Learn, Think, Write

Organizing myself online

Creating Custom- But No Weddings!

When I first started letterpress printing, I wasn’t sure which direction I would go. I love working in wood, metal, and polymer. But I knew one thing I didn’t want to do– weddings!! So I assumed I wouldn’t want to do custom work of any kind.fruit

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find I LOVE doing prints and cards for people. I’ve had many people ask for specific quotes or themes, and it’s been great fun to work them out.

Here are two about to head out the door! Fruits and veggies for our local organic grocery story, Kickshaws, and a quote card for a fellow artist.

Who knew I’d have so much fun?

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What I Love About Printing

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I’ve been thinking about what it is I love about letterpress printing. If I’m not printing posters or cards or cleaning/buying type, I am reading about it.

For me, it’s the act of creation. And as much as I love playing around with Illustrator design on my computer, that isn’t where I want to spend my time. I love pulling a print off the press and seeing the ink against a white background tell its story. My walls are covered in words that matter to me.

So when I can’t do the work– like now while I am helping my husband recover from his surgery– I am planning the work.

David is coming along well, and it looks like I’ll be back in the shop in a few days. Can you see me doing my happy dance?

The Itinerant Printer

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Fredericksburg can be a lonely city when it comes to letterpress printing.

This is one reason I am so excited that Chris Fritton, The Itinerant Printer, is coming to visit for a few days.
We’ll get to talk about printing, his travels, and have a chance to see his work. I plan on learning all I can from him. And we’re having a Meet and Greet so you can learn, too.
Here’s more from his website:

The Itinerant Printer will visit letterpress printshops across America throughout 2015 & 2016, producing unique prints at each venue culled from their idiosyncratic collections of wood type, metal type, cuts, ornaments, and polymer plates. These prints will be mailed back to followers and supporters of the project as postcards (and care packages) from the road.

The project intends to capture the spirit of the analog revival, send real samples of it into people’s mailboxes, and convey the ethos of the handmade to a broader audience via social media, and as a culmination, result in a coffee table book that features photos all of the prints, printshops, and people from the adventure.

It is also about reviving that sense of adventure in printing, along with the analog sharing of information. It’s about going out into the world, seeking work based on your skill set, making something with your hands, and delivering that object to someone. It’s about an exchange of ideas, of techniques, of information, of style, and of the consummation of all those things: prints.

Chris Fritton is The Itinerant Printer – check out his full bio here.

For more on the history of Tramp Printers, check out the info here, or just peruse this poem by Robert W. Service:

A Race of Men

There’s a race of men, that don’t fit in
A race that can’t sit still.
So they break the hearts of kith and kin
And roam the world at will.
They range the field and rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far –
They are strong, and brave and true;
But they’re always tired of things that are
And they want the strange and new.
They say, ‘Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make.’
So they keep on going and each new move
Is only a fresh mistake.

– Robert W. Service

 I know. You can’t wait to meet him, right? Stop by Water Street Studio on Feb 26 between 5-8. We’ll be printing, talking, and we’ll have refreshments, too.

“Printing…is the preservative of all arts.” Isaiah Thomas

 

And, lately…

I’ve been making gift tags, Valentine cards, and even a card for my husband (engineer that he is). Yes, he weighed the pros and cons before we got married. I laughed when he told me.

I’m not big on Valentine’s Day for some reason. But it’s been fun creating some happy prints. Most of mine tend to be darker or at least something that makes me think.

Let there be love……

Connections

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Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What? You, too? I thought I was the only one.”
C.S. Lewis

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I’ve had several of these moments lately, and each time I feel myself sighing in gratitude. Opening up to friends takes some courage, but when we realize we are all doing the best we can, life somehow seems a little easier.