on the press (almost)

Monday mornings are always a challenge--and today I had two post-its, written in very tiny print, full of stuff to get done.  Most of which was emails and phone calls...which doesn't make for very dynamic blogging.

So it wasn't until after 3 that I started working on the main body of my NSS recipe cards...which, after a lot of complicated design ideas, turned into this:

Which is way less complicated than it looks!

on the bench: getting dirty

The bench today:

No journals or albums, just mockups of holiday cards waiting to be proofed!  And as a bonus:

Mmm...a lovely olivey green ink!

on the press: september 27

It's a rainy, rainy Monday, after a long weekend...but no rest for me!  Today, my intern Yim came in, and I immediately had her on the press--she's so enthusiastic about printing (even cleaning the press!).

Project 1: Proofing a birth announcement--printed from handset type and a vintage cut.

Project 2: a two-color, four-fold wedding program.

on the press: this weekend

So, I didn't actually print anything today.  But this weekend was chock-full, so here you go!

Saturday brought seven enthusiastic ladies into my printshop for a bridal shower weekend extravaganza. 

It's a lot of fun to see things start to click--Meredith was all set to do a second color with stars, and on the very short walk to the press, turned to me and said, "What if I use a star here?" And it was perfect; the teeny tiny star is just the right little touch.

And trying out blind impression....

Mixing up wood type (and loving the "salty" effect of printing it on the Pilot) and using silly little cuts for casual notes.

Playing with border pieces!

And Lydia used the unicorn!  I've been trying to find a good reason to print to for almost two years.

Two ink colors!  And excellent use of my skull & crossbones.

And finally, a little "woot woot" and they were on their way.  Thanks to Kate, Kelsey, Maggie, Lydia, Maggie, Meredith, and Becky (who made the cutest cards that I didn't get a photo of!) for an inspiring day!

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!

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!

works in progress

I don't have much to say today...I'm off to Letterpress Things to teach another Broadsides for Beginners workshop, and to deliver these sweet treats to my friend Jen:and to finish these certificates for Yestermorrow in grand style:Happy spring!

paper + snow

It's been a dreary few days here in Vermont. Good for staying in and drinking lots of sweet coffee...but not so good for working. After digging my car out (eight inches of snow + ice = an hour + a half of early morning exercise), my morning task was to take pictures of recent work--I don't have a light tent, so I work au natural--but the serious grayness outside was not proving very conducive to product shots.

Here they are anyway...two new quirky love cards:

I Spy Valentine Card, available soon in my etsy shop

Head Over Heels Valentine Card, available now in my etsy shop

and a treatise on the consequences of impatience (and improper makeready):

Hold Yer Horses Broadside, available soon in my etsy shop

In truth, the broadside was a teaching exercise for my Broadsides for Beginners students this past Saturday. It's meant to be imperfect, so that I can show them how to make it right (amongst other things they'll learn that day). I printed off 5 or 6 of these, and 5 will be up for sale in my etsy shop shortly.

And now for one last look:

spectacular icicles, aka the view from my kitchen window 2/3/08
(that one on the right is over three feet long!)

P.S. Come visit me this weekend at the second annual V-day spectacular Paper + Chocolate, hosted by Albertine Press and Taza Chocolate. It's an open studio, chocolate-tasting, paper-hoarding (and selling!), meet and greet all wrapped up in a sweet v-day surprise. It all happens this Saturday, February 9, from 1-6pm in Somerville, MA. See you there!

i'm dreaming of...

...a white holiday season. And it's coming true. Today it's snowing in Montpelier--only an inch or so, but it looks white-white-white outside. But that's not really what I want to blog about...

Last weekend's holiday card workshop was a blast! Rik, Asma, and Jenevieve (my fourth student was stuck in the first snow of the season in Ithaca) totally took my hazy outline of the day and ran with it. But don't listen to me, check out the photos for yourself:

Asma jumped right on to the Vandercook to print the first lockup of her four--that's right, 4--step card. She used the Vandy for her wood type "XMAS" before moving on to the Kelsey to finish up the last three lockups.












In the meantime, Jenevieve got busy with her two-color cards, and found the time to print little gift tags for all of us, too.





Rik said that he was trying to avoid the "holiday-ness" of holiday cards, but I think these are pretty traditional....

Rik also found time to make a wood type exclamation-point sculpture to print on the Vandercook. It was a pretty challenging lockup, but Rik pulled it all together and came up with an awesome little decorative print!

Ah, the happy class. It was a full day's worth of work, but I think these three could have printed for another 8 hours if I'd let them. Thanks for the good work--it was a great first class! Check out the rest of the day's adventures here.

catching up on old times

It's been a killer couple of weeks, and I don't have much energy today, but I did want to catch up (as it were) on a few letterpress events from the summer.

one: the Printing Arts Fair at the Museum of Printing in North Andover, Mass. (I dare you to say that three times fast!)
That's Shelley (of Albertine Press), Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and I in front of my table. Mr. Franklin actually has a handpress, and in addition to being an 18th century historian, gives walking tours around the Boston area. (His real name is Gary, and he was amazing to talk with.) You can click on the picture to see more from the day, or click here to see Shelley's slightly more timely recap.

two: summertime workshops at Letterpress Things

On the left are Janet and Emily, testing out the Pilot. They spent the day working on thank-you notecards. Emily was a real trooper, working in a shop designed for folks a little bit taller and a little bit stronger. It was great to see a younger person get so excited about printing...and pick up techniques and terminology with such ease.

On the right are Tim and Erin, a carpenter and printmaker, respectively. We had a mostly quiet day, and they set a whole lot of type and printed pages pages for our little chapbooks. It was a nice to take it easy and focus on the process of printing...they left me with a lot of food for thought about the workshop. Click on the photos to see more, and click here to read about upcoming workshops.

three: the Letterpress Guild of New England's annual WayzgooseThis event was just last Saturday (my, how times flies!) at Firefly Press in Allston, MA. That's John Kristensen (Firefly's proprietor) demo-ing the Vandercook SP-20. Click on the picture to see more of the event. All told, it turned out to be a lovely day of talking, printing, and meeting new people!

history lessons

It's seems that it's my fate to be in the studio on the most beautiful days of the year. Today is no exception. Though I was here mostly by choice--being trapped in the mystery of this type.

The story: I was cleaning out type cabinets at Letterpress Things a few months ago, and, as a treat, John B. let me keep anything I found. It was all pretty dirty, but I saw 3 cases of Caslon Openface, and this lovely blackletter. I put the type in a box, and just started sorting it last night. Usually I sort it into lines in the little box (above left), with chipboard separaters. And because it was such a small font, I wanted to check that I had all the characters, so I then sorted it onto a sheet of paper (above right). All there, thank goodness, even though there's not a lot. Step 2: find it in MacGrew's. The result: Tudor Black, 12pt. And it's just lovely.
Step 3: Set a little bit of it, and proof it. I decided on Dante's Inferno (Canto V), it seemed the most appropriate thing on my bookshelf. Hooray for my spankin' clean Nolan No.1!Isn't it pretty? I just love that "O."

Step 4: Which typefoundry? After a little cleaning of the pinmark, I check Briar Press' pinmark directory, and discover that it looks an awful lot like this one, from Farmer, Little, & Co., a foundry that operated in NYC from 1862 to 1892, when it was absorbed into ATF. That means that my type might be well over 100 years old! I'm so excited. Does that make me a big dork?

P.S. Workshops are filling up fast! Sign up soon, or you might have to wait until Spring...