They’re finally here! After a month or so of printing between other projects and a slew of craft fairs/events, the new bird card sets are available in the Etsy shop. There are three different card sets available, each with their own bird design and color scheme. Just over a month ago I wrote about retiring my older folk art bird cards and launching these newly revamped cards, you can read more about that here. The old cards are still available but only for a very limited time at a discounted rate in the sale section of the shop—I’m taking the listings down at the end of next week.

The first set is a chicken in brown and a mustard-y yellow. Each set contains 6 4-bar cards printed on bamboo cover stock. Why bamboo? Not only do I love this paper because it’s eco-friendly, but it’s egg-shell white color works so much better with my retro-folksy designs than the stark white cotton papers I was using previously. I also love the sturdy nature of the bamboo paper’s weight, where as the cotton papers feel a little too soft and less durable for cards.

I’ve also got a rooster in orange and deep red. I’ve included a pic of the first color being printed below.

The final bird, more of a sparrow, is in aqua and violet. I love this color combo! Well, I love all three but this is my favorite. Lately I’ve just really loved all things in the aqua/teal color gamut. So there’s probably more products to come using those colors.

And speaking of more products I have a slew of new items I’ll be posting by early next week, including brand new nesting doll prints and magnets. More on that next week…I better get to work!

It’s going to be a tough choice! My first instinct is to go with this one. I designed this card first and it’s an extension of the wycinanki inspired holiday cards I’ve been selling the last couple of years.

I’ve added a new dimension to the card, including halftone-like dots to give the illusion of more color and texture. The plan is to add birthday, thank-you and a bunch of other holiday/card-giving occasions to this line.

When I designed this card I needed to pay particular attention to what parts were going to be which colors and where white space was going to go in order to align everything properly on the press. I strategically placed white space between the two colors so they never touched. This makes it a little less challenging to print because neither color will overlap and I didn’t need to build in trapping when I made the plate file (this means that the colors that touch overlap on the plate which can be annoying to create in such intricate patterns, a lesson I learned when first working on my wycinanki pattern cards). Above is the card after the first color run, pink. Each color was printed separately, using a polymer plate made from a digital file and hand-feeding the cards into the press one at a time. A lot of love and care goes into printing each one of my cards!

Ok, now back to the choices. I’m really torn because this card is an all new style I’m adding to my collection this year. The design comes from a Victorian embroidered alphabet. I’m really excited about this card and further development of the overall line based on embroidered letters. The textures and designs within these Victorian alphabets transfer over to letterpress perfectly and have such a nice textured feel to them.

This was a really tough card to design. I spent a long time in Photoshop and Illustrator converting the design and letters from the Victorian embroidery pattern so they had my own personal touch and worked for letterpress. I had to also incorporate lots of thin white space between colors in many places to make sure printing this wasn’t going to be a total nightmare. Ultimately all the time spent designing and preparing the plate files paid off as this wasn’t nearly as tough to print as it could have been.

So which card would you chose???

Both cards are available in the Etsy shop but if you want one, or both be sure to order soon! After the early part of next week there is no guarantee it will arrive in time. I’ll also have plenty on hand at SOWA this Sunday and next (on actual Mothers’ Day) as well as at the Mass Art Spring Sale, The Art of Craft at the Fayerweather school in Cambridge next Saturday, and in the Craftland store in Providence, RI.

So here are my favorites from week 2:

Day 12

A close-up of the fly wheel on my Pearl Improved #11. I spent the day in the studio and thought it was only appropriate.

Day 13

A statue in the corner of the Public Garden's in Boston. I had a doctors appt. in the city followed by the final meeting for one of my classes. In between the two I walked around shooting pics in the area. I used to live in a dorm close to this statue along the edge of the park.

Day 15

Took the day off and went for a walk in Salem. This is a stumpy one way sign on Federal Street, one of the most beautiful and historic streets in the city.

To see the entire project be sure to view my Flickr set!

Project 365 // 2

I did a trial run for a week, starting on April 15. Yeah, I know most of these “something-a-day” projects start on Jan. 1 but why should a new year be the only catalyst? That’s silly. So tax day it is. Ha! Anyway, as the week went on I found myself getting more into the project and looking closer at my surroundings for the next photo of the day. Last night I made my Project 365 set on Flickr and so, there we are, I’m fully committed to this now for the next year.

Project 365 // 5

I’m really excited to get into taking photos again more regularly, even if it’s just with an Iphone. A few years ago I would have scoffed at such an idea. I was such an advocate for only using film (much like I used to believe that letterpress should only be printed using hand-set type and metal plates). But I’ve moved on from my Luddite ways and I’m okay with that. Why limit myself! So I’ve found myself really getting into Iphoneography (as they call it). It’s just as fun as taking pics with plastic cameras with equally as unexpected results.

