新东西- New Stuff - sneak preview

It's all coming together - new items are almost finished for the shop, just as I'm on my last few Cricket and Ancient Compass moleskines. I'm being a little hush-hush about what this is all for, but fear not - I'll be coming out with the whole story on Saturday! For now, here's a little preview:

a new 2-color printed moleskine, here's the look of color one:


The second is a new Year of the Rat design, seen here on some gift tags. These will be great for 2008 gifts, not only for new Rat Year babies, but also for all of your friends bearing the rat as their Chinese zodiac sign.

Rat year dates:

• 31 January 1900 - 18 February 1901
• 18 February 1912 - 5 February 1913
• 5 February 1924 - 24 January 1925
• 24 January 1936 - 10 February 1937
• 10 February 1948 - 28 January 1949
• 28 January 1960 - 14 February 1961
• 15 February 1972 - 2 February 1973
• 2 February 1984 - 19 February 1985
• 19 February 1996 - 6 February 1997
• 7 February 2008 - 25 January 2009

Here's our 2008 masot:


Finally, inspired by Lupin, I'm trying for a little daily craft by joining Crafting 365. I certainly accomplished the goal today! ^_^

ps: Did you see Laurie's new design? gah, it melts mah heart every time I see it!!

收获 - acquisitions - prints!

收获 acquisition/pron: shou1 huo4

Today I thought I'd share some of the fabulous finds I've come across (and taken home) lately. Etsy is the most amazing marketplace, bursting with talents on the rise and those cruising right along. Since my housing situation changed about 2 months ago, I've been trying to beautify my living space, and this weekend, I'm framing some of the pieces I've got to hang up on these walls!

Joseph Blake

My first introduction is Joseph Blake, a Philadelphia illustrator, is a recent RISD grad. I've been admiring his work since discovering his shop a few months ago, and finally couldn't resist grabbing up one of this prints for myself.

This is the one I got, titled Midwinter:

Joseph got this into the mail immediately, and it arrived the next day, much to my delight. The packaging was impeccable, beautifully put together with extras and a personal note on the back of the print. Fabulosity!

I will definitely be following this rising star. I love his visual tone and his little narratives about the pieces. On some of his listings, he even shows the originals in his work space, which I just adore. I wrote to him that he reminds me of one of my very favorite children's lit illustrators: David Christiana:

I've already got Midwinter framed and ready to hang next to another recent acquisition: Snow Day.

OUOU


Now, of course I'm partial to this particular print, since it was made by my roomie and sister and I got to see every step of the creative process, but seriously? this is one of the cutest things ever. I can just see these two being transformed into rag dolls of the sort I played with as a kid, the sort made by our grandmas. This was our first experiment with 2-color Gocco printing with registration, and it was a phenomenal success.

Strawberry Luna

Back in August, Laurie and I went to see fabulous, joy-provoking Rufus Wainwright, and afterwards, she found another Etsy genius: Strawberry Luna, a print maker who makes gig posters! She surprised me with a gift of this fabulous print from the show:


lineanongrata

Finally, one last print is on its way to me, and it's by an artist from France! I just love being able to purchase fantastic art from folks in other countries, and have had lineanongrata in my list of favorites for quite some time. Her story is personally inspiring - she talks about her journey through other professions before going into illustration in her Etsy profile. I love knowing this about her... as another one who is coming to her artistic senses after working in other careers, I feel a kinship with this woman. I love her style and look forward to growing my collection. I can't wait to get this print in the mail: wintergirl


Are you seeing a theme coming together here?? I've got kiddos on my mind lately, and just love the idea of filling my "children & creativity" feng shui area of my home with these gorgeous and inspiring works!

Yes Grasshoppah

Big changes are taking place! Friday was my last day at my full time job, and now I am officially self employed! Hooray! Yikes! Exciting! Scary!

I've got a lot of change coming up in the next few months, so when I decided to leave my job, I thought "what the heck, let's give Bamboo Village a shot." I'll be taking the next months to form Bamboo Village Educational Fund as a real non-governmental organization, and will be spending lots of time doing product development for Bamboo Village Press. It's all terrifically exciting, and if you have any advice, I'm all ears!

One of the first projects I'm working on is a two-color Gocco print. My sister just completed her first last night, and after all of your brains stop exploding from the indescribable cuteness of her print, I'll be posting mine (which won't be fitting in the "cute" category). As a way to commemorate the beginnings of this new endeavor, I'm making a print in the spirit of Zhang Lin, BVEFs first sponsored student. I'll tell you only that there will be Chinese characters, a cricket, and moleskines involved. It's gonna be pretty cool!

Happily, being an at-home worker is going to mean more posting, more information on Sichuan, China, interviews with Etsy artists and others working for the greater good. I'm excited to be able to move this cause forward!

With that, I leave you with this shot of me from last night, working carefully over the light box. See you soon!