The Letterpress Guild of New England January Potluck at Albertine Press

Posted on January 30, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, cooking, craft, friends | Leave a Comment

Sunday, January 20th was a busy day, and a little tiny landmark for Ez and me as well, as it was our first official meeting with the folks of The Letterpress Guild of New England (and the first time Ez paid his dues). Our friend Shelley at Albertine Press hosted, and she urged Ez and I to come. It was a potluck, so we whipped up a big batch of our guacamole to share.

Shelley
Shelley of Albertine Press


Stacks of colored paper at Albertine Press

After a lot of nibbling and chatting with various people, most of them folks I’d never met before but all generally very nice, we settled down to talk about an agenda for the year. Ez and I volunteered (or got volunteered, depending) to put together a sort of press crawl of the Boston area where LGNE members will spend a day checking out various area presses. We offered to print something as well, though I can’t remember what (dear me!)–Ez wrote it down.


Guild Members. The woman in dark blue–I think her name is Cynthia–was in one of my bookbinding workshops.

LGNE
Guild Members. The woman in the green scarf does amazing work with Italian papers and bookbinding.

It was interesting just to see what the LGNE is really all about. It’s an interesting mix of people. There’s sort of the old guard, a few people who are quite serious about their craft and have been doing this for a while, some younger folks who work at larger area presses, some people like Ez and I who do this sort of thing as a semi-serious hobby, and then some people who have interned or done workshops who are especially interested in getting more involved in the community. I know we can get a lot out of it… lately, of course, it’s been a little bit of a challenge just to get to the studio, but the print will go on!

This reminds me of all the related things I’d like to take a crack at… There’s a bit in the latest Craft magazine about making paper out of recycled mail. I’d love to try that as we get tons of junk mail and it might be cool to attempt to print on our own paper. There are a couple of marblers in the LGNE and I’d love to do that, too. I tried a sort of lame version of it once a LONG time ago and it came out OK, but I think I need better materials and some actual instruction. And then of course I need to try bookbinding on my own. I now have lots of materials thanks to some generous and lovely birthday and Christmas gifts. So many possibilities!

Boston Bazaar Bizarre 2007

Posted on December 10, 2007
Filed Under Blather, art, craft | 2 Comments

So, after all the weeks of prep, the Boston Bazaar Bizarre has come and gone for another year. Ez and I are happy with how things went.

I think we both agree that our stuff was better this year, and that we were more successful than we were last year. We were more organized and prepared, which made the whole thing a lot more enjoyable. I think the fair may have been less busy overall than it was last year, but that impression might just be due to the fact that we weren’t as overwhelmed as we were last year. It’s hard to say.

As usual, there were some great vendors there. I was impressed with so many of them, and I particularly loved Figs and Ginger and Katie Muth.

One of the great things about the BB is that it’s just so big and colorful. There’s so much to see. One of the perks of being a vendor is that if you get your booth set up quickly enough you can scope out what other vendors have to share.

And the Cyclorama is a great place for it. Even the bathrooms are fabulous!


OH! And by the way… we will be adding many items to our Etsy store soon:  http://rainyplanet.etsy.com

Tonight

Posted on November 28, 2007
Filed Under Blather, art, craft, me and my brain | 3 Comments

Tonight we’re at the studio. I haven’t been as productive as I was the other day. This may be due to the fact that after being here for about 20 minutes I cut my finger with an Exacto blade. Yeah, it was pretty gross. I’ll be fine and all, but I had to sit down for a minute… nasty.

I have lots of pictures and stories to share from Thanksgiving, printing, holiday decor, etc. Coming soon!

Stu-stu-studio

Posted on November 18, 2007
Filed Under Blather, art, craft | 1 Comment

Sorry for that. I’m a bit punchy. Ez and I have been in the studio printing basically all weekend. I have to say, I’ve really loved it. I love having a project. I love making things. I love being active and creating something. I love being tired at the end of the day for a satisfying reason. I love being surrounded by art and possibilities. When Ez and I have a goal that we both agree on, we work pretty well together–or we can, and I think we are (I hope he agrees). I feel like I’m learning things and getting better at it all the time. Our stuff this year is already nicer than what we did last year. We have a long way to go and not much time, but I’m enjoying it immensely.

Joy Street open studios were this weekend. We didn’t participate because we just have so much to do and because we don’t have much to show yet. There will be open studios again in the spring, and we’re hoping to have things together enough to participate then. It’s definitely something to look forward to. There are some really talented artists all around us–painters, photographers, sculptors, mixed media artists, printmakers… and we haven’t really even explored the other areas of the building.

It’s 10:07PM and I haven’t eaten dinner.

The Mostest

Posted on October 21, 2007
Filed Under Red Sox, craft, friends, knitting | 3 Comments

Ez and I are pals with two of the nicest people on the planet. Maybe I’ve mentioned…

Yesterday Amy and I took a longstitch journal workshop at Paper Source in Cambridge. Once again, the gluing was a little challenging, but I’m quite pleased with the results, and it was fun. Amy’s is really nice. Here’s mine:

After bookbinding, we grabbed a warm drink and had a lovely chat. It just goes to show how wonderful Amy is… she let me babble away and actually seemed interested and was listening to all of my random thoughts. They amount to something in the end, I hope.

We joined forces with Ezra and Doug for a relaxed dinner at Cambridge Common, and then because they are the most hospitable ever and because our place is still a wreck we headed over to Amy and Doug’s comfy home to visit with Theo of the big fluffy paws and to watch the Red Sox…er… sock it to the Indians. Doug let me wear his Ortiz jersey so I could feel that I was doing my part apparel-wise. Amy was working on her knitting–a super soft looking pale purple piece that looks positively edible. During the 2004 season I was working on the throw blanket I made for our living room, and the act of knitting helped me channel my nervous energy in a productive way–especially during the playoffs. Last night I didn’t anticipate wanting to knit, so I didn’t bring any knitting with me. Well, Amy, the knitting angel, offered to let me dig through her stash! I picked a couple of beautiful blue, green, and light purple variegated skeins and started knitting away. It turned into a spur of the moment moss stitch and wide rib scarf. On size 11 needles (which she was kind enough to let me borrow!), it’s going ridiculously quickly. Needless to say, I am deeply indebted to Ms. Lewis!! Amy, I owe you a serious stash raid!!

Oh, and since the Sox kicked some booty, Ez and I are going to Game 7 tonight!!! Whoop!

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