tools of the trade + the best sound

Some folks have a favorite pair of jeans. I have a favorite composing stick (8", sets 40+ picas), line gauge, and bone folder. But the tools that made my afternoon are pictured above: 3-in-1 oil, the big maglite, tiny bottle brush, lint-free rags, simple green, wd-40, and more 3-in-1 oil. After much advice from the awesome minds on vanderblog and a quick email from Perry Tymeson, I spent the better part of this afternoon and evening oiling the heck out of my Vandercook. And it works! Oh, thank you thank you thank you!

And now, for the best sound ever:

even better

Even better than having the presses of my dreams, plus a light-filled, sunny-gold studio?
Having one of those presses in (very nearly) perfect working order. And brand new rollers. And the blackest black ink ever.

Now if only the Vandercook would be so obliging....

mondays + back in business

It's been a long few weeks, moving my not-so-little print shop out of the second floor apartment, across town, and into the new studio. This past weekend was the culmination--bringing up the Vandercook (+ more!) from Chicopee to Montpelier. Here are a few in-progress photos:

room without paint!

painted, but still moving in, last thursday

John B. with the full moving truck, early Saturday morning

Vandy on the lift gate...only two feet from the door!

And here is everything in place (mostly!):

new paper cutter, 8x12 C&P, and type cabinets along the far wall

my new little Vandy!

It's staggering, the amount of *stuff* I added to my printshop in one weekend. Doubled? Tripled? I have to say, running my own business is starting to feel *real*!

good news + summer cherries

kitchen window with cherries, 6/27/08

I received *very* good news this afternoon...my business loan has been approved! The VP at the bank said that they were very impressed with my business plan and projections for the future, and that they'd be more than happy to lend me more money in the future! Hooray!

Also, I'm very pleased to be eating these cherries right now. They're organically grown in Shoreham, VT at Champlain Orchards, and I scored a pint of Ulsters because they were leftover from this week's Pete's Greens CSA share. My new studio is the Montpelier pick-up point, and I'm excited that so many folks will be by the studio every week, and that I'll get the extras!

baby steps

Getting moved in to the new studio is taking longer than I'd hoped...so in the meantime, I'm...
printing quirky wedding invitations (they're getting married on the groom's dairy farm...)
staring at the space that's almost-mine
and watching the wildflowers that grow in the old railroad tracks just outside the new space.
Happy Thursday!

a little of this...and a little of that

press in motion! so cool, and so scary at the same time.

The week(s) in review:

Friday, June 20: They are still blasting the water mains on the next block, so every ten minutes or so I hear a loud horn, and then a huge *BOOM* and my building shakes. Not so good for filling out loan and zoning permit applications for my new studio!

Sunday, June 15: The Printing Arts Fair. The Good: several new vendors were there, thanks in part to the outreach of Angela Liguori--welcome Hannah of Paper Breakfast, Jenn of JennSki, and Shannon of Rifferaff! (View more pictures here.) Also good: more fun hang-out and chatty time with Angela, Ezra and Terri of Rainy Planet Press, Jesse of Firefly Press, Melissa of PressBound and Albertine Press, and Robin of Robin Bledsoe Books, Greg of Bull Thistle Press, Ed of Swamp Press, and the ever-industrious students from the North Bennett Street School.
The Bad: it rained all day, and we were stuck in a room on the second floor of the Museum.
The Ugly: It was a smallish room, and only one window opened. Yikes!

Saturday, May 31: Met with Shelley at Albertine Press to discuss a join venture: an intensive, intermediate-level letterpress workshop. It'll be held at Shelley's Somerville, MA studio, and will be just amazing (we hope)! Here's the proposal:
So you've learned basics of letterpress but still crave more? Albertine Press and May Day Studio are teaming up for a four-day intensive in which we'll explore a wider range of letterpress experiences. Students will work together to plan and execute an edition of broadsides using handset lead and wood type, borders and ornaments, photo-polymer plates, linoleum carving and more. The workshops will take place on two consecutive weekends, July 26-7 and August 2-3, and costs $500, all materials included. Please indicate previous experience when registering. Feel free to email me with questions, and go here to sign up!

