HC to U: Wedding announcements and a letterpress legacy at Atelier Garnata

María Luengo makes hand-crafted stationery on an antique printing press. Curious why she's pursuing a self-taught passion on a century-old machine, I visited Luengo in her studio, where she gave me a demonstration of this disappearing art.

Displayed in the doorway of her stone-vaulted workshop, María Luengo's hand-pressed wedding invitations are textural works of art. Designed by hand and printed on her 120-year-old "Victor" printing machine, the cards are letterpress stationery taken to a new level.

Luengo crafts her products, which include birth and wedding announcements, post cards, and business cards, with infectious passion in the enchanting calm of her (equally vintage) studio, Atelier Garnata, in the Provençal town of Lambesc.

MAKING WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE CENTURY...LITERALLY

Using both modern and traditional techniques to fashion her one-of-a-kind paper products, every reproduction, whether it be to announce Sophie and Fabien's festive engagement or the joyous birth of little George, is individually printed on a 1900-era Forknall "Victor" printing press that she bought from a printing enthusiast in Paris. Her designs come from her own hand, drawn on her tablet with the Procreate art application and then made into polymer plates—the raised surface of which forms the design that she will eventually use to create inked or relief impressions on her curated cardstock.

"The drawings I make for wedding announcements are classic and modern; they need to follow certain rules," she says. "The drawings I'm doing for post cards, like the bell tower in Lambesc, are more personal—which is sometimes challenging as I develop my style."

"The drawings I make for wedding announcements are classic and modern"

To think of it one way, with each card, her clients are getting a personal work of art complete with relief type impression, elegant paper, custom color combinations, and an aesthetic layout guided by a professional graphic artist.

RIGOROUS STUDY, CREATIVE TRAINING

A graphic artist, yes, but initially, Luengo began her career as an architecture graduate from Grenada University in Spain, before turning to graphic design with a post-graduate degree. After brief stints abroad and in Spain as a web- and graphic designer, she moved to France in 2021 to be with her partner. When she found herself on the cusp of motherhood and a new chapter in her life, she took the plunge and founded a web and graphic design company.

With the income this generated, and the like-minded collaboration of an artistic neighbor, in 2024 Luengo rented the rustic cellar that would become her workshop. "It's close to home and now, with fiber installed, I'm able to spend a greater amount of my time here," she says, smiling as she points out a comfy chair and hot tea at the ready.

ONE-OF-A-KIND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Her first foray into hand-press printing, with a tabletop Adana "Eight-Five", proved too limited for the type of creative printing she wanted to do. But in January 2025, during a search on the French second-hand site leboncoin, the stars aligned to get her prized "Victor" machine—a beast of a press that smells of iron and grease, and which requires a certain amount of tender loving care. "I am a bit of a bricoleuse [do-it-yourself]," she says. "That's why I don't get frustrated with all the tweaks and readjusting I have to do to the machine."

"I'm experimenting with different styles."

Now, through her printing venture, Atelier Garnata, she makes one-of-a-kind celebratory announcements and sought-after paper art. "I love the drawing part of it. I'm experimenting with different styles," she says. "But there's also this part of showing it to the world. If I'm making something that's me, that is my own design, it has to be beautiful."

To see María Luengo's work, visit ateliergarnata.fr and www.instagram.com/ateliergarnata/