A detail of our new 2013 calendar. This detail is of calendar No. 10/60.

From the beginning

In school, I only ever studied art because I loved it. Photography, printmaking, ceramics, bookbinding, and drawing were electives; things I loved to do, not things I was required to learn. High school was your standard blur of self-doubt and academic ambition, and when I was at Grinnell I tried to take myself seriously in an academic way and majored in History and English–two things I use indirectly every single day of my life.

But the moments of greatest clarity and comfort were the times I found myself in various studios and darkrooms, usually by myself, over-dedicated to making images and objects of varying quality. The smell of ink in a printmaking studio, the feel of paper under my hand as I tore pages for books, and the moment in the darkroom when the image begins to appear in the developer tray–those turned out to be the markers on the road heading toward where I am now.

Anna Atkins cyanotype of sea algae

Images & artifacts

In October of 1843, the British botanist Anna Atkins published Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, considered to be the first book ever illustrated with photographic images. The algae specimens recorded in Atkins’s book are splendid, sprawling cyanotype samples in the white-on-brilliant-blue characteristic of that process.

Cyanotype is an early photographic technique made by coating paper with an ultraviolet-sensitive iron salt solution. When exposed to the sun, whatever covers the paper leaves a filled white outline, and the remaining negative space turns a brilliant, deep, oceanic blue.

I pored over my mom’s copy of Ocean Flowers, a catalog for an exhibit that ran at the Drawing Center in 2004. The exhibit featured 19th century botanical illustrations in a variety of media at the meeting point between drawing and photography, with Atkins’s cyanotypes as the centerpiece. I was sucked into their deep blue and I was hooked. The images were captivating, and the text as compelling; a discussion of natural history preservation techniques and approach. To me, the most fascinating idea was the following thought:

“Conserved specimens do not tell the whole story about living nature.”

In short: We can’t tell the whole story of anything from a preserved specimen because the specimen is removed from its natural, living habitat. The remnant we study is a cold sample; the structure is there, but none of the life. The hard truth hits: we can’t take the living past with us, just the tangible artifacts of it.

New techniques & new directions

As a 7 or 8 year-old, I remember making my own cyanotypes (sun prints) with paper from a kit we probably got at the Science Station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We would lay rocks and flowers on the papers, set them out in the sun, and rinse them in water to develop the image. With this new, grown-up look at Atkins’s sun prints in a historical context, I wondered whether the technique I first knew as a child might be something I could use in my own work. Would this style of imagery be just the thing to pair with the ideas that filled my head? An idea germinated.

Early evening over the Mississippi

Every year, I think about making a calendar for the coming year. It’s not that I feel some urgent need to mark specific days and times, but I want to acknowledge the beauty and significance of each moment of our brief lives. That’s heavy, I know, but honest.

This summer, Matt’s mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. If you want something to put a fine point on the fragility of life, that’s a pretty good way to go about it. Memories, joys, regrets, curiosity, frustration, sadness, love, family, worry, confusion, uncertainty, and urgency replaced any and all thoughts otherwise and we were instantly headed down a brand new patch of road we never saw coming.

We’ve already made several visits back to Iowa in the months since and have our next visit on the books for Christmas. We don’t really know what to do, or if there’s much we can do, but we are navigating this road as best we can, learning how we can be helpful, and focusing on what’s most important.

Pressed & dried Queen Anne’s Lace

When we visited this July, I gathered a bucketful of Queen Anne’s Lace from Matt’s mom’s backyard in rural Iowa, overlooking the Mississippi River. The view is nothing short of sweeping, and taking this bucketful of invasive weeds made no dent in the vast sea of lacy white that swathed every edge of the yard and bordering woods. I hauled the flowers back to my folks’ in Marion, and pressed several stems between glass.

“We live by no mind, that is only reason,
For there are in us strengths older than thought–
Memory of moon-earthed seeds, the treason
Of spring in our hearts, old family-named corn lands–
Eternal in us as ancestral-wrought
Curve of our thigh and the gripped shape of hands.”
- from “Earth in our Blood”, Paul Engle

Printing, printing, and more printing

We returned to Iowa in September, and I had a plan in hand. I ordered letterpress plates for a calendar I hand lettered, as well as paper, cyanotype chemicals, and the necessary tools in advance. We arrived in Marion and I began to coat the large sheets of letterpress paper with the iron salt solution. I coated 150 or 175 14″ x 26″ sheets with the yellow liquid, dragging a glass dowel across the paper lengthwise, then crosswise to spread the solution as evenly as possible. I wasn’t aiming for smooth precision, just a coating that would allow me to create a number of varied images.

