Happy Holidays

OK, so clearly I've been neglecting the blog...but it's not like I haven't been crafting at all. So let's get to business. :)

So I've been experimenting with my gocco, which I totally love and have been trying to stock up on supplies. Word is that no more presses will be sent to the US and the supply market may be drying up by the end of the year. Luckily, I have about 150 screens and bulbs to get me through my various projects. Here's my latest...of course they were printed like a month ago and I haven't sent them out yet. Isn't that just the way with holiday cards? But they turned out well, I think. Drawn with the carbon Riso pen, I thought this not only captured the holiday spirit, but I tried to incorporate my own little science-y take on things.


So this next one is probably my favorite card that I've made in a long time. I was doodling during another boring science talk (I tend to go to a lot of these) and happened to sketch a picture of Washington State. Which then had to have a happy face, 'cause that's just how things go. And "voila!" The Happy Washington card was born. What's great about gocco, is that you can print multiple colors at once, so this was done with only one screen and 3 different inks. I haven't tried to register anything yet (registering is when you use multiple screens and have to match them up). In any case, I was more than pleased with how this turned out...also drawn with Riso pen and printed on notecards from Target.


Ooooh, yay! So for my birthday. In celebration of my 30th (!) birthday, I had a prom-themed dance party. In the age of the evite, I think people really appreciated getting a real invitation in their mailboxes. We dressed up and danced to 80s and 90's music and it was awesome.


OK, so a change of subject, but still fun! I've been experimenting with making pop-ups. :) 'Cause, you know, I have to try anything that has to do with paper. This one turned out particularly well...people at work were brainstorming about a tuberculosis pop-up book...we'll see. I'd love to do that instead of my dissertation, but somehow I doubt that my committee will go for that.


Back to basics...books! These last few picture are of books that were custom made for my Auntie Grace to give to her friends. They measure 9 x 11 with 20 pages of cardstock. Instead of using solid colors on the inside, I used fancy, printed paper on the inside. I'm partial to using non-patterned paper on the inside, especially if the paper on the outside is very ordered.

Smorgasboard

Today's post is going to encompass a myriad of things, so try and keep up! :)


First up, one of my newer books. It's a 6.5" x 8" little number that's covered in paper that's rich in color (the print may look familiar as I used a much lighter blue "wave" paper for a different project). I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but the waves are outlined in gold. (I mean, I don't think it's like valuable or anything, so I wouldn't try and take it out of the paper, but it is very pretty nonetheless.) The closer view is of the binding, which is coptic and I'm becoming very fond of the 3 x 3 configuration with the knots.





Ooooh, so I'm so excited to announce the major announcement of this post: my dad's photos are hanging up at the Madison Park Bakery (www.madisonparkbakery.com), which is owned by my Auntie Karen and my Uncle Terry. It looks pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself! We bought the frames from www.americanframe.com and they ship the frames to you disassembled and then you reassemble them (or I guess assemble them, since they weren't assembled in the first place). I really like to do that kind of stuff and so my dad sent his photos and their frames to me and I put them together over a couple of nights (note: when matting a picture, it's good to look at the size of each side and put the bottom --the thicker part of the mat--at the bottom, you know, instead of at the top). But if anyone needs help putting the frames/mats together, let me know. The nice thing about American Frame is that if you buy a frame, they'll cut a mat for free, which is pretty awesome. Then you don't have to do all the measuring yourself. I have a mat cutter at home, so I'm practicing, but for large works, it's just easier to get the frame people to do it.



So the bakery is at 4214 East Madison Street in Seattle and is super cute (especially now) and has super yummy treats in it--the donuts are exceptional (whatever Top Pot). You should also take a look at the website (www.madisonparkbakery.com) because not only did I draw the little pastry characters, but my brother designed and put up the website. So it's pretty awesome. And it was all done in like the draw program or something like that, which is even more crazy.




So 8 different photos are displayed and it takes up the whole wall that I couldn't get it all in the picture. There's one of a ladybug on a cactus, stars on a dirt road, crabs at the market, multicolored trunks, two that highlight the space needle and one panoramic cityscape of Seattle. It was super fun to put them all up on the wall and know that people were going to experience the joy of seeing my dad's photos. If you want to see more, there's a link on the left of my blog. In these pictures, it's difficult to see the images, but I'll do something about that when I get home...

