- Published on
I’ve been working more slowly this week, struggling a little with a cold, so stand up painting has been out, but prints lend themselves to sitting quietly. I’ve carved this one pretty fully at this point. It’s based on one of my larger waterscapes, but I liked the image enough to want to play with it in carving as well. I’ve tested it in black and white and in color, and now all the options are hanging in my work room while I ponder them and decide what I want the final edition to be. I like several options, so I think it will end up a “varied edition” where there are a total number of final prints, but they don’t all look the same. That way people can choose which they prefer.
It’s been raining like crazy, so the color test photo is pretty dark. The options are white paper on top and light blue on the bottom. I darkened the boat on the top one, and I like that better, no matter which paper I end up using (or likely both. I really like the black and white as well.
I’ve been drawing out a new water print, also based on a recent painting, and last night I transferred it to a block. I’ll likely take this one with me to Washington, since it’s nicely portable work, unlike a larger painting.
I’ve been drawing out a new water print, also based on a recent painting, and last night I transferred it to a block. I’ll likely take this one with me to Washington, since it’s nicely portable work, unlike a larger painting.
I also pulled out an older block I had abandoned several years ago and did some more work carving it. I like the moon, but it needs something to go with it. I’m pondering using it with two different other blocks I already have that I would like to revisit and use in different ways. I tend to think about one single image at a time, and collaging prints like this is good mental stretch for me.
So lots of smaller things are happening at once around here, which is great for prints, because you can let one project dry while you work on a different one for a bit.
So lots of smaller things are happening at once around here, which is great for prints, because you can let one project dry while you work on a different one for a bit.
- Published on
I'm trying something new, and just in time for Valentine's Day. I'm offering a winter/spring note card subscription. I'll mail a 6-pack of hand carved letterpress note cards to the recipient of your choice for four months running. I'll carve a new design for each month and ship out a package in mid-February, mid-March, mid-April, and mid-May. You or your giftee get four presents (and postage x 4) for $65 total.
My Valentine Open Studio Sale is this Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 5-8 pm at 1780 Autumn. If you'd like to pick up the first one to give in person for Valentine's, I'll have them ready, along with a gift card explaining the subscription. You can also choose a different set to start with, if there was an older card you really liked (the baby owl or tree and moon, for example). Otherwise each new month will be a brand new design.
You can sign up in my online store at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art
My Valentine Open Studio Sale is this Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 5-8 pm at 1780 Autumn. If you'd like to pick up the first one to give in person for Valentine's, I'll have them ready, along with a gift card explaining the subscription. You can also choose a different set to start with, if there was an older card you really liked (the baby owl or tree and moon, for example). Otherwise each new month will be a brand new design.
You can sign up in my online store at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art
- Published on
I got my Chandler and Price printing press (see previous post for a video of it in action) in 2010 just before Valentines Day, and the first block I carved for this new love of my life was a valentine. I try to do one every year to celebrate this magnificent beast. This year I did two, one more traditional, and one for Mr. Darcy, my love and muse.
I'll be having a Valentine Open Studio Sale this Tuesday evening. It's a happy hour affair, 5-8 pm at 1780 Autumn Avenue, Memphis, so come have a glass of wine, see my new prints (the Memphis bicentennial pair should be ready by then), see Melissa Bridgman's new pottery, and meet Katrina Perdue. She's a knitter and has collaborated with Melissa on knitted cosies for coffee cups. She'll also have a selection of great hats.
I'll be having a Valentine Open Studio Sale this Tuesday evening. It's a happy hour affair, 5-8 pm at 1780 Autumn Avenue, Memphis, so come have a glass of wine, see my new prints (the Memphis bicentennial pair should be ready by then), see Melissa Bridgman's new pottery, and meet Katrina Perdue. She's a knitter and has collaborated with Melissa on knitted cosies for coffee cups. She'll also have a selection of great hats.
