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.

JP and friends

Hi all (apparently this has somehow reached people I'm not blood related to--welcome! Welcome also to those with whom I do share blood ties...I love you too!)

So the first couple of pictures are actually not my own products, but those of friends whose work I am honored to receive.

The first two pictures are the work of Katie (whose last name I do not know). She's the girl who traded me books for hats (or actually I think it's hats for books), so those are the ones I received in the craft trade. Very exciting. I think both are so darling. The first kind of reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake (does anyone but me even remember how good those dolls smelled?). I bet it would look great with my new hair (I have really RED streaks these days--thanks to Ava!), but I'm thankful that for at least the last two days it's been warm enough to go without a hat. I'm really hoping that we're in for a warm streak here in Seattle. Isn't it summer?

This is the second. I think it's great, even though it does look a little funny on. However, I am fairly excited that it will cover my ears--and really when the weather calls for ear coverings, who really cares what you look like (obviously not me). The hat is a beautiful piece on it's own--while it has striking lines and symmetry, I like that the colors are soft and muted. (BTW, yes, that is my own toe on the right.)

This apron was a gift that I just got in the mail from my dear friend and labmate, Jenny. So the funny thing is that Jenny and I, not only have the same first name, but we also have rhyming last names. AND both of our brothers' names are Matt. How crazy is that? Although, they're Matt and Jenny and we're Jenni and Matt. But really, I think it was destiny that we cross paths at some point. I'm not really sure if there's significance to us meeting in a lab that studies tuberculosis; if there is, I think I'd rather not know.

In any case, Jenny made this for me, and isn't it beautiful?! I love the ruffle on the bottom! She thought that the neck strap thing might be too long, but in my opinion it's better to be too long than too short--especially when you have a head as big as mine! :) Actually it's just right!


OK, on to the newest books. I realize that all of these books kind of look like the same size because when I take the picture I try and fill the frame. I might have to use something to use as a size reference in the pictures. I'll think about it.

In any case, this is the first book in the Scrapbook Extravaganza. This one here is one made especially for my Auntie Grace who lives in NJ. I know anyone who leaves HI for NJ, is crazy in my book, but whatever. :) She specifically requested a Japanese print on the cover of her book. I chose this paper from de Medici Ming because it seems rare in Japanese prints that they use blue--especially the lighter periwinkle blue that is the base color here. And I liked that the flowers were a little bigger than some of the other Japanese printed paper that I've bought before. I thought it would go well with the navy silk binding and navy blue end papers (end papers are the papers that connect the inside cover to the rest of the pages--you know, the pages that can't be opened all the way flat. BTW, that used to drive me crazy, but now that I understand how books are made, it makes so much more sense now). In any case, this book, is 11" tall by 9" wide and has 24 80lb cover pages that are slate blue (a super pale blue) from the construction line at the French Paper Company. The book technically has 26 pages, but because the last and first pages aren't really that usable, I didn't count those and I put in an extra signature. Oh yeah, and each signature (the grouping of pages that get sewn together) was only one page each. Because this book and the next were intended to hold photographs, I intended to use spacers (see wave book below), but then I thought if I only sewed signatures of 1 page, it would probably leave enough space between the pages without the book getting huge. I'll have to hear back from my aunt and uncle about how it actually functions.

The last two pictures are of the book for my Uncle Kevin (who is married to my Auntie Grace who also left HI for NJ), so yeah...crazy.

So my Uncle Kevin, in addition to being a neuroscientist--yes, rats in mazes and all that crazy stuff--is a rather awesome photographer. (See his smugmug page at ) So after a recent trip to visit with my parents and a photoshooting bonanza with my dad, I started this dialog with him about the kind of books he might want. So far I think we have at least 22 emails that have been sent back and forth on the subject. Turns out I'm not only a science nerd, but also a crafty one. I had no idea I had so much to say about a craft that I started less than a year ago. In any case, this was the book that I made for him.

It's the same size as the previous book (11" tall, 9.5" wide), but as you can see it's completely covered in this green bookcloth. You might not be able to see it, but it's also kind of linty. I did not know this when I bought the material (really online pictures don't really do texture justice), although I should have guessed as the material is apparently part mohair. But in actuality, I think the book came out really nice--and because the book is entirely bound in bookcloth, it looks very clean. In fact I might even say that the linty texture of the book adds a nice dimension to the book. It has 16 useable pages (80lb cover, recycled white from construction line of FPC), and also no spacers (we'll see if this is a total debacle or not). But one of my favorite parts are the end pages. Also from de Medici Ming, it's just so unique-looking. I don't know how much time you spend looking at paper (I'm always looking, but you know...that's why this bookbinding thing works so well for me), but there's lots of paper that's printed or has patterns or is marbled and stuff, but few of them have this really organic look to them. I loved how it went well with the green and thought it was especially fitting for a book for my uncle as he often takes landscapes, and the paper looks a little bit like a really neat rock.

This last picture is one of my uncle's winning photographs. You should really check out his stuff. It's worth it, and let's face it, you were just going to check your email for the 20th time today anyway. :) In case the link above didn't work (it's hard to tell on these html blog things), you can cut and paste http?//kpang.smugmug.com into your browser.

A little insider information, if you're wondering where the book pictures in this entry were taken, it was on our ironing board with a piece of newsprint hung from the bookcase. I haven't figured out a way to take good photos yet. Like the title says, it's all a work in progress. :)

Gocco Loco!

