This is where my head is today...

Craft Fairs galore...

I've been pulling my hair out. In a good way. Why? I am doing three craft fairs this holiday season. A record for Huldra Press...and a stretch. A good stretch!

In all seriousness, I'm very excited to be doing all three of these wonderful craft fairs. And it's been a great push to make new work.

I've been printing away and will have a selection of new cards to debut. Not photographed yet, sorry. And books, stacks of books. Many books.

Here's the line up, from soonest to latest.

:: Art Star Craft Bazaar - In Philly ::

:: The Big Crafty - In Asheville ::

:: Crafty Balboa - in Philly ::

Hope to see you there!

Three Things

:: me and my buddy ::

I had such a wonderful open studio weekend. It was a beautiful weekend here in Philadelphia, and I'm so grateful to everyone who came by to say hello and see the shop, I had the best time and met so many interesting people.

Also on my list of things I'm grateful for...

:: Bear and Snake, by me ::

This week on Cheek Teeth, the blog of the Trachodon, the fascinating biannual magazine literature, art, and artisan culture, there's an interview about my work. I was invited by their super talented Managing Editor, Katey Schultz, to have my work featured in their last issue, thank you Katey!

:: Blade Runner Poster by Godmachine ::

And lastly, Blade Runner. I'm completely obsessed with Blade Runner. I think it might be the most beautiful movie ever made. The reason for this renewed love affair, a friend of mine gave me the soundtrack (by Vangelis) a few months ago, which I've been listening to while I work. Then I rented the documentary Dangerous Days, about the making of the film. I've always been fascinated by this movie and learning more about it's difficult production only made me more appreciative of its beauty. And, I think I want to be special effects designer circa 1984.

OPEN STUDIO!

Next weekend I'm going to be opening up my doors as part of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

My studio is located in Northeast Philadelphia at Globe Dye Works, a beautiful old factory building converted into artist's studios. There will be a half dozen or so other exhibiting artists in the building, painters, boat builders, photographers, and more.

If you're live in or happen to be in Philadelphia next weekend, I really hope you can stop and say hello.

I'll have some new work to show you and you can see the new up and running press, type collection, and other neat things. There will also be refreshments.

See you there!

My sketchbook

Sometimes people tell me they are afraid to use a handmade book. I tell them I make them to be used and that I think they only grow more interesting and beautiful with use.

This is a book I made for myself about six years ago.

The covers are made from an old book. They were already quite worn.

I inset a vintage photograph into the front cover. The owl is original to the old book covers.

:: sketches, left, illustration, right ::

I dyed the pages with black walnut dye and bound six the original illustrations into the new text block. Those are some cat sketches.

This is an autograph from Crispin Hellion Glover. He makes books too. I'm a fan.

A friend gave me this stamp of a fox, which I glued to the back cover.

There's no wrong way to use a handmade book. You can use it for your grocery lists or your diary, your notes for class or your drawings, and if you like, you can put it on a shelf and look at it when it pleases you. Anything you do is right.

Hey, Nice Loafers!

hey, nice loafers

I sort and sort and sort some more. There's been moments when I've wanted to strangle the previous owners of my type collection but now those drawers are looking spick and span. There's more work to be done, but I've finally sorted all the standing type and spacing material that came with the typecases I bought. Progress!

cute-trimmer

I also bought this little beauty on Ebay for peanuts. I used it on Friday to cut the paper for my business cards (coming soon!) and it's the bee's knees. Welcome to the team, Kutrimmer, between you and the board shear, I am unstoppable.

Slow day.

For the last week, we haven't had the internet in our apartment. It's kind of nice. I've been cooking real dinners. The last two nights, Mike and I sat outside on our deck for a couple hours. I've been reading a great deal more than usual too. I'm about half way through "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula LeGuin. My favorite part are the descriptions of the planet Winter, with its "pale-scarlet" conifer trees and the "small secret ceaseless descent of snow."

Today though, I did catch up on my internet reading though and found these treasures

:: queen bees via the golden smith ::

:: three rolls of kaya via sri threads ::

In the studio, I've been mainly sorting and organizing which has been very satisfying and the type cases are looking all the better for it. I guess that's it. Oh well, slow day.