Project 365 // 6

I’m going to share my favorites each week or so here on the blog. So stay tuned. There’s lots more to come this year. Or you can follow along more closely on Flickr where I’ll be posting the day’s photos regularly.

But what does this mean? I’m not ready to share all my plans yet since many ideas are still in the early stages. Just know that there will be lots of changes happening this year. But, have no fear, I won’t be changing or discontinuing anything without announcing it here first and giving you a chance to gobble up any remaining stock at special discounted rates.

So, without further adieu, I’m ready to announce that the first of my products to be retired/revamped are…

…my Polish folk art bird card sets. That’s right, I’m changing one of my best-selling products. These cards date back to my very first letterpress project, a book of Polish proverbs hand set in both Polish and English with accompanying linoleum carvings. The linocuts were all motifs from Polish wycinanki, mostly birds printed from a single block each in one color.

In the earliest days of Pressbound I turned several of those carvings into cards to test the waters. As my business grew I took three of those birds and designed a fourth, packaging them together as the current set. These sets were printed from the original linoleum blocks. But as my printing skills grew I saw how these could evolve if I turned them into polymer plates and added a second color. I just needed to find the time to make the new designs and this month I finally did!

As you can see, these are the same birds but produced in a much different way. The image is no longer solid and has details I could not produce in a linoleum cut. Plus they are two colors! A few other differences that you can’t see yet: they’re going to be a size smaller, moving down to 4Bar (5 x 3.5) from A2 (5.5 x 4.25), they will be printed on bamboo paper with a slight off-white hue (currently printed on a bright white cotton sheet), and they will be packaged in sets of 6 with all the cards having the same design/image (currently you get one of each). It’s been really difficult trying to sell the old set with 4 different cards. I’ve seen how much it confuses people when I sell at craft fairs and can imagine how confusing it would be if I were to wholesale these eventually and not physically be there to explain it each time. The advantages of packing the same design in each set is that each new bird design will have it’s own color scheme. There will be three different bird sets to chose from (I’m getting rid of the bird I didn’t like as much).

Plates for these are coming my way this week, maybe even today. I’ll be posting more on the printing of these cards in a few weeks. I hope to have the new bird cards sets debut at Craftopia on April 28 and on Etsy by the end of the month as well. Until then you can get the older sets at a special reduced rate. Check out the Etsy shop for more info!

Well, actually the finished copies have been on my desk for a couple of weeks. But I’m still getting caught up over here on the blog so I’m sorry you’re just hearing about it now (see my excuses in my last post). But the good news is that I’m absolutely thrilled with the way this book came out! The cover has a nice soft matte finish that really works with the illustration and makes it feel really nice to touch.

The interior pages looks great too. I’m always happy when the result I had seen in my head is what actually happens in the finished product. Since printed books are three dimensional objects there are occasionally elements you can play around with that you can’t really tell if they’ll work until you see them. sSometimes this involves playing with text or images that run across the gutter of a spread. It’s generally a no-no to do this but I was hoping that this would create an intriguing effect with the illustration above. When seeing the final result this is definitely one of my favorite spreads in the book. Below is another one of my favorites for the same reason and because the image also bleeds off the edge of the right page.

I Take Back the Sponge Cake is available for order from Rose Metal Press. You can also read more about the design of the book in a previous post from February.

It’s been over a month (yes a month!) since I took a paper cutting workshop at Mass Art with Beatrice Coron. The intention was to write about this right away and share my work and experiences in the class. But the website redesign and then my new product designs (you can see some previews over on Facebook) were a priority and been all consuming. Alas, I didn’t want this experience to fall through the cracks, because it was an amazing time and Beatrice a huge inspiration.

First, here’s a little about Beatrice. That’s she and I over there <—- to the left. Hailing from France, Beatrice has lived all over the world and worked an array of odd jobs, including as a truck driver, before coming to her own in the world of paper cutting. She’s highly prolific despite not starting her career as an artist until she was well into her thirties. She claims to have chosen paper cutting as her medium because it was inexpensive and accessible. It took her eight years to get accepted into her first show, but since then her work has evolved from paper stories to artist books, paper dresses, public sculpture, and even animation. Take a look at her work on her website and be sure to visit her links page as well for a fantastic resource of all things paper cutting that she’s constantly updating. Her story is really quite intriguing and her carefree attitude is so refreshing. You really need to hear her talk to get the full effect. I’ve listened to an interview by Steve Miller on the Book Artist and Poets podcast that I highly recommend.

