Japantown

I had a really lovely evening on Saturday, hanging out with my good pal Erin in Japantown. We ate at the always wonderful On The Bridge. If you haven't been there, go, you will have fun, I promise! Then we just kind of wandered, which, at the time, was kind of perfect. Because the weather was totally delicious (cool with a breeze), I walked home and was inspired to whip out my camera and take some photos. I am usually too self conscious to do this, but the street I was walking along was pretty much deserted, so I could stop where I liked for as long as I liked without worrying that people were looking at me. So I got what I think are some really neat images, and I want to share them with you!

mel

Post Secret and 21st Century Mail Art

I was listening to my not so favorite radio show, the one I've been relegated to since they took away all streaming radio access at work, the Bryant Park Project on NPR, and they talked to the founder of the Post Secret project. I feel like I've heard of this before, but I've never actually looked at the website or anything, so I'm glad the BPP spotlighted this, because it is really fascinating. In a you can't look away sort of way. This guy handed out tons of postcards with his address and asked people to anonymously write a secret and send it to him. The results are funny and depressing and heartwarming and, obviously, extremely personal. It's worth checking out, trust me.
The other cool thing they talked about is this exhibition of Mail Art in the 21st Century that's going on now at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. I so wish I could go to this it sounds so cool. It's funny because just the other day I was telling my good pal Erin she should see How To Draw a Bunny, a really good movie about the artist Ray Johnson, who did mail art. Anyway, you can listen to the BPP interview with Martha Wilson about the exhibition, as well as see a gallery of works from the show here.
mel

printer's progress

carving a linoleum block, originally uploaded by wickedfreshie.

I haven't done any printing in almost a year, but I was inspired by the Lotta Jansdotter book launch party that I attended with the amazing Erin last weekend, and last night I pulled out some linoleum blocks and my cutting tool and got down to business. Above is my work in progress, and here is the result:

I'm pretty happy with it. I need to clean it up a bit and work on my printing technique (I'm thinking a different kind of ink, this one is a little chalkier than I'd like), but then I think this would make a great notebook cover. In my mind, I see it in pastel pink, yellow and maybe green. The design is actually taken from a drawing I did the first time I attempted to take a drawing class at the local city college. We were doing a negative space exercise with eucalyptus leaves; it was probably my most positive experience in that class, the rest of which was taken up with drawing portraits of other students.

More printing from last night:

This is a linoleum stamp that I carved a long time ago, I used it to make a tote bag for my sister, and also the buttons that I use as free gifts in my shop. This time I printed a sheet of bristol board, colored it in with marker, and next I will be cutting it up and turning it into notebook covers. I'll be sure to keep you updated with all the printing happenings.
mel

ps - also, be sure to check the current etsy featured seller interview with rubyslounge. her shop is so neat.

For Erin, pt 2

Hey Erin, have you heard about this? Check it out!

{CLICK HERE!!!!}

Lotta

This was the scene yesterday evening at Craft Gym. My lovely and amazing pal Erin and I dropped in for the launch party for Lotta Jansdotter's new book, and I meant to take a bunch more pictures but I got overwhelmed by all the folks who were also there. It was super crowded! But it was fun; it was kind of a crafting party, they had a long table set up with inks and brushes and stamps and stencils. I enjoyed watching the other people there making lovely designs on their muslin swatches while I waited for a seat to open up. We got to talk to Lotta for just a second, she came over for a bit to give us some pointers on printing. She was really lovely and I was smitten with her accent (she's Scandanavian) and her outfit (she had the cutest sandals). Overall it was a very neat experience and I'm glad I was able to go. Here are some pictures of my printing that I took when I got home.
This was my first try, it's a little muddled.
And this is my second, it's more minimalistic, which was more keeping in the spirit of Lotta's work, I think. I like both of them though. I know Erin took more pictures than I did, so maybe she'll share some with me so you can have some better examples of what was coming out of the party. Erin's swatch in particular turned out quite lovely.

Actually, Erin and I had quite the full day yesterday; we hit up three of my favorite SF spots: SCRAP, Mission Pie Shop and Philz Coffee, and we eventually ended up at Target, where I was able to purchase a Spirograph! So exciting! I've been thinking about getting one for a little while now. Here are some of my first tries with it:

Aren't they purty? I did these with my PrismaColor markers and I love how the colors came out, but the process really ruins the tips of the markers, which is such a bummer. I tried some with colored pencil, and those turned out nice too, I just don't have very nice colors of colored pencil right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the spirograph, but it's fun just playing around with it for now.
All right, I'm going to leave you today with a sneak peak of something that will be popping up in the ol' store soon. Enjoy!
mel

For Erin

THIS is so so awesome. Everyone is strongly encouraged to click over. It is like my 20 year old sister's habit of shopping at the Limited Too, but to the power of a thousand. I wish I were so genius-y.

Well, I have some other things to share with you:

(oops, my toes are in there) Look for these soon in my shop.

mel