here's lliam in his costume - I couldn't get piper to wear hers - maybe when we go out she will be more inclined. lliam walked to school in his costume and he got a lot of big smiles.

have a happy halloween!

the air was crisp and cool last night when we were walking to judith's opening in her studio - sown in washi had a wonderful turn out and the work was beautiful - the pictures I took doesn't do it justice - they are dyed paper that judith pieced together and sewn. every sunday afternoon in november she will have her studio open - check it out if your in the neighbourhood - her studio is located around the corner from the paper place.

if you have little ones - this weekend is pretty exciting times. lliam wanted to be a dinosaur (a t-rex to be exact) for halloween - and he specifically wanted a handmade costume (that's my boy) I made his tail out of an old pair of pants and john worked on the head with lliam's help. I liked how john crumpled the cardboard to give the surface more texture. lliam and lil piper will be in full costume later in the day and I will post a photo of what they wore.

my professor Jane Buyers from grad school is retiring this year - she is an amazing sculptor, printmaker and drawer - all the things I want to be strong at - there will be a party for her next week - I am teaching, but hopefully I will still make it. during my time at UofW she was very influential and will be sorely missed.

our friend Art Di Lella made these beautiful whales casted out of bronze - the sculptures are one of a kind and once they are gone he won't be making more. I will post more photos later - they will also be up for sale on our etsy shop. Check out the process shots of Art applying the patina over at Barbara's blog.

new storage boxes - lines in indigo and the triangle flower - I don't have both sizes of my storage boxes listed online - if you want a large one let me know - I usually make them in smaller quantities.

there was something creepy about this tiny doll sitting there staring at me sewing with her head slightly tilted - I wasn't the only one - lliam agreed. he didn't use the word creepy - he said funny. piper trying her hardest to move pumpkins that weigh more than her. we offered her a tiny one to make her happy.

when I go to a restaurant with my kids I for some reason forget to bring things to entertain them with - I remember one time john and I was sitting in a restaurant and this mom was beside us and she pulled out this bag filled with toys and snacks and paper and crayons and we both looked at each other feeling like we were so ill prepared. recently we went for lunch at the lakeview and the kids were squirmy and I was scrambling looking for something in my bag and all I found was a pack of small oragami paper - I was so proud of myself for having something to entertain them with - we all sat around happily folding objects....hmmm that lasted for all of five minutes.

came across this image in geninne's BEAUTIFUL pinterest.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend - on saturday john and I did the silkscreen and letterpress workshop in conjunction with the paper place. it was a lot of fun - I think it's a wonderful way to try two printing techniques at the same time. students brought their own images for the silkscreen component and used our images and movable type for the letterpress printing. I am hoping in the near future I can do more of these. here are some highlights.

*I wanted to post a few helpful links - I get a lot of emails regarding helpful information regarding letterpress printing tips and techniques. some helpful info for printing would be from briar press (good for looking for a press or for classes in your area or questions regarding your press in general) - although I don't whole heartedly agree with some of the people commenting on this site, they are a bit rude sometimes.

a very helpful blog would be dolce press (I found her tip on using an elastic band instead of your grippers very helpful - a tip I use everyday)-she also goes into how to clean your press and the different types of paper that is good for printing, how to dampen your paper to get an even print, how to add small bits of masking tape as packing to change little areas to make your overall print better and lots more.

another helpful site is boxcar press - one of the tips that I found helpful from boxcar was putting masking tape on the roller guide to move the rollers up so that there is less inking on your plate and avoiding blotchyness. they also have some good tips on designing your file to be made into plates.

hope this info is helpful - happy printing.

e d i t i o n s siting - thanks margie - so nice to be part of your wonderful art collection - she is also having a shop update - be sure to check it out, her work usually gets snatched up so quickly.

beautiful ogaki typeface via monoscope

the next e d i t i o n s will soon be ready - here is a peek with little piper modeling. she makes me smile so big - she is so adorable! It's nice to see the positive response to this series of work -no.2 is a scarf of my photograph that was digitally printed on a light weight cotton lawn fabric. I will have them available next week - there will only be 12 in this e d i t i o n. I have had emails regarding my workshops - I am taking a break from doing workshops with increase in demand from retailers, online sales and projects like the e d i t i o n s and new ceramics plus teaching at OCAD - I felt I had to cut back. for silkscreening in toronto I highly recommend the workshops at Harbourfront Centre Textiles studio. at this time I can't recommend a place to do letterpress workshops - I know there is lots of studios in the city, but I only want to recommend a place I have experienced myself - since I was a textile resident at Harbourfront for two years I know that it would be a great place to learn textile printing.

have an awesome weekend my friends!

