Oh, February, how you fly!

February's been trucking along at full speed so far!

On Super Bowl weekend, I printed up a set of wedding invitations for a bride in Texas. They were a customization of my country sunset design, and involved a gradient that was making a little nervous, to be honest, but they came out great. I'll have full pictures in a few days on the Phaedra Paperie blog but til then, here's a little peek into the printing process.


Then, I got back to the work of remodeling/reorganizing my studio. I know it's been a long time since my Remodel: Part 1 post, but it's an ongoing process. My studio has vertical beams that run down the middle of the space, and the remnant of the house's original chimney, which makes it hard to make the most of the space. Boxes and piles have a tendency to collect along the dead space around the beams. So I took that area and turned it into a work surface with storage underneath. It's not yet what I would call clean, but now at least I have a well-lit place to do small paintings, drawings, pen and ink, etc. without having to clear a spot and sit on the floor.


Capping off the month so far, yesterday I had Kate from Katie Joy Photography over. She's an up-and-coming photographer who will be shooting her first wedding in only a couple of days, and just got a new camera. We know each other from our day jobs, but it was great to interact with her on a professional level. I needed some professional/head shot type photos, and I also wanted to get some action shots in the studio. We looked through a few, and they looked promising -- the studio shots especially looked great. I'm so excited to see all the shots!

Fall has... Fell. Felled? Fallen?

I recently printed up a small run of birthday invitations for a friend's daughter -- my first custom design for a child. Expectedly, it's quite different doing a youth design compared to doing a wedding, but what surprised me more was how different it was to do a design for a specific kid, rather than just for "kids." Normally I think of kid-oriented design to be too saccharine, too bright, or overly Swedish-inspired for my taste (I get my fill of swedishness working for the big blue-and-yellow box) but this design came out a little edgy, I think. Or maybe a little 80s. I couldn't help but fall back into memories of Paula Abdul songs and that unforgettable skate rink smell (ancient chewing gum ground into little black spots on the carpet + icee machines + preteen hormones) at the mention of a roller skating party.

In other news, I have a new silkscreen print in the Family show at Launch Pad. Like much of my work, it came about spontaneously and left me to figure out what it was about on my own. I'm still not sure I have a good answer for that, but in order to title it I interpreted it in relation to the Family show. In Latin. It's called Excisum Meus Fratres, Puer Sola Ego Sum, meaning (I think), "My Siblings Having Been Lost, I Am An Only Child," which makes reference to the fallopian pregnancies that preceded and followed my birth, rendering me, irreversibly, an only child.

And last but not least, I've had two pieces accepted into a recent graduate show at Portland State. More details to come...

Size does matter.

Sometimes I get annoyed at things labeled 'handmade' that really aren't. Computer printed cards and "limited edition prints" are my personal pet peaves. But it seems that for many mediums, there's simply a lack of understanding. How can you really grasp difference between a screenprinted card, a letterpressed card, and a digitally printed card, or a handbound book versus a commercially bound one, if you don't even have a vague understanding of the mechanical processes involved?

So it was really refreshing to see some shots from the Ink & Spindle studio showing their printing process. (Their site has a few images; their flickr has many more)
Fantastic work, a studio to die for, and ethical working methods. I think I'm in love.

New: Imprintable Birth Announcements

I was in Eugene last week, and because of the heat wave we ended up driving out to one of the forks of the Willamette River. I brought my camera along and took some shots of Queen Anne's Lace and other wild flora. I have been wanting to do a wedding suite featuring Queen Anne's Lace -- it's on the way, with matching Thank You cards -- but ended up with birth announcement cards, too!

Very classic and traditional, in pink and blue. I silkscreened them on my standard 100% recycled, eco-awesome, cream pinstripe textured paper, and on a whim tried them out in my laser printer. Turns out my favorite paper is printer friendly, so I can make imprintable cards! How cool is that?

Perhaps the best part is that the design lends itself to just about any color. Want something less stereotypical? Green? Purple? I can do them in any color you'd like. I can also do custom printing on the inside very affordably -- laser (b&w), inkjet (color), or screenprint (the possibilities are endless).

They're available right now on my Etsy, and I'll be at Craft In The Village on Friday, and Crafty Wonderland on Sunday. Come get some! And look forward to more imprintables from Carly Bodnar Studio...