“Even now; with a thousand little voyages notched in my belt, I still feel a memorial chill on casting off.”
- E.B. White

A few weeks ago, there was a flurry of announcements that scientists had found the largest black holes in the universe yet. The beautiful thing about announcements of that magnitude is that they make us all quiet for a moment, as we are reminded of just how tiny we are.

I made this newest Post-Marked collection to celebrate the vastness of the world around us and the universe beyond. This is the last collection for 2011, but I’m excited to let you know that I’m going to keep making books in this series in 2012. For now, the plan is to make a new collection on a different theme each month, so stay tuned for what’s to come!

“Huge elephants! Huge jellyfish! Huge whale!”

That was Charlotte, as we made our way through the American Museum of Natural History about two months ago. There’s nothing quite like going to the museum with an active, curious toddler in tow. You see everything as if you’d never laid eyes on it before and it’s all magic, all over again.

We make it up to the natural history museum whenever we can, and the last time we went, about two months ago, she was on fire. We spotted jellyfish, seals, zebras, squirrels, owls, butterflies, fish, deer…just about every animal you can think of. Nevermind for the moment that every specimen at the museum is long dead; it will never cease to amaze me that in New York City, where you can feel so removed from any sort of wildlife, you can walk in and see all of these incredible organisms that inhabit(ed) our planet. It’s incredible.

Post-Marked #5: Animalia is now available exclusively in our shop through Monday, December 5, 2011…and Post-Marked #4: Remaining Wilderness is available through this coming Monday, November 28 – two at once, for the weekend!

And, suddenly…it’s November!

My mom has an incredible green thumb, and her dad, Grandfather Bud to me, studied forestry at Syracuse. Growing up identifying every plant that crossed our path (or was even close to our path), I’ve learned enough to identify most common plants, but I’m still no expert. More than anything, I have a serious appreciation for the astounding complexity of plant life.

Between printing, packaging, and sending out holiday card orders like mad, I also launched the third new collection of Post-Marked journals and albums on Tuesday. The stamps on these books celebrate everything botanical, and feature a gorgeous, bright selection of vintage U.S. and international stamps. My favorite would have to be the Moroccan olive branch…although the diamond Russian mountain flowers stamp is a close second!

There are a few of the Botanica books left in our shop and they’re available until November 14. On November 15 we’ll launch the fourth collection in the Post-Marked series and Botanica will be all gone!

Yesterday I launched the first collection in a very large batch of new work; a series of approximately 125 (very) limited edition photo albums and journals I’m calling Post-Marked. I’ve been making these books up for the last few months so they’d be ready to go this fall…and they are finally ready to show off. A new collection of books will be available every two weeks through December on our site. Collection #1 is full of vintage Air Mail stamps and it’s live in the shop now!

Process and materials

I developed a pretty solid stamp obsession earlier this year and wanted to find a great way to showcase each of these tiny gems. Each book in the Post-Marked series is covered in a cotton/linen blend cloth and a vintage postage stamp is inset into the cover. In addition to the Air Mail collection, there will be great US state stamps, natural history specimens, and world travel stamps coming in the next few months. Each collection is available exclusively on our site for 2 weeks, and then they’re gone! There’s a great selection coming and I hope you’ll check back often to see all the new books. I’m very proud of this work and I hope you enjoy it, too.

31 cent 1976 Red, White & Blue Air Mail Accordion Fold Photo Album (5″ x 7″)

Many of the stamps I’ve used on these books are from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s and I’m hoping to get into some of them in detail here, so stay tuned for a few more frequent updates very soon!

A few custom projects – one a birthday celebration book filled with letters to the client’s mother; another an illustrator’s portfolios and slipcases, and invitations for dear friends.

Informal botanical study three to four times a week at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Printing invitations at The Arm

I’ve been printing and designing invitations like a madwoman in between juggling one and sometimes two toddlers. Coming soon: studio space! Around the corner! Seriously!

Beach!

We just returned from a lovely wedding, followed by a luxuriously long week in Martha’s Vineyard. I had a chance to draw a bit and work on some hand lettering ideas that usually fall by the wayside (you’ll see them soon, I promise!).

My sweet dad, moving yet another press for me in Iowa! This one’s a Challenge MP-15 and I can’t wait to see it!

