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Black Family History Coming Soon!

ISI’s latest project is a 280-page book titled Descendants of William Black & Nancy Allison. It is a family history of the Black family here in Alleghany County and our largest book-design project to date. The book features over 100 photographs, letters and information on William and Nancy’s family, gathered by Lorene Sturgill of Piney Creek, North Carolina.

The book is a marriage of experience and new technology. We input the entire family history, scanned and optimized the photographs, built an index of descendants, and, after the initial order, plan to print the casebound books on-demand.

Cover design by Imaging Specialists, Inc. for the Descendants of William Black and Nancy Allison
Cover design by Imaging Specialists, Inc. for Descendants of William Black and Nancy Allison

You may or may not know we’re not new to book printing. Imaging Specialists has a long history in books, from humble phone directories at R.R. Donnelley in Portland Oregon, to high-end, leather bound, Easton Books at Nicholstone in Nashville, Tennessee, we’ve shot more book pages than most shops our size.

Thousands of titles passed through our lenses during our years in Greensboro.

We’re not even new at family histories, either. For years we shot pages to imposition for Craftsman, Delmar, Edwards & Broughton, and other North Carolina printers on our projection step-and-repeat systems. Sometimes it was the only way to copy them.

It’s this experience that helps us to anticipate many problems before they arise. This is the first of several titles we will be publishing this year.

Interested in producing your own book? You don’t have to go to the Triangle or even the Triad. Give us a call to find out how easy it can be.

The Descendants of William Black & Nancy Allison will be available later this month.

Purchase your copy at The Sparta Store.

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We are gearing up for Christmas!

Choose and Cut day is this Saturday the 4th. The Sparta Store is having a sale, in conjunction with many other events in the County.

We’ll be giving 15% off all of our selection of things to celebrate with, like Christmas Cards and Ornaments, and for gifts, our ceramic tiles. Our prints, which also make great gifts, are 25% off.

In addition to our sale, our new neighbor, the Alleghany Historical Museum, is celebrating its grand opening, Saturday. They will be open from 10am till 5pm with a ribbon cutting at 2pm. There will be a reception at the Alleghany Jubilee afterward.

While you’re in town for the museum and our sale, be sure to stop by all the other shops on Main Street to see what goodies everyone else has, too. And don’t forget to come back to the Jubilee that night!

Also on this action packed Saturday, there will be a craft fair at the Emerson Black Building at the Justice Carlisle Higgins Fairgrounds from 9am-4:30pm, and in addition to the show at the Jubilee, The Vision Band will be playing at Silver Dollar Music Park at 8pm.

Then you can go home and relax. It’ll be a busy day.

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Searching for Opti-Copy info?

Opti-Copy's trademark for many years.
Opti-Copy Trademark for many years.

If you’re looking for information on Opti-Copy, Ron Halsey, or Jeff Halsey,  contact us.

We both worked at Opti-Copy for years in the 1970’s and 80’s. Dad was the sixth person hired and I was the sixteenth. We started out in North Kansas City, Missouri and later moved the plant to Lenexa, Kansas. It was a great place for a young (or older) kid to learn. Everything from film, chemistry, physics, photography, lens theory, mechanics- you name it!- was available from some darn fine model-makers and engineers. There were also one or two good camera technicians around.

Joe Wally, Sam Wilson, Jack Wally, Paul Brown, Louie Friedly, BB Young and George Martin were only some of the folks around there to learn from. We built what was then state-of-the-art prepress equipment, with reps from Kodak, Du Pont, Agfa, Fuji stopping by every few days to “test something out.”

We shipped and installed our step-and-repeat projection systems all over the US and Canada and later Europe, Australia and South Africa. Before long, Opti had even sold more than a few systems to Japanese companies.

So… if you have a comment or a question about our days at Opti, give us a call. We might even remember the answer!

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Memorial Cookbooks Available

New Cookbook from High Country Hospice of Alleghany County
New Cookbook from High Country Hospice of Alleghany County

We’re proud to be one of the locations selling the High Country Hospice‘s new cookbook, Meals and Memories. They’re priced at $20 apiece or (2) for $35. You can pick one up at The Sparta Store, online or in town.

We let them use one of our photographs on the cover and we think the end result looks great. Thank you for letting us help with your project!

Recipes That Raised Us - Volume One

Also, we’re selling the Historical Society’s cookbook, Recipes That Raised Us. They’re working on a second volume, so the next time you visit the Museum, bring your recipes and memories for Volume 2.

It doesn’t cost anything and its a great way to remember someone special and their recipe. We need a photo (if it was made by a professional photographer, we will need their permission to copy it- No exceptions, sorry) a recipe and any information you’d like to include.

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2010 Hillbilly Show

The 2010 Hillbilly Show is this weekend. It’ll be Saturday night, at 7:00pm at the Sparta School Auditorium. Agnes Joines from the Alleghany Jubilee directs it and we’re sure it’ll be a show to remember. The Hillbilly Show is put on by BROC‘s Alleghany Planning Committee and the proceeds of the show go to help the needy in our county.

Our friend Hillbilly Wes is always involved with the show. This year he wanted to have a few promotional items for it. We’ve done mugs and buttons in the past. This year, we made him a couple of T-shirts.

Promotional shirt and mug for Hillbilly Wes

We’ve done vinyl graphics for interior walls, outdoor signs, and glass window decals. Now we’ve tackled the fabric challenge! We’re cutting Enduratex Hotmark 70 apparel vinyl (available in any color) and applying it to Hanes Beefy Ts. We think these shirts will be great for other events – family reunions, annual club meetings, etc. Also, look for new shirts and hoodies in The Sparta Store, in-store and online, this fall.

If you need custom T-shirts, call 336-372-3002 or email claire@imagingspecialists.net for pricing and availability.