Happy Valentine's Day

Here's a virtual Valentine for all of you! This year I decided to paint my V-Day cards after being inspired by Merrilee and her son and their fantastic color theory project. I think these are my best DIY Valentines yet.


All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission.

1 Artist / 1 Piece: Joseph Cornell

Oh, Joseph Cornell. I've been an admirer of his since I was in high school. I actually went through a "Cornell Phase" which involved searching flea markets for vintage boxes and bits of interesting randomness to make pieces in a similar style. Those boxes are still taking up space in my parent's house. Cornell is a curious character. He never had any formal art training. He was more of a collector. A collector with a fantastic imagination and an eye for piecing together the most beautiful creations. Poems in a box.


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Letterpress class!

I'm pretty excited to take my first letterpress class today! Just wanted to gather up a little inspiration and a few cool videos. I'll report back after the class tonight. I can't wait to see what we'll get to make!


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No clue what any of this is about? Here's a great instructional video from Naomie Ross:

Letterpress from Naomie Ross on Vimeo.

...and another fun one from Egg Press in Portland, OR:

Egg Press Letterpress Video from Pressing Letters on Vimeo.

Dwell on Design: 2

...and we're back with more from Dwell on Design. This time I want to share one of my other favorite parts of the convention. Yolo Colorhouse had such a great interactive booth! Before I show and tell you about what I did at their booth, let's talk about their awesome paint. Yolo has created a line of paint with no carcinogens, reproductive toxins, mutagens, hazardous air pollutants, ozone depleting compounds, formaldehyde phthalates, or VOCs. They also use 100% recycled plastic containers and 100% PCW labels with soy based inks. Nice. They've also got some pretty great color palettes to choose from. Anywho, I loved the way Yolo made their product so much fun to experience at Dwell. They took a bicycle and added a tub to the front with a spinner inside. Then you just place a piece of paper on the spinner, have a helper start pedaling, and get to squirting the paint to create a cool design. I loved it and I will definitely be picking up some of their paint whenever the day comes that I can, umm, actually paint an apartment. I highly recommend it as VOCs and the like are not something you want to be inhaling. Check out these little masterpieces created by convention goers!



Images 1, 2, and animation by Maureen Price. All other images are from Yolo Colorhouse
PS: I wasn't perked in any way by Yolo. I just really enjoyed their booth (and they've got a great product)!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

How great are these envelopes?! I'm loving the illustrated return addresses for the different business. Stay tuned for some fun posts from the Dwell on Design convention and our Long Beach adventure (complete with very cool jellyfish pictures).


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One of those days...

You know those days? When you wake up and just don't feel "right"? The not-feeling-right usually doesn't bode well for the rest of the day. I've been having one of those days today. You feel sort of fuzzy, like a shadow of your usually self. A weird blip on the radar and then the next day things feel normal again. An out of sorts day. A disconnect. A funny reflection. That's today. Dragging along. Need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables tomorrow. Things somehow sort themselves out overnight while you dream. Nothing terrible going on, no need to really complain but bits and pieces are out of place. A slow whirlwind. Tomorrow...


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Erin Jang's Stop Motion

I'm really loving these little stop motions gems from Erin Jang. She created these for Martha Stewart Living. The photography is by Johnny Miller. You'll definitely want to have a look at her other design work for Martha Stewart Living and Esquire. She's also created some great letterpress wedding invitation suites for Bella Figura (one of my favorites).

Hollie Chastain

I recently came upon these mixed media illustrations by Chattanooga based artist Hollie Chastain. She writes, "I seem to be addicted to the most complicated form of recycling and in Tennessee you're never more than a few minutes from an antique store. On the best days I'm found up to my elbows in steamer trunks piled with scraps of crumbling paper, dusty, tattered books stacked to the ceiling. I bring it all back here and give it a second life. I always have the forest, fairy tales and music close to me so that comes out the most." I really love the layers and movement in these pieces. The characters seem to take charge of the page. Here are a few of my favorites! Be sure to check out Hollie's shop for more.

Renegade Craft Fair-Los Angeles!

Ok, folks, I think we all know I've been super neglectful lately. I have been in a massive no-blogging-rut the past week and a half. Between my new jobs, running, personal projects, and general day-to-day business, my poor blog has been ending up at the bottom of the list. I'd get home feeling exhausted, make dinner, tidy up a bit, shower, and then think about posting and it just never happened. Sorry!!!!! I'm determined to get back on track and thanks to a lovely reader's request for me to get my bum in gear (haha, my words not her's) I'm bringing you a brand spankin' new post about the Renegade Craft Fair from two weekends ago. The fair was nestled between the Chinatown Metro station and Dodger Stadium in the lovely LA Historic Park. It was seriously toasty and seriously CROWDED. I can't really complain about the crowds as I'm glad people are so supportive of handmade goods and the artisans who craft them so lovingly. Although the big people-pet-stroller clusters made it hard to photograph the way I wanted to and I had Luke with me (and being the thoughtful partner that I am, I didn't want to make him spend 6 hours in July heat looking at letterpress cards and succulent terrariums). Therefore, to preface my images, I don't have the names/links of all of the vendors I photographed. So sorry! It was just too crazy to keep track. That being said, let's look at my highlights from the FAIR!!!



Here we go!




It looks a bit more like the owl is eating me and thumbing for a ride...no shame.


{paper & type} Display... Their designs are so sweet and basic.


Scarlett Garnet jewelry designs...lovely! They also win my Most Unique Business Card Award because their logo rocks my socks. I love the cool art nouveau design!!




Miniature Rhino had this cool message in a bottle display and their awesome embroidery (see their Etsy link).


Succulent Terrariums!! It took everything I had not to buy one of these. But I knew I probably kill it in a month.


Cool way to display these vials of seeds!


Another great display idea! This would be so easy to recreate at home too. Just find some interesting frames and a bit of mesh or a few pieces of pretty chain, add a few staples or nails and hang them in a cluster by your dresser or in the bathroom. Bonus point: arrange your earring collection by color or style *wink*.


Crafty and inexpensive and recycled display! I thought this was such a great way to house these earrings!


Yay! I can't wait to have my own Etsy shop.


Hah.


Poster Displays. I saw a few that were new to me. I feel like I've seen every poster design out there lately.


I loved this paper crane mobile. Another cool idea to make at home on the cheap!


Ok, now on to one of my favorite parts of the craft fair! Threadless Tees had an Airstream trailer you could go in and post your own shirt design on their templates. It was a really fun idea and there were some pretty funny ones in there.




T-Shirt designs EVERYWHERE!


My favorites:




This one summed up what I was thinking all day.


On a more serious design note, I really liked this one a lot.




So, there you have it! My experience of the Renegade Craft Fair! Oh, I was VERY good and bought one SMALL print from Honeylux (I was a bad photographer and totally blew out my image of her table)! This is the print I bought! If you're interested in attending a fair, the next stop is Chicago on September 11th and 12th. They are also having holiday events in Chicago and San Francisco. Check out their site for more information. Over and out! Thanks, special reader for throwing some accountability my way!