Dog + Letterpress

I'm so excited to announce two of my favorite things brought together this month! My art print collab with Natalia of Design Lab Creative Studio is now up on my etsy just in time for the holidays. A portion of the sales will benefit The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Nat also has the print up on her online store, buying from either place will benefit the same cause. We're all about sharing the love :)

In more dog+letterpress news, the current issue of Bark Magazine features a great article about my two favorite topics of convo. I was lucky enough to be brought into the mix as my shop was the backdrop for the photos in the article (how cool is that?). Nat and I were serendipitously brought together as she and her husband Bill took the photos and designed the article. This small creative world keeps getting smaller. Max even makes a cameo (that's him in the center on the right page)!

More info of the process can be read on her blog post here.

This is a really special tribute to our four-legged-friends, I'm so proud to be a part of the print and the article. Thanks for your support! xo

To Japan with Love

I donated a few special edition prints that I published here at Olive-Route to bluemoon letterpress in Japan. They are putting together an exhibit called Letterpress of Pray to help raise awareness and funds to aid tsunami and earthquake relief efforts.

The exhibit site is up, I know it's mostly in Japanese! But please take a moment to check out my artists as well as the other exhibitors in the show. Thank you Nat, Jane & Hillary for the inspiration!

On Press: Animal art prints

Hot off the presses...These are some process pics of some art collaborations I have coming up!

This 3-piece set of animal prints were illustrated by good friend Hillary Huffard who has been part of the Olive-Route team for the past couple of years. I'm producing these prints to help promote her as the amazing artist that she is :) Hillary will be watercoloring each print by hand and we're hoping to show and sell them locally soon. Details to come!

Pray for Japan

These letterpressed prints I made a couple of years ago in collaboration with artist Jane Kim will be exhibited in Japan at the at Books Kubrik Gallery and Paper Inn Gallery in Fukuoka this fall, hosed by Bluemoon Press. 100% of the proceeds from this exhibition will go directly to earthquake child support group in Iwate prefecture. 

They will host another exhibition of letterpress work in the winter at the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum and I will be submitting new artist print collaborations for it which are currently in the works. Will keep you updated. 

More info regarding these exhibitions can be found on Bluemoon Press's FB page here.

These prints entitled The Elements are currently featured on my Etsy shop.

Carolyn & David at the De Young

Lush and sophisticated museum wedding designed by Gloria Wong and photographed by Lisa Lefkowitz on Style Me Pretty this week! Lots of eye-candy...

Paper goods by yours truly--and I even got the chance to design some awesome large-scale installation panels (see below) as well as the graphics on the custom pillows. Gloria orchestrated the whole thing along with Jubilee Lau Events. Props to everyone involved!

For more pics and vendor info, click here.

Richard at the Zoo!

Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am? Well, I'm quite blessed being nextdoor to St. Hieronymus Press and some of my favorite people who have helped build my career as a designer and letterpress printer. The apron strings haven't been cut off (and probably never will). So any opportunity I get to talk about them and boast about how wonderful they are, I will gladly take!

One of my great friends and mentors from nextdoor, Richard Seibert, will be having an art opening for his beautifully letterpressed series of art prints based on our other favorite topic besides printing: FOOD! You can check out the prints on his website letterspressed.com and can purchase directly from his site if you can't wait to get your hands on them.

Hello Camille + Bird Loves Bee Event

Camille is my other lovely intern who has been a great addition to the Olive-Route family recently. Besides helping me at the shop, she keeps very busy with other things: keeping a full-time job, freelance writing, starting her own small press, publishing her first set of art "zines," producing and curating her first art show coming up...just to name a few things on her plate. Geez, this girl is one busy bee!

Speaking of bees...Camille has been hard at work all season for her upcoming show next week titled "Bird Loves Bee" where she will release the 3 art zines she's been producing as well as showcasing some local talent in the art and music industries. To read more about this event, please visit her pages:

Birdlovesbee 
One Red Delicious Press
FB Event Invite 

Here are some photos of her recent work for the event. Hope you can make it! Your support of small business and all things crafted by hand and heart is always, always appreciated. What Camille is putting together is quite an undertaking, I'm very proud of her and wish her the best! You can purchase copies of her zines as well as the limited-edition letterpressed poster at the event.

The event is on Friday, January 21st from 8-midnight (free admission).

Hello Lauren

Just wanted to write a post formally introducing Ms. Lauren Aczon. She's been an intern at my shop since the beginning of summer and came to my rescue during peak wedding season when I was in over my head with production work. She started out doing some assembly work and was up for some non-glamorous tasks at the shop--organizing samples, trimming paper, archiving, and even spray painting!

But since then, her internship evolved into something closer to an artist in residence so-to-speak but without the living in my shop part :) Lauren expressed interest in letterpress from the get go, and had some previous Vandercook experience in college which always helps. She's also a fantastic artist and after perusing through her sketchbook, I could easily see how her style of linework would translate well into letterpress. I harnessed my inner mother-hen and encouraged her to print her own work and see where it takes her...

Inspiration: Meet Ms. Jenny Pennywood

My friend Jen Garrido and I met a few years ago when we shared a booth at the NY Stationery show with a few other talented Bay Area biz ladies. We all hawked our paper goods and learned the trade show circuit for the first time together. Some continued, others decided to not do that again (me and Jen included). I went on to pursue my custom letterpress work and Jen worked as a full-time artist. Her abstract work is quite amazing--full of bold and organic textures, you should check them out here.

Toll Booth, 2009, acrylic on panel, 33 x 36":

Family Portraits

Ok, I'm a couple of months late on this post. It's been ridiculously busy eversince the year began and I'm slowly playing catch-up on the blog...

For the holidays, I thought it would be fun to give personalized gifts to my family by having these fun portraits made for them! I ordered these from my friend Galina who can whip these up in a flash it seems :) I bombarded her with the orders at the same time and she was able to get them to me before Christmas.

They make fun presents and come with a matte-board frame. You can order custom portraits similar to these through her etsy site by clicking here. All she needs is a picture for reference.

Aren't these super cute?!

Lovely Peanut!

Just shipped out another set of Save the Dates today that featured this beautiful bird illustration done by my client's sister, Hillary. Aniko (my client) came to me wanting to integrate Hillary's artwork into the wedding stationery. I LOVE collaborations and when I met with Hillary, I instantly grew fond of her and her artwork!

Aniko and her fiance Ben will wed in Santa Barbara this August and so far, I'm thrilled with how the designs are coming together. Here's Hillary's drawing of Peanut (their beloved family pet) who will be making a debut on their Save the Dates :) I'll post pictures soon...

Once was lost! But now found!

Last fall I sent some prints to the UK to be signed by artist Mark Andrew Webber. We worked on a collabo where he cut the lino-block, mailed it to me, then I printed them and mailed them back.

Well, after he mailed me back my copies, the package got lost in post office oblivion since last October!!! We waited...and waited...and waited. We almost lost all hope and were about to file a claim with the post office. Then all of a sudden, today, they arrived!

Here's what the packaging looked like! Poor thing's been through hell and back.


































Luckily the prints remained intact and in good condition and can now be purchased from my etsy on very limited quantity. Big sigh...

Poketo at Rare Device

I went to the opening of Poketo's pop-up shop at Rare Device in SF this past friday. Super fun, I always love seeing those guys and what they're up to... Here are some pics of the merch from their flickr stream. Lots of cool goodies just in time for the holidays, the shop will be open till january 26th.

It made it across the pond!

Big Yay :)

Off the Press: Eyeball Art Print

These were SUPER fun to print. It was love at first sight when I first laid eyes on these...er...eyeballs! LOL. I just knew they needed to get published somehow instead of existing as mere doodles on a sketchbook. Thanks Marcelo Viana for such a fun illustration! These are available as prints and notecards in limited quantity through my etsy.

On Press: Mark Webber's Linocut, Part Two

On Press: Mark Webber's Linocut, Part One

With everything prepped (finally!) the block is ready to be printed! It was a bit hairy setting it up at first. I was having a hard time getting the press to ink the block evenly. Also, linocuts eat up LOTS of ink so it was a challenge getting it to print as dark as I had envisioned it.

Here's one of the first test prints. As you can see, it wasn't printing evenly and parts were underinked.

Pre-Press for Mark Webber's Art Print, Part Three

The last step before going to press on this project is getting the polymer plate made of the little heart in the middle which is going to be a second color.

1) Here's the negative of the scan made from Part Two then placed on a polymer plate with emulsion on it (orange surface).

Galya on Etsy!

One of my recent artists on press, portrait artist Galina Yakovenko, just opened an Etsy site for her custom work! Her one-of-a-kind pieces makes for great gift-giving and comes in easy to frame sizes.

Make sure to check out galya.etsy.com and pass it along...

Pre-Press for Mark Webber's Art Print, Part Two

Now that the linoleum is glued securely on the base, that took care of the first major task. The next problem to solve is how to print the interior heart a different color. Currently, the lino-block is designed to print in one color as seen here:























My initial thought was to try to carefully "cut" the heart out of the linoleum. The idea of printer playing doctor was in interesting thought. But when I saw how thick the piece of linoleum is and how I could easily ruin this piece of art with an unsteady hand, I voted against it. If my brother who is a doctor was around, I MAY have attempted it with his help...