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...

the smell of fall

(Pic of Janet and Emily, workshop 6/9/07)

I can practically smell the pencils being sharpened. Really. And though the trees are still green in Vermont, they're already turning in Massachusetts.

And Massachusetts it was, last weekend, for the grand re-opening of Letterpress Things after an extended summer vacation. And just because it's on the 4th floor of an old mill building, Mother Nature decided to give us one last hurrah: 90+ degrees and (wicked) humid. Thanks to the folks who trekked out in the heat, and for humoring me by conducting serious conversations standing only 2 feet from the big fan. Hello out there to Lucy, Janet, and Karissa, who are super excited about jumping into letterpress.

So here it is, the big reveal: I've just posted the fall/winter '07 schedule of letterpress workshops. In a nutshell:

Experience the Letterpress Thing will run 9/22, 10/6, and 12/1.
Broadsides for Beginners (*new workshop*) will run 10/27 and 12/15.
Holiday Card Extravaganza (*special event*) will run 11/17 only.

Read more at my site, and look at pictures from past workshops here.

saturday treats

A "day off" Saturday is rare for me--usually I'm teaching, or driving to teach, or spending many hours hunched over the press. Today, I'm happy to say, I gave myself the morning off, ostensibly to spend a few hours outside...before coming back to the studio to finish a custom book (I promise to post pics later!).

So, back to Saturday morning goodness...mmmm latte at Langdon Street Cafe (thanks, Wes!), then off to the glorious farmer's market (today's finds: green beans, fresh onions, and baby beet greens) for some much needed socializing. If you live in a small town like I do, it's possible to run into every single person you know at the farmer's market. And so I saw a whole lotta folks, talked about the weather (uniformly yucky today), the new Thursday Next novel, and the strange habits of grasshoppers and Japanese eggplant.

And as I was leaving, I ran into yet another friend, who reminded me that the ReStore was having it's 17th birthday today. The ReStore is a fabulous treasure trove of all that stuff you really don't need, but are sure that someone else will. I make a weekly trip, because you just never know what you're going to find! It's where, for example, my amazing stash of Bingo Cards came from, and where I get all my fabric for that new line of books. Here's what I found today:
Vintage knitting magazine-size pamphlets. For those of you who've seen my artist books, you'll know that I can't pass up a vintage lady. And while I can knit, sweaters are still a bit beyond my skill level. They're a bit scruffy around the edges, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Any suggestions?








Bits of fabric. It's not that I don't have plenty of fabric to work with already, but I couldn't pass up the 70s orange & brown flowers, or the giraffes (!), or that "I still think it's 1982" patchwork. There's basically enough for one book from each. Perfect! And the price was totally right: 42 cents for the lot. You heard me right!

I hope you're enjoying your Saturdays, out there in la-la land. I'm off to work!

paper + water = days of fun

Collaborations are awesome.
Here's Shelley at the Albertine Press studio, pretty early on day one of the Paper Marbling Crash Course/Delightful Boston Weekend. (I'm normally not a fan of random capitalization, but I'm so excited to talk about the weekend that it's either that or italics--ugh!) Shelley had marbled paper at summer camp years ago, and when she mentioned to me that she'd like to do it again, I jumped. Or rather drove four hours in a torrential thunderstorm to take part in the festivities.

Shelley had almost everything set up--paints mixed, sizing made, paper cut--so I got there and got straight to work!

Here's a brief how-to for those who've never marbled before:
1. brush one side of your paper with an alum/water mix. let dry.
2. mix the sizing (distilled water and carrageenan), let sit for awhile.
3. mix acrylic paints with a small bit of distilled water, and ox gall if needs be.
4. drop the paint onto the water, using droppers, toothpicks, little broom-like whisks, or anything you can think of.
5. lay the paper very carefully on the surface of the tray.
6. lift the paper, hang dry, then press flat.
7. clean the paint off the sizing, and repeat.

