New Tags: Recycle

At any given moment in our little shop, we have a very large amount of paper waste hanging around: paper scraps, items that got printed a little off, make- ready, color samples... Lots of paper.  And yes, I have huge boxes strategically posted to catch the waste.  At one point they started to over flow.  Boxes busting out with thank you notes, coaters, calling cards, invitations.

Something had to be done!  I knew that I wanted to recycle it all, but as an artist and printer I saw potential.  That's money hanging out there after all.  Everything that I print on has to be bought.

So...

I made paper.  Okay, it's pink.  But that happened by default.  Our paper waste had lots of printed pink material, which in turn created pink paper.  I wasn't going to bleach it, and it was more of an experiment after all...  Plus, I am still working on the texture.  My first batch was kinda thick and chunky.  The thickness is great but the chunky prohibits the use of a pen or pencil on it...

So I had these huge sheets of paper hanging around and finally decided that  I would make some new tags to adorn our products before we ship them out.

It just so happened that I had some pink to print- perfect timing for the little tags.

The tags ended up being 1" by 4"- perfect to punch a hole and attach.  The recycled cotton paper printed marvelously on the press.  It too a deep impression.  I am assuming because I left the paper so chunky and didn't pack it too tight when I spread the pulp on the screen.

Some interesting tidbits:  We use cotton paper- and cotton paper has long fibers 

The cotton paper we buy has already come from recycled sources- they use left over fibers after ginning called linters.

No trees cut down, no extra cotton grown.

And now-it is being recycled again.

The type is vintage- rescued from a barn in Upstate New York- late 1800's early 1900's.

Blimy it's cold!!!

Ahh- the magic of space heaters...

And how amazing it is that an area that is insulated by all but one wall can get so cold.  Okay, I know that the weather in Georgia doesn't get that cold. (We moved from upstate New York (almost Canada New York last year).  I understand that cold is walking out side and your boogers freeze instantly. (Interjection here again- WE HAVE KIDS AND BOOGERS ARE PART OF OUR FREQUENT VOC.) 

That knowledge of coldness is cast aside when you are operating a piece of cast iron in 40 and 50 degree weather.  Your hands get cold, your nose starts to drip...

    My lovely knitted cap (slouched hat, or as my husband says with a shudder "Beret") becomes a necessity.

And I want to laugh and I say to myself "but it's Georgia, it's the south.  This isn't cold.  I have seen -35 weather, I have shoveled four feet of snow, I have walked the dog during lake effect snow!"

   Am I getting soft?  This semi-cold.  (Cold without the wonderous magic of snow. ) How can this be cold?

Why have my fingers quit moving like they should?  My hands stumbled and my fingers are slow to respond.  This is not good when operating a 1200lb press.  My motor chugs along and I finally have to stop it.  I am afraid of losing a finger in the press as it closes.  I have to stop and warm the hands. 

Georgia!

The space heater laughs as it pumps warm air in my direction. It sends it off and before it reaches my work area it is absorbed into the cold. I need that warm air, Mr. Henry needs that warmth.  Because unfortuantly, ink needs a certain temperature.  Too cold, not good.  I have heard that it is recommended not to print when the temperature is under 60. 

And there are rummors that in the old days small candles would be placed under the ink disk to help warm up the ink.

(I just don't like that idea one bit)

My composing room and studio is heated and wonderous.  But poor Mr. Henry still rooms in this unheated space.  One day...

Until then- I knit knowing that I am putting on a fashion show for Mr. Henry.  (I think he likes bright berets.)

And also- I know all too well that summer comes quick and hard to Georgia.  Hot and humid.

By the way the hat is from a pattern by Lucy Sweetland called Anemoon and is currently one of my favorite hats.

Finally- Coasters- A Light at the end of the Tunnel

I am almost reached the end of my stack of orders. (I can see the light!  That means I will have time for Shopping, Gingerbread Houses, Decorating, Cookies, searching out those hard to find gifts...)  Unfortuantly, I realized that I had one order that was in a color that I printed last night.  (Ugh!!  See- you can only print one color at a time, and cleaning the press is time consuming.  You have to clean all the rollers- the ink disk...  All of which takes time.  So when printing I line up the invoices by color- and try to print as much of one color as possible.  I MISSED ONE.  Wanna kich myself.
That and I am sick.  On the holiday rush...

See all the ink- it all has to be cleaned before you can print a new color

Anyway- I am gonna do the drawing for the little coasters.  Way over due--- guess I'll have to throw in something for the ladies.
Thanks gals- by the way.




1.the wonderful Soap Seduction
2.the wonderful Soap Seduction
3. Becky (who likes the Very Mod Callings cards)
4.Becky (who also pointed out that I need to have other ways for individuals to follow- working on the Facebook- sigh!!!)
5.Random Creative
6.Maitri
7.Dori
8. Patricia
9. WilksOak Studio
10. Mamma Sharp


And- there was only one person that seemed to do my "proofing" for me.  If she could resend/ contact me that would be great.

NUMBER 5!  Congrats- after the long wait.  Coasters are yours...

The Letterpress Story

I never was good at talking about myself or art.  So, it was extremely difficult for me to make this up for a shop that will be selling out Christmas coasters.  I knew it was time to put a face to the work...

