LGNE broadside exhibit and celebration

In what will likely be my last public appearance before going on maternity leave, I hope you'll join me and many others in celebrating the opening of the LGNE broadside exhibition at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown on Saturday, September 8th from 1 to 4 pm.

Albertine press has two pieces in the show alongside prints by many other talented letterpressers from across the country. Editions will be for sale.

See you there!

Sadie at NSS - Part 1

It's that time again - Sadie takes us through her favorite letterpress booths at the National Stationery Show (we have nothing against non-letterpressers, but Sadie pooped out before we got to see any).

First stop is May Day Studio where Sadie points out some of her favorite patterns in Kelly's display of hand-bound and letterpress printed albums, journals and note books.

Just next door, the origami mobile at Paper Boat Studios caught her eye, and Sadie was gifted with one of her own.

We're loving the print of their origami logo.

Around the corner we pick up paper windmills from our Twitter friends at Joie Studio (great carpet).

We started setting up little tableaus with all of the acquired goodies and friends, Matt the monkey and Mr. Pig. Ilee Paper Goods was an excellent backdrop.

Love love love the Greetings From line of cards.

Chocolate covered pretzels awaited us at 9SpotMonk where Tiffany helped make Matt and Mr. Pig comfortable.

Their new line of cards is a nice call back to the graffiti cards they produced a few years back. The bold graphics, colors, lettering are all awesome.

Another letterpress and bookbinding heaven, Igloo Letterpress had some great wooden letters in their display, perfect for play.

The townhouse journals are incredible and make a little neighborhood when all lined up on the shelf.

Sadie stopped to smell the roses, rather the incredible paper flower display at Sugarcube Press. It was even more fun than the Chihuly installation we visited because this one we could touch!

The ladies at Two Trick Pony inspired an impromptu yoga session (it's hard standing there all day long) with a downward facing dog in the aisle.

Sadie does her own impression of a finger mustache while posing next to the typestache bag from our across-the-aisle neighbors (and Louie Award winners!) Old Tom Foolery. 

Animal coasters and cards at Sesame Letterpress!

Look! A pig! Hannah from Pie Bird Press gifted Sadie and Mr. Pig one of her pig cards to add to our collection (we already have three other Pie Bird masterpieces hanging in our home).

Sadie was a good sport making it through so many booths, even as she got tired of saying hello to so many new people. Next stop Albertine Press.

Printing Arts Fair 2010

 Scenes from the Printing Arts Fair this past weekend.

 

On the left, my favorite contact of the day, finally meeting Pier Gustafson in person! He was writing out beautiful scrolls with people's names, but I also snagged a vintage fountain pen with a great calligraphy nib (and some free writing advice).

Top right are our "hot offs" - neat overprinted (literally) covers from the letterpress library filled with an odd assortment of notecards we've discontinued.

Lower right, a fabulous display on fake grass by Pam of Zoetropa.

It was a quiet day for visitors, but a great day for connecting with friends and fellow printers, and ogling the gorgeous work that everyone is doing (I picked up a several gorgeous chapbooks from Ed at Swamp Press - pics forthcoming).

National Stationery Show - hot spots

When I wander away from the booth during the show, it's for one of two reasons - the other booth is close by, or it's very, very cool.

Ink + Wit was both. Tara's work is absolutely charming and I just adore her illustrations. Keep an eye out for her stamp set at a store near you (those are some of the myriad creations possible). With Sadie's current owl obsession I was hearting on the owl print and managed a neat trade to take it home!

While Mr. Boddington's Studio may be best known for their decadent wedding invitations, their booth was my wow, and made with nothing more than foam core and a sharpie marker (okay, probably a few sharpies) plus some envelope liners for the awning. Just awesome.

The family behind Lead Graffiti might just be my new letterpress heroes. Their cards have the most gorgeous ink saturation and the absolute finest, most obsessively perfect multi-color printing alignment I've ever seen. I might have to plan a Delaware pilgrimage to visit their studio and see them in action.

Portland - letterpress pilgrimage

Portland is rife with great letterpress and during the trip I dragged my sister and the baby along to visit some of my favorites.

First stop in Portland's downtown Pearl district was Oblation Papers & Press. Jennifer and Ron Rich have built up a beautiful storefront / printshop and were gracious enough to give us a tour of the print and paper making facility in back.



Oblation's special claim to fame is the fact that they print on all of their own handmade paper. Here are the machines they use to soak and pulp the cotton for the paper making.





Beyond those damp, cottony rooms we headed into the print area, visible from the storefront. My favorite detail - the flywheel chandelier!



I love their beautiful nest-inspired invitations.



Lisa and Sadie discover some Albertine Press note sets out front.




Moving on we stopped by Lark Press. Love the doorstop.



It's a small storefront, but so well put together with wonderful old curiosities sprinkled in amongst the cards and goodies.





I love the space, especially the garage door front, typical in that area.



Lark Press has a lovely collection of Portland cards like this one here. Great use of the blind print.




Last, but certainly not least was a trip to Egg Press. Just a studio, but a lively one at that, with a lot of character (for example, their meter man).



Ah beasts, you old friends.



A silk screen set up for shirts and more.



Supersweet cards.



Thank you to everyone for opening your doors to us and letting me poke through your studios. Not just idle curiosity, I love seeing how others do things because I so often learn solutions to problems I didn't even know I had (and many that I did).

And with a dream of one day having a storefront studio of my own, it's such an inspiration to see others making it happen.