Check Out Alexis O’Neill’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis O’Neill.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started bookbinding in October of 2019 after having spent that summer to start the healing process (something I had not taken the time to do) from the loss of our son many years prior. I signed up for the binding class, hoping to learn something new and get back into creating. I went into the class with no idea that this would spark an interest in the bookbinding and letterpress arts. After learning this, I made my own gratitude journal with prompts I used for healing, as I had set out earlier in the summer. I continued working on my skills, signing up for other courses, watching YouTube videos, purchasing, and reading any binding book I could get my hands on. While researching bookbinding, I found letterpress and took a class on it, and instantly fell in love with the process, much like bookbinding. I knew between these two arts, I had found my thing. I would get asked to make gratitude or other journals for people, which brought me great joy. Thus, Kostel Creations was started. I enjoyed binding so much, but I still had my heart on letterpress. I wanted to start incorporating letterpress into my art and began the 2-year search for a press. I came across an ad from a family who wanted to donate their father’s letterpress collection. I reached out asking if they had anything to sell since they were local to me. I received a message weeks later and was asked to take a call to discuss. Nancy (Mr. Peterson’s daughter) and I connected and talked about her father and his businesses and life as a pressman. She then asked if I would like to see the press setup. I politely said I would love to, but I needed to know what they were thinking about prices, as I did not want to waste their time if it was not affordable for me. I remember her kind words to this day: “Oh, no, we don’t want anything for it; we just want to see our father’s press getting used and kept alive.” Tears welled up in my eyes, much like every time I tell the story. I have been creating ever since and have enjoyed the process dearly. In the process, I have found healing in my incredible journey. There is so much to learn in running a side business and in binding and letterpress, and I have much more to go. It will be well worth my efforts if I can help just one person find healing, joy, and love as I did, whether it be in a new journal or in learning the processes (I love to teach what I have learned)

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, I am not sure there are ever smooth roads to learning new things! That is how we grow, though. Some of the challenges I have faced along the way were acquiring and setting up a press and learning to set up a side business with rules, regulations, taxes, etc. I initially set up some of these things wrong! On top of that, sometimes, you have great ideas for products you think will work well, and as you make them, they fail. I have acquired a ton of prototypes over the years that I have made that have not worked out. Not to mention the many oops products that have been boo-boo’d by me in the process. Another challenge is balancing a side business with all the other things in life. I am learning how much side work I can do versus what I can’t. Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way more times than I can count!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well, I am an RN by trade, and I practiced for many years before leaving nursing to become a full-time partner in our family business in steel. I started Kostel Creations in 2020 as a side business specializing in bookbinding and letterpress stationary. Kostel Creations is most known for journals and notebooks, but I also make other stationary goods like cards and pressed pencils. Something that sets me apart from others is that all of my work is handmade from start to finish, including the interior paper options in the journals, which I have fully designed and print in my studio. Letterpress artwork on notebooks, cards, and other paper goods combines hand-drawn originals with vintage type and blocks to make the design. Most processes in my studio are manually operated, and I use several pieces of vintage equipment to create items. Including “Pete,” the press, which is manually operated with a foot treadle that presses each item individually as I hand feed it.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is that of my Nonnie’s home. The way it always smelled so good no matter what she was cooking—the pea-green carpet in the downstairs “kid” room where we would play. The rocking chairs in the living room that I would sit on her father’s lap, my Papa Joe, and rock back and forth, how he always had a splash of Italian sauce on his shirt. The blue bathroom tub that we would take baths in. The family birthday parties in the backyard with games and prizes and making homemade ice cream with the crank-style ice cream maker. I have so many memories of this place.

Contact Info:

• Website: kostelcreations.com
• Instagram: @kostelcreations