Friday, May 23: Moving the press! My *new* Vandercook was duly picked up, put down, picked up, put down, and finally strapped onto a moving truck, only to head to it's temporary home in Chicopee. It'll be in Montpelier soon! Check out more moving pictures here.

summer storms

Whew! We just got hit with an intense thunderstorm...and more on the way, supposedly.

Despite that, I hope you will all join me tomorrow at the... I'll have a table full o' goods, along with Angela from Carta, Inc., Ezra from Rainy Planet Press, Melissa (standing in for Shelley) from Albertine Press, Leslie from Sea Dog Press, and so many more!

Making their debut tomorrow...these sweet little wood type notes. Great for gift-giving, lunchtime lovenotes, sassy sentiments or anytime epistles.

the big to-do

I've been holding out on y'all, because I'm so excited I can barely breathe! Let's let the pictures speak for themselves...
And finally, me with my brand-new-to-me SP-15. John Barrett and I are picking it up tomorrow...and I can't wait!

more room on the shelf

I have many exciting (new!) things to tell you about, and many pictures to show you, but until my internet starts behaving itself, this will have to do.

These are the 106 books most often listed as 'unfinished' on LibraryThing. The rules are that you bold the ones you've read all the way to the end, underline the ones you read for "school", and star the ones you started but didn't finish.

I'm following ampersand duck on this one, and adding italic for those I've re-read.
Via ampersand duck, and many, many others before.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
*Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
_Madame Bovary_
The Odyssey
_Pride and Prejudice_
Jane Eyre
*The [A] Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
_Great Expectations_
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
*Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
*_The Canterbury Tales_ (I was an English major, and read Paradise Lost instead!)
The Historian : a novel
*A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
*Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
_The Grapes of Wrath_ (junior year of high school!)
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
*The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
*Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
_The Prince_
_The Sound and the Fury_
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
_The Scarlet Letter_
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
_The Aeneid_
Watership Down
*Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth (but only if listening to the book on tape counts)
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

I feel so less well read right now...

it's been a hard day's night...

Nothing to report, really. New books are in progress, mostly because my internet has been down this week, and my cell phone provider's towers went down today, so I've been catching up on everything but my internet presence and my hunt for a studio space.

And if you haven't seen A Hard Day's Night, truck over to your local hip video store, and watch it tonight. It makes me giggle!

crafty kids

Cecilia at Craftsbury Kids has been a big supporter of mine since the beginning...and I'm happy to say that I finally have a few things for sale in her shop!

Craftsbury Kids is "a breath of fresh air in a gadget-filled world" and features fine, handmade goods from all over the world. There are so many lovely things on the site, it's hard to pick favorites, but if you were to stop over and buy one of my limited-edition Bingo Albums, you should also check out the Bubble Wand, the Jingle Block, and the Step Stool (which I totally had as a young'un!).

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!

ready, set, go: totally off topic

Not that I have a topic, per se, but I generally try to stick to work stuff. But lately I've been doing too much "work" {here's the short list: printing wedding invitations, co-managing a venue for the Green Mountain Film Festival, making amazing lattes, waiting on your table, making bingo journals, teaching workshops here and there, driving to and from here and there, putting bids on more print jobs, losing my mind in the projection booth at the savoy, designing business cards and cd cases for him, designing baby shower invites for her, and definitely not doing my laundry} and not enough fun stuff.

Fun times chez moi:

all refrigerator photos c/o noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com

Reading No one belongs here more than you. {Two words: brilliant and devastating. If you don't know about Miranda July, where the heck have you been? Go here now!}

Listening to my favorite song three times in two days. It's that good, really. And I just found the r.e.m. + David Letterman video on youtube, and it's here for your viewing pleasure. Also, r.e.m.'s new single is totally stuck in my head: supernatural superserious is my theme song for the week. And it can be stuck in yours, too.

{As a side note, I've been crushing out on r.e.m. and michael stipe for eighteen years now. That's longer than I've known almost anyone else in my entire life. And it makes me feel really, really old, instead of just thirty-ish.}

approaching the dam

(crossing the winooski river 2.17.08)

I cross this river almost every day. Today, as things and thoughts were slowly swirling around in my mind, I looked down and saw the thaw. It's still *mostly* frozen, and nothing's going over the dam, but there's a little bit of river peeking through.

