622 Studio is here!

June 30, 2015June 29, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

While I was away, 622 press turned seven! This year to celebrate our birthday, I’ve launched 622 Studio: the digital version of the brick-and-mortar shop I want to have someday. Now, instead of just printed goods and stationery, I’ll be selling everything I create—textiles, art, crochet accessories, paper flowers and more—in my etsy shop!

The first new product line I launched last week are my new paper flowers! Each one is made from sheet of crepe paper that I’ve cut and molded into individual petals, then assembled around a wire stem. I add a sepal and wrap the stem with floral tape, sculpt the petals a bit more, and voila! A gorgeous flower that remains fresh all year long.

I loved figuring out the structure of each different bloom and shaping the petals to be as lifelike as possible. In the shop you’ll find individual blooms (perfect for home decor and craft projects!), ready-to-go bouquets and home decor. I’ll also be offering wedding services soon!

The other new product line I’ve launched thus far is digital art prints! I’ve shared a little bit of my watercolor work and hand-lettering here, and this is what it’s all been working toward. I scan the artwork from my sketchbook, do some photoshop and vector work and then combine them into a design I’d love to hang on my wall.

The best part about these prints is that they’re inexpensive and instantaneous: All you have to do is purchase them in my etsy shop and either print the jpg that arrives in your inbox on your home photo printer or send them over to Kinko’s, Walgreens, etc., then pop them in a frame!

Love is Love

May 7, 2015April 21, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

Before I moved to Bermuda, I got in touch with all my wholesale clients to see if they wanted to stock up. Not only did this save them on shipping costs for future orders, but it also meant I had less stuff to move.

One of the designs that completely sold out were my “congrats” icons. I had tried reprinting them during one my first press days here, but they’re a fairly temperamental design and things just weren’t working out. Since then I’ve been too busy to get to them!

But a few weeks ago during my printing frenzy for Driftless Studio, I also finally got all three designs on press. They’re available in the shop—hetero couple here, and same-sex couples here and here!

Modern Calligraphy

April 13, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

If you follow me on social media, you may remember the Laura Hooper calligraphy kit I received for Christmas last year. It took me three months, but I finally sat down and got started a few weeks ago!

To my own surprise, I’m completely hooked. I’ve spent several afternoons filling up the pages of my practice book until my fingers started to cramp and I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on my own particular style.

At first, it was all about consistency—mostly in width and height of the characters. I tended to start out with very large letters and they shrunk as the line went along. I also tweaked the forms of several letter forms—adding an extra loop inside letters like “a” and “o” and creating a completely different “k”—an important one since it’s in my name!

I’ve recently moved on to addresses, since being able to offer addressing services to wedding clients was the main catalyst for learning calligraphy. I still have some progress to make to figure out the layout and spacing I like, but things are coming along.

I also experimented with the white ink that came in the kit and created this lovely design below. I’m thinking I may sell it as a digital print in my etsy shop… stay tuned!

Warm Gold Wedding Invites

March 15, 2015February 26, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been reshooting and pitching letterpress projects to various blogs lately, and it made me think about all the projects you missed while I wasn’t blogging last year! So, I’m going to start reminiscing and featuring a few of my favorites over the next couple weeks. Remember: if you see something you like, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

First up: One of the other wedding invitations I had on my plate last year. This one was a little simpler than Amy’s wedding stationery extravaganza, but no less beautiful.

When the bride, Melissa, contacted me, she already had a design for her invitations worked up—and it featured a crest that the groom had drawn himself. I love that the couple worked together to create their invites! I helped Melissa with some of the technical aspects of the files while she had a trial version of InDesign, and converted the leaves to vectors myself.

Since I have two different gold inks (one that prints like shit but is very sparkly, and one that is not so sparkly, but more more reliable when it comes to print quality), I sent Melissa a few test samples with different proportions of each ink to choose from. Then, I spent a couple hours chopping up some lovely Pearl white Lettra paper and got to work!

The invitations turned out beautifully, with the simple design really showing off the impression one can achieve with letterpress.

Be Mine

January 25, 2015January 23, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I think it goes without saying at this point that I love a good monogram. I printed myself some monogrammed coasters with my new wood type when I first got it and finally got around to listing them in the shop!

While I was working up the samples, I also made a little coaster garland for Valentine’s Day—an idea I’ve had in my head for quite a while. It turned out so cute and I think it would translate beautifully into any holiday, or for the names of the couple at a wedding!