A new venture...

A few months ago my Craigslist.org perusing landed me an antique Chandler and Price tabletop letterpress, formerly of the Pioneer village near Port Henry, NY. It is currently sitting in my mudroom, as I slowly find and accumulate the necessary parts to make it run. A trip to some antique stores while in Tucson early in the spring resulted in this beautiful little collection:


And I have just received notice that two sets of beautiful cursive font I ordered have been sent! Now I need to spend some quality time with a wire brush and get the press into working order. There are several other parts still needed, including all the necessaries for putting the type together and setting it in the press - if anyone out there has suggestions on where to find these things on a very limited budget, I would love to hear from you!


I am incredibly excited about the metal type, but there is something about wood letters that just gets me. The lower case "e" especially - I could have bought en entire army of those happy little fellows.

Hooray! A whole new look!

It came to my attention that my attempts at fancifying this little bloggy place of mine went awry, and on everything but the trusty macintosh displayed very strangely. So I have redesigned! Sort of. I do like those stripes...

For your Visiting Pleasure

TouchStone Writers is a new site recently built for Leslie Freeman, a writer/poet/educator here in Burlington. The site has a very simple and clean design, relying mainly on a flower motif I first used for a poster Leslie commissioned last year. I am quite pleased with the result - I hope it serves her well!

Hot Glass

While I was in Tucson I dug out the copper enamel supplies and spent two days thoroughly engaged in pendant, wine charm and mini-platter making. This is a magical medium, where fairly dull glass dust and small pieces of copper are placed in an oven and something mysterious and wonderful happens and jewels emerge. It is truly amazing.


And - should I admit this? - it actually takes very little talent because it is really quite difficult to make something that does not turn out beautiful. And if something is not to ones liking, a little more glass can be added and back into the oven it goes! A constant amazement and surprise - nothing ever turns out the same twice in a row. One can have an approximation of what will happen, and there are plenty of people with incredible patience who make all sorts of intricate designs and painting-like pieces, but I am always way too excited to see what is going to happen and too thrilled with my somewhat fateful results to become very technically skillful.

Oh well. But aren't they gorgeous?





(These are headed to a little art festival in Virginia)

Paperdoll Postcards and Mail for You!

New in my shop! I am very excited about these, they have been on my mind for a while and it is very satisfying to have the completed product in my hands.

The items in question are Paperdoll Postcards! A sweet shy little girl paperdoll and four outfits on a beautiful soft gloss postcard. The doll is inspired by a vintage sewing pattern illustration, hand-drawn and digitally colored.



I have a long love of paperdolls. My mom had a terrific collection from when she was a child, and I collected and made my own as well. The Dover Publications catalog was highly anticipated in the mail, and the Tom Tierneypaperdoll books were my absolute favorites. Recently I remembered how much I always loved Tierney's work, and I looked him up online and sent him a note. His niece replied with a very nice message and I was as excited as some people might be upon getting Obama's autograph!

So anyway, all this rambling to tell you about my cards! I am obviously fairly excited, and I would really like to share! So leave a comment here with an email address, or send me your address in an email (make the subject line "paperdoll postcard"), and I will pop one of these cuties in the mail to you!

Good night my friends!

For the Sweet

First, I want to apologize for the spotty appearances here lately - it seems that working full time with a 40 minute commute is more of an adjustment than I had anticipated, and these days when I get home I mainly want to do nothing. That said, there are a few projects in the works. But more on those another day, today I want to share these...




I had planned to wait and post them as a Valentine's greeting to you all, but this post inspired me to share ahead of time, with the idea that you can then share as well!

Click below or on the images for 8.5"x11" sheets with two copies of the card each (minus the red border, thats just for you), inside and outside. You will have to flip the first page around and re-feed it through the printer (unless you have one of the fancy auto-double-sided deals!). I recommend printing on white card stock, but suit yourself! FYI, I did some at Kinkos, and the colors they produced were just loverly.