- Published on
I've been packing art lately rather than making it, since I had two shows this past weekend, and my Open Studio Sale is Dec. 1-2. I'm looking forward to getting back to making art again after this mad rush, but I'm also deeply grateful to the folks who show up to buy local art for holiday presents instead of choosing large manufacturers and mail order. Y'all make it possible for a bunch of us to do what we love and create a little beauty for the world, and I'm so grateful.
- Published on
Here's the second new holiday card this season. See the last post for my owl one. I figured the world could use a little more kindness, affection, and, if we're all very lucky, kissing. A small push for greater happiness.
This is a handcarved linoleum block paired with wood type. I can put them on the press locked into a single chase. I build wood pieces around them, called furniture, that are a little bit shorter than the block or letters (so the ink won't hit them and print them as well). I tighten it all down with "quoins", metal bars along the sides that expand as you use a small wrench in the holes to open them out a bit. Then the whole thing can be vertical in the press without dropping pieces everywhere. See the last post (again) for a video of the press in action.
This is a handcarved linoleum block paired with wood type. I can put them on the press locked into a single chase. I build wood pieces around them, called furniture, that are a little bit shorter than the block or letters (so the ink won't hit them and print them as well). I tighten it all down with "quoins", metal bars along the sides that expand as you use a small wrench in the holes to open them out a bit. Then the whole thing can be vertical in the press without dropping pieces everywhere. See the last post (again) for a video of the press in action.
- Published on
I had a big printing day yesterday. I hit a personal best with about 1000 cards printed on a heavy, turn-of-the-last-century, treadle operated press. It’s good exercise for me, and I ended up with 600 postcard invitations for my upcoming Open Studio Sale (December 1st and 2nd), plus a bunch of new note cards for the sales. I based this owl on a baby rescued barred owl I got to meet a few years ago on his way to a wildlife rescue group. He was adorable.
Here’s a video of the press running. I love the majestic way it orbits and works so quietly. It’s such a pleasure to use.
Here’s a video of the press running. I love the majestic way it orbits and works so quietly. It’s such a pleasure to use.
- Published on
My week went rather spectacularly off the rails this past week. I had seen an antique mall out in the further ‘burbs of Memphis voted as the best one in our weekly newspaper’s annual Best of Memphis, and since I happened to be driving past on an unusual errand to that part of the world, I decided to stop in. It’s enormous. The size of a Wal-Mart. And I turned one corner and saw this. I’m always watching out for type in antique shops and flea markets, but I’ve never found any in this quantity before, and the cabinet itself, with its slanted work space, is lovely. In a mad impulse, I bought it and whatever type it contained.
Sadly antique stores tend to sell off letters individually, which makes the remaining type less usable, since you can’t have enough “m”s or whatever is the popular letter when you try to set a poem or a poster or whatever. But with 40 or so drawers of it, there’s still an awful lot left, and my next job will be sorting it and seeing how much and what I have. Some fonts look very intact, some are quite picked over.
After the impulsive purchase, the rest of the week was consumed by logistics (which is why I haven’t been posting any art). It’s heavy enough that the floor needed to be reinforced. I’d reinforced it once for this press some years ago, but more was in order. Fortunately I happened to have a handy and generous house guest, so we both slithered around in fine southern dust in my crawl space for a couple of afternoons dragging cement blocks and large timbers to reinforce the joists under the press room.
Some equally generous neighbors helped me move it and shove over the press to make room for it (harder than moving the actual cabinet, since we removed all the type drawers first).
So that was four good days, and on Sunday I had the amazing good fortune to get to play bass at a gig with the Bluff City Backsliders, a band I’ve loved and followed for years. (For longtime readers of this blog, you’ve seen sketches of them in years past.) That was a total rush, and it was a marvelous way to cap off my week. I couldn’t be more lucky in the life I get to live.
Sadly antique stores tend to sell off letters individually, which makes the remaining type less usable, since you can’t have enough “m”s or whatever is the popular letter when you try to set a poem or a poster or whatever. But with 40 or so drawers of it, there’s still an awful lot left, and my next job will be sorting it and seeing how much and what I have. Some fonts look very intact, some are quite picked over.
