holiday time!

The Paper & Chocolate Crew!

It's here again...Holiday Fair time!  And so I hope you'll excuse the light posting, because I've been working like a busy bee behind the scenes.

Paper & Chocolate!  Design Hive!  Touch of Vermont!  BCA Holiday Market!  Hope to see you four times over! 

P.S. Only two more days for the online sale...get your holiday gifts early!

studio sale!

It's time to clean off the shelves!  

I'm working on some new styles for the holidays--and letting you reap the rewards!
25% off all Journals

Now through November 25th!

it's been awhile

and I've been chugging along behind the scenes, and trying not to feel guilty about ignoring my blog.  There'll be some real posting soon, but in the meantime, I'm loving:

Ampersand Duck's post about the Common Press reconstructed in Australia.

The interview with Penguin designer Coralie Bickford-Smith on Design Sponge.

The 100 amazing prints in the Vandercook centenary bundle --which just arrived in my mailbox.  That's my contribution above!

anniversaries, and taking the time

Do you ever have those days when you really, really need to get something done?  And instead of going the easy way, you end up spending three hours fitting together tiny pieces of metal together?
That was my yesterday.  And I am totally and completely in love with the results--the way all of the border pieces work together, the pale mint green ink, the size and weight of the lines--but it pushed back the Fort Can advertising posters another day.
You see, it's been just over a year since I called up a couple of artist friends, and talked them in to sharing studio space with me and my printing presses.  So we're having a party!
It's also the first time that I'll be showing in the gallery--it's a really big deal, and I have a series of prints in mind for the show. They're still in my head, so I'd better get back to work!

makin' art

Every time I walk into the printshop, I'm confronted by art. It's inspiring to see the two artists I share studio space with making and doing and experimenting and starting over when it goes bad.

It's a constant challenge: am I an artist? a crafter? a designer? a business owner?

All of the above?

Last week I got the chance to really create something out of nothing, and not think about pricing, or product shots, or checking the ink color with a client--be an artist, as it were. It's the one-hundredth anniversary of the Vandercook printing press, and I lucked into a spot on the poster exchange. I put it off until almost the last minute...this artist is a real procrastinator.

My idea was to tell my Vandercook story--make it mine. Here's the first color setup, on the press.

Pulling proofs: I have a soft soft for palimpsests.

And now a question for you: how do you balance the not-for-profit creative process with the need to make rent every month? Any suggestions?

workshop mania!

It's your lucky day!
Introduction to Letterpress--at May Day Studio, Montpelier, VT

The cool touch of decades-old metal type. A firm two-handed impression roll for a copy proof. A deft transfer from composing stick to imposing stone. A gentle tap of the planer. Two quick twists of the locking key and the chase with form is secure. The press is inked, the guides aligned, the chase slips into position, paper is correctly placed and your very first impression is ready to print.

Participants set type, lockup and print on a Chandler and Price Pilot and a Vandercook SP-15--we'll be printing limited edition notesets, as well as posters! Each participant will leave with 15 cards and envelopes, and 5 8-1/2 x 11" posters as lifetime keepsake of their first letterpress experience.

Choose Saturday, August 8 or Sunday, August 9: 10am-4:30 pm. Cost is $100, includes materials and a sandwich lunch. Advanced registration is requested; payments can be made by cash, check, or credit card (in person and by phone).

works-in-progress

more re-bound journals:

photoshoot on a rainy afternoon:

brian + moose, sewing away:

front page

It's so rare that I'm actually on the internet when anything exciting happens!

Thanks to Stacia and Carmen for being lookouts!

summertime slow-down

After the last few months of wedding-invitation-madness, website re-design, and craft-fair-palooza, I've finally allowed myself a day off. (Pictures coming soon-ish, of course.)

So this morning I've been editing photos and rocking out (to this and this). So please forgive a bit of self-promotion:

I'm making a concerted effort to update the etsy shop with all the goodies I've made--and debuting some new stuff, too. Clockwise from top left: new letterpress printed papers, new broadsides, more travel journals, and a new line of BINGO books.

come one, come all

It's that time again! Join me and a whole raft of folks who celebrate big, heavy machines and the pretty things they make. New this year: the steamroller-as-printing-press. You won't want to miss it.

renegade--this weekend!

Howdy folks!  I'm feeling very guilty about the lack of posts here...but up here in the sticks, it (apparently) takes two weeks to get new internet service.

That said, my camera is full of in-progress shots--but the real thing is this weekend.  Come visit me at Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn and see new products in person! 

paper pops!

Happy Monday! Be sure to check out the latest Poppytalk Market:Paper Pops! which opens today!

seventy degrees + one for the memories

It's a beautiful day in Vermont--the sun is shining, and I'm printing 900 coasters for the new pub in town: Three Penny Taproom.
And when I came home for lunch, I saw this on etsy:
Yay!

a month of threes

Hello, dear neglected blog readers! I haven't forgotten about you...

Things have been a bit crazy at the studio--and in this topsy-turvy economy, I'm glad to be kept busy day-in and -out.

