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January 21, 2006
Studio Saturday: distractions
I'm taking the letterpress class this semester, and I'm pretty excited about it; it's been about fifteen years since I've printed on the letterpress, and the school I was at back then only had one of those little hand crank proofing presses, on which all the printing was done. Here's my first sample, in 18pt Garamond bold (which I guess I won't be using for anything, since it took ALL the lower case "e"s in the tray to set up these two lines):
In case y'all can't make out the immortal words of the bard backwards, here's the proof I pulled.
Yup. Ketchup loves potatoes.
Although I did a bit of hacking on panel #2 of the woodcut,
not a lot of progress was made this week, for a number of reasons. I'm taking two classes that have a brutal amount of reading, and didn't really budget my time for it very well, which I'll have to get better at. We had a visiting artist, Mark Hosford, at Green St. this week and we editioned a silk screen print with him. I didn't think to take any photos in the studio but next week I'll show you the print we made.
The other distraction is my new badge maker. I've been using it so much that I already know exactly which part of my hand my next repetitive stress injury will occur in. But, look!
This is some of my first batch, which I've been carrying around all week in a baggie so I can hand them out to people. They're all made from found paper: old maps, blueprints and other papers I dug out of garbage cans. Today I walked over to Potter's House and bought a bunch of old popular science books, and here's some of today's batch:
Most of these are from the books, some are from a woodcut print that one of my professors threw in the garbage, and I also tried some fabric (the pink jaguar print) and stretch lace. The only ones I printed are the forty-five record inserts, and they're printed on found paper too.
These will be available in my shop (soon! I promise!), as soon as I can get arsed to send Peter some good photos so he can finish up the style sheets for the shop pages.
Posted by jodi at January 21, 2006 08:10 PM | categories: in the studio
Comments
When you finally open your shop, will you have international shipping? I have been waiting with baited breath for the shop to open so I can find out. Please don't leave me in suspense to much longer. :)
Posted by: Erin at January 21, 2006 10:32 PM
Dang. You got me all verklempt here. My father was a typesetter at our local newspaper. When I was in the 5th grade, my cousin and I were allowed to walk all the way downtown to visit him and have lunch.
The last time I went he typed up a plate (or whatever you call them)with my full name on it. He died of cancer the following year. 1970. I still have that plate somewhere.
I realize that it's not exactly the same thing, but thanks for the happy thought.
Posted by: marcia at January 21, 2006 11:30 PM
Hi sweetie...love the buttons...but shouldn't you be knitting?? love m
Posted by: mom at January 22, 2006 01:30 PM
Awesome! I bought a similar button thing not that long ago, from these fine people
http://www.americanbuttonmachines.com
250 pieces are only about 19.00, for the 1" anyway. Love the Must have cardi!
Posted by: Julia at January 22, 2006 02:13 PM
I think I like the ones from the science book the best- What is it about buttons? So smooth, so shiny. Perfect for a backpack or pinned jauntily to a collar. good work!
Posted by: Meem at January 22, 2006 02:41 PM
THAT is some cool stuff. I love the button with the 45-rpm plastic insert.
Posted by: NWJR at January 22, 2006 02:58 PM
Is it wrong that the letterpress has me totally turned on?
Posted by: Steph VW at January 23, 2006 05:23 PM
Your badges are wonderful! So unique, I'm sure they'll be a success in your shop! May I ask where you got your badge maker from? I can understand that you may not want to share you trade secrets, that's all right.
Cheers xx
Posted by: Annarella at January 24, 2006 08:41 AM
dood...I'll trade you some glampyre buttons for some of yours! (?)
Posted by: stefanie at January 25, 2006 12:01 AM