Letterpress Printing - fantastic impressions on paper

Our favorite type of printing at Good Taste is letterpress. If money and time allowed, we'd encourage all of our clients to use this time-honored method. The tactile quality achieved by this process adds so much to even the simplest piece. Designing this invitation for SAMS's (Seattle Art Museum Supporters) recent tea party, held at the museum, was a creative challenge - I had a limited budget and the turn-around time was quite short. Luckily I had a stash of Fabriano Mediovalis - a wonderful cotton rag stock with a deckle edge. Our good friends at Evolution Press in Ballard donated the printing, and as always, did an outstanding job. Matching envelopes were all we had to purchase.

Here's the invite I designed for our Good Taste open house, held earlier this year. It's actually a tri-fold, but I cut it apart so that I could show all 3 panels. Fabriano Artistico is the stock - trimmed to size. The folder paper is Stardream Lapis, the green build is off-cut from a job done years ago (I always make the press give me left-over paper). 

I drew the little bird for a rubber stamp that I never got around to making - he fits perfectly at the top of our house. Again, our friends in Ballard worked their printing magic helping us to achieve just the look we wanted to celebrate the our new home and DIY Good Taste.

Taking Photos - To Flash or Not?

I have a fantastic camera - a Digital Pentax K100 SLR. It has lots of bells and whistles that I'm still discovering, especially the flash. This picture was taken yesterday in my studio. 

The light on the pencils, pin cushions and number stamps caught my eye - this is what I saw. Everything is soft and, to me, intimate. The photo below was taken with the flash on. While the color is brighter, all the tones are the same, the objects look flat, the number stamps grab too much attention and, to top it off, the neighbor's car across the street shows up. 

To me, taking good photographs is akin to creating good events - it's all about the personal: the mood, the intimacy, the connections made, emphasizing specific areas and subduing others. And lighting always matters. When you succeed in combining all the elements "just right" magic happens.

Journal: A Bird in the Hand

I've been out-of-town and sans computer (a nice retreat) - making art collages and meeting new people. Have tons of photos on my camera but haven't downloaded them yet. Also cleaned the studio and found lots of great stuff that I'd totally forgotten about - papers, images, old art and more.  Here's a collage I did awhile ago - the birds came from an Urban Outfitters catalog.

Tag you're it! Tie one on.

This past Christmas I decided to wrap all my holiday gifts in brown paper (one of my many attempts at becoming a 'greener' artist). Consequently, I needed to add a something to make the gifts a more visually exciting. Using left-over invitation papers and ribbons from my stash (I can't bear to throw even the smallest scraps away) I designed a bunch of collaged tags.

My  Slice cutter makes wonderful letters - so every tag was personalized with the recipient's initial. Rubber stamps, metallic inks and lovely awards stickers were used and ribbons functioned both as ties and decorative elements that hung from the bottom of the tag.

Jazzy tags have many uses: as place cards (wrap the ribbon around a napkin or tie the tag to the back of your guest's chair), thank yous (write a little note on the back), name tags (great as an ice-breaker when your guests don't know each other well) or book marks for all your book group buddies. Manilla-colored tags can be purchased in bulk at office supply stores and you can get a wide variety of colored tags at specialty paper stores. 

Prayer Flags - Spread good energy around

I've been making prayer flags ever since 9/11/2001. First out of cloth, with silkscreen images and quotes, now I make them out of paper, using ribbons, rubber stamps, grommets, thread and more. Some have favorite quotations, others are more image-driven. I think of these flags as "flying" invitations - encouraging positive thoughts and energy to swirl into my life and the lives of the people who receive the flags as gifts.

I'll be teaching at class at Letters of Joy 2009 (LOJ) on May 2nd at Edmonds Community College. You can sign up for wonderful classes at this event - an entire day of letter and paper arts, taught by talented artists. What a great to spend a Saturday.

Take notice - Beauty in small things

Everything is happening way too fast these days - the world is crazy financially, people are angry; it's a whirlwind. Whew! I'm doing my best to focus on the small stuff - or I'll go nuts. I'm creating a series of postcards from recent photos, taken during a hike near Mt. Rainier. I'm using close-ups of things I noticed during the walk. I did shoot pictures of the mountain (duh), but I really wanted to pay attention to little details that make up the bigger picture. 

The beauty of using my own photos is trifold: 1- I created the art myself, 2- I have the opportunity to re-live the time spent on the hike when I view the photos, 3- I get to share my take on the experience with friends and they get a little piece of mail art. Here are some photos I plan to use - I'll show the finished work in an upcoming post.

A full portion of life's beauty

Several years ago I saw a book by Welleran Poltarnees on house blessings and was intrigued with the concept, wanting to make it my own. The book (which makes a lovely gift) "blesses the physical house and the protection it offers, wishing for its inhabitants a full portion of life's beauty." 

To bless, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is "to consecrate by a spoken form or charm," to pronounce words that confer divine favor," to confer well-being upon; to make happy; to prosper."

My sweet husband Bob took the time to jig-saw house forms for me which I decorated with collage, paint, charms and quotations about home and family. I called them House Blessings. I probably created around 100 little houses (each one different) which I gave away and sold as well.

Here is one that I kept for myself - it hangs by my kitchen window. We recently down-sized from our wonderful 1918 craftsman home on the hill to a brand new townhouse near the water. While this modern home is completely different (and problem-free), we have re-created a cozy art-filled haven for our family and friends. I believe that the best homes give you comfort - both physically and spiritually.