It’s about time! Finally finished up this limited edition of “happy birthday” cards! Available here.
Tag: card
MIA
Hey kids, I know I’ve been missing in action lately, but my life has been, to say the least, chaotic. I won’t go into all of it, but the highlights (or low-lights as they were) include my press having a major break (fixed now) and the company I worked for ceasing operations (still working on that one — yes, I am accepting freelance work, letterpress or otherwise).
In other news, here are a few pieces I created before the press cracked, and I’ve been working on custom pieces like crazy to catch up, so there will be lots to come! In the mean time, you can always keep up on local happenings on Hold That Thought, an interim publication for a few of us from the old company. (I’ll be posting about Hair Affair in a day or two!)
Winter Blues
dandelion card
It’s the time of year when all the beautiful snow that fell before Christmas turns to dirty gray slush and I’m trying to remember why I live in Wisconsin. In an effort to beat the winter blues, yesterday I printed some botanical cards in pretty spring colors. They’ll be up in my etsy shop once I know how many will be ordered for wholesale.
The blind leading the blind
I’m still recovering from this holiday weekend, and not in the way you might think, despite its containing the drunkest day of the year (Wednesday before Thanksgiving, if you weren’t aware — fun fact of the day!).
I had double rush orders of holiday cards and other projects for a couple of clients. The first (above) was designed by Anna of Modern Printed Matter. I can’t get enough of her crystallized snowflake pattern — it’s so elegant in a blind emboss. Because it’s an all-over design, there’s no place for the displaced paper fibers to be absorbed into, so I had to tighten my press to the point of almost not being able to make a full rotation. (In fact, my mom tried to do a couple because I was exhausted and she couldn’t! Apparently printing can double as weight training.) Anyway, although the soreness in my muscles is still lingering, the cards turned out beautiful and were well worth it.
On the other end of the spectrum, I also imprinted holiday cards for Z2 Marketing in Milwaukee. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Kerry Tasch, a friend from the design program at UWSP, for looking me up! In addition to the lovely cards below, I also embossed the front and back covers of their leave behind book, images of which I hope to post soon. I love the sheer simplicity and perfect symmetry of the cards as much as I love the complexity and randomness of the top ones. These, however, were much easier to create, the plate took a perfect bite out of each card, leaving sharp edges and a deep emboss.
The evening news
Hey all, I know I’ve been a little MIA lately, but it’s been quite a week! On Monday, I had double meetings: one for wholesaling 622 press goods (yay!) and one for a logo design for MMoCA (yay! ahh! More to come on this later). Anyway, the meeting went really well, and in a couple weeks 622 press pieces will be available at Iconi Interiors (534 W. Washington Ave., Madison).
Iconi has been my very favorite home store since it opened last May, and I decided I might as well start at the top when approaching stores for wholesale, and it worked! The owner, Coni (get it?) Marotz is great and she has an amazing eye for putting together living spaces. The shop is an eclectic mix of original new pieces, great vintage and re-upholstered furniture, beautiful contemporary art and unique accessories. Basically, I want to live there.
She’s planning on carrying a couple holiday card sets, several of the others in my etsy shop, as well as some pieces that are exclusive to Iconi (and she just about bought me out of my “Marine” Limited Edition, so get them while you can!). She also had two vintage cuts for sale in her shop that she sent home with me to test print. I was skeptical because they seemed to be a bit worn, but they printed absolutely beautifully. I did a small run of each (see below), but plan on doing more soon. They’re so cool! And in my limited experience it’s pretty rare to find large abstract designs. I like that they’re a little more masculine and geometric than my illustrations.
I also printed a really fun purple version of my ornaments card for my little sister (remember — you can order any design in any color, it only takes a couple weeks), and finally got a good run out of “Tablescape” (below), one of the first designs I created but haven’t been able to get to print well yet. (I think the cooler, less humid weather helped significantly, as well as my getting better at knowing the correct ink consistency and pressure.) So, even though I’ve been a total slacker on the blogging front, I’ve gotten a lot done!
622 press | LETTERPRESS GOODS MADE BY HAND 