Letterpress cards with handwritten text and a square of Japanese paper set in to a debossed square; accordion albums; Coptic stitch journals & photo albums

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy working with these Japanese papers; they manage to be playful in their patterns, while also incredibly elegant and saturated with color. I realize the textures are hard to convey through a computer screen, but I’ve tried to include some very close detail shots with each piece so you can get a good sense of them. Honestly, I’m having too much fun with them and have a serious paper obsession going on.

It felt like it was time for some bright colors and new patterns, and I’m very proud of how well this new collection works together.

And, there’s a full wholesale line sheet including all of the new work available for retailers, as well!:

Enjoy!

This is a very fun interview with Fran Shea of Zeichen Press in Minnesota. My favorite part?: “Designing using this centuries-old method, alone – in the garage – in the winter… you sort of forget that you are making things that people will eventually see and buy.” Except for the garage part, I’m right there with you, Fran!

Fran and her partner in crime, Jen, work with a lot of handset type and images and their cards definitely tend toward the hilarious. Fran’s blog is a fun read, too, and will leave you wondering if this woman does anything *without* a sense of humor!

In the meantime, our hyacinth bulbs’ progress this week has been literally measurable! The tallest one is about 4 1/2″ this morning and, in total, 8 of the 10 we planted have poked their heads above soil!

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you on Monday when we unveil the new work!

Sappho’s “One Girl”, in honor of my sweet brother’s 27th birthday today.

We’re going to try and be busy little bees today, and I’m definitely planning on putting this video about David Macaulay’s book-making process on in the background during naptime, while I work. I haven’t even watched any of it yet, but I have a feeling this may be good for a little motivation and entertainment!

These are just the start of a lot more that’s coming around here this week!

Snow on top of our window a/c this morning

Charlotte’s not the only thing growing like crazy around here! These are the basil seeds and hyacinth bulbs we planted last week, already poking out over the top of the soil.

And these are a few of the new letterpress cards and pieces I’ve put together this week using the new chiyogami papers. I’ll have lots to show off next week, once I get the rest of the new work with the new papers photographed.

Last, but not least, today would have been my Grandmother Maggie’s 87th birthday. She died 14 years ago and I still miss her every day. I like to think that she would be very proud of the work I’m doing and the little girl we’re raising. I have lots more to say about her, but that’s for another time.

Hart Crane’s “My Grandmother’s Love Letters” and “Candles” by Carl Dennis

Nancy Duncan

When my family lived in Omaha, my mom & dad worked closely with Nancy Duncan at the Emmy Gifford Children’s Theatre. I believe Nancy was the director of the theatre at the time and then went on to be a storyteller, traveling all over the midwest telling the most wonderful stories.

Later, when my parents bought the Kendall building in downtown Marion and started Campbell Steele Gallery and Liars Theatre, they brought Nancy to the gallery to perform her stories and to perform with Liars.

Nancy was a force. Her Baba Yaga story and Chicken stories were perennial favorites and I can still hear her voice clearly when I think of her characters.

There are so many people who popped in and out of our lives throughout what I suppose you would call my formative years, so why did I find myself googling Nancy Duncan’s name today? I wanted to see her tell “The Pocket People”, one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever seen, told entirely with hands and without words.

Friends, there are limits to what the internet holds and, though I knew I would not find it there, I scanned the list of google results to see if some stray fan had posted an informal video of that beloved story. I knew before I looked that I was searching in vain.

What I did find, though, was page after page of articles written in remembrance of Nancy, who died in 2004, after a long battle with breast cancer.

This article brought it all back home and reminded me of the role Nancy played in so many people’s lives. I urge you to read the Sharon Olds poem in the 2nd column of the article – it’s breathtaking.

I have been lucky to be surrounded my whole life by people who live passionately and have taught me by example. They’ve taught me so well that I don’t know any other way to live.

Maybe it’s becoming a parent that has brought clarity to this point: we are who we are because of everyone who holds us up. Navel gazing doesn’t get you very far and our selves are much less important than who we are lucky enough to live with, work with, and love.

(Thanks to @anniebissett for posting the link on Twitter!)

New Japanese papers arrived yesterday and I woke up today excited to use them! I’ve seen so many chiyogami papers by now and I never cease to be amazed by their richness, color, and texture. Their elegance and playfulness is definitely what compels me to use them in so much of my work. This new batch is a beautiful assortment of bright, colorful patterns and, in combination with the lengthening days, they are making my work table look like spring is on the way!

I think that blue on the right might be my favorite…

We’ve been gluing up covers with these for new journals and albums this morning. It was about time for something colorful and bright! I’m on a roll and hope to have these done and ready to show off soon, soon, soon! There are also letterpress cards coming with these papers that I’m excited to put together!

While Charlotte naps and I work, this is what I’ve been watching this morning:

It’s hard to have any complaints when you think about how complex everything around us is, how much is out there, and how lucky we are to be able to see and hear and feel all of it!

A good friend who has been dealing with the loss of not one, but a few close friends recently wrote me a sweet email out of the blue earlier this week and concluded, “With all the sense of doom ahead in my mind, I will move above this feeling and see the sun/moon in the sky and still be awed by it all.”

We should all be awed by it all.

Work table, stacked with prepped journals, albums, and paper…they’ll turn in to butterflies later today and tomorrow

Spring will be here before we know it and I’ve been working hard to add a little brightness and color to the mix. This week I’ve been putting together a new spring & summer collection of pieces using some very brightly colored Japanese papers that I am very excited about!

Here’s a hint…I didn’t end up using any of these patterns!

Right now, I’m getting all the materials prepped – pages torn, sewing stations punched, cards printed – and next week I’ll be photographing everything and will be ready to show it off because, as we all know, I’m not the best at keeping things to myself!

There’s a little dirt in each of these pots – basil seeds in the 2 small ones and some hyacinth bulbs in the larger one…we’ll see what happens!

In the meantime, we’ve got some new seeds and bulbs started (I know, I know…you plant bulbs in the fall, but these were lingering at the back of an ignored shelf at the grocery store and were just begging to be bought and planted, so here we are.) New paper arrives this afternoon and all of those albums and journals and cards are going to really take shape!

Just a reminder that it will indeed be spring and green again: Lawrence Raab’s “Cold Spring”.