Last Frantic Day in Penland!

So, in that bikini I was printing these guys- twentyfourteeth.com promotional materials! Because I used woodtype I only had enough letters to spell out "twenty four" for one run, and then "teeth.com" on another. 

Woodtype opportunity was shrinking, and Megan was certainly taking advantage.  Check out her awesome work here: http://typothecaryletterpress.com/ Look how nice and neat she keeps her press space even on a messy day!

Yeah, here's mine at the same time...

Because I was set to print these nice, fat, pieces of type that had been hanging out over in the composition area...

We had to set up for show and tell, so I harvested parts of the school and rearranged some. 

And then we cleaned up, at least a little. 

Fun with Silk Screen!

Because I could I decided to take a break from Vandercooking and make a silk screen and then (in my  head) I figured I'd be able to screen an all-over-print and things would go so much faster!  I hand cut these stencils out of the letterpress prints I had made.

Created a layout that should have more or less worked out for all over printing.

Made a fancy screen.

And then printing on paper turned into a gooey fiasco. So instead I printed myself a tee-shirt, which was also a gooey mess, but that's ok when it's on fabric.

The tee-shirt worked out so nicely that I went into the storage closet and got a used bed sheet before I took my lunch/ dinner break.

Guess what I'm eating? Yup, sardines and beans. My favorite. 

Came back to the studio and sat down to hand sew.

Because the next day was set to be 70 degrees!  With my press right in the sun!

Hanging out with the Masteress Printers, Rory Sparks and Emily Arthur.

And here I am getting sunburned shoulders at my press, working my lil tail off! Temperature was PERFECT for a bikini!

Concussion Work Day

I'm pretty sure that when I slipped and hit my head on the way to the studio that I had a concussion. For sure I made interesting decisions that day.  I made a screen of the sardines that I couldn't get to work properly, so I decided to cut down three 60 foot rolls of butcher paper and print all the little fish on the vandercook.  First of all, I tore down all the cheap paper, which in my hazy state was fascinating...

All trimmed down it made quite an intimidating stack...

Did I mention I strained my wrist on the way down?  Don't worry, the blue is from the ink.

over-flowing racks several hours later.

Those several hundred fish added to the school.

Miss Sparks getting overwhelmed by a portion of the new school.

Playing well with other ephemera.

I'm not sure how the final install of these will go.  While I was making them I was thinking that they would decorate the walls of room 301. But part of me wants to cut them all out of their enclosures laminate them and create a curtain or chandelier from the little guys.  So many decisions. 

General Pictures of NC.

People in North Carolina must like licorice almost as much as I do, because the allsorts were always very fresh, and sometimes joined at the hip.

I walked home from the studio one night to find out I was dressed like this. 

Classic Eames at the Laudromat that Rory and I had to drive 20 miles to find. So welcoming. 

Ah, yes, the stereotypes abound. Notice the hail on the back windshield. 

And yet in Ashville there's a winebar, coffeeshop, used bookstore, indoor dog park. 

With books featuring such awesome illustrations as this. Also a book I should have bought called "The Art of the Hand Written Note" by Margaret Shepherd, which featured suggestions for the sorts of notes which should come hand written.  Amoung them was this classic (I paraphrase) "Your socks are on the windshield to remind you that your stuff is packed in your car."

And a place that made delicious hand fried potato chips made from only the best.  How they can't have plenty of potatoes in North Carolina I don't know. 

Shark Joss Proposed Project

When I applied to Penland I proposed this project to make replicas of traditional Chinese Joss paper (money for the ancestors), of which some types look like this:

Mine are supposed to be money for the shark ancestors, and instead look like this:

The major interior image is of a megalodon tooth.  Here's an image of a megalodon model being moved; as you can see, they were significantly larger than even the largest sharks are today.  Luckily a lot larger than the sharks I will be bringing to Boston.  The Joss will be one of the many things that falls out of the broken pinatas. 

Here are a couple of the papers as I prepared them for the final, dark level with the actual image

And here is a video of the process. So, after I did one print run of the red swath I would run the paper twice to print the silver square which I would then adhere the gold leaf to.

It's great to plan something simple and have it work out EXACTLY as you planned everyonceinawhile!  Certainly not true of all my Penland endeavors, but this proposed one went splendidly!

Return to Penland! Tuna Tuesday!

I know I've been a wicked graduate student, remiss in my blogging duties!  But I intend to remedy that here as I wait for the mail to bring me my copy of my second draft that has Stuart's lovely scribbles all over it.  It's pathetic, I know, to be procrastinating from rewriting my paper by catching up on my blog, but there it is!

And here are 3 images of Tuna Tuesday preparations ala Penland!  I took video of a snippet of the ordeal, but am too lazy to load it today.  Instead you get eager Apple and Olive watching their Print Masteress Mama with love-

Rory Sparks slicing the delightful cheese...

and the table set with burnt sandwiches and Celebration Ale, which was still available the second week of January. 

If you want to check out a super awesome food related blog (as opposed to my sometimes food related rantings) may I recommend http://www.looklistensmelleat.com/ Lisa Mishima's super-awesome one.

First Draft Away!

So, this is the Discovery Channel Building celebrating Shark Week, according to Wikipedia.

And this is the BonePile Grill's Filipino Great White. Love the 2x4 mounting system they have rigged up

Mike and I actually stopped at this place between Newport and Lincoln City on the 101 back in April.  However, it wasn't open that day.  Today it was, and I ordered a S.O.B. Sandwich (various lovely bbq things were in it, and it came with coleslaw). 

I somehow managed to pass on the free range possum and hormone free beaver.  If you are ever on the 101 stop on by-  the bad taste, vaguely shark related memorabilia would make it worth it, even if the food wasn't as absolutely fantastic as it certainly turned out to be.

I will get back to the rest of my Penland adventure soon enough. However, it's fat Tuesday and I should be tiling...