I had the pleasure of meeting angela and her beautiful family last winter. she has since moved her studio into a storefront. check out angela's shop here and her blog here.

john had an old tweed blazer that he no longer wanted - so as an experiment - I removed the lining - (I didn't realize the amount of work that goes into the lining of a blazer) - I wanted to re-design it to fit me - I put it on inside out and my brother help me pin it. I will show you the final results later. It's turning out to be a bit of a challenge - but I think I can make it work.

this year is exciting for us because it celebrates eight years of business - thinking about eight years made me reminisce about ideas that never came to fruition (I'm sure we all go through this) - not sure why these prototypes were never made, when looking back I quite like them.

lliam is super talented - he did this beautiful drawing of dinosaurs for his cousins birthday. we framed it and he was so proud. I rescued a pile of logs and branches from john's parents backyard - I need to get some projects out of the way. I am using the branches to do garland mobiles with the ceramic discs I made awhile ago. I'm not sure what to do with the logs either coasters or little bowls. I love the dark center - I think it's walnut.

hi there, hope you had a good weekend. I was able to meet up with alexx and he gave me some samples from my new ceramics line that I am doing with him. I designed a tumbler, bowl and vase all based on cylinders (will show you the vase later - similar to the tumbler design just larger). I played around with my drawings on photoshop to see how my images would look on the pieces. I am also working on a bud vase design to be a part of the e d i t i o n s series. I am so excited! hope you like them - enjoy your monday.

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today a lovely group of students from Carnegie Mellon University (Industrial and Communication Design) had a scheduled visit with us. It was so nice to chat with them about running a small business, our techniques and processes. They also liked how we were also combining letterpress in our business - some of the students had taken letterpress at school and we enjoyed chatting about letterpress and how we enjoy the slow by hand process. After the visit they gave me a beautiful sketchbook - the cover had a pattern and logo that was laser engraved and the belly band was letterpress printed. In the photo I think piper was doing something cute - I was too focused on capturing the group and I didn't include what she was doing.

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this week has been a week of tying loose ends and it also included writing my grant application for the OAC grants. the above image is a manipulated image of a photograph I took of the Alsop OCAD extension - the image was intentionally blurred and grainey. this image is a sneak peek at the next e d i t i o n s - more details soon.

::have a lovely weekend my friends::

always nice to get emails from customers - this one was from Aiko with a link to her mother's blog where she used the pussy willow fabric to make these adorable storage boxes. Thanks Aiko.

thanks celine for your homemade grape jam (always enjoy your visits)- it was a big hit over the thanksgiving weekend. a beautiful package from second storie - love using my stickers from the oh joy label set for online packages - a gift from barbara. hope your all enjoying your week - I am so thankful to john for helping me do a lot of letterpress printing - will be showing you new designs later on in the week.

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one of the things I keep saying to myself is that I wish I brought more fabric to my natural dyeing workshop (margie let me know when your up for a dyeing party). I will be using these pieces for my sculptural work - the tones fit nicely. It was so nice to find a cheque for the sale of a salt sculpture in my mailbox from galerie st. laurent + hill (an Ottawa gallery that has been with me from the start) - they were also responsible for my work being purchased by the City of Ottawa.

I'm having a sale of my fat quarter prints - limited quantities all $6 each - check it out!

we had a nice getaway to john's parents house for a few days - but we can't fool you, it wasn't all r&r - both john and I bring work with us and sneak it in-between family time. I can't remember a thanksgiving where we spent our days in the hot sun. a few glimpses from our weekend.