We have another wedding, and friends in town this weekend, then we’re spinning off to Iowa to celebrate my mom’s 60th (60!) birthday and see some of my recently acquired letterpress equipment in the flesh, as well as take some deep breaths under star-filled skies. We’ve been at a distant point on our orbit, and are looking forward to circling back in close to those people with whom it all started.

P.S. Matt’s been documenting our summer much better than I over here!
P.P.S. I’m sending out some fun letterpress snail mail when we get back from Iowa – email me your address if you’d like to receive a little mail!

The burst of warm weather earlier this week (50! In February!) was a desperately needed reminder that spring really will come again and that the feeling of warm air on your face is, indeed, the tonic and near cure-all it’s always been. Similarly satisfying as the feeling of warm air on your face after a long winter is the feeling of completing a substantial project that began as a tiny seed in your mind’s eye.

On that note, I’ve just finished a new collection of three invitation designs and am proud to finally show them off.

Entwined suite, Signature suite, Leaves suite / All photos by Christopher Walker, Gotham Pixel

Each design has a slightly different feel and each takes advantage of the tactile quality of letterpress printing, layering type, images, and color in delicate and elegant ways. There is loads of information about the designs, options, and ordering on our weddings page, and I am always delighted to talk about paper and printing at length, so please be in touch if you have questions.

And – of course – we’ve been up to lots of other things, too! I’ve been cranking out new books using vintage postage stamps and have lots more to come, and we’ve been reading The Metropolitan Museum of Art ABCs, Numbers, Shapes, and Colors till we’re blue in the face, and I just finished reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life. If you need a little inspiration, it’s a great read, no matter what sort of work you do.

Spring is, indeed, on its way in the next month or two. In the meantime, I think I’ll keep my energy up by drawing, printing, building Charlotte’s vocabulary while we walk all over Brooklyn, poring over design & lettering inspiration, and soaking up just how good we’ve got it.

P.S. If you need a great wrapping-up-winter song, I highly recommend Josh Ritter’s “Snow Is Gone“. It’ll shake you right out of any funk you may be in.

Coptic stitch journal spines

In the middle of a regular rotation of reading Olivia, The Circus Ship, Knuffle Bunny, Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are, I’ve also made more books in the last week than I’ve possibly ever made in such a short period of time. Hello, holiday season!

P.S. You might like to sign up for our email list (no junk, I promise!) to stay up to date on new card designs, holiday fairs we’re doing, etc.

It’s absolutely redundant to say that I love the physical structure of books. If I didn’t love the structure, I wouldn’t be doing this work. That said, I have aspirations of creating books that beautifully and successfully blend text, imagery, and binding. That interest led me to The Fine Press Book Association and I became a member the moment I saw the letterpress printed cover of the Fall 2010 issue of their journal, Parenthesis.

My copy arrived Thursday and I’ve had it in my hands every moment I can since. There are wonderful reviews of fine press editions, as well as articles about process, technique, and about printers and binders and their background and inspiration. There is a wonderful review of Deep Wood Press’s incredible edition of Heart of Darkness and of Carolee Campbell’s edition of Nathaniel Tarn’s collection of poems, The Persephones (Ninja Press), featuring lushly textured leaves of domestic etch shaded with sumi ink layered with salt. Just the photos are breathtaking; I can only imagine the actual poems.

The moral of this little Saturday post: It’s important to keep feelers out for great inspiration all the time.

I’m kicking around all kinds of deep, insightful posts to get back in to the rhythm of blogging, but for now I just want to highlight some beautiful materials. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle over here, I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of paper and cloth combinations that came together recently on two custom albums for one of my favorite wedding photographers. I think the green & gold is going to become a standard offering, and probably the cranes, too. They’re so bold and elegant, aren’t they?!

Custom Diamond Stitch photo album with Gold & Green Damask covers and bronze silk bookcloth

I’ve been thinking about my literal and metaphorical toolboxes a lot lately and am figuring out some fun new ways to make the most of tools and skills I have and show them off. For now, this is just a peek at my primary literal toolbox; a dinosaur-patterned tin filled with scissors, needles, beeswax, thread, tiny clamps, scissors, a thin metal spatula, Japanese paste, utility knife, and awls. There’s nothing amazing here, but with these simple tools I can do almost all of my work and transform raw materials into polished finished books.

More using the metaphorical toolbox soon! In the meantime, I may have sent you to Marge Piercy’s “More Than Enough” once before, but revisiting it will only make us each a little more aware, a little more deliberate.