Field Trip!

Last week, Mike and I decided to go to the Mercer Museum, a collection of pre-industrial revolution tools and objects, in Doylestown, PA. There are many things that make this museum a unique place, one being the building itself, which is best described as a spiraling, concrete castle.

It's also a charming time capsule of a long lost museum exhibition style. Each exhibit in its own little room, behind paned glass, with description...Is that peg board?

the wallpaper maker's room: handcarved wooden blocks

that tag says "obsolete objects circa 1991"

And there was a letterpress room! Complete with iron hand press, and lovely little cabinets.

Needless to say, we were filled with nerdy delight to see all these tools, Mike being a blacksmith, and I a fan of obsessive collections of obsolete objects (see Henry Ford). Great field trip day.

Girard's Farm

If I could have a super power, I've often said I would choose the ability to observe a place where I am standing in any point and time. This wish originated during hours of looking out the window of R2 train, which runs from Philadelphia to Wilmington. The train runs through Chester, then Marcus Hook, both port towns that have seen better days, and then along the Delaware River. I'd daydream about what it must have looked like before the Swedes settled this area. Then what did it look like as industry started to scatter along the river?

Below are a few pictures from xzmattzx's, well, really nice photo tour of Marcus Hook on Skyscraper City.

the beautiful American Viscose Company building

I want it.

But I digress. The title of this post refers to my new neighborhood, Girard Estate, defined as the area between Passyunk and Oregon and Broad and 22nd St. So I am living on Stephen Girard, once the richest man in America's, land. This whole neighborhood was once a 583 acre farm, named Gentilhommiere, full of exotic fruit trees and vegetables imported from Europe.

Now, the house sits alone, in the center of a small city park. I was really surprised the first time I saw it.

from pwbaker's excellent flickr set of the farmhouse

Around it is a shady, quiet, almost suburban, and not at all typical south philly neighborhood, that I walk through whenever I have the chance. If you're interested there's a guide on the architecture of the neighborhood here.

Adventure Adventure

Adventure adventure...both on screen and in real life. Exploration in new lands. That is the theme of today's post.

:: from the Carter Studios website ::

Yesterday, we went to visit my good friends Mike and Jess of Carter Studios. Jess and I were roomies in college. It made me very happy to see them again. They are both incredible designers and artists, working in a variety of materials.

industrialness.

They took us on a tour of their incredible studio/live space in the old Globe Dye Works factory. The place is in the midst of being converted into artist's studios. Very exciting.

On screen, we've been watching hours and hours of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Michael Palin: Pole to Pole. I fondly remember watching Pole to Pole on PBS years ago (I was a huge Monty Python fan in my teen years) and now realize how indebted these newer travel shows like No Reservations are to this classic. They're both guaranteed to make you long for exotic landscapes (the fjords!) and very very hungry.

:: anthony bourdain ::

:: michael palin ::

And what do you need to go on an adventure? A good satchel. I've become smitten with the designs from two etsy shops, Cotton Petal from Scotland and Wooly Bison who makes wonderful bags out of recycled wool clothing. I'm torn between the choice of getting a smaller bag or something that will carry my laptop. Any thoughts?

:: cotton petal ::

:: wooly bison ::

Once I have my satchel, it's off to the fjords for me.

Friday Afternoon.

Some pictures of our new apartment and stationery for the spring. Available here. It's rainy and windy today. Mike and I are watching episodes of Art 21 and No Reservations and drinking coffee. The cat is running back and forth on the slippery bamboo floors. And loving it. I'm designing a Yellow Submarine themed birth announcement. Friday Afternoon.

So.

There are time tested hallowed traditions one must follow while a Core Fellow. As per these traditions, I have moved out of my studio and bedroom at Penland to make way for a new group of Core Fellows, and left huge piles of crap in my wake.

I don't really like saying goodbye. It's hard and yucky and awkward and sometimes you have to do it twice or three times which is even worse. But it has to be done. So.

Goodbye studio.

Goodbye witty light switch.

And goodbye dearest, sweetest nerds. I will miss you all so much.

bwahahahaaa

Printing was just murder today... HA! I did print a whole bunch of new cards that I'll be taking pictures of soon. Feathers, wrens, hellos, congrats, thank you''s, more robocops! Lots of new things.

My boyfriend and I also got the stomach flu, luckily offset by two days so there was no competition for bathroom territory. This was an experience I wish on no one. No one. I spent most of Thursday night curled up on the bathroom floor reading Nintendo Power, which is perfect reading material for coming in and out of consciousness. Tough questions, real answers.

Like this one,

Q: If you could play your Nintendo anywhere, where would it be?

A: I would play it on a mountain of money so then I could buy more Nintendo games after!

Awesome! Thank goodness we're both feeling great now. So great...why...It makes me want to SING!

(thank you, Henry, for this video)

Storm of the Century!

Well I had an interesting week. Thanks to Gizmodo. So let's start at the beginning. Way back, in the time machine to last week.

Serval Cat Cards in progress

It was my last full week to work in the letterpress studio before I move. I reprinted some serval cat thank you cards in new color combinations. Halftones are not the easiest thing to print on a Vandercook. You have the have just the right amount of ink and just the right amount of pressure. Otherwise, the tiny raised dots that make up the image will overflow and fill up and you have to clean the plate and start over.

And then Mike, Mark, and I drove to Delaware. In the snow storm of the century, during a state of emergency. It took 19 hours (normally it's a 10 hour drive) to get to Wilmington. It was rough. We ate Tastykakes in the car.

There was a great deal of snow.

So back to Gizmodo. We got to Delaware at midnight, a little shaken, had some scotch, and fell asleep. The next morning, I checked my email and I had many messages of congratulations and many orders, many many orders for Robocop Valentines. So I checked a link and found this!

A blurb!

Apparently read by many men. Many men who wanted Robocop Valentines for their girlfriends. I promptly sold out of everything. And enlisted the help of my dear roommate, Jessica, to help me send off the rest of my stock. Thank you Jessica! And thank you Gizmodo, you just bought me a board shear.

While all that was going on, we went for a walk in Rockford Park, where there is a giant stone water tower that strangely happened to be unlocked that day (it's not supposed to be). So we walked up to see the view.

Pretty nice.

This is where we'll go if there's a zombie attack.

So now we are in Wilmington at my parents house. Waiting out another snow storm by watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and I am reading The Scar, by China Mieville. Mike is reading Lives of the Artists by Calvin Tomkins. The cat is sleeping.