oh my my my, how can it be two months since i last posted? life goes so fast, it’s difficult to make time for reflection.

i’m thrilled to finally be able to post my printed holiday card. this card has been an entire year in the making… and i learned so much about how to design for letterpress (or should i say how not to design for letterpress?). registering the two colors of this design was nearly impossible, due to several factors: the design itself, the type of press i’m using, and operator error (a.k.a. inconsistency in hand feeding the paper). it’s just not a smart design for a platen press and hand-fed paper. in terms of registration, of the nearly 200 cards i printed, about 1/4 were duds, about 1/2 were acceptable (meaning great for people who love your imperfections… and people who don’t know anything about good printing), about 1/4 were good, and about 4 were perfect!

i would like to try printing this design on a Vandercook press, which i understand can produce spot-on registration. *Marty, are you reading this?* i think i’ll choose complementary colors to compare the effect of the design, like red and green or teal and orange… silver and gold? possibilities are endless.

here is what i did with the “duds”… even tho the registration might have been poor on part of the card, it was good enough on another part. so i punch cut with my scallop punch and added a spot of silver glitter, and made tree ornaments and gift tags! i almost like the design better this way.

Justin has a new best friend and it’s so sweet… i’ve never seen him so calm and so engaged with any other child. she’s a sweetie too. we enjoyed the pumpkin patch at Homestead Farms, an annual trip, and we are finally getting crisp fall weather… altho i’m still waiting for our first freeze to kill all the blasted gnats we’ve had this year!

i love how graphic pumpkins are… and how they look like bright orange heads. i asked Justin to lay down so i could get his head next to the pumpkins. he only cooperates for a nanosecond, so i have to take what i get. here he had to shield his eyes from the sun which i hadn’t wanted him to do, but i’m glad he did–it made the picture more interesting.

i thought this scarecrow was too cute. she would be fun to have in my yard! that’s all for now… we have our neighborhood Oktoberfest party today, which means prepping food in the morning, supervising kids all afternoon and evening, and collapsing on the couch to watch Saturday Night Live… maybe i can escape to take Goldy for a walk this afternoon for a wee break! ok, that is a funny pun… a wee break for me and a wee break for her!

a rare occasion… Justin actually let me take a few photos! he always looks so cute in his little lab coat, so when i asked if i could take his picture and he said “yes” i ran for the camera! no time to mess with ISO, white balance, or tripod… hence the lack of sharp focus… but sweet sweet sweet just the same.

why is it so hard for some of us to know ourselves? are we just too complex? or maybe too dense to see the interconnections in our lives? but before i get into that, above is part of a sheet that i marbled at Penland. and i am thrilled to have the opportunity to use it in a dinner invitation for one of my clients.

i’ve been thinking a lot lately about my graphic design business and how to recreate it for the next 20 years of my life. when Justin was born, i was definitely ready for a break from the stress and grind of deadlines. then as i focused on getting Justin all the help he needed during his first eight years, my business was moved to the farthest corner of my mind. there just wasn’t time in my life or room in my brain for high-maintenance clients or complex and demanding projects. now that Justin is sort of on cruise control (and i knock wood 10x when i say that!), i have some time to think about my own life and what i want to accomplish during the second half of it. this requires getting to know myself in a way that i never have.

as i scan old entries on this blog, i see that i’ve been pretty scattered this year… trying to figure out what i like, what i want to do, how i want to do it. and i see that i hadn’t discovered any convincing answers yet. i’m still trying to figure out what connects all my various interests and my absolute (almost desperate) need for variety.

recently, i began reading a book by Barbara Sher, I Could Do Anything, If I Only Knew What it Was. boy i could have used this when i was 20! there are many great exercises in the book to help determine what you most want to do and to overcome your resistance to doing it. and in doing some of them, the thing that has popped up and has been reinforced by other synchronicities is storytelling. now this is something i did in college for two years, and when i graduated with a BA in Communication, i wondered what the heck i would do with this degree. i started out in television but quickly decided that i wanted to touch a product… turn pages… linger over images—not something you can do with a can of film or videotape. i turned my attention to magazines, discovered graphic design, and went back to school. after four years in art school and working at several studios in D.C., i ventured out on my own. looking over old promotional materials i had written but never sent (because all my business came by referral), i see that in one instance i had written about graphic design as visual storytelling requiring an original voice and careful pacing. hmmmm, there it is again… storytelling.

so now, i’m contemplating how i can bring all my interests together… storytelling, graphic design, photography, letterpress printing, decorated paper, and handmade books. i’m considering how i can fulfill my needs for creative freedom, variety, crafting, and connecting with other people… and still have the “mental space” in my life that is as essential to me as oxygen.

another chapter in the book helped me distinguish whether i am a “scanner,” someone who likes to do a little of everything… or a “diver,” someone who likes to go deep into a subject and master it. i’m definitely a frustrated diver. i want to dig deep but life and my own resistance to commitment and fear of imperfection always stop me. my job now is to mine these truths about myself and start recovering from them. i’m sure it won’t be quick or easy, but necessary.