Day 1

We worked on a variety of introductory projects in the morning including freestyle paper sketches, layered paper cuttings (like the one above) that uses tracing paper or other semi-transparent paper to create depth, and standard paper cutting techniques on Tyvek, Beatrice’s favorite medium for cutting. Yes, that is the same material they use to cover houses. But it’s an amazing material that cuts like butter and lets you have the finest details in your work. I really loved working in Tyvek.

Day 2

We continued work on projects from the previous day. I had completed the above left on the first day and then added color and layering on the second. I used white Tyvek and rolled block printing ink on it to create various textured colors on layers below. I cut through certain layers and left other places alone to show various colors. I didn’t have time to finish it yet but love the effect all the layering and color create.

Day 3

Stencil day! We spent the day cutting paper stencils and using acrylic inks on all kinds of surfaces to apply them. Above is on Tyvek and uses a combination of two different optical illusions I cut layered in different ways. I made several prints as well as stenciling an optical illusion on my umbrella. It still haven’t had the chance to use the umbrella since it hasn’t rained enough yet. But I suspect you may see me using it in the next few days.

Day 4

This was probably the most challenging but also the most fun day for me. We transitioned into 3D paper sculpture. Beatrice was impressed with my skills doing this since it’s hard and a different way of thinking. But I love thinking in 3D and this gave me some interesting ideas to explore with in the future (maybe a 3D letterpress card). We followed templates to make these but it didn’t make it any easier. I really can’t wait to try and create one of my own designs. But it will take lots of practicing first with templates to get it down.

Over the course of the workshop I also made a paper scarf (see the photo of Beatrice and I, I’m wearing the scarf). It’s also made from Tyvek which becomes really flexible when crinkled up and even run through the washing machine (that’s how Beatrice make her paper dresses, by the way).

Conclusion

I really love paper cutting! It’s a medium I need to continuing exploring and developing. It’s another arsenal in my tool box.

Also Beatrice is a fantastic teacher. She is open and super knowledgeable about paper cutting and various artists in the medium. She is not afraid to share information about her own work and techniques or teach a style that she is uncomfortable working in herself (3D sculpture for instance). She encourages you to work without restraint. To do whatever feels right. And shouldn’t all art be created that way? If you ever have a chance I highly recommend taking a workshop with her.

My very first stop was the store Uniqlo. Meaning, I got off the bus, walked to Herald Square, and literally went here first. I was really excited because Uniqlo had just launched a new line in collaboration with Orla Kiely, whose prints I absolutely adore. To my surprise most of the line had already sold out in the first few weeks, but luckily I found the above jem. It was hard not to purchase everything in the line that fit or the scarves with Orla Kiely’s well known orange and brown flower prints but I was on a budget and left with the above and another shirt not pictured (and a whole bunch of other shirts too).

With my trip to Uniqlo out of the way I could then focus on seeing some art. I went to the 2012 Biennial exhibit at The Whitney which had some fantastic pieces, including the above painting series by Andrew Masullo, embroidered art by Elaine Reichek, and a rather moving installation by Werner Herzog (of all people) among plenty of other inspiring works. At MoMA I specifically wanted to see the Cindy Sherman exhibition and boy, did it blow me away. I liked her work before, but seeing it in person, and the way it was presented really solidified my feelings. Do not miss that show. It is well worth it even if only for a day trip.

No trip to NYC would be complete without stopping in at some of the finest stationery stores around. Kate’s Paperie has a fantastic reputation and recently opened a new store in SOHO. My favorite though is Paper Presentation, which was not far from where I stayed in Union Square. They have an amazing selection of stationery supplies including all kinds of unusual envelopes and invite closures, papers, boxes, journals, pens, stamps…you name it they probably have it. If only there were a store like that around here, I’d be very poor but well supplied.

Overall my trip to NYC was super satisfying. I had fun with friends from my MFA program in Union and Times Square, delicious eats at Momofuku (pork buns!) and Ess-A-Bagel (bagel and lox), and got to do some art and shopping too. Staying in Union Square also has it’s advantages. It’s close to the subway, somewhat central to many things, and there’s a Whole Foods to enjoy an affordable breakfast with a view (pictured).

Wow, was it a crazy 6 weeks in the making! But I am so, so very proud to announce that the brand new Pressbound website is finally here. Completely customized and styled by yours truly! It’s been a fantastic learning experience and I finally have a site that I can be proud of.

So, how did this all come about?

