SOUVENIR Beach House pop up

Souvenir's latest concept pop up shop for Spring is opening tonight! They'll be bringing you a mix of new and vintage treasures, with some exclusive new work from their favourite designers and some new and exciting pieces from their latest group of collaborators. Snap + Tumble starburst cards will be there too for your correspondence and stationery needs!

Project Gallery
1109 Queen St. East
THURS 06:00-11:00pm
FRI 11:00-08:00pm
SAT 11:00-07:00pm
SUN 11:00-05:00pm

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euro wood type

My good friend, Christopher Rouleau, just came back from a remarkable trip to Paris and among the things he brought back, were a set of vintage type. When he visited me a couple of weeks ago to share stories of his trip, he showed me the letters and I told him that he needed to print those stat! And without hesitation he inked up those beauties right then and there. Out of the four presses that I own, the letters would've only printed well on the Morgan Line-O-Scribe for two reasons: 1). it's the only press big enough and 2). it has an adjustable roller height. Apparently because the letters came from Europe, they weren't exactly type-high. They were in fact considerably higher. I knew the Morgan would come in handy :)

Check out more beautiful photo accounts of Christopher's trip to Paris here!

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totem cards

to·tem (noun)

Anything serving as a distinctive, often venerated, emblem or symbol.

 

There is something about this starburst shape that I love and can't seem to stop printing with. I once saw it referred to as a Slocum seal but haven't since found any more information about it. It's become my favorite go to piece when I'm printing on the Showcard press. Maybe it has something to do with how large the block is and how satisfying it is to roll an inked brayer over it. And no matter what colour it lays down, it always looks so, so good. Is it just me or do you also have something similar that you like to see in print? Is there something you have an affinity for and keep printing, drawing or painting?

 

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a new press! the Morgan Line-O-Scribe

Thanks to a former workshop participant, I got a heads up about a press that was for sale on Kijiji last week. It took me a whole five minutes to decide if whether or not I wanted it. I was a little surprised to find out that the press was still available after I saw how many hits the ad got. Presses are rare and usually snapped up before you even knew it was for sale.

I was happy to learn that this press, a Morgan Line-O-Scribe, was well-loved and used by its previous owner. But she was making room for a much larger press and I assured her that the Morgan was going to be in very good hands.

This latest acquirement brings my press collection up to four. The Adana Eight-Five, the Chandler & Price 6.5 x 10", the mini Showcard and now, the Line-O-Scribe. The main reason I wanted this particular press was because of it's size. The print bed is 14 x 22", which is double the size of my Showcard. What makes this proof press special to my collection is that it comes with an ink plate and rollers! This means that I don't have to use a brayer. I've only seen a couple of these types of presses online and they were without the ink train. Another great feature of this press is that you can adjust the pressure. This should come in handy when I'm using different types of paper and cardstock.

I was able to try it out the press a couple of days ago. I locked up some of my large wood type upside down and went to town. Oh, so much room to play! I'm looking forward to experimenting with woodcuts and large linoleum blocks.

And, seriously - I can't get any more presses. That is, until I move into a bigger space :)

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As we live a life of ease
Every one of us has all we need 

Sky of blue and sea of green

In our yellow submarine 

- The Beatles

 Sometimes you just have to print a yellow submarine card.

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colour block play II

More colour block play. It's no surprise that I lean towards blues, greens, whites and neutrals. You can see it in alot of my work. Though, I didn't think that these three colours would mix well but I actually quite like it - what do you think? The print in the middle was my test print and it happens to be my favorite. I'm enjoying adding more and more layers. Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop. I guess that's why I carved out some time to 'play' to find out what works and what doesn't.

Good weekend, all! And, Spring - where the heck are you?

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colour blocks 1

Sometimes I just want to see what a few colours would look like together in print. Playing with these wood block punctuation marks on the Showcard press lets me do just that, quickly and easily. Because I'm not using type for these experiements, it's easy for me to simply focus on the colours and see nothing else other than that. Also by using the punctuation marks, which are basically rectangular in shape, I decided to casually put them together and was always happily met with the final result. The random arrangement of the shapes, patterns, colours and overlays is a nice way to break away from other projects and type-related matter. I'm hoping to create a few more works of these mini-wall-art prints with different colour ways.

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