Funnelcloud Prints

I find that the art that has been catching my eye of late is chock-full of patterns and bright colors, ideally lots of both.  So it's no surprise that I went ape over these Funnelcloud Studio prints.  Funnelcloud is Rachel Roellke, who lives just one town over from mine!  What joy!  Scroll down for more happy prints:

One perk of her being a local is her fantastic patchwork Virginia print.  Is it weird that I love the shape of my state?  It seems somehow silly and yet also stately.  She also has DC and Maryland versions, and is taking requests for other states!  As much as I love the colors in the above prints (and lots more), as both a collector of river stones and builder of cairns in the wild, I fell head over heels for these:

Even in grayscale, those patterns just leap out at you.  And the shapes!  Is there a Funnelcloud Fan Club?  If so, sign me up.

state letterpress prints

Just when I decide to buckle down and start long-form blogging again (I've remained very active on Twitter and Tumblr), both of my digital cameras go kaput.  On the same day.  One of them isn't dead-dead (the battery's dead and the charger is missing in action), but the other one ominously produced a spark the last time I unplugged its upload cord and has refused to take photos since.

Fortunately, there will always be folks producing beautiful things that I can write about sans photos snapped by me.  Like these fantastic state letterpress prints, for example!  Do you live in a state that you like quite a lot?  I do!  Which is why I love the Virginia print (which is made even better by the presence of my alma mater's school colors).  Here are a few other, non-Virginia states (click photo for link):

Also awesome: snow globe prints!

blue barnhouse

I was adding some new cards to stock in the shop today and I came across some fantastic letterpress cards, all from Blue Barnhouse in Asheville, NC. The images above and below are both cards we carry, and a perusal of their website and store revealed more cards, some gorgeous wedding invitations, posters, and one kickass card made for Dave Chappelle himself. I just love the use of vintage images and adore their choice of fonts.

letters and letters

This piece, An American Puzzle by Lloyd G. Schermer, a gorgeous collage of old letterpress type, is my favourite in the SAAM (click on the photo for a closer look). I always make a point of dropping by to see it when I'm there, and I always notice something new. So I was pretty thrilled to see this as the subject of a recent Eye Level (the SAAM blog) post, and to get some background on the piece.

"Schermer worked for a newspaper in Missoula, Montana and in 1964 when the publication updated its manufacturing methods to offset lithography (which uses photography to transfer images to the paper), he saved many of the old type pieces, hoping he'd eventually find another use for them. Some type pieces are two hundred years old. Over the years, Schermer has collected enough type and engravings to fill over 900 drawers in his studio."

"It’s fun, too, to note the old-fashioned appearance of the plates: Mickey Mouse looks younger, if that’s possible, and the uniform of the football player seems to be right out of the 1920s. The piece belongs in a museum as a piece of art and a piece of history."

Be sure to search this piece out if ever you find yourself in the SAAM. Just look for the Luce Center, it's to the right just inside the door.

social calling cards

I'm a rather old-fashioned person. My best friend goes on and on about how the future of books lies with devices such as the Kindle, yet I cling tenaciously to me books (and will continue to do so, I'm sure, until I am good and dead). That said, it's really not surprising that something like social calling cards makes my heart go pittity-pat, despite their utter lack of usefulness in my life. Oh, but such a sweet, genteel concept! And so pretty!

Talk about class. Now I'm imagining how a fellow would react were I to present him with one of those beauties reading "Ms. Kelly Anne Williams, Design Junkie". Cos that's totally what mine would say. (via Cup of Jo)