And the last bit of news is that I'm going to be hanging out with my new "nephew" (he's the son of my best friend Renee from high school!) in San Antonio. His name is Eli and here's a picture of me and him when Renee, Maria (Eli's abuelita) and Eli came to visit Seattle a couple of weeks ago. So I've heard he's grown quite a bit, but I'm excited to see for myself.

Fall is upon us

So I'm not exactly sure where summer went, but here in Seattle, it is decidedly autumn. From a light drizzle to sheets of rain, we've seen the whole spectrum over the last week. In addition, the blustery wind whips my hair around like I've taken a ride in a convertible with the top down. :)

In any case, here are a few of my new books that were made with fall colors.

The first is a book I made for my Auntie Cheryl for her birthday. I thought of all the paper that I had the large flowers on the green background was the most fitting for this particular relative. She is both vibrant, yet feminine which is reflected in this particular book. It is a cover bound book with green mohair book cloth from Talas (like all of my lovely book cloth) and the inside pages are a bright white 20lb text. I can't remember how many pages it was...:\ But I am pretty sure that the end pages were a bright yellow, also an aspect of my Auntie Cheryl.

So, like many of my purchases (much to the chagrin of my mother), this particular paper with goldfish on it was bought on a whim. And though I really like this paper that I got from fancy paper store de Medici Ming, I brought it home and saw that it was made by the conglomerate Paper Source. But how can you say no to bright goldfish? So I am resigned to really enjoy this paper (even if it is mass produced). This one was really to make for fun. I used a french knot for the binding in red, which I thought went particularly well with the gold--kind of Chinese color pair, I guess. It has 80 lb text on the inside and has red endpages. I'm currently thinking I might use this goldfish paper as endpages for a book with waves on the outside. :)


This last one is clearly fall-inspired, although I actually made it in very late August, as it dons a cover of gold and orange leaves that look like they may crunch if you hold the book too tight. This one was made to take with me to Bumbershoot, the annual music and arts festival in Seattle during Labor Day weekend. This books is 6 x 6 and filled with sketchbook pages because I knew that I'd be trying to draw a bit here and there while at the festival. It was bound using coptic binding, which I think is particularly fetching in this 3 x 3 configuration.

FYI, Bumbershoot is known for the music that's played there (this year Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, and Death Cab for Cutie headlined each of the days), but over the years I've been more and more impressed with the variety and quality of the other arts that are presented. This year I saw a panel of comic book artists (Adrian Tomine and the guy who did Ghost World), another panel of writers (Joshua Ferris who wrote How We Came to the End, and Chip Kidd--a renown graphic artist who specializes in book jackets--Jurassic Park or David Sedaris' Naked), a moving show of photographs (which is supposed to mean a show of photographs that was moving emotionally, not like moving pictures which I think are classified as movies), a poster show showcasing artists from Seattle and Tehran (the first of it's kind--last year it was Seattle and Havana), and of course Flatstock--one of the semi-annual conferences for poster artists (the other's at SXSW). Flatstock is one of my favorite happenings all year. For the last 4 years I've brought $100 in cash (to limit my purchases, otherwise I might go a little crazy) and taken home 4ish posters that really caught my fancy. When I get the chance, I'll take the posters out and photograph them so you can see too. They're pretty awesome. My two favorite poster artists in particular are Jay Ryan of Bird Machine (www.thebirdmachine.com) and Jason Munn of the Small Stakes (www.thesmallstakes.com). I've been following them for about 4 years and they are fantastic in their own right. The each have their very distinctive styles and I encourage you to look at their work--totally worth another minute of your day.

Shout Out

I posted on some other people's crafty work previously and I thought I would do it again. Pictured below is a lovely dishtowel embroidered by none other than the talented and super smart--an adjective that both describes her wit and intelligence-- Michelle P. Baca. One one side of the dishtowel are the Friday tomatoes and the other hosts the cheery Saturday cherries. She sent this lovely piece of cloth (which, if you ask me, is too pretty to really use as a proper dish towel) along with a hardcopy of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I have not yet read this novel, but not for lack of wanting. It sits on my shelf and I look at it with the anticipation of knowing you're going to read something wonderful (or I suppose "wondrous" might be a better adjective. I am excited because it not only comes as a recommendation from Michelle (who likes books like she likes her men: intelligent and witty--not necessarily in that order) but was also last year's Pulitzer Prize winner. For those of you interested, the book has recently been released in paperback. Unfortunately for you, it will decidedly not come with a lovely embroidered dishtowel with tomatoes and cherries as mine did.