Those Little Imaginations, Letterpress

If you have ever spent time with a preschooler you know they are exceptionally wonderous little people.  They are curious, explorative, unpredictable, loving, cuddly and imaginative.  I love the last quality.  Their imagination is amazing; it has yet to be squashed by this grown-up world we live in.  Their imaginations are so vibrant that you wonder where the line between imagination and the "real" world lies.  Sometimes I hear my little guy in the other room dreaming up fantastic scenarios (usually battles since he has an older brother).  Sound effects narrate these epic battles as his little body moves around the room.  I always have to smile.
   Adding to this imaginative quality is their ability to really vocalize now.  They have developed a vocabulary that helps them share their little make believe worlds.  Spending time listening to your little one is priceless.  Jump in to their world for a little bit.
   This all leads to a new letterpress line that I have been working on- The Super Fantastic Star Blaster Rocket Ship- whew I said it.  "It has to have a long title"- that you can give credit to my husband.  He is right.
The origins of all this...
Well, we were getting our little one prepped for the first day of pre-k.  We were preparing him for the inital drop off, what to expect during the day, his teachers name, he would have the most fun ever, his class  would be filled with new friends, that we would pick him and bring him home....
   Maybe I was starting to sound like the mom from Charlie Brown ,"wa wa wa wa, blah blah blah."
   My little guy listened to me and then said "Mom, meee gonna ride mine rocket ship when I out skoool.  Me gonna go to the moon."
   "Oh", I said. In those few lines I knew that he was gonna be okay.  His little hand was blasting off in the back seat- racing to the moon.

After I dropped him off I started drawing rocket ships and thought about our little guy going to the moon.  How wonderful are their first years.  The world is so big and colorful for them to explore.  I wonder what he will do next, in his imagination world.

The Super Fantastic Star Blaster Rocket Ship Stationary-

hand printed on 100% cotton paper.  So much fun. 

(Embracing Childhood)

Hold their little hands while you can, they grow quick.

What is a Vermilion Star?

What is a Vermilion Star? Is it Mars? (That's the red planet right? ) Hmm...
Something to do with sailors predicting the weather? Umm, no?
Well then? What is Vermilion to start with?

sometimes spelled vermillion, when found naturally occurring, is an opaque orangish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar. Chemically, the pigment is mercuric sulfide, HgS, and like all mercury compounds it is toxic. Its name is derived from the French vermeil which was used to mean any red dye, and which itself comes from vermiculum, a red dye made from the insect Kermes vermilio.[1] The word for the color red in Portuguese (vermelho) derives from this term.
Today, vermilion is most commonly artificially produced by reacting mercury with molten sulfur. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, giving rise to its alternative name of China red.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion



That's what wikipedia says, but orangish red is not the color I get when I open a tube of vermilion red paint...Usually it's more of a deep purplish red color...
What ever the case, my wonderful husband listened to me spout of press names for about two weeks. Some of them were interesting but all were missing something: nomadic press, sleepless press, penniless press...

We had the dictionary out, we thought of our favorite movies...

And then he brought out Vermilion- oooh!!! I love red.

And Stars...

A star was born. Okay- pretty cheesy. But come on, it's fun and it fits. Not too girly, but enough. And it has imagery attached to it.

Vermilion Star Press.

But Wait! There's more!!!

While looking through an old printing manual- old as in 1880- we found more. (Here, I would like to interject that letterpress isn't an easy subject to get stuff on. You can't walk into the local bookstore and get a letterpress manual. If you do find a book it's most likely a manual from decades past when it was still in vocational schools. (THAT IS A LONG TIME AGO)
See I told you it was an old book.

So as it turns out vermilion was the official color used in those old books for the very first letter. Pretty neat huh?

We think so, and if not it keeps people wondering at any event.

One other point, I am taking the artistic liberty and using all shades of red- including pink. And that is perfectly wonderful!

Glitz and Glitter

Lately, I have been using a great, great deal of glitter. It almost stands against every art principal that I was ever taught. (Glitter is taboo in art school after all.) Oh well, that was a long time ago and today, well today I love the way the glitter looks on the cards. It accents the colors and makes them pop. I think that sometimes letterpress is so precise and crisp that giving it a little glitz prevents it from become too stolid...

And well- it's glitter. It talks to the kid in me, to the part of me that wants to play in paints and get messy rather that keeping everything so pristine.



So enjoy the glitz...

Stationary Stack

What do you get someone for a birthday when you own a press? Letterpress... Hopefully, family members don't get too bored with all the paper items that come towards them.
For some reason the idea of a nice little stack of paper ( with one's name printed on it) got me really excited. At first I thought that a cordinating ribbon tied neatly around the stack would be hot. Such a nice gift.
But after the family got together, this did become a family project with even the oldest son helping, and we actually had the stack sitting in front of us- it seemed that it now had a higher status. The beautiful stationary seemed naked- vulnerable. We worked so hard- it needed some protection. (Funny how you think of these things- because after they leave your hands it doesn't seem so much of a concern.)
At any rate, packaging became the focus of a saturday afternoon. While watching the kids jump on the trampoline and hunt for worms in the backyard- I sat on the back porch making a set of sliding boxes out of chipboard and then lining them with store bought paper. (In the back of my mind I was dreaming up papers for future boxes, next time.) But I think that the end result was great.



One small note- for the outside I decided to make a label. I dug deep into the old vintage type- the stuff that was rescued from the barn- the stuff in the old wooden Kelsey Meridian cabinet. I ended up setting a wonderful label- unfortunatly one of the fonts was damaged. Meaning, that I couldn't quite get a good impression; the engravers shaded had a few damaged letters.
Perfection- I suppose that most would not notice that too much pressure was used to get a impression- which led to some of the letters "squashing " a bit. Man, it irks me. Even worse- I didn't quited have an equivalent font to switch out... (I am currently on the marked for one of these wonderful fonts.) See if you can notice.