I Can’t Be Trusted

This is a story of my personal inability to reason. Grab onto something.

My gocco printer has been sitting in the closet for nigh on 4 months now, waiting patiently for me to put it to work. I have been loving it from across the room all this time, dreaming and making plans for its employment, sending flirtatious glances its way, but I have been procrastinating. Yes! Procrastinating on actually printing something with it. Why?

I think part of the reason was that I didn’t want to screw up. Or waste paper. I wanted that first project to be perfect, and wonderful, and beautiful, and I was afraid that if it sucked I would have wasted a screen and 2 bulbs and however many pieces of paper I printed. I also had grand plans. I wanted to do something with multiple screens, 2 or 3 color overprints, and everything I had ideas for seemed inadequate.

Finally, I made the commitment to print our moving announcement/change of address cards with her. I designed and designed, getting the double sided card laid out just the way I wanted. I chose and cut a favorite paper that I had lots of extra laying around. Then this weekend, I set the gocco printing in motion. I set everything up, ready to go, and after pumping myself up a little bit with a nervous knot in my stomach, irrationally afraid that I might start the house on fire, pressed the machine down to expose the screen.

And nothing happened.

No flash of light, no crackling bulbs, no exposed screen.

I checked to make sure the screen and image were aligned correctly, that the bulbs and housing were positioned. I went online looking for help, and verified that the safety switch was indeed set off. I even emailed Leslie to seek her advice. I was baffled.

Four hours later, I was still completely confused, when I removed a little panel to discover the place where the BATTERIES go. Batteries, people. It’s amazing that anyone trusts me with anything.

I have no idea why it never occurred to me that the thing would require some sort of voltage to do its job, but it didn’t. Maybe I thought it all worked through some mysterious Japanese magic, or perhaps there were fairies that came to flash the bulbs. It seems so obvious now. Of course, after I sheepishly placed the batteries in the gocco, it worked exactly as it should.

But, now I finally understand how darn fun this little printer is! It’s so low tech, and it shows, in the uneven and unpredictable ink distribution, but I love that. I learned that the printable area is smaller than I had thought it would be, as the bulbs didn’t expose the entire image as I designed it, so on the far long sides and corners of the cards the image didn’t print exactly as I intended. But I don’t mind. If I had wanted it to be perfect, I would have printed it from the computer. I love the handmade-ness, and the unexpected accidents that occur with any type of hand printing. I love how each print is slightly different from the others.

After printing both sides, I still felt like it needed something, so I tried my hand at an overprint of a second color, filling in the “HARK” in red, to give it a little more of a Christmassy feel {since we are moving just in time for Christmas}. No pictures at the moment due to the darn winter darkness. I didn’t register the first run very well, so the red field didn’t register exactly with the outline of the work on each card, but again, I sort of like that unpredictability. I often try to experiment with this off-register effect in other digital design, so it’s fun when it happens naturally.

I did a few on-purpose misprints also, printing both the front and back images on the same area, to see what would happen, and I think I might frame one of them and hang it with the other art and photography in the new house. I would show you the whole piece, but it has our address on it, and I don’t feel the need to share that with the whole internets. But you get the jist.

The Husband was facinated by this whole process, his favorite part is blowing the bulbs to expose the screen. I have to pack it all up now to move, but I cannot wait to have another go at printing something new!

This Old House

There are alot of things I am going to miss about our house when we leave it.

Sitting on the back porch drinking beers on summer evenings, and drinking coffee on chilly mornings, making plans

The 12′ x 12′ garden that has been incredibly fruitful for us

Walking a block to Greek Fest each July for some gyros, spanikopita, beer, baklava

Sitting in the backyard on a summer evening with Greek music floating by from a block away

The lilacs that we planted the first full summer

The first crocuses in the spring, then the abundance of tulips that follow shortly after

The herb garden that I was so adamant to have, oregano, thyme, sage, tarragon, and the mint that I planted the first summer, only to realize that mint spreads like wildfire, and then I had to pull it out, inch by inch. I’m taking some of that herb garden with me, dried, and I know that every time I cook with it I will remember.