I have so much to tell you about the last two weeks, but it will all have to wait for the dam to thaw. Until then, I've been getting my fill of other folks' blogs (eva's icons, the short livingroom, hot off the press) and you should too.

À bientôt.

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!

looking ahead...

I know it sounds a little cuckoo, but I can't help but be afraid of March. This year, I'll be projecting films for the Savoy Theater as part of the Green Mountain Film Festival--and as I'm still a novice projectionist, just the thought of messing something up in front of a crowd gives me the shivers.

And then there's the workshops: I've just updated the workshops page on my site to reflect dates that still have openings, as well as to announce a new date for Experience the Letterpress Thing (March 15) and a new workshop: Getting to Know Your Tabletop Press. Only one date (so far), March 8. And here's what it's all about:

A unique, hands-on workshop where participants bring their own tabletop press to work on.

The daylong class begins with a review of the press: its parts, operations, care and maintenance, adjustments, and more. In the afternoon, we make our presses ready to print.

Topics and techniques include setting tympan and packing; ink types, mixing, and inking the press; setting and positioning gauges and grippers; choosing paper; and registering the form. Particular attention will be given to troubleshooting and specific problems previously encountered. If time permits, participants will set type and print.

As always, email me for information, and sign up soon!

il était une fois...

...totally off topic, but I gave myself a haircut yesterday, and was remembering my tragic blonde phase. Ten years ago (just saying that makes me feel old), I was spending my junior year of college abroad in Paris. And decided that there was no time like the present to test out the "blondes have more fun" theory.Yikes! That's me on the left, Kathryn and Tori at the Opéra Garnier in late 1997.

P.S. Turns out, blondes don't really have more fun. They just get hit on a lot more.

quirky love

I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. I am, however, a big fan of nice teeth. And so...



















..my Valentine's line was born.

I collect odd printing plates (among many, many other things) of body parts. So far eyes and teeth are where it's at, but I wouldn't turn down hands or feet if you're willing to part with them.

These are just the first two of four planned cards in the "quirky love" line now available in my etsy shop. Cards are 4bar size, folded, and printed in lipstick red ink on crane's lettra, with recycled red envelopes.

Buy 'em quick!

seeing red (and a bit o' green)

I woke up this morning and found this:

(click on the picture to go to the actual treasury--but it's only up for the next 24 hours!)

Hooray for features! Being in an etsy treasury is a little like winning the lottery...you might win (a sale), but then again you might just get nothing. Here's hoping for a sale!

P.S. If you missed the treasury, click here to see the full image.

why is vacation so much work?

Although I tried to take a work "vacation," I ended up thinking more about printing & binding than I have in awhile. In the xmas rush, my modus operandi was "do-do-do-get it done"...and now it seems that I need to think for an entire day (it's now after 5 pm and I'm just getting to the "do" part) before I can make anything happen.

I'm still finalizing my holiday cards (I know! I'm sooo late this year.) and working on a few new cards for sale. In the meantime, to hold you over:I'm a sucker for vintage ribbons. These all came from the Re-store yesterday (grand total: $3.05)...a small lot of vintage satins in white, blue, mint, pink, yellow, and red. Those of you who've bought from my etsy shop know that I package all of my book and cards in kraft paper, tied with pretty vintage ribbons.

My inspiration board. I don't have a whole lot of wallspace in the studio, so everything gets rotated on and off here in a timely manner. Up there now(clockwise from top):

• two playing cards "lady midget" and "c" (found by my friend brad in the wall of his house)
• quote from willy wonka and the chocolate factory that i've been repeating to myself all day: "Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." Send me butterscotch ripple, stat!
• barn swallow drawing by my friend missa
• poppy postcard received from an email buddy
• majorette postcard...my first project on my press
• "merry" poster done by rik in my holiday letterpress class
• tiny art invitation (not yet done...)
• "dolly salad" line ideas (my not-yet realized ideas for fantastic homegoods made from vintage materials)

Grrr. Back to work.