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!


Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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)!

Amazing!

These two pieces are absolutely remarkable. I can't even imagine the time and effort that went into their creation. Both are by the artist BLU (with a collaboration with David Ellis on this first one). I don't really know what else I can say other than...watch them!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Rosie

How fantastic are these photographs? I found all of them through The Library of Congress flickr photostream.The original images are color transparencies ranging in size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known black and white FSA/OWI photographs that were made during the same period. I love seeing color images from this time period. I somehow feel more connected to these folks. If you look around in this album you'll find that the photographers recorded the names of these women and what they were doing before working as mechanics and engineers and how old they were. Very inspiring. It's just too bad that most women weren't given the chance to continue working in these fields after the war.

Image

Wonderfully Repurposed

Ok, so this post is seriously long overdue but I definitely wanted to give some blog space to Will Holman and his awesome repurposed designs. Will is a young designer and architect in Alabama who builds furniture on the side. Pretty much everything he uses is found and repurposed. We're talking vintage license plates, pool noodles, six pack rings and traffic cones. Very cool. It's always amazing to me how the items we so often view as garbage or single purpose can be so visually appealing in a totally different application. Will currently has an etsy shop going and a website with some really interesting designs. Head on over and check 'em out. PS: This rubber hose chair is definitely my favorite and yes, that is a traffic cone lamp.










Source

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!

Some of the most basic DIY of all time!

My new apartment (of a few months) is situated in a 1920s building. It's been fully renovated but there were still a few space oddities that the renovators didn't really address. Case in point, this weird and random space in the kitchen. The windows are very low so they couldn't continue the counter to the wall. Result? Weird space that NO store bought piece would fit correctly.

Since I wasn't going to waste the space (believe me, I need every centimeter I can get in here) I decided to do some of the most basic carpentry mankind has ever witnessed. I built a sideboard of sorts. Ok, it's really just a table. I figured I could create my recycling center and tool storage area underneath and sew (or not) a fabric skirt to go around it to hide the beauty that would be loads of aluminum cans, toilet paper rolls and a power drill. Ooo la la.

Once built, I primed, painted, and poly-ed the table top a crisp white. I kept the table low enough for my plants to attempt to get some sunlight. (Although in this picture they're livin' it up outside.)

And finally, after making the fabric skirt from a nice heavy weight grey material (which goes nicely with some of the color on the countertops), I had some decent looking and functional hidden storage and counter space for my cookbooks, plants, little sock monkey friend (Bilbo), and some fancy glassware. I still need to run the iron over the skirt but, other than that, I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my little project. Oh, it was also done for under $50. *Sigh.