I Heart Stationery by Charlotte Rivers

by Leah of cricicis design

A wonderful new book by London design author Charlotte Rivers has been published, and I am honored to be one of the many lovely stationery artists featured. The book is called I Heart Stationery, and it's full of beautiful handmade stationery and the artists who create it. Rivers presents many different techniques for making handmade paper goods- from letterpress, screenprinting, and digital illustration- and gives insight into the processes.

The book is beautifully designed and so fun to slip through. There is even a resource section in the back of the books where she gathered information on art suppliers, blogs & online communities, and trade shows from the featured artists.

Next time you're in your local bookstore, take a look for Charlotte Rivers' I Heart Stationery, especially if you value a hand-written note on a beautiful note card, or if you'd like to experiment with creating your own stationery.

You can also find the book here on Amazon, and you can browse Charlotte's wonderfully inspiring blog Lottie Loves.

Yearly Gift Exchange

By Arthur of Arthur Halvorsen Ceramics

A few days ago we had our yearly meeting at my studio home, Mudflat Studios. Each year one of the highlights is the gift exchange. I was thrilled to get the card set by An Li Liu. They are totally my style and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them as soon as I got them home with me, I wanted to frame them!

I went to IKEA and got simple white frames because I wanted to show off the prints in my room and not the frames. I have to say, I have noticed that I'm collecting owls now, and the guy with the big heart down on the bottom totally stole my heart when he was on top of the stack when I opened my bundle of cards. Thanks An Li!!!

Coming this Spring…

by An Li Liu of An Li Liu

I know it’s been an unusually mild winter, but with the recent cold temperatures and brisk wind, I’m already longing for warmer weather. I checked my mail yesterday and happened upon a wee package with some samples of my spring-like note card that is being published by Calypso Art Editions Cards right here in Massachusetts.

Keep an eye out for it this spring at retailers nation-wide!

Oh, and I have been a busy bee working away on new shirt designs, so I’ll post pictures as soon as I can!

Puzzling Cats and Dogs

By Nancy of nancyrosetta

My sister and former Boston Handmader Kathy Weller, has recently reached the big time. Well, she is on her way anyhow! She has been working to have her illustrations licensed in various ways including this one that I am super excited for! Puzzles!

She has two designs in partnership with Andrews & Blaine available at Barnes and Noble and as soon as I found out, I was on a hunt for them. Sadly, my hunt was premature since no B&N in my area are stocking the puzzles yet. They are so new that they are probably still on the truck!

I was able to order them both online, though.

Jive Cats are hip well dressed cats and I heard from the artist that this puzzle is super challenging, I can't wait to get it and find out for myself!

Community Bridge features dogs that will teach you how to speak french, so I'm told!

Even though these puzzles are not handmade, the blood, sweat, and tears behind the artwork is, and I love that I can share this with you. I am so proud of my sister, she is living her dream right before my eyes.

Both puzzles are available at Barnes and Noble online. I can't wait to see them displayed in a store. I will be keeping my eye out for these colorful cats and dogs each time I visit the bookstore, I am sure!

New 2012 Calendars

by Leah of cricicis design

Next weekend I'll be at the Jamaica Plain Holiday Fair, and the Bazaar Bizarre with two 2012 calendars for sale. One is an 8" x 14" single-sheet, frame-able wall calendar, featuring prints of my fish drawings, and the other is a smaller hanging calendar featuring 12 different bird illustrations. Here's a sneak-peek!

1 Year Later

by Kerrie of Cody's Creations

My vision for Cody’s Creations is to have a collection of exclusive and unique offerings for your pets. After creating several products, like the Pocket Treat and Training Pouch, and the Partner Link, I was determined to be able to offer collars and leashes that you couldn’t find everywhere. I began researching how I could have ribbons and trims made with my designs.

Just about a year ago, I began working my first custom ribbon design. After spending hours and days on the graphic, I could not wait to see my design come to life. Today, I have seven ribbon designs under my belt. And each time I send off my graphic, I get so excited to open the package and see the ribbon. I feel energized and recharged and cannot wait to begin to make collars and leashes with the new ribbon.


Lobsters

Gemstones

Bow Ties

Bow Ties

Devils

Pugs

Squirrels


My goal going into this year is to at least double the amount of ribbon designs that I created this year. I already have a few designs in the works and hope that I can get at least 1 more new design before the end of the year. What would your ultimate collar design be?

Print Gocco

by Leah of cricicis design

I've been working on a new series of drawings- of fish! They are hand drawn instead of digitally illustrated, and with a little more detail than usual. I wanted to maintain the sketched quality when I printed them, but still keep them somewhat consistent with my silhouetted animal illustrations of the past.

So I decided to dust off my Gocco! Have you ever used a Print Gocco? It's a screenprinting system that's compact and clean. You start with a carbon-based image (the old machines came with a carbon pen for drawing) or a photocopy, and an emulsion-coated screen. You pop flash bulbs into the top and press down- when the bulbs flash, the carbon burns into the screen to create a stencil. Then you ink up the screen, insert it back into the same place where it was burned, and press down onto your paper to make a print. Then you repeat! It couldn't be simpler. Unfortunately, production of the Print Gocco ended in 2005. I have a few screens and bulbs leftover, and thought this would be the perfect project for them. It feels nice to print these drawings in such a tactile way.

