I’m a sucker for any unique letterform, so of course I instantly loved the SOAP soap from Karen’s Soap Co., but the more I browsed her shop the more clever soaps I found.
Her handmade glycerin-based soaps are luxurious and moisturizing, but more than that, they’re fun to give and use. I love the Fish-in-a-Bag!
Well kids, it’s official. I live in Iowa (new apartment above — painting, ceramics and blanket handmade by me, my mom made the pillow). If you’re like 99% of the people to whom I’ve announced my move, you’re picturing a corn field right now. However, if you’re one of the select few in the know, you’re just a little bit jealous. Iowa City is a great little city that boasts a thriving art scene (in fact, the Arts Festival is this weekend), lots of good restaurants and unique shopping to boot. Of course, you do have to drive through a lot of corn fields to get here.
To celebrate the move, I thought I’d feature some of the many talented artists and craftspeople who are now my neighbors!
The In Touch Clutch ™ by Downstairs Designs is a unique fabric carryall designed to travel with you and keep anything it holds safe and sound. (Letterpress notecards perhaps?)
Dawn Frary of Dewey Street Photo Company not only has the ability to capture the spirit of a place in a photo, she also has a very unique style that adds a sort of magic to her subjects.
4th Ave. Soap Shop offers some of the most intricate soaps I’ve ever seen. Sure to please your nose and hands as well as your eyes, she describes her work as “too pretty not to use!”
While shopping for housewares on etsy the other day I ran across Alice’s kiln work shop. Alice got her start as a glass artist experimenting with small torchwork beads and marbles. She eventually yearned to move on to bigger and better pieces, so she bought a kiln and taught herself the rest!
First she cuts appropriately sized pieces of glass for the base and decorative elements of the piece. She stacks them and fires them in the kiln to fuse them together. A single piece may be fired several times as design elements are layered on. When the flat blank is complete, the piece is returned to the kiln for shaping. This time the piece is placed across a form. As the temperature rises, the glass slowly slumps to take the shape of the mold.
Of what inspires her, she says, “I think I just enjoy being around glass. It feels good to the hand; it’s cold & smooth sometimes—rough other times; it’s a solid and a fluid . . . . There are so many techniques to learn and styles to dabble in that I find that just playing around with the glass tends to yield more fun projects than I could ever complete.” Keep playing, Alice, your work is beautiful!
622 press cards are now carried at Driftless Studio, which is owned and operated by Anne Connor. Anne is an amazing nature photographer, and the gallery exhibits much of her work as well as that of local and international artists. The shop carries everything from hand-woven rugs to unique jewelry to handmade crayons, and of course Anne’s photography graces coasters, mousepads, canvases and more.
She picked up my vintage owl notecard, plum and silver feathers note card and two colorways of my gone to seed note card. Driftless Studio is located at 2981 Cahill Main in Fitchburg, just behind The Great Dane on Fish Hatchery Rd.
Books and Brew, a delightful coffee shop in my hometown of Milton, WI, also decided to carry my cards full time. They picked up a few holiday designs last year, and the new owner Carla ordered a few of almost all of my notecard designs as well as one of each of the limited edition prints. She’s doing some really exciting things with the store including an expanded menu and earlier hours and giving the whole shop a facelift.
Books and Brew is located at 613 W. Madison Ave., in Milton’s recently restored Old Junction Mill, which is also home to The Red Rooster and Peddlar’s Loft. If you’re in the area you should definitely make a point to stop by!
I harbor a small obsession with owls. Luckily, Fruit Fly Pie ceramics has just the fix for me! Wendy’s etsy shop is chock full of planters, vases, dishes and more modeled after this whimsical animal. They’re slip cast from vintage ceramic molds and finished with non-toxic, lead free & food safe glazes. She also offers a variety of other vessels made from vintage designs — from cupcakes to turtles — including this adorable deer!
622 press | LETTERPRESS GOODS MADE BY HAND 