Filed under: textiles
It’s been a while since I came across Gerriets International and found their incredible textiles. I think I was looking for scrim fabric to create tents for a special event we were working on, and it was just a happy accident to come across Gerriets’ Contra Textures. The above dress was created by Alexander McQueen for Givenchy using Contra Textures - wow!
Garriets describes the fabric:
“Contra Textures come in four different densities of inherently flameretarded, textural materials and are especially manufactured for theatrical, studio, display, exhibit and museum applications.
Called Contra-H because of the random, uniquely haphazard pattern which suggests a rain of HATCHES, H, H, H, H, etc…and the Contra-O because of the overlapping circular pattern; hence the name O.
All Contra Textures can be painted with vinyl acrylic paints which have enough tenacity and flexibility to allow the material to be shaped without fear of the paint cracking or chipping off.”
It is essentially random strewn and melted nylon, and the result is fantastic:
I continue to wonder how I could use this fabric, but maybe I’ll be happy with just a few samples. (Have I mentioned that I love collecting samples? Fabric and paper samples - bring ‘em on!) Otherwise, I’m just drawn to the organic shapes, the positive and negative, and the variation of thickness and width of the fibers. I love the idea of using textiles - fabrics, rugs, knits, etc. - as inspiration for graphic and print design, and these Contra fabrics are tops on the list.
What is it about sewn paper? I just think it’s such a cool detail and I can’t wait to try my hand at creating my own little embellished greeting and gift cards and sewn booklets, etc…
I found the above wedding program on Martha Stewart Living’s website. It includes several pages, using different types and sizes of paper and has a bold color zig-zag stitch.
Next, Vertallee Press, which creates some beautiful letterpress stationery, stitched a piece of vellum over one of their letterpressed wedding invitations.
Below, wedding stationery from Bird and Banner used contrasting stitching to tie together the complete set. It’s not altogether sewn paper, as they printed directly onto fabric (very cool!) but I love how they’ve sewn the printed fabric directly to a folded card. It’s a beautiful combination of paper and fabric. And I looove the loose thread ends.
I’m not sure if Bird and Banner used a letter press to print on the fabric, but it certainly sounds like it could fun to experiment with. Perhaps the fabric won’t be thick enough, or the ink may bleed, but I’ll have to make a note to give it a try.
Filed under: letterpress
Today has been mildly uneventful… but I’m so excited about the last batch of flourishes I just discovered at You Work For Them. I’d never heard of the site before, but they are packed with flourishes and other excellent drawings that would be perfect for letterpress!
You can buy the flourishes in different little packages and they’re not that expensive. They have such a range, from formal and elegant to crazy wild!
I’m also drawn to some of their more abstract images - I have no idea why I like the electrical lines below, but I think it would look terrific with letterpress:
And, lastly, a few symbols are below. Wouldn’t some of these be fun as part of a monogram?
You Work For Them also has type, stock images, stock motion and brushes, which look like you can use them to create funky borders. I’m so glad I found this place - woo!
I’ve just pulled myself out of a Veer vortex, prompted by an innocent venture over to I Love Typography. Just wanted to check things out and stay updated - I also really like the design of the blog itself.
It’s sort of funny; just yesterday I was thinking about calligraphy and typography and was considering collecting old foundry, script and lettering catalogs. (The idea passed - I think it would be an expensive endeavor!) Lo and behold, featured prominently on ILT is the modern version of just that - the new Font Book from FontShop.
Containing 32,000 type samples from 90 foundries, the book weighs in at over 6lbs. and costs a mere $99. It looks like it would make my head spin a little, but they seem to have organized it well, with cross-referencing and help for mixing fonts. The FontBook will have to go on my LONG book wish list!
The thing that really sucked me in was ILT’s mention of Stefan Hattenbach’s Anziano ornaments:
Which got me thinking about type flourishes and ornaments… and so I decided to dig a little deeper on Veer and discovered so many beautiful doodads, flourishes, doodlydoos, swirlies and curliques. There may be technical terms for these things, but I just loved taking a look and imagining ways to use them with letterpress!
First up is a beautiful font called Zanzibar (above). I think it looks like it could be a beautiful font to use on a wedding invitation for someone who wants something on the funkier side of traditional. Besides the type, Zanzibar also has loads of flourishes which are terrific on their own. This one is now a favorite favorite!