Of course, I'm leaving lots of things out. But it was so much less complicated than I thought.

Oh, and don't forget--
8. invite your friends!

Jesse of Firefly Press braved the rain to play with paint. And Kathleen (the designer at Taza Chocolate, Shelley's studio-neighbor) stuck her head in the door to say hi and stayed to make paper.

I have to say that making paper was totally amazing way to spend a weekend, but talking and getting to know Shelley and Jesse and Kathleen was really great, too.
Shelley was definitely the pro of the weekend--she can pull an amazing Spanish Marble on purpose, whereas I can only do one because my hands are shaky.

You might think that we ate, slept, and breathed paper for 48 hours, but we did take a break to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in Smell-O-Vision (and bubble-vision, too: imagine a crowd of movie-goers sitting in a parking lot blowing bubbles in the dark!) with Shelley's husband Jacob (you can't really tell that he's a physicist, he's so funny!) and bits--ahem, Nibs--of Taza Chocolates.

Sunday morning I had breakfast on Newbury Street with my friend Katie, who manages the Simon Pearce on Newbury. Yummy yummy belgian waffles, lots of catching up on gossip, and much talk about art vs. production, and the ways of the retail world, before heading back to Cambridge and paper marbling.

A brilliant weekend, I must say. If you'd like to read more, check out Shelley's blog, and definitely look at the rest of the pictures on my flickr page.

Ta-ta for now!

treasuries abound

What a nice thing to wake up to--an etsy convo from fellow seller smugcat, saying that she's included me in her latest treasury! Such a treat!Click here to view the Calling Bird Noteset on etsy!

ah, the glories of old metal

In finishing the last of that HUGE letterpress job--for Carbon Farmers of America--I realized that my press was acting a little funny. Not surprising for old metal, but since Minnie (my Pilot) is my baby, I'm worried. So I'm talking to John Barrett on the phone right now, and here is the trouble zone:The first image is at rest, the second is rocking the handle forward. Darn loose screws!!

Update! Thanks to my fantastic neighbors Rick & Ben, I was able to unscrew the "key" that was loose, clean out the gunk, and tighten it up. I'm not sure that it's a permanent solution, but the handle is much tighter now--only a little movement back and forth. I also cleaned out the "set screw" and tightened it while I had the tools. Looks like it's time to go the hardware store for my own set of hex wrenches!

new books & a new look

Sometimes working for yourself can be a chore. And sometimes it's great! Today was a terribly rainy day, so I ran to the Savoy to pick up a few videos--Grey Gardens and Midnight Cowboy--and ran into Eric and talked about his Sci-Fi July movie series, and then back home to hunker down at the worktable. The results are these pretty little case-bound books, made with fabric from my voluminous stash. They're a good size (5x6-1/2") and have 144 pages.

What do you think? Leave me a comment--tell me that you love them, or hate them, that I'm totally off the mark, or whatever you like, and I might just send you a little something as a treat!

Also, I did a quick web design with google pages, and now May Day Studio has a home! Come on over! There's coffee and vegan cookies if you're nice!

i'm a bad, bad blogger

It's true. I've been ignoring you. It's for a good cause, but I know that's no excuse.

Today has been a beautiful day, and I spent almost the whole day inside printing those fantabulous envelopes. (Almost, because I did have to run to the store for kitty litter.) So there they are. Hopefully soon I'll get my bum in gear and upload the photos of my last two letterpress workshops, as well as from the Printer's Fair at the Museum. Gosh, everything feels like sooo long ago.

Take care, you hear? I'll be back soon.

a man in an apron.

Join many fabulous printers, printing enthusiasts, and moi (of course) at the Printer's Fair the coming weekend.

Here's what the Letterpress Guild has to say:

Sunday, June 17, 2007 – 10am - 4pm – Free Admission
The Museum of Printing
800 Massachusetts Avenue
North Andover, Massachusetts 01845

Gardner LePoer (aka the man in the apron!), Director of the Museum of Printing, invites you to attend the fourth annual Printing Arts Fair, held at the Museum across from the town common.

