I guess I'm a bad blogger....

but look I updated my etsy shop!

And I promise more posts coming soon! There are lots of projects on the horizon.

Whew!

Well I think I've finally recovered from the Des Moines Art Festival! It was a long and pretty warm weekend, but overall I had a good time. All my preparations and planning finally went into full swing.

I saw a lot of great people and had a lot of help from my family and friends (thanks you guys!!!!). I couldn't have done it without you.

Since I was one of the Iowa Emerging Artists, I was required to do a demonstration during the weekend festivities. My prints are generally printed with my Nolan proof press, but due to its weight, I decided to just print by hand. Thanks to Grant for his lovely "arty" photos :)

I brought a bunch of my tools and even had the linocut locked up in a galley to show during my demo. I had quite a few people stop by and hope they enjoyed learning a little more about printmaking.

Awesome Fabric Flowers

flowers to wear
Originally uploaded by calamity kim

Aren't these beautiful!?!!! I've been wanting to make some fabric flowers forever now and I'm totally in love with these. Check out the tutorial at Calamity Kim.

Letterpress Set-up

When I describe my interest in letterpress, many people have lots of questions and can't really visualize the process. Today I finished up printing some new business cards and thought it would be a good opportunity to "show off" my set-up.

For my business cards, I started out designing in InDesign. Once finished, a pdf is sent off to get a letterpress cut. These cuts are made of magnesium and are reflected so they print correctly.

Mixing the ink color comes next. For my business cards, a dark orange was appropriate. This is where my background in painting comes in handy to mix up the right color. I use a Nolan Proof Press, so I hand ink every pass of the press. After inking the cut, I place the stock on the cut, apply the packing, and pull the roller across the cut. And then I repeat and repeat.

Since each piece is hand inked and pulled, one consideration to keep in mind is registration. Each color on a piece has to go through the press a separate time. In addition, the paper has to be registered properly to ensure proper placement.

There are many ways to handle registration, but thus far I've been using masking tape to eyeball the placement. Thus far it has been working fairly well, but tight registration does pose a problem with my masking tape system. I hope to look into a better registration system as I get into more complicated designs, but for now it works.

There's a short overview of letterpress. Hope you all enjoy :) Back to making more prints!

Where as all the time gone????

Obviously I've been a little pre-occupied to post any time recently...........here's a quick update of the past few months.......

I graduated in April with a degree in graphic design

ALT went to publication and was distrubuted throughout Des Moines

Matt and I went to the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans.

I'm still working with Main Street Iowa, but looking for full time graphic design work

I joined the Prairie Book Collaborative

And I've been busy busy busy preparing for the Des Moines Art Festival coming up here near the end of June.

Today I took the day off to work on some printing and such----found it kind of ironic that my finger nail polish looked all nice just to get covered in black ink :) But I like it none-the-less.

Take a Piece of my Type

Found this while purusing the internets today. The website, Type is Art, allows you to take pieces of typography and transform them into a little piece of art. Above is a little sampling of mine. Enjoy!

New Talent Tuesday!

Time for New Talent Tuesday! I found this painting on Etsy, using the Pounce feature. I love the drawing quality and the vibrant colors. Plus, the cow harkens back to my rural Iowa roots :) Check out ErinGoPaint's store here.

When Your a Jet....Snap, Snap, Snap

Etsy user frillz made up this wonderful treasury using one of my prints, with an awesome theme of West Side Story. Thanks frillz :)

For the Love of Posters

Chicago Printmakers Gallery
Originally uploaded by Threadless Chicago

On January 15th, Steve Walters of Screwball Press will be giving a demonstration and presentation about his screenprinted posters at Grand View University. His show looks awesome in the gallery and I'm way excited about going. Rumor is, if you go, you get a free poster :)

I'm Famous!

Well kind of.......by Ossian standards......... :)

I've been accepted as an Emerging Iowa Artist for the Des Moines Art Festival, so I made the front page of the Ossian Bee. I've yet to see the actual newspaper but you can check out the online edition here. Thanks everyone for the kind words about my acceptance as well :)

Heading to the Beach

Today I came home to find an unassuming postal box sent from my favorite cousin. Earlier this month I had entered his blog contest, to send an artistic representation of Jacksonville, North Carolina. I've never been there, but was sad to see no one enter his contest. To remedy this situation, I sent him a little painting sketch I had done for a larger project. Since I "won" his contest with a painting of "Jacksonville," he sent me, as promised, a jar of sand from the coast. I must admit, I do enjoy going to the beach any time I want now. Especially since today it was only about 45 degrees outside and rainy. I also enjoyed the irony of the sand, all the way from North Carolina, was placed inside a strawberry jam jar from Minnesota.

Check out Phil's blog here to see my wonderful winning artwork :) You can also see his day to day experiences and his journalism skills in use at the Jacksonville Daily News. Thanks for the trip to the beach Phil!