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!

新东西- New Stuff - Crickets & Compasses

Here I am in my second week of self employment, and only now do I have a chance to check in! It's been a real process of adjustment, getting used to the new flow of time and trying to reorganize my space without spending a ton of money. Things are finally settling down, and I've got some new introductions to make!

Emblem of Courage

I've been working on this new design for a while - I had the idea a few weeks ago to pair a screened image of a hand-written letter in Chinese with some sort of symbol. I took the letter of introduction we received about Zhang Lin during the process of coming to sponsor her education and made it ready for burning a Gocco screen. Then I spend quite some time toying with which symbol to overlay. Too busy and it would fight with the Chinese characters. Too simple, I could end up with something meaningless. Finally I settled on the cricket, a beloved little beast in Chinese culture and a symbol of courage. Courage seemed like a perfect match for Zhang Lin, who has been through so much in her young life.

Last night I did the printing, both on moleskines, cards, and tags. They came out so well! I'm excited about posting them in my shop as well as using these cards in my Bamboo Village correspondence. Whether or not this story means anything to you, I hope the design will stand on its own as a beautiful print.


Ancient Compass

During the process of developing the cricket design, I was suddenly inspired with another design idea which ended up being a quick and successful print. I launched the Ancient Compass Moleskine last week and have met with great success and attention. Every time I list one, they generate more traffic than any other item in my shop. These are a great gift for guys - evidenced by the fact that every one that's sold has been purchased by men! Very exciting!

The design is a modified photograph of a fengshui luopan (风水罗盘） - a compass used in hard core feng shui consultations for determining energy flow in physical space.


More Cozy for the Coffee

Finally, I whipped up a couple more french press coffee cozies (one and two). These pretties have been warmly received in the shop since I made up the pattern last month, so I've got one on the needles just about all the time now.

December is turning out to be my best month ever, for more reasons than just Bamboo Village Press. I'm so excited to be fully engaged in this new endeavor, and can't wait to get more work done on the Educational Fund! Coming soon, we've got a new guest artist, and I will finally be able to do some writing about life in rural Sichuan, China.