Next, I came across Incognito, which also has some really lovely ligatures (see - I’m trying to pick up the lingo). It also has a handful of odd but interesting dingbats, from images of the continents and globe to little nameplates that could be neat to use on social stationery.
The next place I checked out was Emigre, which peppers elegant flourishes throughout their site - above is the Dalliance package. These started to remind me of the really lovely borders Sesame Press uses (which, by the way, are part of the reason I’ve gotten sucked into this world at all - Sesame’s whimsical and elegant borders in vibrant colors) - here are a few of my absolute favorites from Sesame:
I just can’t get enough of those borders and flourishes! They also use them on their wedding invitations, so be sure to check those out, too.
OK, OK! That’s my morning so far - I have to get going now so I can look for a job to pay for all these fonts!
Filed under: Uncategorized
First of all, I just love this image. Second of all, it’s to show that French Paper can create custom paper for your project. How rocking is that?
I am smitten with this company and their fab graphics.
I’ll have to poke around a little more, but I have a feeling I won’t be able to help myself from paying for one of their sample packs. Too exciting!
I am completely smitten by these women who have successfully completed a “thing” a day and keep up with it. I’m impressed with (and, admittedly, envious of) their stamina and focus and dedication - holy cats!
Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Obsessive Compulsive: What Did You Buy Today is amazing. She completes a drawing every single day of a single item paid for or purchased. I love how totally mundane the objects can be - from a 2-liter bottle of soda to paying a phone bill. The style of the drawings is simple but right on, and it’s such a great way to look back at what we really spend our money on. A much more interesting way to keep track of a budget!! Psst - you can even buy some of her drawings or collections of drawings at her etsy store right here!
Next up, the totally creative Marieke Berghuis Leewens from Amsterdam! Each day, Marieke creates a collage (above), date stamps it and posts it on her blog, Treats and Treasures. For a college project, I created a big series of collages and it felt like it took forever. I agonized! So I am incredibly impressed with Marieke’s ability to knock one out each day and keep up with it so regularly. I love that it is such a wonderful, visual way to keep a journal (something else I can’t keep up with) - using images, sketches, clippings, fabrics, tickets, brochures, photos, captions and notes to represent that moment in time. I also love the clean, simple layout of her blog - using her whimsical handwriting for category headings, too!
Lisa Solomon completed an ambitious project which involved completing a drawing a day. As mentioned before, I love stitched or sewn paper. For her project, Lisa used a different color of thread each week to sew her drawings. Very cool.
Filed under: Uncategorized
It doesn’t help matters that I can be easily distracted… or excited by something new. (Does this have something to do with the short attention span I developed by watching too much episodic Sesame Street?)
Each day, I come up with something new that I could want to do. This past weekend, it was organic olive oil sales. I could totally get excited about going to the olive groves around the world, talking to the olive people, looking at all the different olive oil packaging, tasting the olive oil (of course!) and contacting stores and chefs to sell them olive oil. You may have seen my post on Nudo - yeah, I could totally get excited about olive oil. But seriously - I’ve got to get focused right?
Right! So I’ve started a project. It pretty much has nothing to do with web design, graphic design, letterpress, paper, calligraphy… But I think it’s justified. It’s fiber, and it’s doing something creative, and it’s producing something (sort of) with my mind and hands. That counts for something, doesn’t it?
Thrift store sweater project. Here’s the deal - it’s easy. Partly because the thrift stores here weren’t fulfilling in the way I’d hoped (seriously, where are all the Eames chairs?), this is a good way for me to check them out but not leave feeling like it was a wasted trip. Anyway, I’ve bought up at least a dozen or so wool and cashmere (yay!) sweaters.
Yesterday was the big day to felt them (sorry, washing machine)… And I’m trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with them, how to finish the edges (leave them cut but felted, or surge them?) and how to seam them together. I’m thinking big warm blanket with black and grey wool uneven rectangles. And a cashmere-only throw - soft.
cashmere sweaters waiting to be felted
wool sweaters - left is felted, right is not (yet)
So, if I can figure out how to take a picture that isn’t blurry, I’ll keep you posted on the sweater project!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Done! Finally checked something big off the list and am now registered for some classes at College for Creative Studies in their continuing education department. This Saturday, I’ll have a beginning web design class, and Thursday evenings will be Photoshop. Although I am relieved to be registered, I must admit that I wussed out and have not yet registered for the InDesign class I also thought about taking.
