Specialties
Open to Being® designs and creates letterpress greeting cards and paper goods for heart and soul. We are a woman-owned letterpress studio + shop in Arlington, Virginia, offering handcrafted stationery and gifts, letterpress printing services for wedding invitations and special occasions, DIY workshops, and curated artisan shopping events. Printing services focus on print-only production using client-provided designs.
For couples seeking a meaningful, hands-on experience, we offer a DIY Letterpress Wedding Invitations Workshop, where you print your own invitations together on our 115-year-old treadle-operated letterpress, with expert guidance in a private, artistic studio setting.
Our workshops are intentionally small and bespoke, designed for people who want to create something beautiful together while exploring the art and craft of letterpress printing and fine paper goods.
Instead of regular retail hours, the studio is visited through curated artisan shopping experiences—thoughtfully designed opportunities to explore stationery and gifts from Open to Being alongside a small selection of local makers.
Begin on our website to explore letterpress printing services, workshops, upcoming shopping experiences, and products.
opentobeing.com
Meet the Business Owner: Theresa E.
Open to Being is the culmination of my work, passions, and life. Following a 25-year professional career in museum education at the Smithsonian Institution and other museums, I channeled her vision to inspire compassionate connections into building a stationery business that reflects the intersection of my artistic and mindfulness practices.
Creating collage and mixed media artwork for more than 20 years, I began integrating letterpress printing in 2022. I love the hands-on and historic craft of letterpress which creates a tactile quality that connects the beholder directly with the artist’s own hand. I bring her fondness for gathering, sorting, and composing to letterpress, which also gives a path to integrate words and phrases from my poetry.