An Inspiration Day

It's pouring in DC today and it feels like monsoon season in Hong Kong here. It reminds me of the huge vines that would grow in our driveway, the five foot webs that spiders would weave between the guardrails and the tree branches, and the sound of the drains that turned into rushing rivers in minutes. I am holed up in the apartment with a cup of jasmine tea, a stack of papers to be organized, and a pile of art supplies begging to be used.Thinking...

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First Farmers Market

This Sunday was my first time as a vendor at the Baltimore Farmers Market, probably the biggest farmers market I've ever been to. While it wasn't my best market ever, I have a new-found respect for farmers market vendors who wake up pre-dawn for markets that open at 7am. We drove around deserted Baltimore at 5:30 am looking for the market, ignoring street signs that said "No turn on red after 7am." It was very strange to be setting up in the dark,...

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Hot off the presses

On Thursday night I headed over to Pyramid Atlantic for the Block Printing Happy Hour to print my newly finished linoleum carving. I spent approximately eight hours straight on Thursday finishing the piece I was working on at Arts on Foot, and ten minutes before I had to get in the car I finally finished the last cut. My hand felt like it was on fire, but my favorite part about linoleum printing is the period between finishing the carving and printing,...

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Around the Studio

With the Baltimore Farmer's Market this Sunday, the World Maker Faire in Queens the weekend after that and more wholesale orders coming in, things have been very busy around the studio lately. The to-do list seems never ending, and it feels like the days are getting shorter. But, it feels great. I am getting so much accomplished, even though every time I do one thing it reminds me of two more things to follow up with.Today I have been working on...

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The World's Largest Collection of Printing Blocks

I've been thinking lately of these pictures I took in India in 2007 of the world's largest collection of printing blocks. I visited this house just outside of Jaipur as part of my research on the history of block printing, and every wall was covered with shelves and shelves of blocks: a catalog of patterns from the last several decades. If you look closely you might recognize the pattern from your tablecloth or sheets; I found a few I recognized...

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What a weekend

This weekend I had a booth at the Arts on Foot festival in Penn Quarter. The stars must have aligned the night before because the weather was perfect, the crowds were huge, and there were some really great people stopping by the booth. I went from a little anxious about being completely self-employed to being over the moon.For the first time at a market, I was doing a demo on how to carve linoleum blocks, with a big new piece I am working on. Kids...

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Finally, new packaging!

As part of my plan to "get serious," I have been working on a new package design for my card sets. I needed something that would protect the cards without obstructing the image, something economical, and something that didn't involve a lot of plastic wrap.After several test runs using kraft paper, ribbon, vellum, and the idea of a sky-high priced stationery box, I settled on gardening twine and a printed tag. Neutral, economical and environmentally...

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