This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Two Tone Press is a letterpress and relief print shop run by sisters Michelle and Angie Dreher, founded by Michelle in 2005 in a West Bottoms warehouse loft and now operating from a 1925 building the sisters bought and spent eight years renovating at 3121 Gillham Road. Michelle learned the process at the Kansas City Art Institute and spent five years at Hammerpress before starting her own shop; the studio prints posters, invitations and client work on a bank of Vandercook and Chandler & Price presses. In 2017 the sisters opened Print League KC, a community printshop in the back half of the building.

Description

Two Tone Press is a working letterpress shop, not a stationery retailer. Its output is posters, invitations and commissioned client work, printed from metal and wood type and from Michelle Dreher’s hand-carved linocuts on a small bank of proof and platen presses.1 The studio is open by appointment.2

Michelle Dreher’s route into the trade runs through two of the metro’s letterpress institutions. She came to Kansas City in 1997 for the Kansas City Art Institute, where she first printed on a Vandercook SP-15, then spent five years at Hammerpress before opening her own shop in 2005.13 She has taught at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since 2006, at Print League KC since 2017, and a letterpress class at the Kansas City Art Institute since 2018 — returning to teach on the same model of press she learned on.13

Angie Dreher, whose background is in business, had been assisting the studio informally for years before moving to Kansas City permanently in 2011 to become a full partner. The shop’s own account divides the labour cleanly: Michelle on the presses and the illustration, Angie on the operations side, both on collaborative design work.1

The presses are named — Bowie and Lennox (Vandercook SP-15s), Boss (Vandercook SP-20), Lauper and Cash (Chandler & Price platen presses), and Clash (a cast-iron guillotine cutter).1 The shop is housed in a 1925 building.1 Two Tone Press is listed among the studios of the Kansas City Artists Coalition.4

In 2017 the sisters, with printmaker Ani Volkan, opened Print League KC in the back half of the studio — a community printshop offering memberships and workshops in letterpress, silkscreen, etching, monoprinting and other processes, aimed at beginners as much as practitioners.135 It is the educational arm of the same operation and shares the address.

Goods and services

  • Letterpress printing — posters, invitations and announcements, custom client work12
  • Custom wedding and event invitation suites26
  • Relief and linocut printing — hand-carved illustration work, a signature of the shop1
  • Wholesale of printed goods to retailers2
  • Print League KC memberships — shop access to printmaking equipment5
  • Printmaking workshops — letterpress, silkscreen, etching, monoprinting, for all experience levels15
  • Retail greeting cards and prints, including via Etsy7

History

Michelle Dreher moved to Kansas City in 1997 to attend the Kansas City Art Institute and encountered letterpress there.3 After graduating she worked five years at Hammerpress, the Kansas City letterpress shop.1 She bought a Vandercook No. 3 in 2004 and started Two Tone Press in 2005 out of the top floor of a drafty industrial warehouse building in the West Bottoms, working with the un-motorised Vandercook, a 10×15 Chandler & Price and a set of type cabinets.83

Around 2010 the sisters bought a two-story commercial building — a 1925 structure — in what was then an emerging neighbourhood, and spent roughly eight years renovating the studio space inside it.183 Angie Dreher relocated to Kansas City in 2011 and joined full time.13

In 2017 the sisters and Ani Volkan opened Print League KC in the back half of the building.35 KCUR included Two Tone Press in a 2024 guide to Kansas City stationery and paper shops, identifying the Drehers as sisters who do a great deal of custom invitation work and as co-founders of Print League KC.6

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Two Tone Press — official site, “two tone press” (about) — asserts: the shop is “owned & operated by two spunky sisters,” Michelle and Angie; Michelle’s love of relief printing and letterpress began at the Kansas City Art Institute and was “fostered during her 5 year stint at Hammerpress, another KC printshop”; she is passionate about hand-carved linocut illustration; she has taught at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since 2006, workshops at Print League KC since 2017, and a letterpress class at the Kansas City Art Institute since 2018; Angie has a business background and joined full time in 2011; the press list — two Vandercook SP-15s (“Bowie,” “Lennox”), a Vandercook SP-20 (“Boss”), two Chandler & Price platen presses (“Lauper,” “Cash”) and a cast-iron guillotine cutter (“Clash”); “OUR 1925 BUILDING.” (Retrieved by direct fetch 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  2. Two Tone Press — official site, Contact — asserts: studio address 3121 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64109; “Appointment only.”; contact by email (twotonepress at gmail.com). Home page — twotonepress.com — asserts: “Two Tone Press is a kansas city letterpress printshop specializing in posters, invitations, and other print products,” and that Print League KC is a community printshop offering workshops and memberships. Wholesale page: twotonepress.com (Retrieved by direct fetch 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Chapman University — “Ink on Paper” project, Michelle & Angie Dreher / Two Tone Press — https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/ink-on-paper/michelle—angie-dreher-two-tone-press — asserts: Two Tone Press established 2005 in Kansas City’s West Bottoms industrial district; initial equipment a non-motorised Vandercook No. 3, a 10×15 Chandler & Price and type cabinets; relocation around 2010 to a two-story commercial building; Michelle moved to Kansas City in 1997 for art school and learned on a Vandercook SP-15, returning to teach on the same model twenty years later; Angie became a permanent partner in 2011; Print League KC co-founded 2017 offering letterpress, silkscreen and etching. This is the fullest independent account of the shop’s history. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Kansas City Artists Coalition — Two Tone Press studio listing — asserts: Two Tone Press’s participation in the local artist-studio community. ↩

  5. Two Tone Press — Print League KC pages and twotonepress.com and twotonepress.com — asserts: Print League KC is “a kansas city community printshop,” a creative arts space offering affordable access to printmaking equipment plus workshops; memberships and a workshop schedule are offered. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. KCUR 89.3 — “A Kansas City shopping guide to stationery and paper stores” (2024-11-30) — asserts: Two Tone Press is owned by sisters Michelle and Angie Dreher, who “do a lot of custom invitation work” and are co-founders of Print League Kansas City. Does not give an address or founding year. ↩ ↩2

  7. Etsy — twotonepress shop — asserts: an active retail channel for the shop’s printed goods. ↩

  8. Boxcar Press — “All In The Printing Family With Two Tone Press” (posted December 2018) — asserts: “Thirteen years ago, printer and illustrator Michelle Dreher began the roots of Two Tone Press in Kansas City, Missouri” (dating the founding to 2005); Michelle bought a Vandercook No. 3 in 2004 for $400, hand-cranked with no motor; she later acquired an SP-15 Vandercook from Indianapolis, “still my favorite press to this day”; the business started in “a super-drafty warehouse loft on the top floor of an industrial brick building”; the sisters bought their own building and spent eight years renovating the studio; Angie joined in 2011; Print League KC co-founded 2017. ↩ ↩2

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/two-tone-press · record updated 2026-08-14