Bound to be great

Yet another working weekend is over and with the holiday tomorrow (sort of, the coming and going of holidays is less pronounced when you work for yourself) I figured I could spare the time to post about another extraordinarily successful workshop.

Angela of Carta, Inc. and I created a new tag-team letterpress and bookbinding weekend. We came up with a collaborative journal project that would involve typesetting and printing poems or quotes on day one, and then binding them together on day two. I must say we were lucky to have such incredible students to work with.



Not only was everyone's page beautiful, but the group worked together to create an overarching unity to the project so that although each page was unique, there was nevertheless a real cohesiveness to the book. Bravo guys!



Once everyone had bound a practice soft cover journal (using very versatile pamphlet stitch) we attacked the pre-printed pages, all interleafed with blank pages to create a hard-cover journal. Stacked, pressed, and waiting for glue to dry, Angela took time to show off some examples of this and other binding techniques, opening a new world of possibilities to our newly minted bookbinders.



In order to decorate the soft cover "practice" books, Angela was kind enough to bring a cigar box full of amazing stamps from around the world. I think the idea was to place one or two or three to add some interest. But I also took her at her word when she said we could take as many as we liked (you may remember my affection for stamps) :



It's entirely possible that I have a new idea for some note cards...

Secret admirer

These delicate and lovely paper cut valentine snowflakes arrived in the mailbox today...

Happy Valentine's Day to my almost-secret admirer and everyone else out there!

Paper & Chocolate

I can hardly believe it's been a whole year since our first Paper & Chocolate, yet here we are having finished our second "annual" celebration of Valentine's Day. Our traffic has more than doubled with over 500 visitors to the event last weekend.

After the success of sharing space in December, I again invited some other paper artisans to join in the fun. Here's Melissa of Press Bound with her super-cute, super-tiny, hand-bound books with Polish paper cut designs [kindly ignore my awful office clutter in the background].



I was happy as ever to be joined by Kelly of May Day Studio, who made the trek from Vermont (even though it meant a canceled class). It's always refreshing to talk shop with Kelly: pros and cons of papers, various business concerns like teaching and marketing and what in the world are we going to do next...



Emily (a.k.a. E. B. Goodale) sold nearly all of her incredibly sweet etchings. I snagged one of the new chicken heart prints below.



And while I manned the press demonstrations in the back, my trusty salesman held down the fort.



Thanks to Becca, Kelly, Melissa, Emily and Jacob. Thanks to the gang at Taza for making sure the tour didn't end with the Chocolate but kept everyone moving onto the Paper. Thanks to Brandon for the much needed cocoa boost, and Brendan for a great collaboration. And especially, thanks to the 500+ friends, neighbors, compatriots, young and young at heart, who came in, talked, shopped, and spent a bit of their Saturday afternoon sharing the Paper & Chocolate love.

Spring has sprung!

Although our current busy-ness hasn't allowed me much spare time for blogging, I do read far too many daily blogs for my own good. Usually over lunch. One of my favorites for great handmade finds is Poppytalk.

This month we were invited to participate in Poppytalk Handmade, an offshoot of the blog. The online marketplace is something of a monthly craft fair, bringing together crafters from all over to share their wares with YOU! This month they are showcasing countless beautiful spring things to brighten the dreariest of winter days.

In their own words:

Poppytalk Handmade is a monthly online street market curated by Poppytalk to showcase, buy and sell handmade goods of emerging design talent from around the world.

Time to think spring!

Bring on the love

After two full days of wood type classes I am totally tuckered, yet in love with the love notes that everyone created - bravo!

Milestones

While still in mostly design mode (with printing binges in the very near future) I wanted to find some reason to blog - upcoming events!

Next Saturday, February 9th, from 1 until 6 in the afternoon we will be having our second annual Valentine's Day celebration of Paper & Chocolate. In collaboration with our across-the-hall neighbors, Taza Chocolate, come for factory tours, letterpress demonstrations, sampling chocolate, plus cards and bars galore.

Bring your friends, bring your kids, bring your parents, bring your Valentine!

As with our holiday event, we'll be joined by a bevy of other paper & chocolate artists for the event, including, but not necessarily limited to, La Tene Chocolatier, Beck Wasilewsky, E.B. Goodale, and Press Bound.

Details can be found on the website www.albertinepress.com/aboutEvents.

Hope to see you there!!!