on the bench: organizing

I do dearly love to organize...though in the studio, sometimes the piles just stay piles for months!  Wednesday was an in-between day, so I thought I'd tackle the huge stack of printed papers (printed in April!). First sorting by color and pattern, and then taking inventory.  All in preparation for this big event:

friday: oh, what a week

Yes, it's been a doozy.  It feels like this heat wave has been going on for weeks and weeks.  Years even.  The studio is thankfully cool, but just getting there is a chore in this heat...and then I'm not in much of a mood to work.

But today I really had to get things done:

Paper folding and scoring...

turns a (single-sheet) folio into a signature of its own.

Carving out an inset for a cover label

Lining up the pieces, in preparation for gluing

Sneaking a peek at my cover, making sure I've left enough room at the spine for my signatures.  I'm sewing up the book tomorrow, and will try to get some good pics to post--this should be a really interesting project!

Also this week--updating my sadly faded sandwich board with a fresh coat of paint, and prepping the stencil for painting next week!

press mondays: oh, my.

I had the best intentions of blogging while in New York...

And then the days just kept getting away from me (and the nights were too short!).

I can't believe that I put this together in twenty-four hours...and that it looked pretty okay!

The Stationery Show is like a big sleep-away camp, where you get to catch up with all of your old friends (and meet new ones!) and gossip.

Or make pretty things--do you know how hard it is to keep my hands still all week?  

My pictures aren't the best, but the lovely and fantastic Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper brought a professional photographer with her, and they got some really pretty shots of my booth.

And then today...

it was time to get back to work!

on the bench: the mad dash

It's amazing to me that after cleaning my studio so thoroughly for this past weekend's workshops, the piles still seem to multiply on their own.

Today I'm working on the last few things for an order shipping out to Rock Paper Scissors in Charlottesville, VA.  Above, piles of paper for journal and guest book pages, ready for sewing.

Notepads (their inky backs drying) need corner rounding and belly band labels.

And guest book cases just waiting for pages!

finished fridays: new new new!

I'm so excited to share my newest pattern:

(I'm still looking for a name, if anyone has any suggestions....)

I'll be debuting the pattern (and its five colorways) at the NY International Gift Fair, which opens January 30 in New York City. Visit me at booth number #4124 in the Studio Division--I'll be there with the lovely and talented ladies of Albertine Press and Carta Inc.

on the bench: making a mess

One of the (good? bad?) things about being awesomely busy is that there's never a chance to clean.  The recycling piles up, and stacks just keep getting shifted around until I find the project I need to work on.

Today I had four projects sharing space on the bench, along with bits of paper, the laptop, three or four rulers--and that's just the beginning.

But the exciting bit is what I actually finished.  Ten new check-holder-books for Kismet, one of my favorite restaurants in Montpelier.  Probably in the world, actually. 

Hand-marbled covers, and lokta endpapers, with coordinating marbled straps for holding your end-of-brunch bill.  Yum.

on the press & on the bench: three days, one post

So....I missed my Monday post for no good reason--except that I couldn't find my camera. And then I found it, but not the batteries. 

I promise that I've been on the press for very long hours for each of the last three days--six ink colors, six different pieces, printed on two presses.  And one piece had be scored in three places, which means three more times through the press.  It's not the most I've ever done, but it did make for some very long days.

This is late last night--the last of the print runs on Butch, my 100-year-old C&P.  

These are gifts for the bridal party, so no closeups yet!

And today, on the bench, after doing all the final trims and scores, I got to sit and fold.  What a relief!

finished fridays: quality time with the guillotine

Some weeks it seems that I spend all day, every day, slaving over the guillotine.  This was one of those weeks. 

In reality, it was just one day, but cutting down parent sheets of text paper into 3x5 rectangles is a lot of cutting!

And then they're stacked neatly, and clamped into the padding press for gluing.

It helps me to able to look at stacks of finished work...it's a small reminder that I've accomplished something!

finished friday: late night

Why yes, it is 10:30 on a Friday night.  I'm actually home early (for once this week)!

I've spent a lot of time on the Vandercook this week--first, three runs x 200+ sheets for Anais's Hadestown programs.

And tonight, three hours on the press for the last batch (for a little while) of charcoal grey for decorative sheets. 

P.S. I saw the October issue of Martha Stewart Living at the grocery checkout, and squealed like a little girl.  Go out and get one!

finished fridays: the big reveal!

I've had to keep this under wraps for so long! And I'm really a very good secret keeper, but this has been bursting out of me, especially since my copy came in the mail Saturday.

I'm in the newest Martha Stewart Living!

The section called "Great Finds" is all reds & purples for October.

And my little journals and decorative sheets made the cut!

Hooray!!  The issue should be in subscribers' hands any day now, and on newsstands shortly.  In the meantime, all of the featured items (and more) are available in my etsy shop!

finished fridays: september 10

I'm not feeling super accomplished this week (I spent a lot of time on the computer, which doesn't feel like "work" to me), but taking photos and updating the blog does make it seem like things happened.

I cut down piles of paper for notepads--these are trimmed and waiting to be glued.

Yim actually printed these for me--it was her first real crash course on the Vandercook--three colors in under three hours.  She was very patient while I mixed a slightly darker yellow ink, fiddled with the underlays and slipsheets, and reminded her over and over again that precision and perfect prints are way more important than printing quickly.

These postcards were my "fun" time for the week.  They're my submission to the latest Ladies of Letterpress swap, a collection of "Hello from...." postcards.

finished: one week at a time

It's been such a busy week.  I haven't stopped since getting back from New York (and tonight, I'm really feeling the drag).

This week I finished three wholesale orders--to three stores that I'm so excited to be a part of: Urban Mercantile, in San Francisco, Papel New York in Brooklyn, and The Drawing Board right here in Montpelier.  I did a little photo shoot with the Drawing Board's goodies before I dropped off the box with Jodi, Liz, and Jen. 

Don't you just love the way pages drape and curve?  They're so sturdy and practical, and yet are so light.

Also this week: I've been thinking about this packaging for six months--no, seriously.  My decorative papers, stitched on the sewing machine into pretty little packages for card sets.

on the press: august 30

There's not a whole lot of printing happening in the studio this week--but there's more bookbinding than I can shake a needle at!  Today, my fantastic intern Yim set up the Pilot for printing the backs of notepads.

While Yim was printing busily, I was stitching pretty envelopes for catalog mailings.

workbench wednesdays

Part two of my awesome new blog regime: workbench Wednesdays!

This is it--my worktable as of 4:00 this afternoon...piles of paper cut down for Bingo Books, casebound journals and notepads to fill my wholesale orders from the Gift Show.  Final count: 32 notepads, 12 Bingo Books, and 4 casebounds, all ready for my intern to fold tomorrow!

pictures of the day: april 5

It was a beautiful, beautiful weekend. I know because I spent five minutes sitting on a chair (and eating a peanut butter + jam sandwich) in the bright sunshine in front of the studio. And then I went back to work. It's pretty rare that I get a weekend off from workshops, and rather than spend too much time relaxing, I spent it catching up on printing samples to bring to the Stationery Show next month.

This morning I cleaned up a bit, and started mixing more ink--and took some photos for a sneak peek!

mmm...pomegranate green tea.

more quirky love notes

 

new styles and colors of last word notes

 

mixing up big batches of ink

and tying up the forms when I'm done!

So posting might be a bit light for the next six weeks or so, but I hope you're all enjoying the sunshine!