Here are a few more photos of the process and the final products:

Red Nun Music Festival

by Allison of Fraske Designs

September 3 is the third annual Red Nun Music Festival at the Red Nun Bar and Grill in Chatham, MA. Above is the flyer I created for Sidewalk Driver, who participates in this event each year.

The Red Nun Music Festival benefits the Pals for Life Foundation is a response mechanism dedicated to providing emergency funds to families and/or individuals in need of immediate assistance.

Labor Day weekend is a popular time on Cape Cod, so if you are in the Chatham area on September 3, I encourage you go get out to this event to hear some great music and support a great cause!

Photo Illustration

by Lucie of Lucie Wicker Photography

I recently finished a class in photo illustration which consisted of four days to come up with a concept, figure out how to illustrate it, take photos of all the components, and piece them together in Photoshop so that they all make up one (somewhat) cohesive image. Whew! We were encouraged to browse headlines for concept ideas and the one that jumped out at me was, "Study reveals long term rise in sea level." After many hours, this is what I had-

Bancroft & Friends Re-Opening

By Leah of cricicis design

On April 1st a lovely shop in Marblehead, Massachusetts re-opened, and a few Boston Handmade members' are being sold there, including some of my note cards. I can't wait to visit! Owner Brooke Pickering offers her full line of ceramic dinnerware and wall plaques, and the work of various other handmade local vendors. What a great opportunity to shop for art and houseware, all made in your neck of the woods!

On April 8th Brooke is having an opening party at the shop to celebrate with some refreshments. Bancroft & Friends is located at 11 Pleasant Street in Marblehead.

Anatomy of a Painting

by Eliza of Art Asana

Last week, I decided to create a painting for the Illustration Friday's theme of the week, "Resolution". One of my resolutions for the new year was to make art and do yoga everyday. So I created a piece to reflect that and today, I'm going to share with you the anatomy of the painting!

I began the process by moving into the yoga pose that I wanted to draw. It is called ardha chandrasana, or half-moon pose. I engaged my feet and drew everything into the center of the pose, the core of the pelvis. Then from that place, I expanded back out, stretching and reaching outward from the core. This standing pose helps to build stability and strength from which you can then shine back out that much more courageously. It helped me to practice the qualities I wanted to bring into my new year.

Next, I got out my sketchbook and pictures of the pose and did some drawings of the pose.

From there, I pulled out my paints and painted the figure, focusing on colors that I felt represent the qualities this pose invokes.

Once the painting dried, I began to draw in the movement and flow associated with the pose.

Next, I cut out space in the figure.

Then, I got out a pen and paper and began to write, free-flow, engaging with the art through words.

These words then became the background for my painting. For this painting, I re-wrote the words into a circular shape and placed them on top of a wooden panel I'd painted a deep purple color.

I then painted over the words and added my cut-out figure to the painting.

And then I had a finished painting, which I named "Resolve"!

Product review- Silhouette SD

By Leah of cricicis design

I'm a big fan of tediously cutting patterns out of paper by hand with an exact-o knife. My business cards are tiny hand-cut envelopes that hold stickers. I cut all my note cards with an exact-o knife as well- I've never even owned a paper cutter. But I have come across a great little machine called the Silhouette SD- a digital cutting tool that is so precise, and so easy to use.

Although it won't replace my exact-o knife, I find playing around with it pretty fun. What it does is connect to your computer like a printer, but instead of ink cartridges, it has a little blade that cuts text, or silhouetted images or patterns, cleanly out of your sheet of paper. It
even cuts into cardstock. The great thing about the Silhouette machine is that it's a lot like a
die cutter, but it doesn't require the physical die- which are expensive and hard to store. Because it's digital, you have an endless supply of shapes to cut- whatever you can imagine up. The machine works with it's own computer program which grants you the ability to
use drawing tools (although not on par with Adobe programs) to make shapes. Even better, you can drag in your own images and vectorize them right in the program.

I've been having a lot of fun having the chance to play with the positive/negative space in cut paper. Here are some of the first things I cut out and photographed:

I found the machine at the PaperSource but most of the components, like replacement blades and cutting mats, are available online at the Silhouette web site. They even sell vinyl with adhesive backing! I recommend checking this tool out if you're crafty with paper and want to try out something new.

A Visit to the Edward Gorey House

by Lucie of Lucie Wicker Photography

Finally! I have been dying to go to the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouthport (Cape Cod) ever since I found out it existed. It was every bit as informative, bizarre-o, and inspiring as I hoped it would be. We took the guided tour which I highly recommend; our docent pointed out lots of Gorey facts and tidbits we would've missed on our own. Like maybe-

G is for George smothered under a rug (The Gashlycrumb Tinies)

A serpent stone path (created by Gorey himself) and a statue of the Doubtful Guest

And finally the graves of each of the 26 tinies, made by Gorey's friends. So morbidly delightful.

Overall, it was a creeptastic, fascinating visit; I learned a lot about Gorey and what inspired his unique body of work. I wish I could time travel back to the mid-nineties and hang around Yarmouthport just to possibly bump into him.

Next time you're on the Cape, you should pay the house and all of Gorey's meticulous collections a visit. I will definitely be going back!