new this week

New to Bamboo Village Press this week, I'm excited to announce I finally have a PDF version of my popular iron-on transfers of various styles of papercuts. I figured for those of you who are savvy enough on the computer, you might enjoy being able to print these beauties at whim, using them in any crafty application that strikes your fancy. So far, we have the acrobat girls, pagodas and Chinese girls, and phoenixes and dragons.

 I am also slowing gathering up my collection of Asian fabrics to offer through the shop. I've added a really cool Robert Kaufman print that comes in both black and red, some really cute, kitschy China doll prints (photos below) that will be up this weekend, a Kona Bay dragon fabric that's now out of print, more silk brocades, and some unique Japanese fabric in a lovely goldenrod yellow that I particularly love. I'm getting low on brocade yardage, so get it while you still can! Wow, seeing that all listed, I'm amazed at what I've gotten done!

 

Finally, I'm particularly happy to say I've added one of my own prints - the double happiness fish is back, this time in the form of small-scale prints. I posted about the process of making them here. These beauties are a limited edition print - I used all of the gorgeous, nubbly handmade paper we had on hand for this print run.

 

Thanks as always for your interest and support!

November Special!

 As a Thanksgiving baby, I'm partial to November. The leaves, the crisp autumn air, the possibility of a first snow, setting aside time for experiencing deep wells of gratitude, seeing family, and eating great food. It's a lovely month.

This year, I kicked off by deciding to participate in NaBloPoMo on my family blog, and then was delightedly surprised yesterday when I was contacted by the sharp-eyed design blogger Gay, who wrote to tell me that she'd included my hand printed Cricket Moleskine in her latest post. If you haven't come across I Dreamed I Saw before, be sure to check it out. Her themed posts cover beautiful, diverse, and whimsical designs - it's a great place to get inspired about holiday shopping or simply to get lost in the strange beauty she shares with her readers.

Then this evening I sat down at the computer (to finish this post!) and found out that the lovely Katie of EdensWake  included my "Love" linen notebook in her stunning Treasury. What a cool shop Katie has! She makes fancy purses and accessories, and in a nice bit of synchronicity, her sister (like mine) also has a shop.

The Special!!

I was working on getting some items back in the shop this morning (think Happiness Fish Towels and Phoenix Iron-Ons!), and decided that I'd put the whole Papercut Section on Special this month. I'm excited to offer free US domestic shipping on everything from this section! Enjoy!!

Spotlight on BVP

It's fun to have a moment in the sun, isn't it? Things are going really well at Bamboo Village Press, and that means that things are also going well for Bamboo Village Educational Fund. For once, I'm excited about getting to the taxes, because then I'll be able to come and report to you how much we raised in 2007! Who would have thought that my little idea that emerged after visiting China last winter would have actually developed into something real? It amazes me.

I mentioned a while ago that I'm one of the featured artists on this month's Poppytalk Handmade Marketplace - very cool! It's packed with some amazing pieces, like wall graphics from One Up, these amazing cards I've been coveting for a while by uccello curioso, and even fine art pieces by eric leichty. If you've taken the handmade pledge, Poppytalk Handmade Market is a great place to bookmark and will make the sometimes overwhelming volume of items on Etsy much more manageable.

Tonight I switched around some of my items in the market, and this is what it looks like. Etsy doesn't provide site stats, so I can't tell how much traffic is being generated, but it's sure to be helping!

Meanwhile, Jen from Indie Fixx contacted me and made my day today by informing me that BVP is a pick in their Valentine's Day Gift Guide! What a treat - that was even better than getting a big heart-shaped box of chocolates! Look how pretty:

Indie Fixx is a celebration of the creativity, tenacity, and general
spunky goodness that is the indie design movement. The indie design movement
is made up of artists, crafters and designers who make
a literal smorgasbord of delectable indie products.
Once you shop indie, you’ll never go back.

Thanks to both Poppytalk and Indie Fixx for selecting Bamboo Village - it means a lot to me personally, but even more, the attention helps Bamboo Village Educational Fund, and that's what it's all about!

Who am I to blow against the wind?

One afternoon in 2002, while I was living in Chengdu, I had wandered into a restaurant and was sitting, looking out the window at this big, uncertain world around me. People were everywhere, like in so many cities, but especially characteristic in Chinese cities, and I remember thinking that I was so insignificant, so helpless to make any lasting change or impression on a world so troubled. At the time, I was in a relationship with He Zegang, the man who would the next year become my husband, and in that moment, I thought maybe 20 years down the road I would be able to look back on the life we made (thinking it would be in China) and you know, write a book like every good American should. And I thought I would title the book "Blowing Against the Wind."

produce market, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. 01/07

Tonight I have a heavy heart. It's been a couple of days of feeling the tidal wave of responsibilities and ambitions may overwhelm me, and I suppose it only made matters worse that Laurie and I watched A Mighty Heart, which my tender and susceptible heart could barely endure. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a viewing. I'd also even more highly recommend Krista Tippett's interview with Mariane Pearl on Speaking of Faith.

Today I also learned that one of my sisters in infertility had a chemical pregnancy from her latest round of IVF, and my soul purely aches for her. I thought of her yesterday as I was dashing between projects, and said to myself "I'd like to live in a world where she finally gets her positive pregnancy test." Alas, it's not that kind of world, quite apparently.