So with the economic stimulus package, or whatever, and considering I'm going to get $600 instead of the $300 I thought I was going to get, I decided to get this neat Japanese "toy" called gocco.

Gocco, you say?

I could go through and talk a bit more about the whole process, but if you're curious google "gocco". There's a pretty cool gocco group at Flickr and there are several gocco artists out there. Basically it's a small silkscreening press that makes postcard size images. You can also print more than one color at a time (which is awesome!) and isn't messy.

So the following depict the process that took about 40 minutes from drawing to finishing ~40 images. I tried it twice since the first set didn't come out quite how I wanted.

My aunt and uncle own a local bakery and since I didn't have an image that I needed 50 copies of, I decided I'd make oversized business card things. I'm not sure they're really going to use them, but I thought it'd be a good first project.



This is the very first gocco print I made. The rest printed much better.


While the rest of the prints did turn out better than the first, the different colors are a little too close--I think it might work better printed on two screens--but for a first time not too bad.

So I tried a second image that was photocopied from computer text and drawing with a riso pen. These turned out much cleaner.


Things I learned from my first gocco adventure:
1. Don't put different colors too close together until you know what you're doing (which I don't).
2. Make sure that your photocopy is clean otherwise there's a bunch of smudgy stuff on the prints.
3. Make sure that you proof your original for the correct information--who needs the entire phone number on a business card? Totally overrated. ;)

In any case, it was really fun and pretty quick--much faster than traditional silkscreening. While the prints are small, they're fine for cards and other small projects. If I come up with a good short story, I can even use the gocco to print small pamphlet books. How fun!

A Myriad of Crafty Things

So the first couple of photos are new books (yay!) and the last couple are my first attempts at collage probably since grade school. Well, granted that's not entirely true, I just found an old portfolio where, at the beginning of grad school (before I became a puppet upon the fickle hand of science), I stuck a bunch of band stickers, a part of a comic strip and an ad from the Stranger. Maybe I'll take a picture of that soon. It actually looks OK. But I digress...

So the first book I made for my cousin Ari. She has just graduated from Loyola Marymount University and has a degree in something like "sound that you don't even know is going on during the movie." It (the book, not the degree) was made from paper that she picked out on our trip to Uwajimaya's, which is always fun (going to Waji's, but I suppose would also be appropriate to bookmaking). Waji's is especially fun since they have a ton of snacks-nori maki, manju, tomoame, and a whole variety of pickles. The paper inside(the book, not Waji's) is from the French Paper Company called Mod-Tone Taupe. You can't really see, but the pages are lightly printed with a tan, starburst kind of pattern. It's really very nice. It's a quarter page size and is one of the few books where I think the endpages are exactly straight with the end of the cover. The book is 60 pages.


Because of the upcoming scrapbook extravaganza, I decided I should try my hand at larger books. This one is made from Japanese paper from de Medici Ming and it measures 10.24" tall by 9.25" wide. This is my largest book yet. Inside, there are 54 sketchbook pages inside. The endpages are a lovely dark blue. It is thus far unspoken for. How rad is the red and green and gold paper? I think totally rad.

I hadn't really made any landscape-oriented books yet (except for the book I made for my dad over winter break, I think); this one is also filled with 80 pages of sketch book paper, and measures 6.25ish" tall x 9.25" wide. And it's bound using a french knot stitch. Also needing a home. The ones with sketchbook paper are not good for scrapbooking 'cause the pages are not acid free. Mostly I bought the paper 'cause it was pretty reasonable and I wanted a chance to make larger books than a quarter sheet.


Isn't this one pretty? Also unclaimed. Pretty soon I'm going to have to peddle my wares to some kind, indie-friendly shop. Quarter-page size, 48 pages of 80 lb text from the Mod Tone line in Blush (so very faint pink flowers adorn the pages of this book). The cover is entirely, well, covered, in a natural bookcloth, and then when you open the book it has all the pretty paper inside. The full coverage of the cover with bookcloth makes a very professional and neat looking book.

And now we come to the collage portion of today's post.

So I recently procured (and when I say procured, really I just mean "bought") a book called ARTIST to artist (I'm not really sure if the capitals are really supposed to stay intact, but that's how it is on the spine of the book). In any case, it's a book put out by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Yep, there's a museum for picture book art and one day I'm going to go there. Anyway, so the book is basically a bunch of very established picture book artists (name your favorite, they're in there: Stephen Kellog, Tomie de Paoula, Chris Van Allsburg, and of course Eric Carle himself) explaining either their process or how they started out or whatever. The nice things about illustrators is that in general, they're pretty terse, so there's no going on and on about things (bet you wish I was following their example right now.) OK, so yeah, the sharing is nice and all, but along with each of their essays, each artist has a fold out page that shows their self portrait and samples of their picture book work. In the case of Eric Carle, it shows (kinda) how he made The Hungry Catapillar, by drawing on tracing paper and using the guides on the tracing paper to cut out pieces of tissue paper and then drawing on them.

So I decided to try it and here were the results. In reverse order are a Sasquatch! (inspired by the recent festival at the Gorge I just attended), a girl in the rain ('cause I live in Seattle, so really there's nothing else to show), and two kind of weird looking monsters (I suppose I should explain that I also recently got a book that is called Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles (and dude, it was $5--no way I could pass that up)...so those sketches might have been some of the inspiration for the monster like things.