And so, why a month of threes, you ask? Just that! Since my last post, I've taught three workshops:



I've also printed wedding invitations for three outstanding couples, business cards for three local businesses, and have been accepted at three pretty rockin' indie craft fairs:

Saturday May 9, join me in Burlington, VT at the Queen City Craft Bazaar!

Saturday + Sunday, June 6 +7, meet me (and Shelley of Albertine Press) in Brooklyn!

Sunday, June 21--bring your dad to the Printer's Fair in North Andover, MA!

For which I'm working on over 300 new journals. And sometimes sleeping!

a quick announcement

Space is still available in this Saturday's workshop at Albertine Press in Somerville, MA. Click here for more information!

so nice!

Yesterday the fantastic Jeb Wallace-Brodeur at the Times Argus came by the printshop to take photos and learn a bit more about what I do.   I'm thrilled with the results!

(a sneak peek on the front page!)

(and a very nice spread at the front of the local section.)

Thanks, Jeb!

spring has sprung!

Sort of. It's mud season here in Vermont...when all the snow starts melting, and uncovers the dirty little things we left out last November.

Also a time for new beginnings, like this:
Visit my table at the latest Poppytalk market, Green Pop! There's a new limited edition letterpress print listed...

a day in the life

On Wednesdays, my day starts at 8am. That may not be early for some of you, but I am most definitely not a morning person. At least until I've had a cup of coffee.
Which means that after I open the studio doors at 8, I sit on my bum and read, or listen to VPR, for an hour or so until the caffeine has kicked in. Today was no exception.





At 9, I put more of that plummy purple ink on the big C&P, and printed the details on the back of save-the-dates for Emily and John.





Then a short break--run home to check email--and back to work.
Sara Grace gave me a stack of posters two weeks ago, and I've been working on them slowly. Since she only needs ten or so for each date--and there were four dates, at four different venues, to be printed in four different colors--I've been doing one set every few days. Today was the last round!

(around the Vandercook's cylinder)

(all finished!)

And then clean up the second press, and run home for a very, very late lunch.

Yay for overprints!

Then Em & John, and Sara Grace stopped by to pick up their goodies, and I...
...get back to work. It's 7:30, and I'm finishing the first side of cards for The Lamb Abbey.

I'm feeling really accomplished today...it's rare that I get a full day in the studio, so it's pretty amazing to see what one person can accomplish. It was also lovely to have visitors (Brian's wife Linda with Baby E., and Ben & Ben & Gordon, and Sara & Lindsay, and Emily & John), and to geek out to two pretty good books on tape--which are a total staple around Fort Can.

100!

It's taken two years and five months, but I've finally made it too 100 posts. And to celebrate--a little video.

That's me, today, working in the studio all by my lonesome, listening to Le Tigre really loudly and printing cards for my friend (& rockstar) Anais Mitchell. You'll get a blurry peek at the cards at the end...if you make it all the way through!

And just because:
Thanks for the photos, Mom! That's me in the middle...four years old, with my two sisters, in 1981.

in the meantime...

...I've been so busy lately, I don't even know where to start!  And I don't have photos of the big projects, but here's the fun stuff I manage to slip in:

 

Fun valentine-themed party invites for my friend Esme and her new venture, Venus Tattoos.
More talented friends!  Band posters for the incredible Sara Grace & the Suits.  Photo by Heather Gray, design & letterpress by me!
And today I'm working on save-the-dates for John & Emily--former housemates, now engaged.  Emily designed the save-the-date after this logo because they're getting married on--you guessed it!--7/11.

what are the odds...

of catching oneself on the etsy front page?


happy smiley friday!

late night

after dark, in my studio in a deserted part of town, listening to War of the Worlds. And taking self-portraits, of course.

harrumph.

Or, more precisely, *sigh.*

Last year, around this time, I was happily shopping at the ReStore and finishing holiday cards. January is a typically slow month in many ways--folks aren't spending money after the holiday glut, etc.--and I usually get a week or so to knit and hang out with friends.

Not so this year.

I shouldn't complain, really, not with all the seriously depressing financial forecasts, but I'm busy. A little too busy.

In the last week alone:

I'm so thrilled to be a part of this month's Poppytalk Handmade: Love Transforms. The market started last Monday, and I've had a fairly large response--sales, inquiries, compliments--all of which need to be responded to.

...which led to a shout-out on etsy's blog, and two etsy front page spots.

All of which involves the internet, which I don't have at the studio--only at home--so making that four mile round-trip a few times a day (posting new items to the shop, photographing new work, packing orders, printing labels, dropping them off at the post office) has me a little turned around.

Did I mention the crazy snow/twenty-below weather we've been having? The May Day mobile doesn't care for the cold, so I've been walking more than my knee wants to allow.

And that doesn't include the print work I have on schedule:
Inaugural Ball posters for the Lamb Abbey--a collaborative project with the Fort Can geniuses. Totally last minute, of course. (P.S. Brian + Tara were just photographed for the local paper--read more here.)

Party invitations for a local literary press:
(Still in progress--so no more details yet!)

Did I mention that I still work two other "day" jobs? Here's to a crazy 2009!

P.S. The workshop schedule is now posted, too. Whew!