New Broadside

A new broadside I finished last week. I finally got to use my wood type in a broadside after getting my dad to cut me some spaces to use with them! I thought this saying / Flannery O'Connor short story title would make a good anti-Valentine's day gift for someone out of the Valentine's mood. Available now in my Etsy shop.

Periodic Table Printmaking Project In The News

I'm a little late in posting this, but I need to mention that this wonderful project I was a part of was mentioned in Etsy! The Periodic Table Printmaking Project has been featured in the Etsy Storque (I was Cadmium.)

More Motel Sign Printing

I had this two color motel sign linocut partially finished for about a month. I finally had some time to do it this week and I am excited about how it is coming out so far. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress. The block on the press is the first color I printed, and the uncolored block shows the black outline that I'll print next. So far so good! Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

Holiday Card

I've been working on some holiday cards for myself and also for the last craft night I'll be going to. I love chartreuse so I couldn't resist this paper from Paper Source, but it turned out to be more difficult than I thought to come up with design and colors that worked on the paper. This is the final result, along with some of the linoleum blocks I used in the process. The card is now available on my Etsy shop too!

Holiday Gift Guide

Fluffy Flowers was nice enough to include me in her Holiday Gift Guide. This is a wonderful list of Etsy shops she has bought from throughout the year. A great resource if you are going to buy handmade for the holidays this year! Thank you!

First Craft Show

I participated in my first craft show this weekend -- the Indie Craft Experience Holiday Spectacular in Atlanta. It was a great time and went better than I would have thought. Having never done a craft show before, I really didn't know what to expect how or my work would be received. I got a lot of positive feedback, and found that the journals I have been printing on were the biggest hit of all.

I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, as I was alone for part of the day and busy for most of it -- lots of people around -- but I have some of the event space, which is a very cool artists space made from an old industrial building, and my setup. I think I need to get some shelving for my displays next time, but this worked well for the first time.

Here is a second picture of the setup, notice the fine hand-painted sign! My husband does hand painted signs among lots of other things like pinstriping and airbrush work in the larger Papa Studios enterprise.



Here's the space, and a shot of the overall table:








I wanted to do more "reporting" and talk about some people I met during the show but I was kind of overwhelmed with talking to people and manning the booth. Next show I hope to do more!

Business Cards & Postcards

Here is a business card I just finished for myself in preparation for next week's craft show. The text was printed using a polymer plate, and the men are from some vintage letterpress items I picked up on eBay. No idea who the men are except that they came from Minnesota, and there were at least fifty of them! I've found it to be a challenge when I have been printing linocuts, and then I switch to printing with the polymer plates or the halftone plates like these. When I print linocuts I am trying to get as much ink as possible on those wide surfaces, and then I have to concentrate on getting just the right amount with the polymer or halftone plates.

Speaking of the contrast between polymer plates and linocuts, I also finished a promotional postcard for the show based on my earlier "resolve" design. Here it is: