BBB for mash handmade

I am so excited to be selling some of my work in a real live shoppe! Especially this one. Lisa took me by mash handmade way back when Josh had his interview here in Kansas City. For me, it's one of those places that you walk into and try to move as slowly as possible because it just feels great to be there! It's a beautifully designed space filled (but not crowded) with delightful handmade creations. A mother and daughter duo own the shoppe and their kindness and enthusiasm for what they do make it an even more enjoyable experience (by the time I got to speak with them you can picture me in slow motion as I delay my inevitable exit!)

These photos are of the first boxes to make their way to mash. I have a set of folding boxes and some small books that will be joining them soon. If you live close by I definitely recommend heading over to Westport for a visit, otherwise enjoy their website! It has a similar effect on me. :)

 I thought it might be nice to make something that could be in a gender neutral gift-giving category. My enthusiasm for milk caps is at an all time high, and I don't see any lows in the forecast. A Burlington County Farms cap is inset on the top, surrounded by silk-like Japanese bookcloth, and complemented with green rayon bookcloth.

 Liberty London's Small Susanna comes together with Japanese and rayon bookcloths for a springtime look. A vintage transfer bumble bee eagerly approaches the sunflower (it must be blueberry flavored!). In person you'll be able to tell that it literally glitters with anticipation.

Here's the original box I shared with the ladies of mash, I've shared it here, too!

 Covered with linen and rayon bookcloth, this one might be my favorite because the ribbon inset on the top is some that I found in a fabric shop in Paris. The red and white buttons were selected from my button jar - that red & white striped button makes me happy all by itself!

A trio of bright rayon bookcloths makes this a cheery box, but a whistling teapot puts it over the top! The teapot and cup illustration is from a sheet of vintage Royaledge shelf paper. A piece of plain paper would have been attached to the top of the design and what you see above would fold over your kitchen shelves. Darling idea, isn't it? This box would still be great for a kitchen, perfect for tea bags, I'd say!

Bitty Binding

When I'm working on a project, usually I'm up and down, cut this here, press this there, rounding, backing, stamping, and various other -ings! It's not necessarily strenuous, but sometimes it's a nice treat to sit down and be able to make something from start to finish with all of the tools and materials at your fingertips! That's just what I got to do yesterday with this little Sweetheart book charm.

New in the Shop: Folding Box & a Few Words on Stamp Collecting

Another Liberty London infused box! This new box in the shop is covered in burgundy cloth and Liberty London's Small Susanna.

Lately my work has been accompanied by colorful vintage stamps. A few weeks ago I came across a box of stamps and stamp collecting books at the Crown Center antique festival. The gal selling them really wanted to get rid of them so she gave me a deal on the condition that I take the whole box!

 So, now I have a bunch of great stamps, some of which I've set aside to incorporate into projects, and others that I've bundled together in nice color combos to pass on as little gift with purchase treats. Along with the stamps, I now have a bunch of books about stamp collecting, which were fun to look through, but ultimately I'm not a stamp collector*, so I'm giving ebay a whirl. Anybody into stamps?

* I am, however, a major stamp user! I like having a variety of stamps on hand so I can match them with their recipient. That's normal, right? Lately my favorites are the new Love collection and the Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamps. I haven't even used the latter yet, I'm debating about keeping the pane pristine and putting in a frame. Wait a minute...maybe I am stamp collector!

New in the Shop: Trinket Box featuring Liberty London Fabric

I have a new box in the shop and it started out as most of my "for fun" projects do. I sat down with all of my favorite things and started playing. In this case, that button and those charms found their way to each other and I paired them with Liberty London's Fairford pattern for a happy little match.

Here's what happened next! Click on the photo to see a larger version in a new window.

Paper Weaving

 Toward the end of last year I commissioned Rhonda, a bookbinder and paper marbler, to hand marble a slew of paper for one of my custom projects. I needed the paper to make endsheets for a series of guest books. Her work was beautiful and I couldn't have been happier with the result.

