating basis, we partner with The Wilkinsburg Youth Project (WYP) to host youth artists from our neighborhood and also Braddock, PA. Programming runs 3-5pm 3 days a week during the school year with more days and longer hours during the summer. This past year, we designed our own 6 week program over the summer to encourage the creative practice for 5 local teens. They screen printed hoodies, made natural soap, screen printed hoodies and did a little branding and business planning around all their products. At the end, we held a market and most teens sold out of the goods they made. It was a super fun and encouraging community event.

Over the past 3 years the youth artists have really created some gorgeous work from personal portraits to event marketing to graphics for the bags used at the local food pantry. We are honored to host such a talented group of artists each semester and it really is the heart and soul of what we do.

Connect with Meshwork Press on Instagram @meshworkpress, and purchase their lovely letterpressed paper goods at www.meshworkpress.com