The multiple lavender plants that I could never find the right place for them to flourish, since there just wasn’t a place with enough sun, and therefore never any flowers

The iron clawfoot bathtub in the bathroom

The magnolia tree down the street, with its great big luscious spring blooms

The original woodwork that has never been painted, with it’s crackled varnish, showing its beautiful age

The sunlight that streams in through the many windows in the morning and evening

The morning cha cha that The Husband and I dance together in the too-small for-both-of-us-at-the-same-time bathroom

Convenient across the street pizza pick up

Being able to walk to Tex Tubb’s Taco Palace, or Wonder’s Pub, or the Harmony Bar

Being close enough to school to bike on nice days

The utterly Craftsman style pillars, tapering from bottom to top, on the front porch

Pulling into the driveway to be met at the side window by kitty faces, welcoming us home

The way the light shines into the dining room in the evenings

The linen curtains that came with the house, and so we feel we must leave them there for the next owners to cherish

The backyard bunnies

Our neighbor, Toots, who in my mind has been 100 years old since we moved in

This house has been incredibly good to us. But there are so many things I am looking forward to in the new space. Moving on is so hard, and yet so exciting.

Full

No really, I did get a few things done over this long holiday weekend. It just doesn’t feel like it. My to do list was long, but most of the past four days were spent on the couch with the kitties taking a much needed break. And boy-o did it feel good. I sewed some buttons here, and cleaned up a couple of plants to prevent the pots from cracking in a freeze there. Made pumpkin pie. Did my project for photography, but not for my other class.

I did finish up the design for my personal holiday card, however, and started printing them. And I got out the gocco and finally did a run on it to print one side of our moving announcement card. The other side is on tap for tonight, and I may do another screen for a second color on one side. It is definitely more fun than I expected, and I have no idea why I waited so long to play with it. So hopefully I will have something to show you soon, and they will get in the mail on time.

We need to cut the crap now and really pack up our house. Next week we will move out of our little box into a bigger box that has glass block in the kitchen and bathroom. It has been a long time since we decided to look, not seriously, for a new house, many days of worry and other things and more other things, and it’s hard to believe that we are actually finally moving. We are getting excited again.

The next couple of weeks are going to be full. Full of excitement. Full of nostalgia. Full of boxes and packing tape and moving vans and hopefully the helping hands of friends. Full of back and forth, push and pull. Full of saying goodbye, and saying hello. But full is better than empty.

My inspiration today, in this graying, neutral end of November, is color. Here. There is something about organizing color that makes me feel like a kid with a big crayon box, meticulously reorganized from one end of the spectrum to the other. Color swatches are sometimes almost more inspiring to me than the design they are built into, or the photograph they are sampled from.

More inspiration via my friend Lisa, this collection of posters, designed to commemorate the interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It is a stunning group of work, and so interesting to see how differently many people expressed themselves. I think you’ll like it.

Time For Turkey

Holy crap, Thanksgiving is tomorrow! How did that happen? Where, where has the time gone? I have lots to be thankful for, though, and I’m going to try. Try. To spend the day in a restful state, rather than fretting about the multitude of things that I have the tendency to fret about. Turkey will be enjoyed in the company of some of The Husband’s family, pumpkin pie will be made at some point, hopefully a movie will be watched, from under a blanket with my sweetie, with glasses of wine in hand. All things worthy of being thankful for! Then I’ll get crackin’ on those cards I need to send out. Which reminds me, again, that I need to get some envelopes!

I haven’t decided yet if I am going to check in here with some quiet photography over the holiday or not. So I guess we’ll see, huh?

For those of you that eat turkey and celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November, I hope you enjoy it, and that it is a lovely day for everyone, even those who don’t eat turkey or celebrate in such a way. Thank you for being here in this space with me. Have a good holiday, friends!

Stood Up

When I was in kindergarten or first grade, I was attending this odd school in California, where kindergarten through 12th grade students were all in the same classroom. I have no clue how that actually worked, because I don’t remember much of the structure of the class, only that there were little kids and big kids in the same space, learning. Must have been some New Age thing. My memories of that classroom are dark, musty, shadowed.

