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!

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

Charlotte & a large custom photo guest book with Vintage Plum Blossoms covers

Sewing up another large photo guest book with custom chiyogami covers

Unbelievable spring blooms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

CCC working away in his shop

Have a wonderful weekend and make something that makes you & the people you love happy!

February! It’s prime time for wedding planning, so just a reminder that we have a great collection of designs to choose from.

All of our invite designs incorporate Japanese silkscreened papers – and you can even customize by choosing your own chiyogami pattern from the thousands out there. Samples are available here, and please be in touch if you have questions or are ready to get started on your invitations!

My dad is here this week and we’re (he’s) getting our apartment seriously organized and outfitted with much-needed shelving he’s built for us (although anyone can see he’s really made the trip to visit my 2 feet, 2 inches tall assistant!).

This year, I’m excited to get Dad’s book on the schedule and get it printed and bound. Of course, it’s going to take a while, and some pretty rock solid planning.

We have the entire book of stories laid out and we’ll do another pass over it together while Dad’s here. Once that’s all ok, we’ll work with Boxcar to have photopolymer plates made. Then we’ll figure out when I can get myself to The Arm for some marathon printing sessions on one of their large presses. Then, it’s on to the binding, so we’re also going to take a look at cover materials in the next few days and make sure we have those all squared away.

Fine press books are sort of a world unto themselves, and it’s a world in to which I’m excited to jump. Some of the beauties I’ve drooled at over the years include Harry Duncan‘s books (which have long held a place if prominence on my parents’ shelves – check out an older post on Harry).

I’ve also gotten excited by some of the beautiful work being done by Paper Dragon Books here in Brooklyn, Mia Leijonstedt in the UAE (who has a gorgeous new site), and Jana Pullman in Minneapolis.

We’re not taking a stab at anything so intricate as their designs this time around (and do try to take a peek at their sites, if you have a little extra time – it’s so worth it), but their level of work is inspiring and definitely something to which I aspire.

That, of course, is a key element of my work – and probably almost anyone’s: there is always so much more to learn. I have a long list of techniques, structures, and styles that I hope to get to some day. For now, it’s just nice to know I’ll never be bored again.

Back to work!

This journal is a casebound (covered spine), traditional sewn journal with 86 pages of heavyweight printmaking paper. The covers are blue burst chiyogami (Japanese silkscreened paper) and chocolate brown bookcloth.

Here are a few process shots of putting together a landscape-oriented custom photo album:

The first steps are gluing up the covers, and tearing down the pages to size. Then, I pre-punch all of the sewing stations along the spine and in each signature (section of pages). Once the punching is done, sewing can start.

With a triple chain stitch structure, each section of pages is sewn in separately; down the center column first, then up one side and up the other.

The finished album! The measurements are 11″ wide x 9″ high and the album is bound with an exposed triple chain stitch, using lavender waxed Irish linen thread.

I may have drawn your attention to this one in the past, but Robert Hershon’s “Superbly Situated” is worth re-reading.

Just a quick peek at yesterday’s work table, with the sliver of sunlight that comes through the front window for all-too-short a time in January. I’m working on custom books and Valentines this week, and getting ready to add a few new things to the shop in the next few weeks.

Even though it’s not really noticeable yet, the days are getting longer!

The January-appropriate “Twenty Below” by the consummate Iowan poet, Paul Engle.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in personalized letterpress stationery (check back in January for more on that!), custom albums, calendars, and cards for the last few weeks. In the meantime, Charlotte’s been helping out with the workload (by napping!) and I’m just shocked that I’ve gotten as much done as I have.

This time of year is one of my favorites, without a doubt. My grandmother and my mom have always made Christmas feel like the most special, joyous time. We’re not a religious family, but we do love the tradition of all gathering in one place to have fun and celebrate all the love in our family. And, yes, I know that sounds hokey.

Here’s the thing: this year feels even more momentous. We get to introduce Charlotte to Christmas as a Campbell/Steele/Raw and now I’m on my way to joining my grandmother’s and mom’s ranks…and I’ve got some gorgeous, elegant, narrow, hardworking shoes to fill.

We have a few years ahead of us where boxes and wrapping paper will be far more engaging than any toys, but it all starts now and I can’t wait to make it great. This little girl has already brought more joy to our lives than I ever imagined (and there come the tears) and she deserves nothing less than all the happiness and love we can surround her with.

And now, I’m off to finish up a few more packages and get ready for a very busy couple of days. We are leaving for Iowa on Tuesday evening and should be back in Brooklyn by the 30th or so. Happy new year to all of you and thanks for your support of our work throughout the year – it means the world. See you in 2010!

(Blue Plum Blossoms, Multicolored Blossoms and Rose Garden)

(Dark Green Floral, Blue & Gold Vines, Pink & Red Cherry Blossoms)

This week and next promise to be filled with lots of card printing. We’re out of Orion Happy New Year cards at the moment but I am printing more tomorrow and will restock the store and Etsy!

Just in case you forgot about this one, “The Star-Splitter” by Robert Frost is a beauty. (“The best thing that we’re put here for’s to see…”)

The last few weeks and the next few weeks are jam packed not only with holiday card printing and shipping, but with putting together an awful lot of custom photo albums and guestbooks.

A custom, personalized Coptic stitch guestbook with a letterpress printed cover page and a gorgeous red/black/white/gold crane chiyogami cover

One of my favorite things about putting together custom albums is going through the process of choosing and suggesting papers. We often use chiyogami papers for the covers, since the albums are for weddings or special occasions and the chiyogami patterns and textures are unbelievably elegant.

New chiyogami papers for a batch of custom Coptic stitch photo albums

For this batch of custom albums, there are a few papers that I use regularly (the dark green floral, the multicolored blossoms), and a couple of new, custom-ordered patterns. I love the blue plum blossom pattern, especially – I think that would be gorgeous for any sort of winter event and could be really lovely as a custom paper band for one of our new invite sets, as well. Maybe with chocolate brown and pale blue inks to match?

There are a lot of little details this time of year, and I find myself making to-do list after to-do list in order to stay on top of custom orders and my own deadlines for printing and announcing new work. I’m feeling invigoratingly challenged by the need to integrate a newborn into a working schedule and am feeling especially excited about the coming year. I’ve found that the weekends are one of the best opportunities to get work done…probably the same way my mom discovered that 4:30 a.m. was a great time to get work done when you have 3 small kids!

So many projects are in the works and I have more ideas than I have time for…and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The real hurdle these days is just doing what we can in the limited space we have. We’ll be ready to bite the bullet on expanding in the not so distant future but, for now, we’re making it work! I feel incredibly lucky to have put myself in a working position where I can not only do the work I love, but have control over my own schedule and be able to spend my days with Charlotte. Don’t worry, I don’t take it for granted for a second!