Thar she blows

Some fun new dandelion invitations we've just finished.

Printing Arts Fair

Last weekend's Printing Arts Fair at the Museum of Printing was fabulous. It's always such an inspiring collection of creative folks, and I saw so many drool-worthy projects.

Of course, the highlight of the day was the steamroller printing, which happened despite the riainy day.







My camera ran out of batteries before I got any shots of the collaborative alphabet print, but here's an image of the final product (I carved the M):



More images can be found here.

Our table was nestled inbetween Angela of Carta, Inc., Melissa of Pressbound, Jesse of Marsolais Press and Bull Thistle Press (more images of both Jesse and Bull Thistle's amazing works later). Here are some fun shots of Angela's delicous cotton ribbon.





Love, love, love the new packaging!

I left with many new acquisitions, mostly paper goods begged, bartered and bought, and this little beaut of a hole punch (perfect for the hanging tags on our new journal sets). Pretty and useful!



Closing with my favorite shirt of the day:

Design me pretty

A few last shots of the week before heading off to the Printing Arts Fair on Sunday (come say hi! I promise steamrollers, rain or shine).



I revamped our orchids design for a client recently, with more orchid flowers for a fuller feel. These were printed on duplex ecru lettra by Crane. I love the golden yellow centers paired with the brown stems (which are also more textured than the original line drawing).



Perhaps one of my favorite new designs is this collection, playing with circles and swirls - which just pops off the paper in the bright blue on fluorescent white stock.

Happy weekend and happy father's day to all of you dads out there (especially Jacob on his first father's day) !

Hot shots

Last week when Melissa Coe came in for a press check on her note cards she snapped a couple of great photos of the shop. These are two of my favorites:




(Photos copyright and courtesty of Melissa Coe Photography)

The shop looks great, even in all of its clutter!

For more photos from the day, visit Melissa's blog. Thanks, Melissa!

Steamrollers! Behold!

If you're in the Boston area this coming Sunday, bring your dad out for a real Father's Day celebration! We'll have old machines cranking away (what dad doesn't love to tinker with old mechanical stuff), plus printing demonstrations and the special treat for the day:

STEAMROLLER PRINTING!!!

That's right, we're going to run a steamroller over piles of carefully inked, hand-carved linoleum blocks for some of the largest prints you've ever seen. 26 local letterpressers are carving alphabet blocks for the day's big print - an alphabet of type and book arts (or just letters).

Did I mention that we'll be there? Along with a host of other printers, binders and book artists for all of your paper wishes.

Sponsored by the Letterpress Guild of New England and hosted by (and benefiting) the Museum of Printing in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Printing for the blind?

Another of this season's big trends (right after maps) has been utilizing letterpress's unique and luscious feature: the blind deboss. We run the paper through the press sans ink for the beautiful and subtle effect of design that is texturally tactile and bears a second look.



Often we use the blind print to add a quiet repetition of the design motif on the reply cards while keeping the card simple and clean, like the map above (*two* of this season's trends rolled into one!) and the orchid below.



Michelle and Mikhail designed their own invitations and made the blind print the centerpiece of the set, really showing off the letterpress effect.





[Why all the cities? The two decided that rather than have all of their friends and family travel to one big wedding party, the bride and groom would travel to *them* - thus a five-city whirlwind wedding week. Each guest then received a second piece inviting them to their city-specific party.]


Photo copyright and courtesty of Melissa Coe Photography.

Lastly we have a set of note cards for local photographer Melissa Coe. The blind print shows off her logo without interfering with written messages to clients. She snapped this photo during a press check last week. Thanks, Melissa!

Where in the world?

I've been designing a lot of maps lately. It's not really surprising - maps are beautiful, and for an event-filled wedding weekend, practical and necessary. And far prettier than Google Maps.



Many of the maps have been like this one, printing the sea/bay/lake blue and leaving the land bright and inviting with a sharp contrast on the coastline.



I'm rather partial to this more abstracted driving map of Chicago.



And for subtle decorative effect, the North Shore coastline blind debossed onto reply cards.



That's another popular theme lately, but more on that anon.

Renegade Baby

Our Brooklyn adventure couldn't have happened on a more glorious weekend. It was a delightful way to spend two days outside, with friends, family, the babe, and surrounded by all kinds of craft-loving goodness. To start, a fabulous typography-loving shirt:



We shared our booth with Kelly of May Day Studio. Her books are simply divine, and I adore this shot of her display of the retro-found-fabric-covered journals.



Her Bingo Books drew in a lot of nice peeps, many of whom also got some of our little journals, too.



Sadie (here with her "auntie" Kelly) was absolutely peachy in her I Heart NY shirt and entertained us all.

We made god friends with our neighbors and did some fine bartering (my favorite was a new apron from Leah at Rustbelt Fiber Werks). Pics forthcoming.

Thanks to everyone for a splendiferous weekend, especially the Barandes clan for playing host in Brooklyn, and Rachel for pitching in!

Brooklyn here we come!

New Yorkers - hope to see you there!