Coating paper with iron salt solution

Exposing coated paper in the sun with Queen Anne’s Lace compositions

Once the papers were coated and dried, I set up shop behind my mom & dad’s gallery (where they also live). I sandwiched 3 large pieces of heavy glass on top of the compositions I assembled as I went: stems of dried Queen Anne’s Lace on the iron salt-treated papers. Three at a time, I exposed the images to the Iowa sun for 5 to 15 minutes. What is that, about 12 1/2 hours, all together? When the time was up, I moved the sheets to a water bath to stop the exposure, and moved on to the next composition. Over the course of about 5 days, I ended up with 140 or so finished prints.

I stacked the prints and weighted them a bit to push out most of the moisture and, with many still-damp sheets in tow, my dad and Charlotte and I packed up the Subaru and headed to Dubuque to use a large letterpress (a Vandercook 219, to be precise) at Slow Print, the letterpress home of Peter Fraterdeus in Dubuque’s buzzing millwork district.

Developing cyanotypes outside in a water bath

Tearing edges

At Peter’s shop, I set up the press with the photopolymer plates for the calendar I drew back in Brooklyn. After a few runs with inks that–though gorgeous–were totally illegible on the cyan background, I mixed a dark gray that worked beautifully on top of the images that I’d exposed for less time to the sun and were a paler blue. I ran each sheet through the press, checking the impression, registration, and the look as I went.

Of course, I didn’t stop at the plain cyanotype; that would be too easy. I’ve also hand torn the margins of all the images to leave a softly deckled edge, and bound each into an accordion fold book with linen covers that is punched for easy wall hanging display. All said and done, I ended up with a host of beautiful images, including 60 final calendar prints that are now available for sale.

Gluing up Books of Days covers

Limited edition Books of Days / this is No. 1/60

As for the remaining beautiful-but-didn’t-make-the-cut cyanotypes? I’ve used them as the gorgeous decorative papers they are and created a limited edition series of Books of Days perpetual calendars. I made a limited edition of 60 of these beautiful volumes. The 2013 calendars and the Books of Days are available on our site in batches of 10, beginning today.

Bringing it all together & giving back

That’s not the end of the story, of course. We like to give back a little with everything we do, and this year’s calendars and Books of Days are no exception. $15 from the sale of every calendar and $5 from the sale of every Book of Days will be donated to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, an organization that works to find a cure, as well as stop the disease before it even strikes, with early prediction and prevention.

2013 Calendar No. 1/60

2013 Calendar No. 3/60

2013 Calendar No. 4/60

2013 Calendar No. 6/60

2013 Calendar No. 10/60

Every one of this year’s calendars and Books of Days are a labor of love; a project I envisioned many months ago and am proud to have completed as I saw it in my mind’s eye. I’m even prouder that this project enables us to give a little something back to a cause much bigger than ourselves. 2012 has been a tough but rewarding year and we find ourselves on a great side of things as we head into everything 2013 has to offer.

It’s one thing to be busy and go on and on about it (see: almost all previous posts). It’s quite another thing to actually show off what it is that has kept me so busy. There are a number of custom wedding albums, binding of family letters, wedding invitations, etc. in the works around here, but I thought, rather than tackle the whole stack at once, I’d bring them to you one at a time since they’re all pretty involved and elegant.

Elizabeth Carey Smith, she of The Letter Office, is a dynamite designer who came to me for a custom wedding album for some good friends of hers. We met up on one of the sweatiest days of last summer in Bryant Park, and bonded over design, materials, and our adorable, similarly happy and vibrant little girls. E dropped off the photos for the album mid-holiday season, and last week we got together for the hand off of the finished album. (It doesn’t generally take me for-e-ver to make a book, but this was a casualty of one seriously crazy holiday season…so here we are, mid-March.)

Hard workin’ hands, custom album & slipcase, interior

Elizabeth wanted something clean and elegant, but fun and with some bright colors that played a role in the wedding. I set to work making a casebound (traditional hardcover) album covered with a linen/cotton blend cloth. The cloth is that brilliant combination of stylish and durable, and a letterpress printed panel with the couple’s name and wedding date is inset into the front cover. Elizabeth designed the emblem, which also appears on the first page of the album. Inside the front covers, we used bright-as-bright-can-be fuchsia endpapers; a Nepalese Lokta that is fibrous and thick and just lovely. On the slipcase, covered in the same linen/cotton, we chose a wide, leaf-green grosgrain ribbon to complement the pink interior. The whole thing is understated and bold, celebratory, and timeless.

Letterpress cover panel, Endpaper & slipcase ribbon, Cover page, Slipcase, Album & slipcase

This album was such fun to put together, and it’s always a total treat when you meet–and get to work with!–a kindred spirit on a project. And! This album is just one little piece of what I’ve been up to…with plenty more to come! In the meantime, go check out the rest of Elizabeth‘s work. She’s a powerhouse.