It's just one of those times when it all feels so gruesome, so enormous, so beyond reach, you know?

shy girls in DaMiao Village, Sichuan. 05/01

I've been working on a post about sweatshops in China and how to find companies who engage in Fair Trade practices, but it's not done yet. So, in lieu of a completed post with carefully thought-out ideas, I'm just showing up as your fellow human tonight, sad and concerned about the state of our world. Do you think about these things in your daily life? How do your encounter the vastnes of our human experience? Care to share? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

little Meimei and her great grandmother. DaMiao Village., Sichuan. 01/07

here fishy fishy

New design for the gocco.... survey says?

What do you think?






ps: I'd love it if you'd sign my guestbook at the bottom of the page!

bat wings WIP

I thought I'd open the studio up today... I've been dying to start using my gocco for cloth printing, but with a schedule as tight as I've had lately, the process has been slow. This weekend, I got to start on the work for the first screen.

I decided that in the spirit of the autumn, I thought I'd use the weird-looking bat nuts I brought back from Sichuan in 2002. They look Halloween-y don't they? So, I took some photos, and then edited the best one to use on the silk screen.







Then I just had to print it out and xerox it for burning the screen master.

Today I made the screen and discovered the challenges of printing on cloth! First, the ink is really thick and dries fast, making it difficult to mix. As far as I can tell, the fabric inks only come in black, white, red, yellow, blue, green and brown. When I tried mixing the brown to come up with a more appealing walnut color, I quickly realized that this trial-and error process was going to waste a lot of ink! So I tried printing the brown mix and wasn't happy with the resulting print. So of course, I switched to black!















Now I'm pretty happy with the print. It does take some getting used to, though! Although I didn't want black for this particular graphic, I'm going to stick with it for now. What do you think? Is the image too weird? Cool?



ETA: Although I don't have the towels ready to show, I do have some fabric panels finished and they look AWESOME! I'll be posting them as supplies tonight on Bamboo Village Supply.

"tuo xiang le" - I've succombed

I might as well admit it: I've been a little more than naughty lately. I just adopted Devon's yarn collection, which amounts to a mountain of high-quality wool (like Malabrigo, Peace Fleece, and LTK yarn), and today the zakka got the best of me, and I bought this gorgeous book. It's much more exotic for the fact that it's being shipped from Japan! Who can resist this kind of ethereal cuteness???




















I was sorely tempted to get this book, too:
























Otherwise, this week has been all about work, and sadly, not Bamboo Village work. I've got several things in the pipelines, though. Maybe I'll manage to get them photographed for your perusal today.

I did manage to get a post up on Travels With Swatchy, though, so that was a huge relief! I've taken Swatchy many places this summer, so I've got to start getting them written up.

The best news of this week is that we confirmed the money transfer has been successfully completed - Zhang Lin's tuition is paid! Hoooooray! Interesting that this is 9 months after our visit to China - a nice gestation period for Bamboo Village and our first successful sponsorship. :o)

traveling

I know it's "wrong" for me to post the latest photo of Swatchy Hugz here, and not on Travels with Swatchy where he belongs, but we wanted to say HI from Atlanta!

This week, I met some new friends online - a couple of artists new to Etsy, and I'm excited that we'll be doing an interview with them next week! My first interview! It sounds like they want to partner up somehow to help Bamboo Village, which is really cool! So you'll be meeting them soon.

In other news, I have been a knitting fool lately! I'm knitting some amazing socks from Interweave Knits new issue - they're all cabled and beautiful. I'm also thinking I've leapt into a higher level of knitting obsession - this trip I think I packed more yarn than clothes. And I've purchased more yarn since being here!

I'll be home on Sunday, so there will be lots of new things to share then. For now, greetings from Atlanta!

ready, set. GOCCO!

I don't know what the block was to getting another post written... I did so enjoy looking at those blue bottles, I think that might have been part of it, lol. This week, there's not a lot of news about Zhang Lin except that she's started back to school already and now I have to figure out how to get the funds over there!

Meanwhile, not only did I finally get my gocco, but today I broke it in! Do you know what a gocco is? It's a Japanese home screen printer, and it's such a revolutionary little toy, it's crazy. I was concerned about fine lines, and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could have even gotten away with even finer lines than the ones I drew, but I'm getting ahead of myself, here.

I took pictures and everything. This is just a one by one set of shots... there are notes about them all in my flickr photostream.

Step 1: draw your design, and set in the gocco printer. Load the screen.


Step 2: load the bulbs, and set that in the cover. Press hard and the bulbs flash (and burn out), burning the screen.



Step 3: examine your screen, a.k.a. one of the coolest things, EVAR.



Step 4: Ink the screen, set your paper beneath, and peel off the original.



Step 5: press the screen down, and voila! a print!



Here are the finals - the owl and the hedgehog. I'm less confident about the hedgie, so he's not been posted in the shop...



It has actually been a very productive week over here, craft-wise. There's been a whole lot of photography for my ravelry account. And there's been knitting... knitting "Luxe" a neckwarmer pattern I am loving. Here are 2:



Finally, my sister came to visit! We went to see Rufus Wainwright on Friday night, which was truly memorable. Niko Case opened, we were in an outdoor venue, and there was a glorious thunderstorm between acts. It was fantastic. And before we went to the concert, we spent some time at Rosie's... where the sister simply sat and inhaled wool fumes and fondled wonderful fibers.