wow, time flies doesn’t it? my Penland experience came and went without even a blog entry! how did that happen? or maybe, since i didn’t blog about it, it didn’t happen? like the proverbial tree falling in the woods? oh but it did… and it was wonderful, and sane, and healthy, and interesting, and productive, and it felt good. i met the most interesting people at various junctures in their lives… and best of all, Justin and Phil managed just fine without me so i’m waiting excitedly for Penland’s course catalog for 2009! the pix above is the very restful view from the main part of the campus.

our instructor, Steve Pittelkow, a master book binder, box maker, and paper marbler from Minnesota was helpful and good humored (even tho he didn’t want us to think he was good humored) and made marbling paper look a whole lot easier than it is. next year i will bring a FlipCam with me and upload videos of the instruction, because the instructors at Penland are simply the best. the studio assistant, Sue Bjerke, also a master book binder and chipboard carver, was patient and helpful. i send a huge “thank you” out to Steve and Sue.

so what did i do at Penland? i learned how to marble paper in the Japanese tradition of Suminagashi. i prefer rich, saturated colors, so this is not my favorite technique, but it was interesting. i learned how to make paste papers, and i have quite a few ideas for that medium that i’m looking forward to playing with. and finally i learned Italian paper marbling (with 21st century materials, as Steve says). the process requires concentration, a bit of careful speed, and creativity, which means it’s great fun to do… there is no time to agonize over the creative process as i usually do. the sheet shown above is an example of a stone pattern with a Spanish moiré, the last sheet i pulled from the “big tank.”

i’m currently gathering supplies to start marbling in my basement. the process can be messy and requires quick access to a sink with running water and a floor that you don’t mind getting wet, so i’ll have to abandon my well-lit clean studio and brave the spiders to work downstairs.

i’m not exactly sure what i’ll do with all the marbled paper yet… i’d like to make some books with them of course, but i’ll have to see what the papers want to become as well. for example, i made this cool hexagonal box with some of the papers made at Penland for Justin to store his treasures. (Steve marbled the paper i used on the top of the box and inside the shelves; i can’t take credit for that.) i also made this cute little sketch book with coptic binding. i realized that i like to make small things, so smaller patterns are more useful to me than larger ones.

hopefully this post will resuscitate my blog and in the immediate future i will have less client work (ha ha!) and more time for thinking, writing, and creating. i have several vague ideas floating around in my head and need time for them to take shape and become real. i need time to focus… which was the true gift of my Penland experience… uninterrupted time.

… printing again. i put the old trucks on the roller at the bottom and used the new trucks on the top two rollers so i could print again without jeopardizing my press.

it’s interesting to see how different ink colors print differently, and how different papers take ink. so far, i prefer Mohawk Superfine. because the paper isn’t as soft as Crane’s Lettra (which was used in the sample pictured above), i don’t get as deep an impression, but it takes ink soooo much better with little to no mottling or variations in saturation.

i talked with Dave at Tarheel Rollers, and i’m going to send him the rollers and trucks. he will reduce the diameter of the trucks to 1.375″ and recast the rollers to be an 1/8″ larger than that. unfortunately, he won’t be casting again until next month, but as i wrote in my last post, that’s o.k. since i won’t be in my studio for two weeks of August.

now, back to paying work!

yep… that’s the word from my knowledgeable friends on the LetPress list serve. no, it’s not a good thing for the trucks and rollers to hit the cast iron base of my press. *sigh*

i’m going to send the new trucks, the old trucks, and the rollers back to Dave at Tarheel Rollers and have the new trucks turned from 1.5″ to 1.375″ diameter and have the rollers ground to just a hair larger than the trucks. i am very confident the problem will be solved once and for all. (hope springs eternal.)

actually, it’s a good time to be unable to print, as i’ll be heading off to Penland in two weeks to have fun decorating paper and dreaming of ways to use the beautiful sheets. until then i’m a bit swamped with client work, which is a good thing, i guess, since i seem to need a lot of money to get my letterpress enterprise up and running!

i received my beautiful new trucks from Tarheel just before i left for my beach vacation. these trucks were made just a hair smaller than the diameter of the rollers to prevent the rollers from smashing ink all over the cut and furniture. i removed 4 of the 6 points of lead i had added to the guide rails and tested the new trucks with the rollers on the press. oh how the trucks glided effortlessly over the rails! then i fired Pearl up with a nice red ink, and stepped on the treadle. at first i breathed a huge sigh of relief, all the problems appeared to be solved and the prints are beautiful… perfect ink coverage and crisp detail.

as i continued to print, i became aware of a thumping noise that i didn’t remember hearing before. i turned the flywheel by hand slowly to see where the rollers were positioned when i heard the noise and saw it was when the rollers were in their lowest position. so even tho the prints are what i want them to be, i’m still quite concerned that the bottom roller is hitting the press… you can see the red ink on the black cast iron in the picture above. now, with the larger diameter trucks, they hit the press even harder.