Sponsored by the Letterpress Guild of New England, the Fair benefits the Museum of Printing. Vendors of cards, stationery, decorative papers, books, crafts, and letterpress printing equipment, include the Albertine Press, B Designs, Carta Inc., Swamp Press, Sea Dog Press, and the Green Mountain Letterpress, among others. Explore the museum. Have your personalized stationery custom printed with your name cast on a Linotype machine. The Fair offers ongoing demonstrations of the printing arts and a raffle.

Activities for kids include a print-it-yourself turn on a press and punching out names on an old-fashioned stencil machine. Kids can also make a card for Father's Day.

The Museum of Printing is dedicated to preserving the history of the graphic arts, printing equipment and printing craftsmanship. In addition to many special collections and small exhibits, the museum contains hundreds of antique printing, typesetting and bindery machines, as well as a library of books and printing related documents.

I realize that sounds rather dry, but last year I had a really good time, and got to meet lots of other printers, as well as see cool demos of machines and techniques I'd never attempt in my dizziest daydreams.

hot hot hot

Hot days call for extreme measures. Since I'm not quite ready for hot days yet, my extreme measures involve laying flat on my back in the middle of my studio, in front of the open door, watching the crabapple tree and hoping for a breeze.

And sometimes updating my blog.

So, two quick things for today: a new "section" on blog--Upcoming Events--about the cool letterpress & bookbinding stuff you'll find me doing over the next month. Please note that I *still* have open spots for next weekend's "Experience the Letterpress Thing" workshop, so if you've always wanted to...now's the time. Not convinced yet? Check out the photos from past workshops and you will be!

And if you are a new letterpresser, and want some new type to work with, check out the "Starter Sets" on the M&H Type website, along with cool videos and tours of their casting & bindery facilities.

stacks and rows and craft shows

While I've been *mostly* avoiding the studio for the last few weeks, my friend Jen mentioned this secret treasure of a memorial-day-weekend craft show that she shows at every year--and (of course) I couldn't say no. So what to do about inventory? I dropped off a handful of BINGO Books and letterpress cards at Studio STK a few weeks ago (thanks Amanda and Sage!), but I still have a good amount of each of those for this weekend's show.

Yesterday was chilly and rainy, so I took down the vintage books from the shelf, and decided to spruce 'em up.

If you're in Western Massachusetts this weekend(sat-sun-mon), check out May Day Studio & lots of other cool crafters at the super secret show: take Route 9 east from Northampton (towards Williamsburg) and keep an eye out for the teapot-shaped sandwich boards. You can't miss 'em.

of brownnosers & speed racers

Just kidding! The latest workshop was a start-to-finish race between two couples: Kenneth & Sheri and Siri & Jason. Kenneth & Sheri won out on the time--they finished typesetting and printing in under 3 hours. But Siri & Jason were in it for the long haul, and set two rounds of type, to print on two of their pages. All that and we bound two chapbooks each, and finished early--which meant more time for shopping at Letterpress Things! Check out the rest of the photos here.

My First Treasury

Thanks to Felicia at Fluffy Flowers for including me in her latest etsy treasury. She's had 4 treasuries in a row, now, and usually they're so hard to get. She always includes a range of items--like this one, with baby shoes, earrings, a sewing book, and lip balm. I'm just so happy to be included as one of her blog readers. You should check out Felicia's blog here--she posts often, and always has something stunning to show us. Here's what the list looks like when your item is included--you get a gold star!

back from the dead

...or so I feel. I was totally & completely pumped for the Queen City Craft Bazaar, and now I'm definitely exhausted, and also ready to go in twenty new directions. For those of you who are curious, the Bazaar was good. There was so much amazing stuff, and amazing artists to talk to, and the weather was beautiful. And we were in beautiful Union Station, which I'd never been to before. Folks were very excited about my stuff, and I had lots of nice compliments and conversations with other bookbinders & bingo aficionados. My booth was between Happy Fantastic (preppy and pink J. Kalisz was sooo nice!) and jewelry designer Wendy at Earth Originals--very good company, both! Sara at Made Boutique took some sweet pictures of the booths and was running around being a mother hen for a good part of the day. Thanks to Sara & my booth neighbors for making my first craft-y event so special![My setup at the Bazaar, kinda faraway. Click on the link to read my notes!]

