This week

This week has been an interesting one with unexpected opportunities and surprises. I won't give away the secret just yet, but I will say that my studio will be featured in totally unexpected, and very cool, way. On film...

I've been working on prints for this mystery project.

 :: mystery words ::

 :: more mystery words ::

This week. I keep looking at minerals! I don't know what it means yet, but I'm fascinated how minerals mirror larger geological, meteorological, and other natural phenomena.

 :: a mineral disc ::

 :: more minerals ::

:: go forward ::

Developing

Book ideas developing... Pictograms, history, archaeology, botany, arctic landscapes, the colors of the earth and sky. 

:: color experiments for the (as yet untitled) book ::

:: type set for small fires no. 2 ::

:: small fires no. 2 ::

This print is available on my website.

New Year, New Projects

I have a new print available for sale now on my website, titled Small Fires. The composition is set using wood and metal type (no polymer plates). It's inspired by pictographs from arctic cultures.

This print is also a part of my design process for the new book I'm working on, which is about my personal mythology of the north, an idea I started back in the summer and mentioned here. I'm excited to finally be working on the design and writing of the book in earnest now, my sense of purpose renewed.

:: Small Fires, Letterpress, 2012 ::

 :: detail ::

 :: detail ::

Available here

Best Day Job Ever

:: Common Press poster by me::

I'm a lucky girl. My day job these days is working at Common Press, the University of Pennsylvania's letterpress studio as their letterpress tech/coordinator. I spent my first few months there organizing, cleaning, and getting the presses tuned up. Still working on that, I'm looking at you SP-15... Now though, we're turning our focus to printing new work at the press as well as archiving and documenting old work.

This poster is one of the new pieces I printed. It was printed using only wood and metal type from the studio on recycled French Paper.

Mysteries

Sorry for the long radio silence. I was traveling and now I'm back in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, while I was away, the internet at the house stopped working (I'm looking at you, starts with V ends with N) and it won't be back until September 1st (I'm giving you the stink eye right now, starts with V ends with N). Therefore I'm forced to broadcast from an unknown location.

Until things are back to normal, enjoy these mysterious images.

:: justin berry ::

:: accidental mysteries ::

:: hamilton wood type catalogue ::

:: mani katz ::

:: kevin appel ::

Orange

all via ffffound

The Studio! It's...Evolving!

While it may look like a decommissioned tugboat yard sale, there is progress here at Huldra Press. Progress indeed.

Last weekend, I drove to Lititz, PA and got two full cabinets of type as well as a galley rack and a mess of wood furniture and other odds and ends. The seller, a retired printer, was so friendly, a nice break from the usual curmudgeons I encounter when buying equipment. If you're in need, he's selling a 8x12 C&P and a sweet tabletop Challenge paper cutter. Like I said, super nice guy. I wish him the best.

goodies

Now it's time to break out the mineral spirits and start cleaning so I can get printing! I hope to have the press running by mid-June. But in the meantime there's work to be done. Like these...

Holy registration, Batman!

I finished these Yellow Submarine birth announcement cards, thanks to the folks at Lead Graffiti, who let me rent press time in their studio. They have beautiful studio and well maintained equipment and made me feel right a home, so I highly recommend their services if you are ever in need.

That's all for now, enjoy the weekend.

The Finest Piece Of Graphic Design In The Last 100 Years

Yes, you make park in thee grass.

It snowed.

A lot.

This has hindered my plans for driving to Delaware today and has left me with no choice but to play video games and drink coffee instead. Did you know that after getting 9 lives in Super Mario Bros. your lives become symbols? So you can have Crown-Brick lives!

It's true!

Perhaps due to the snow, there is now something living in my wall. Something with little gnawing teeth that kept me up last night . I would like to tell that critter that unless he/she is a mongoose and planning on coming out soon and becoming my mongoose friend, I am not pleased with this arrangement. Not at all.

Lastly, I also finished these business cards for the husband of a friend. It's their one year anniversary, which is the paper anniversary, so she is getting him these as a gift. I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

These were very good practice for precise trimming on the guillotine paper cutter. The guillotine, while being an enormous time saver, has always made me very nervous because if you are not paying attention, you can ruin days of work with one bad cut.

Happily, I feel like I'm getting better at it, calmer and more focused, and these came out very well. Nicely centered and even all around.

Anne Lemanski Business Cards

I recently finished these business cards for Anne Lemanski, sculptor and former resident artist at Penland. She is exhibiting this weekend at SOFA Chicago and needed a new set of business cards for the busy weekend. The text is all set by hand and the rabbit, a drawing of one of Anne's sculptures, is a polymer plate. Anne chose the colors, a deep rich red against a bright blue, and I looks great. One thing I love about doing custom work is that the client might pick something you never would have thought of and it opens up your palette to new possibilities. I printed them eight to a sheet, front and back, so I had to be very careful in my measurements and cutting. It all worked out. And I hope she has a great weekend at SOFA.