P.S. Chandra Greer interviewed me for Felt & Wire’s blog in February, and I talked a little bit about just why I love making books like this album.

P.P.S. Are you interested in a custom album of your very own? Please send me a note and we’ll make it happen!

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

As if you needed any more incentive to purchase beautiful handmade paper goods, I’ve decided to include a free Coptic stitch journal with any order over $100 in our Felt & Wire shop through the end of July! And, we’re still offering free shipping on orders over $100 through our own shop, too!

It’s up to you – free shipping or a free journal – either way, it makes July a good time to pick up wedding gifts, guest books, travel journals, or begin your stockpile of Christmas gifts.

We’re working on some fun, major changes to this blog in the near future, so stay tuned for updates!

I’ve had the Anagram Press website in my bookmarks for years and have drooled over Chandler O’Leary’s imaginative, detailed letterpress and book work at length.

Chandler has just added a beautiful new piece to her great “Dead Feminists” series that she creates with Springtide Press. This new “Drill, Baby, Drill” piece is gorgeous, and a portion of the proceeds from its sale will go to Oceana, an organization helping the gulf oil spill.

The text in these pieces is so thoughtfully chosen and the imagery is beautiful. I’d invite you to look through the portfolio of work on her site and enjoy her illustrations and the intelligence that comes through in each piece.

The Harriet Tubman piece? Tugboat Thea? They’re gorgeous, fun, and poignant and appeal to all of my history-lovin’, fascinated-with-feminism, crazy-for-a-good-marriage-of-text-and-imagery tendencies!

Enjoy looking through Chandler’s work. It’s incredibly important to look at other people’s work as you do your own and I find Chandler’s downright inspiring.

I’ll be back with some new things next week, including perfect bound journals and a peek at some new printing projects, as well!

Overflowing storage, oh my! + a little one who needs room to move + the soon-to-be play corner (you can see the floor now!)

We’d give her her own room if we had one but right now that would pretty much have to be the kitchen and, last I checked, we need that one.

So, in the interest of giving Charlotte a little space of her own to play and grow, we’re clearing some things out! I’ve just put up several albums and a few travel journals in our shop and they’re all on sale (50% off, to be exact!) – have at it!

Parasol Coptic Stitch Album, White Scrolls & Apple Green Diamond Stitch Album, Purple Chrysanthemum Diamond Stitch Album

And, if you’re at all overwhelmed by the early summer heat like we are, I might suggest reading Mary Oliver’s poignant and cooling seaside observations in “Breakage“.

We spent last weekend visiting family in Iowa, and flew back late Monday afternoon…and turned right around to go to the National Stationery Show at The Javits Center in Manhattan Tuesday morning.

We’re kicking around exhibiting at the show next year and wanted to walk the aisles to see what it’s all about. It was invigorating to see all the other great work being done out there by people an awful lot like us and we so enjoyed scoping things out.

We had a great time, met tons of people and saw great work, including:
• BirdDog Press Allison Bozeman uses her grandmother’s feed sacks as inspiration for her lovely patterns and achieves beautiful geometric yet delicate results!
• Rifle Paper Co. Anna and Nathan Bond sell an unmistakable look. Anna’s illustrations and lettering are nostalgic, stylish, playful, and hip. Think Babar + Maira Kalman + 1956.
• Fugu Fugu Press Ken & Shino’s cards feature their own simple yet bold, smart illustrations. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity, though, they’re often printing multiple colors on each card and getting great overlapping effects!
• Rag & Bone Jason Thompson & Ilira Steinman’s company produces beautifully made books and it was a treat to meet this couple in person. I continue to be inspired by the business they’ve built and the quality of their work.
• Sapling Press Lisa Krowinski’s cards are minimal and brilliantly funny and she was showing a fabulous assortment of clean, smart, text-only designs. Plus, Lisa’s a total joy – what’s not to love?!

There was gobs more great work – check these folks out when you have a chance: Pistachio Press, Albertine Press, Flywheel Press, May Day Studio (Kelly makes fantastic books with her own papers, too!), Fine Day Press, Linda & Harriett, Red Oak Press and lots more that I’m sure I’ll remember as soon as I click “publish” on this post!

I talked with my mom after walking through the show and she was curious to know what we got out of it. It turns out that, as with all the shows she’s done and been to, we walked away with something very similar: a great sense of the current climate of fine, handmade paper goods and where our own work fits in to that spectrum.

I’m proud to say I’m part of an informal community of all of these hard workers and to also say that our work fits right in while remaining totally distinctive from anything else out there.

From Joel Lipman’s “Origins of Poetry”

P.S. There’s also great coverage of the show and heaps of great photos over on Oh So Beautiful Paper!