Queen City Craft Bazaar--the final countdown

That's where I'll be, all day tomorrow, hunkered down behind a massive pile of books and cards--seriously, it's a lot of stuff! Click here for the directions, and I'll be on the first floor (the train level, apparently). Now you have no excuses, so I'll see you there!

Gosh, paper is pretty. And the rest of my studio is not.

Isn't this lovely? A stack of 4bar cards, waiting for round two with the press--and hoping to be chosen as the best of the best. For sending to the happy couple, that is.

Friends of friends Linda and Brian are getting married this summer, and chose *moi* to do their invites. They turned out to be quite luxurious, in my opinion. Ink in papaya and chocolate, a lush image, and toothy cream-colored paper for the invite and rsvp. It's taken me a bit of time to pick the one that I get to keep for my portfolio!Here's the finished product, with a bit of editing for the public. I'm so excited about these!

What I'm not excited about is the state of my worktable. It's been a catch-all for all kinds of junk--err, supplies--while I've been gallivanting around New England teaching workshops. And of course flickr is being extremely slow tonight, so I can't leave notes on the photo. But here it is, and check back soon for fun tidbits about the may day magpie. Yay! Click on the photo to see what the magpie is "collecting."

Whew!

The most recent workshop was a blast! After a rocky start (my alarm clock didn't go off, and Kerry and Heather were on the wrong side of the building), we jumped into action.

This class marked the inaguration of Kelsey #4--so now each student has their own press. Even so, they worked for the better part of the day on their prints--and they turned out beautifully.

Check out more photos here.

Working Hard...

...and playing little. Not the usual way I like to run my life, but there you have it.

It was a long work weekend: seven new journals (including a new line) and the beginning of a wedding invite. Phew! And tonight, the mad rush to put all the new stuff on etsy. Here's a group shot:

Four new BINGO Books, and the new line that I've christened the "Pretty Peep" line--longstitch journals with Lokta covers, and a peep of the pretty paper inside!

Also, I decided to clean up my camera, and found lots of letterpress workshop pictures yet to be blogged about. So here they are--the January workshop crew:

Take a look at the photo album for some "action" shots!

first times

I just received my acceptance email...to my first craft show! It's Saturday May 5, 10-5, in Burlington, VT. I know it's a month away, but it was juried entry, and only 35 spots available!

Friday Happy Hour

This weekend sure has snuck up on me!

Two pieces of happy friday news: Power Cuffs are sold out! They went into the Gladiator at the Langdon Street Cafe on Sunday, and as of this morning are all gone. Pete & I are working on a V2, possibly involving vinyl...

One of the super-est things about etsy is Friday Happy Hour specials. Today only, from 5-9pm eastern time, when you buy a BINGO Book from my shop, you receive a FREE letterpress noteset. Check out my shop for more details!

What to do...

...when you're supposed to be working (or blogging)--but you just can't get motivated?

So I've been taking lots of pictures of the things I've been doing when I should be working.

Item one: Googling yourself. You know you do it. But do you spend two hours doing it, looking up all possible combinations? And now with the business, there's even more to do. But that's how I found a fantastic thing! The design*sponge guest designer blog featured (drum roll please) me! Guest designer Molly Symmonds has a great eye, and titled her Tuesday Feb 20th post "splendid stationary," and filled it with beautiful paper treats harvested on etsy. I've got this blog on my links--and you should too! I'm working on a few more journals made from this paper, so stay tuned!