If I can get the fancy-pants CS3 software bundle (please consider me eligible for an education discount, oh software people, puhleeze!), I hope I can learn a lot about Illustrator and InDesign on my own and see how that goes…
The excited-anxious-nervous-scared energy persists - a bounce between being energized by learning and doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and being totally frightened… A pervading sense of “who am I kidding?” or “can I honestly do this??” and “what if I try this and I suck?” interrupts my mini-celebration dance.
Taking the plunge into something new and unknown - yikes. So many other people seem to have managed to start their own creative thing and keep at it - I wonder if they’ve been just as freaked out? Right now it still feels like I’m hiking up the hill but am not quite sure which path to take or commit to. I feel certain any path I choose leads to a big leap - on the one hand, just continuing to commit and persisting with checking out many of my interests and opportunities feels like an achievement that will pay off. Things won’t work if I don’t keep at it. It sure would help if there were a better job market here - a better “safety net” - but today I’m off to check out stationery stores, will continue to contact other creative people in the area and do the (ugh, dreaded) networking…
P.S. Even though I’m registered at CCS for classes now, I drifted onto the SCAD website the other day - they offer an online master’s program and/or continuing education in graphic design - I’d love to know more, so if anyone reading happens to know anything about it, let me know??
Filed under: Uncategorized
Last night, I thought the wind would pick the house up and take it far away. It whistled through the windows and was incredibly gusty all night long. Everything has re-frozen.
During a Michigan winter, I feel a need for breaks in the blah. This morning, incredible photography from Alicia Bock - also from Michigan - did the trick. Her gauzy images of flowers, beaches and scenery feel so warm and inviting. They represent vibrant signs of life that can seem so absent during a blustery, grey Michigan winter day.
I just can’t get enough of her photgraphy! Of course, I’m partly envious - attempts with the new Holga have mostly failed, and even with a terrific Canon, my pictures come out consistently blurry. I’m told it’s because I’m not getting enough light, so I hope it’s something I can work on… but in the meantime, I will continue to totally enjoy Alicia’s photographs (want them!) and hope you do, too.
You can buy Alicia’s work on her website here or in her Etsy store here.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m jobless right now, but I find myself in moments of big want. Sometimes they pass, the feelings of “must have,” but but sometimes they stick. This morning’s big want is a collection of hand-made log & stump images. Priority? Absolutely not. But for months, I’ve been drawn to several of these illustrations, and a new one just caught my attention, bringing the whole log-want-fest back up to the surface.
Log Village Number 2 Silkscreen Print - by smallstump
Black Forest Stumps - Original Painting - by eggmanstudios
This new find has now taken the lead in stump-neediness-land. Pile of Wood on Paper - by Gennine. (Big bonus that it’s on handmade paper - yay!)
OK, I’ve listed those here so you can go buy them now. That way, next time temptation hits, they will no longer be an option for me. But they need a good home, so get on with it!
On a side note, there is a reason for the want. There’s an explanation, I swear! It’s not completely a consumer-driven-world affect. For as long as I can remember now, I’ve been drawn to homes filled with eccentric stuff. Not gew-gaws - meaningful stuff. Family photographs, stacks and cases of books, drawings, collections big and small, eccentric pieces picked up at flea markets, mismatched everything, all held together by bright colors, love and an ability to “let go.”
I recently visited the home of an eccentric man who’d just died. Being in the home during the visitation (party, really) was, for me, like being in a museum of letting go and living life. The home was a testament to the way he enjoyed art and objects and food and people and animals, appreciated the moment (evidenced by all sorts of photographs, everywhere), loved having other people around, and let everything - even the banana stickers - have a place. That is the way I want to appreciate life - constantly surround myself by evidence of life and love.
P.S. If you, too, have an itch to start collecting, check out poppytalk’s collecting posts. They’ll totally inspire. Or get you into some serious trouble.