i looked at how the new trucks were fitting the press at the bottom position and noticed a significant gap where the diameter of the new trucks prevented them from rolling completely under the bed (see pictures above). this was true for both sides of the press. then i compared how the original trucks fit; the left side had a gap (altho not as big as with the new trucks), so the original truck could not roll completely under the left side of the bed. the truck on the right side rolled completely under the bed.

so what am i to make of this? it doesn’t seem like it would be good for the trucks, rollers, or press to make contact like this… yet i can’t see how it could be prevented, even using the original trucks. and worse, i can’t think of how to solve this problem. (or rather, the only way i can think of causes me to shudder… it would involved using the original trucks and having the rollers shaved down so the diameter is smaller–just a hair bigger than the diameter of the original trucks.)

now i will post another cry for help on the LetPress list and put myself at the mercy of those experienced folks. i’ll also contact Mike Anton, the Golding Guru in Missouri, and see if he can tell me how the trucks fit his press. maybe, just maybe, it’s not a big deal if the trucks and rollers smash into the press?

oh dear. my camera, a Canon Powershot A95 is dead… yesterday at the zoo i took a picture and saw the dreaded white horizontal lines. so this may be the last photograph i can post for a while. actually, i’ve been dreaming of purchasing the Canon digital Rebel since i bought the A95 a couple years ago… as soon as i learned about “shutter lag.” coming up with the cash for that baby will prove challenging right now tho.

i’m having new trucks made for the rollers of my Pearl press, so i don’t have anything new to report there. BUT this gives me cause to finish filing a metal chase down to fit my little Sigwalt press… i’d like to have something to post on that one soon, altho there probably won’t be any pictures. *sigh* (maybe i can find a photographer trying to get rid of her Rebel??)

this week i have been “cruise director” for my boy Justin who is between school and summer camp. he’s had a great week… very positive (for the most part) with little anxiety. we went to see Kung Foo Panda, which i thought was hilarious… thoroughly enjoyable! Justin was ready to leave after an hour, but was able to stick with it when i said “no,” we wouldn’t be leaving before it was over. we went to the tiny D.C. Aquarium, which was just enough for his attention span. there was a tank with sea horses in it and i don’t recall ever seeing sea horses that close up… they were so beautiful and delicate! yesterday we took a trip to the zoo for the first time in five years. and today we are off to a dairy farm near Hagerstown Maryland to help feed the calve, watch the cows get milked… and then eat fresh ice cream!

what’s not to like? i just love summer.

i’ve never outgrown crayons… i still love the smell, the colors, and the wax that sticks under my fingernails when i pick pick pick at the wrappers to peel them down to expose more fresh crayon. i spent hours coloring when i was a kid, but as an adult i find that activity is rather boring. so today’s post is a lesson in using crayons to make decorative papers by melting them into puddles on a hot plate.

to start, get a hot plate with a glass top… the glass makes it easy to wipe the melted crayon off it. i’ve never tried a teflon-coated one, but that might work too. get a box of crayons–any kind will work, they don’t have to be fancy, altho the metallic or sparkle ones add a beautiful sheen and sparkle to the color. finally, you’ll need a stack of regular 4×6 blank index cards… i prefer the ones without any lines, but you can use those and just decorate the side without lines (obviously).

let the hot plate get good and hot, then rub a crayon on it. allow a good amount of crayon to melt into a puddle. you can experiment with how much is “good” enough, but it’s more than you might think. then just play! i usually stick with 2 or 3 colors, to prevent the colors from mixing into mud. remember your color theory: complementary colors will make… brown. so when using more than 2 colors i separate colors that are complementary with a color they are next to on the color wheel.

once you have the puddles of color, take an index card and lay it on top of the puddles, then smoosh it around a bit. when you pick it up, do so with flair… a swoop before you pick it up creates nice streaks and swirls. this is the fun part… as you see in the picture above, the pink and green would make brown if smooshed together, so i have the blue in between them. once you’re tired of a color, wipe off the excess with a dry paper towel, making sure to get all the colored wax off so it won’t mix with the next colors.

don’t worry if every centimeter isn’t covered with color… white spots are o.k… but if  you don’t want a white spot, just put the card back down on a patch of melted crayon to fill it in. here are some examples of finished color-coated cards. i usually make quite a stack at one time.

once you’ve made the papers, you’ll figure out how you want to use them, but my favorite way (by far) is to use them to cut out shapes with punches. i love love love this vase punch by McGill. turn the punch over so you can see what you are punching out.

here is a finished card with the vase punched out of the pink/green crayon paper.

here is a suite of cards that i made to thank Justin’s teachers, aides, and occupational therapist at school. the decorative background paper is by my favorite company, Basic Grey. the flowers were stamped with photopolymer stamps by Paper Trey Ink.

this is a detail from another card i made. the butterflies were created with the crayon papers and a punch by Martha Stewart. you can see that lots of different punches will work well. the swirls of melted crayon really make the punched out object look dimensional, no?