Item two: I bought a new couch. As in New. And the placement of a large piece of furniture in my living room-slash-print studio meant a major rearranging needed to take place. So I moved the living room around, which inspired me to actually put some stuff in my bedroom, which meant some stuff had to go in the kitchen. In the end, I had a bookshelf with nothing on it! And having recently perused the winter issue of Adorn magazine and seen the pretty workspace all brought together with paper...I thought I should get around to covering my storage boxes and lining the back of the shelves. My new color scheme is pink/orange/red/brown, and so I dug out scraps for covering the fronts of boxes, and found a pretty orange polka-dotty paper and a graphic flower print to do every other shelf. The effect is just lovely. I want all my shelves to look like this!

Item three: I posted a little while ago about the Bingo card album that I gave to Cecilia as a gift. Well, she took it to New York with her, and gave it to her publicity people, and it's in the works for publication in a magazine. The upshot is that I have a heck of a lot of paper to cut. This is just the beginning of it!

Item four: So this one is actual work. Kind of. My friend Sian finally broke down and decided to let me print her some business cards. But because she's a designer, she has a yen for perfection. Which means that I didn't have her typeface in the right sizes to hand-set her text. And while I'm waiting to receive the Ludlow slugs with her text, she nudged her partner Eyrich to get cards of his own. I got to mess around with a new paper (yay!) and get paid for it! I think they came out beautifully--and Eyrich actually had something with his name on it to take to a woodworking show.

Item five: I needed a "no-stress" art project to do while I contemplated money-making projects. So I decided to get on my project for The Gladiator, the super-duper art vending machine at the Langdon Street Cafe. It was, at least to everyone else, pretty obvious that I should make something with paper. But who wants to be obvious? I decided that Power Cuffs would be the best use of my time. There's been lots of talk about Wonder Woman lately, and I thought that declaring your art/love with felt and pretty cotton print wristbands might be cool.

Item six: Taking silly pictures of the cats. Because they're the only kids I'm going to be allowed to have for a while.

Here's Punk looking perplexed (or perhaps annoyed) at my pile of Power Cuffs.

And Sasha being very patient while I make her a spiky Lettra collar. (n.b. It didn't last very long. She nibbled the ends and then batted it under the couch.)

Finally Punk gave up, and just gave me the evil eye from the end of my work table.








Well, I guess that's all for now. But coming soon to my etsy shop: spring-themed letterpress cards, more bingo books, and more pocket journals like the one in the design*sponge feature.

And maybe, just maybe, a new blog.

The Latest Workshop

Yup, these hardworking ladies know all about letterpress. Or at least what one could learn in 6 hours. That's me on the left, with Milly, Michelle, and Erica, and our sweet chapbooks. Want to peek insidethe chapbook? Take a look here.

This was the third in what will hopefully be a long line of letterpress workshops at the Letterpress Things print shop. John B. wrote this amazing copy to advertise the workshop:

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.

Seductive, no? I have been totally amazed with the ingenuity and creativity of all of my students thus far. With this workshop, I set the challenge of printing all 4 sides of the page. Michelle set her quote, and then hunted through John's stock of image plates to put on all four sides. Milly set type. And then more type. And then added images, too. Erica whirled through the print ship, printing on all of the available presses (3 Kelsey Excelsiors, a Nolan Standard, and a C&P Pilot) and forgot to eat lunch. Luckily, I set the type for our covers the night before, so only had a little bit of printing to do while they worked madly. What fun!

For those curious folks, my next workshop is scheduled for March 17. Email me now, because there are only 4 spots available!

Let it snow!

I've been stuck inside all day, but we're officially getting a *@!$load of snow. Brent was apparantly out taking pictures in front of the cafe this morning--so here's one to whet your tastebuds:


Also, last year this brilliant thing happened on Valentine's Day--and it happened again! We (heart) Montpelier.