I’ve used WordPress for my site design for several years. To be honest, I can barely remember when I switched it over or what my site looked like previous to the last version. What matters is that before 6 weeks ago, I had no clue what I was doing. Well, sort of. I understood the basics of WordPress: how to post to the blog, create new pages, organize a menu, and the concept of a widget (though I still didn’t understand everything you could do with them). I was using a theme I’d purchased and messed around with a little to get a basic look that wasn’t too bad, but still wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I had no idea how to customize or style my theme other than changing colors and adding my logo. It really bothered me and I was ready to take the design of the site to the next level.

I enrolled in Tara Gentile’s Website Kickstart course at the beginning of February with the intention of learning how to use HTML and CSS to customize the theme I was using at that time. I expected to spend at least a few hours a week working with what I had and customizing the content that I previously generated. But the course was so in depth regarding both content generation and techy stuff that I decided to start fresh and use the theme we worked with in the course, Hybrid, to develop an entirely new site. The course went way above and beyond my expectations and also occupied most of my time since the beginning of February (which was mostly my desire to have a finished site by the end of the course). I learned how to use my site as a marketing tool, how to funnel readers through my site, how to fill it with resourceful and relevant content, and ways to add call to actions like signing up for email updates or following me on social networks. Tara was fantastic at sharing her ideas and expertise on site development and marketing for indie entrepreneurs. That alone made the price of the course worth it. But we also learned the ins and outs of WordPress site design, basic HTML code, and most importantly CSS through 12 different lessons with a few bonuses thrown in. Though there was only so much one could learn from the lessons without getting your hands dirty. Much of what I learned came through working on the site and occasionally asking the course’s tech guru, Marty for help when I couldn’t figure something out. We were also encouraged to explore code from other sites to help learn by using Firebug, a plugin for Firefox. That was a huge help. The coding was tough at first and it took about a couple weeks for things to sink in and finally felt comfortable. But when I finally figured out a few bits of code on my own I felt triumphant. And still do each time I figure something out (baby steps!).

Finally, 6 weeks later and after many hours of hard work and a lot of patience, my new site has finally launched. It’s really exciting to finally have a foundation for a site that I know will continue to grow and improve over time. The site is not “finished” so to speak since a website shouldn’t be static and always be evolving. I hope to use this as a starting point for future growth of both my web presence and business.

So what do you think? Have a look around. Let me know if the navigation works for you. It there’s something you’d like to see added or something you see as unnecessary. And please spread the word! Share the link to my site with your friends, family, or anyone you think may have an interest.

“Linotype: The Film” Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

Last night I was fortunate enough to get into a sold out screening of the new documentary Linotype: The Film by Doug Wilson and Brandon Goodwin. The event was sponsored by AIGA Boston and screened in the Paramount theatre at Emerson, where I teach. It was AH-mazing! Much like I’d previously read about the documentary, you don’t have to be a type geek or a letterpress printer to appreciate the story behind the Linotype machine. It’s more about the people who love and run these machines, who have a real passion for what they do, and want to preserve the craft despite it’s near extinction. In a Q&A session after the screening, director Doug Wilson noted that the goal was to make a movie that his mother could enjoy. His mother hasn’t seen it yet, but I’m certain that anyone would find this movie not only educational (did you know the Linotype increased literacy and the amount of printed books, newspapers, magazine, etc. after it’s invention?) but also very entertaining. A movie like this could easily feel pretentious or unapproachable but Wilson and Goodwin did an excellent job of keeping the tone of the film serious while also injecting a lively sense of humor.

As a letterpress printer in the Boston area (who I might add has no skills on a Linotype and rarely has the opportunity to even use hand set type these days) this movie got me so excited. The letterpress community is a small but passionate group. Those who still use Linotype machines are an even smaller segment of that group. I was so happy to see that the film included several people/places I know, including The Museum of Printing in North Andover, MA; a former colleague I worked with at Albertine Press, Jesse Marsolais, who also works at Firefly Press with John Kristensen; and a brief cameo by John Barrett of Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA (his name wasn’t mentioned in the movie but he’s there advising, as he always does in his frank and helpful manner, when a fellow purchases two Linotype machines for the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham and needs to get them up and running). This movie made me feel so, so lucky to have these resources so close to me. I’m realizing that I need to take more advantage of what’s available to me and continue to learn the craft in it’s traditional form as well as newer technologies (like polymer). I may not run out and get a Linotype of my own (it doesn’t really fit my business model, and frankly these machines are huge and scary! and probably wouldn’t fit through my studio door) but my interest is peeked and maybe one day I’ll be able to learn.

So what the heck is a Linotype machine anyway? They’ve got a pretty good explanation up on the film’s site here. Or you could watch the movie at one of it’s upcoming screenings or when it comes out on DVD this summer (which I can’t wait to own, BTW, my students are gonna be watching this starting next fall!).