After the impulsive purchase, the rest of the week was consumed by logistics (which is why I haven’t been posting any art). It’s heavy enough that the floor needed to be reinforced. I’d reinforced it once for this press some years ago, but more was in order. Fortunately I happened to have a handy and generous house guest, so we both slithered around in fine southern dust in my crawl space for a couple of afternoons dragging cement blocks and large timbers to reinforce the joists under the press room.
Some equally generous neighbors helped me move it and shove over the press to make room for it (harder than moving the actual cabinet, since we removed all the type drawers first).
So that was four good days, and on Sunday I had the amazing good fortune to get to play bass at a gig with the Bluff City Backsliders, a band I’ve loved and followed for years. (For longtime readers of this blog, you’ve seen sketches of them in years past.) That was a total rush, and it was a marvelous way to cap off my week. I couldn’t be more lucky in the life I get to live.
- Published on
It’s National Poetry Month, and Independent Bookstore Day is coming up this Saturday. I’m celebrating both my creating my first poetry broadside. I saw some in Parnassus Books last month, and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. It’s neat to get to create an image or two to go with a poem and print it along with the poem itself. I love having type to be able to do this. As it happened, I was at a poetry reading at Burke’s Books here in Memphis soon after my Parnassus visit, and one of th owners is also a writer and a poet. He asked if I would be interested in trying my hand at broadsides, so it seemed like the stars lined up. I carved and printed the blocks a week or so ago, but then an out of town trip and a show got me busy, so I didn’t manage the type until today. That was a fast and easy printing, compared to two blocks of different colors that were difficult to get proper coverage on. My press was built for type, which is a very small amount of black and a lot of open white space. My blocks are darker and take a lot more pressure. It was pure pleasure printing the type today. They’ll dry a couple of days, and I’ll have them to Burke’s before the weekend celebration.
- Published on
I've been a printing machine lately. I've got shows coming, and I'm out of several popular prints, so I've been reprinting these this week. Each print is three blocks, so it's a three day process to print each, with overnights for drying in between.
I'm also doing way more typesetting than usual. I'm doing my first poetry broadside for Corey Mesler, who owns Burke's Books here and who is also a writer. It's a fun project for National Poetry Month, and the one I chose (he sent me a selection) happily goes with my nocturne show as well.
I'm also doing way more typesetting than usual. I'm doing my first poetry broadside for Corey Mesler, who owns Burke's Books here and who is also a writer. It's a fun project for National Poetry Month, and the one I chose (he sent me a selection) happily goes with my nocturne show as well.
It's nice to get a two for one. I'd like to do several more, so we'll see how many I can do before I leave my printing press for the next few months.
I'm also, very uncharacteristically, doing a little bit of job printing. I'm not in the business of wedding invitations and the like, since I'd rather make my own art, and I don't have all the spacers, and I'm an incredibly slow type setter. My letterpress fairy godmother gave me some spacers, though, and a couple of dear-to-me folks are getting married, so it seemed the thing to do. It's actually lovely to be involved when I care about the people. Makes it special.
I'm also, very uncharacteristically, doing a little bit of job printing. I'm not in the business of wedding invitations and the like, since I'd rather make my own art, and I don't have all the spacers, and I'm an incredibly slow type setter. My letterpress fairy godmother gave me some spacers, though, and a couple of dear-to-me folks are getting married, so it seemed the thing to do. It's actually lovely to be involved when I care about the people. Makes it special.
- Published on
I'm having my annual Valentine Open Studio Sale this coming Sunday on Feb. 4th. It will be from 12-5 at 1780 Autumn Avenue in midtown Memphis. I've got new "Midtown" note cards (that several people have been requesting for a while), bunny prints, watercolors, and some oils on paper of clouds and skies. Please come see me if you're around this weekend, and feel free to invite any friends you think would be interested. I'm working on a new tree print as well and hope to have it ready and dry by then.