I know I'm totally lame

It's been forever since I've posted here...and I'm only going to do a short one at that. I have a few pictures saved up so I'll post them soon. Right now I'm just going to post the new albums that I sent to my grandparents in Hawaii. I filled the two albums with 5 x 7 pictures that were taken by my dad and my uncle (see links to the left). The albums are 6 x 8, so easily fit a 5 x 7 or 4 x 6 photo. I had to use double sided stickies to put the photos in the books, but I bought black photo corners so that people can rearrange the pictures as they please. The album covered in waves held the more "artsy" pictures, while the flower album held pictures of the family. I think they turned out rather well, myself. I used 80 lb cover for the pages, and there were a total of 20 pages. Turns out that it's difficult to put pictures on each side of the page--otherwise the book gets too thick. I think I might have to start putting dividers in so that the book can hold more pictures. In any case, I think they're pretty, which is basically the point. I'll post again soon.

New Stuff

It's been a long while, but I have been working on a couple of things lately. One of my new fun things is my gocco printer. I've recently been meeting new people who have been giving me advice about what I should do when I graduate from UW, and I didn't have any thank-you cards around and thought this would be a good project. I bought like 200 colored note-cards from Target and went to work.

Here's my production process--in true Jenn-fashion, it's a little less than orderly and like all of my projects occurs on my dining table. :)


Here's what they look like up close--and I got a corner cutter, so that they're rounded, which I think is a nice touch. I printed with brown ink on the letters and the stars are gold (how cute is that?!). Ooh, AND I even got cellophane envelopes to put them in so that they look pretty professional, if I ever end up actually selling these things.

So I actually haven't been making books lately, but suddenly this weekend I got my stuff out again and made THREE books this weekend. And they're all blue--I'm not really sure what that says about my mood (probably nothing) and here they are...

The first one is for my Dad. I told him that I'd make him a book for Father's Day--so more than a month later, it's finally made. I think it turned out really nicely. It has a navy cloth cover, light blue wave end pages (de Medici Ming), and 18 white pages (80 lb cover, French Paper Company). Oh, do you like the Kleenex pack? So I realized in my last photos you can't really get an idea of size--so here's my attempt at "as compared to what?" This book is 9.5" wide and 11" tall.


Here's another pretty one. I'm really getting into making books with a plain cover, but with more extravagent/fancy end pages so that when you open the book, it's like a surprise. This one, again, has a navy cover, endpages from de Medici Ming, and is filled with 48- 80 lb text Violet Mod-Tone from the French Paper Company. You can't really see it in the picture, but the pages are a very light blue, printed with white starbursts. It's 6.25" wide and 8" tall.


This last one is going to be sent to my Mom (probably when I send the big one to my Dad). My mom asked if I could make her one that could fit a 5" x 7" picture, so this one's 6" x 8" landscape, filled with 18 pages (80 lb cover, very slightly blue, French Paper Company), end pages are yellow and the cover paper I think is Mulberry and was bought at the UW bookstore.

In totally unrelated news, here's a shout out to my friend Renee (my best friend from High School--she knows all my secrets) and her new little family. Pictured below is Miguel (her husband), Renee, and their newest addition, Elias Antonio. Isn't he darling?! He's a big boy at 9lbs and almost 10 oz, over 21" long. Congratulations!

It's not really all about me...

So while I have made one new book lately, I haven't taken pictures yet and I'm actually thinking of making a series of really fun books, so I'll probably wait until that is mostly done until I post again.

But in other news, my dad, who in the last few years has really developed his talent as a photographer, entered his photos in the Del Mar Fair in San Diego. Not only did 6 of 10 pictures get accepted (his first submissions into any kind of contest), 4 got honorable mentions and one of his pictures got 1st place in one of the categories (digital panoramic, I think it was). The blue ribbon entry is pictured below. Great job, Dad!



In other news, my mother, who's creativity often takes the written versus visual form, published a book--Multicultural Education: A Caring-Centered, Reflective Approach. Link is on your left. It's got great information not only for teachers and parents, but also for anyone who believes in fostering a thinking community of caring people.