 In order to turn the marbled paper into endsheets, I mounted it onto a thicker paper that is sure to be durable for the repeated opening and constant use the books will receive. Each set of endsheets was made oversized and then trimmed to match height and width of the pages of the book block.

Above are the neatly trimmed marbled endsheets in action! I just loved the look of all of the trimmed strips neatly lining my recycling bin, and I couldn't toss them. I also couldn't just let them sit in a drawer for too long without playing with them!

Soon, my paper fiddling turned into paper weaving!

And more paper weaving.

And more! Once I stopped with the marbled paper trimmings, I had a knack for it and didn't feel much like stopping. I picked up some Japanese paper scraps and got cooking!

I plan to mount these little checkered pieces on tissue and then see what happens from there! I'm leaning toward incorporating them into the tops of boxes. Whatever I do, I'm sure the result will be posted here eventually.

So Long, Seattle

View of Mount Rainier from the sky
I just returned from a great week in Seattle. My parents are moving to Portland, so I was there to help get the ol' homestead ready to sell. (Can I say ol' if they only lived there nine years? I think so!) I imagined that the week would just be full of cleaning, sorting and packing things up, which would be great q.t. with my parents, but we ended up doing so much more. We saw so many people and shared lots of great meals!

View of Downtown Seattle from Alki Beach
There was sunshine, rain, and coffee, so it was definitely summertime in Seattle! I got to see cousins, aunts, an uncle, favorite family friends, and my bookbinding instructor just happened to be in town! I even got to meet some new friends, this was my mom's last year of teaching Kindergarten, and I got to see some folks who helped make her time at the school especially special! (Brother John, I'm thinking of you!) It was great to be in the Northwest, and the trip ended too soon, but any melancholy brought on by saying goodbye was wiped away when I met my husband at the airport and came home to a happy kitty in a clean house, a bouquet of flowers, and fun things planned for the rest of the weekend in my new favorite city!

Metal Type

Whenever you see an image or title embossed on one of my projects, I've either used a custom made magnesium die, or lead or brass type from my collection. The photo above is a close up of my type drawers. I've stamped a sampling from each drawer onto labels, so I know what's inside.

Many of the tools and pieces of equipment that I use weren't necessarily invented for the craft of bookbinding. Much has been re-purposed from other trades, and more often than not, my tools have already had a long history before they land in my hands. This is definitely true for all of my type.

In Dillard, GA at Good K-9 Antiques, I found a plastic grocery bag full of lead type, and then in Mount Dora, FL at Renningers, I found a beautiful wooden box full of little paperboard boxes that organized something very neatly once upon a time, and would be perfect to organize that newly acquired type. Put them together, and what have you got? Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!

This box of type, one of my favorites, was originally intended for a Kingsley stamping machine but it works like a dream in my Kwikprint from the 1930s. I found this set in an antique shop in Astoria, OR when Josh and I ventured there with my parents on a pilgrimage to the land of The Goonies.

This is the side of my box of type drawers, with evidence of the luggage shop it came from. I found my Kwikprint via Craigslist and had it shipped from Wisconson along with the box of type and some stamping foils.

At least once a week I click around online to see what might be out there. Just last week, Josh and I found a honey-hole of bookbinding and screen printing supplies, and lately I've been asking antiques dealers if they have the type that goes in all of those empty type cases that are lying about. I think I got a bite yesterday - wish me luck!

Hatch Show Print

I had been hearing about Hatch Show Print for a long-long time, because it's an awesome shop and it's been around for a long-long time! Back in April, Josh and I drove through Nashville on our way to Kansas City, and we made sure to stop by and pick out a couple posters.

Just great, huh?

Something about all of those shelves on the left wall seemed magical. Maybe because of the striking resemblance to the wand shop in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter?

The colors in this "TYPE" monoprint called to me. I was tempted to blow our new carpet budget on it but managed to refrain.
 I highly recommend stopping by to take in all of the posters on their walls! If you won't be in the area any time soon, here's a link for their website where they have some work for sale, or you can even order a custom poster.