One weekend we were all set up to go on an overnight camping trip. Or maybe it was supposed to be for a week, but for me, it was certainly much shorter. It was the sort of camp that was a little more like kids’ summer camp than pitch-a-tent-in-the-woods camping. There were tent-cabins all in a row, up off the ground, that we were all assigned to for our stay, and a mess hall at the front of the row, all of it nestled in the tall, old redwoods and cypress of Northern California.

I was assigned a tent-cabin with a couple of older girls, I don’t recall how old, 4th or 5th grade, maybe older. They seemed decades older than my 6 year old self, though. It had started to rain, up there in the woods, and these two girls had gone off to check when mealtime was, promising to come back and get me ASAP when they knew what the deal was. I waited and waited, in the quiet, with the rain, as it got dark, listening to other kids pass by outside, not sure what to do with myself. That is where the experience gets fuzzy. I have no idea how long I waited there, alone, but it was after dinner that someone, a counselor or teacher, came looking for me. I was hysterical. Embarrassed. She was furious at the older, “responsible” girls for leaving me there alone, for lying to me, manipulating me, forgetting me? I remember the feeling that they had done it purposefully. Giggling at their awesome joke. People gathering around. My mother was called. I didn’t stay any longer with those girls. Maybe they were punished. It’s unknown to me. I went home and was placed temporarily, and then permanently into another class, a class of brighter light and colors, with kids only my age. Evidently it worked out better for me.

I have always been nervous about arriving places alone, or meeting people, afraid they will not show up. I am absolutely comfortable going to see movies by myself, but if I am supposed to meet someone there, and they are a couple of minutes late, I start to wonder if I’ve been duped. When I am the first to a meeting, I can’t help but wonder if I am in the right room, if I screwed it up somehow, until another member arrives to set my mind at ease. I used to run reconnaissance before every semester in college, scoping out the location of each class so that I would know exactly where I was going, and how long it took to get there, so that I would be prepared when I was required to be there.

Life moves on, things get busy, forgotten, missed. I have accidentally stood friends up on occasion, and have never been able to forgive myself. I have been stood up, for whatever reason, perhaps miscommunication, but I never spoke to her again. I am insistent upon being on time, and when I am not, I feel so guilty. I have learned to hide my uncertainty better.

This is my neurosis. It’s not earth shattering, but it’s mine. I wonder if I would be so unconfident if those girls hadn’t left me in the tent in the rain, if I would be more likely to run headlong into situations, taking risks, standing tall rather than hanging back nervously. Or if that would even be better. Or if my personality would have evolved this way regardless, if other situations would have molded me into this same person anyway. Either way, screw you, vile girls.

Cards Cards Cards

The holidays are already closing in, and it scares the bejeezus out of me. Every year I always end up with so much to do around the holidays, final projects, holiday cards, places to go and visit, sending design award submissions, making cookies and handmade gifts, that I lose track of the fun and happiness that should probably be involved. This year packing and moving coincide as well, which of course, really makes me an extra special kind of stressed out.

Just thinking about Christmas kind of makes me feel all sweaty and anxious, and my stomach clenches up in knots. I feel a little like hyperventilating right now. And it’s only November 19th.

I hate shopping during the Season Of Shopping, which is why I often try to give handmade gifts. I took the pledge this year, along with some of my blog friends, to try to buy handmade for things that I don’t make myself.

I’ve been staying up later than The Husband lately, working into the night, clickclickclicking away, as he slumbers with the kitties, then crawling into bed in the dark, hoping not to wake him. But he always wakes, no matter how quiet I try to be, for a final goodnight. Then I rise the next day and wander through the paces, drinking coffee and trying desparately not to look so tired. Much less feel it.

I can toot my own horn a bit today, though, as my submission for the Governor’s holiday card got third place. Not as good as first place would have been, which gets to be professionally printed and mailed out to 7500 of the Governor’s closest friends and political peeps, but nothing to shake a stick at, I guess. I never took a picture of the comp before I handed it over, because I was assembling it hours before it was due, and I still don’t have it back {and there is no way in heck I am producing another one}. So here is what it should look like.