Valentine Card Outside
Valentine Card Inside

Abstract amazement

I would like to share with you the work of one of my new favorite artists: Sarah Amos creates the most incredible prints and murals, all huge (although I have yet to see them in person - another reason to go to New York I guess!). She is also the nicest person, to work with and to meet. I have been working on her website - her design, my translation to web - and it went live a few days ago. An archive will be coming soon, so I suggest you check back!

Time's a-wastin'

I have had quite a lot of home computer work to get done recently, which means that my procrastination time has been spent in obsessively re-checking favorite blogs for new posts, equally obsessively surfing around Etsy in hopes of new favorites, and creating useless things in Illustrator. And perhaps some not so useless, such as this colorful logo for my (procrastination-hobbled) freelance work:



Logos are fun, although quite a challenge. I realized exactly what a challenge they really are when a client once deferred to my professional knowledge, according me a highly trained expert's knowledge of what makes a logo really work, when in fact I am pretty much entirely self-trained in this respect and basically go with my gut instinct + a bit of common sense. I have a lot of respect for the highly trained professionals who understand the philosophy and the psychology behind a good logo. But I also like to make them myself and see what happens.

Since I probably should make an effort to accomplish the work for which I sat down here, I will leave you now. Happy Tuesday to all!

(p.s. There is a new doll just about ready to face the world. I just wasn't quite ready to have her in such close proximity to those darn Lenci treasures!)

Treasures, Etsy style

Today I happened to be in the right place at the right time and I scored myself an Etsy treasury! For those of you unfamiliar with Etsy, the treasury is a section of the site where people can "curate" their own display of pieces, usually the work of other Etsy sellers. To be honest, I am not exactly certain why this is so darned popular, but the fact remains that it is, and that it is very difficult to become a curator. This is because it is only possible to get one when there are less than 222 in all. When the amount hits that special number, anyone who happens to be around can click in and win!

I am suspicious that part of the draw of having a treasury is the feeling of accomplishment at having managed to get one.

That said, it was fun to find a selection of items out of the vast inventories on the site. My theme was dusty pink, and I found a wide variety of items that fit in that color scheme - you can have a look here!

I also posted another little felted lady in my shop. She is a flower child, I think, with a penchant for running barefoot through clover fields. She is also a dancer, light on her feet and fond of pirouettes.


You can find more pictures and a description of this tiny dancer here.

Other People's Work

These are two websites I recently completed, and of which I am rather proud. Of course, it helps that the artists to whom they belong are incredibly talented, have a look and see for yourself...




*** Warning: A Bit of Shameless Self-promotion Coming Up ***

If you are looking to have a website, drop me an email. I work through Studio STK, where we build affordable websites for artists and small businesses. We also do promotional material design. I love a challenge and I love the design process and I love working with people's artwork. You don't even have to live around here - that's what the web is for, right?

*** that's all ***

Have a lovely Thursday!

Always running late...

I finally finished my gown, am I too late? When a girl has to go to work, and coddle her sweetheart, and walk the dog, things like ball gowns get horribly neglected.


I am making up, though, with flounces and ruffles and silk.


Perhaps it is time to break open the champagne and dance with the puppy in the moonlight! (don't worry, I know she is too young to drink).



(permission to use this dress in the Ball Book excitedly granted!)

Ewetopia!

I designed this logo for my darling friend Kathryn who has opened her very own fiber shop in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Ewetopia Fiber Shop looks just gorgeous from the pictures - I have not had a chance to visit in person yet. I have, however, been the beneficiary of some bags of wool and a set of needle-felting needles and I am now spending my evenings stabbing and forming wool into the most wonderful little dolls. Its a bit addictive, I tell you.

Kathryn is all about shipping supplies to far off people, and has actually discovered that her prices are a lot lower than elsewhere. So I highly suggest you have a look at her website, and get some ideas, and then call her up and tell her what projects you have in mind. She is a fabulous artist herself and will help you figure out just what you need!

One word of advice - if you do take up needlefelting, I recommend not doing it anywhere in public. The stabbing may not feel ferocious, but to the uninitiated it looks very much like voodoo. And stay away from children, they might not understand why you are poking the poor doll in the eyes.