It is 18 inches long, 3 panel fold, wrapped in a bellyband. And that is a map of Wisconsin on the front, and a vector illustration of many of the roads and highways on the back. If I had gotten the chance to have it professionally printed, I wanted to have “State” in silver foil or varnish or something, and the bellyband would have been printed in opaque white or light blue ink on dark brown textured paper. It would have been awesome. Truly. But now it will just live it’s life as a comp.

Last week I was inspired to put together a simple holiday card, for sale in the shop. I had been a little stumped for sellable cards until now, focusing instead on the personal card that I intended to send, but this finally bubbled to the surface. It is available now in a couple of contemporary colors, singles and sets of 4, and is non-denominational and blank inside so you can write your own little note to its recipient.

So, those are some of the photos that I had been putting off taking all last week, and it feels good to have gotten something done!

Houseguests

Houseguests arriving at 5 am: not my ideal situation for an early morning. But they had been driving all night, and they passed out in the living room immediately, so how could I be angry? And really, they said they had planned to arrive between 5 and 6 am, and based on prior experience, we assumed that meant 10-11 am. Obviously, they were serious about this leaving on time business. This time. Who would have guessed?

A Few Bits

I seem to have some things to share with you all, but STILL no corroborating photographic evidence, so for today, here are a few quickies {and yeah, I totally backdated this because I wrote it Wednesday and completely forgot to post it until now}:

I’m enjoying shari’s holiday gift guide, her interviews are so nice, and the folks she has featured so far are some of my favorite, wonderful gals.

Looking forward to mav’s holiday shop update, and her calendar. After desiging my own calendar this year, I am suddenly very interested in lots of other calendars out there, and I want to collect them all. I know that I won’t do that, but I may end up with a couple.

I’m not usually a jewelry gal, and don’t have my earlobes pierced, but I just love Susan’s Original Intent series. I totally dig the connection between the photographic image, and the manifestation in jewelry design. Her colors rock, and her beads are even really groovy, in my non-beady opinion.

Checking In

Hi. Happy Monday? Er, wait. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it? Sorry about that, Monday sort of got away from me. There are so many bloggers participating in NaBloPoMo, writing every single day this month, totally throwing off my rhythm of daily reading and giving me more material than I know what to do with, and here I am, skipping days I normally post on. I’ve actually written a couple of things, but am waiting on taking pictures to include with them, so there you go.

I’ve been working on a corporate identity project for class that came to a head last night, due today, which is my excuse for blog neglect. I was choosing paper stock and printing and trimming and mounting and taking product shots of packaging {and building a photo booth for product shooting} and adjusting interior styling and building custom envelopes and product bags, and running out of rubber cement for which I owe The Husband so much for going out to replenish. {Thanks honey! You rock!} Seeing branding on letterhead and business cards come together with an interior and packaging is pretty exciting though, and I think I am actually pleased with how this turned out. This was a month long project, I created the name of this high end Italian bakery, the logo, color scheme, business collateral {letterhead, envelope, business card}, interior styling, and two product packaging: a box with an adhesive closure and a bag with a sticker. I haven’t taken photos of the actual printed pieces though, which are printed on colored stock and much more impressive than this little layout for web purposes, but I feel the need to show something. Click images below to see them larger.

Black & white, 2-color, and full-color logos and Pantone spot color scheme

Letterhead, custom envelope, and business card {front and back}

Interior styling comp, packaging box {front and back}, packaging glassine bag with sticker closure

Compedesigtition

Since it’s Friday, that means Layer Tennis. The act of competitive design seems to be growing out there in the world, and Layer Tennis is an online series of weekly matches between two artists, or two small teams of artists, who swap a file in real time, every 15 minutes, adding on and changing it up, designing their heads off, through 10 volleys.

This week’s match can be found here, between Scott Hansen and Rob Cordiner, two guys that I’ve never heard of until today, but I like what I see. I love the collaborative spirit, and it’s jolly good fun, mate!