creative wrapping

here's a handmade and reusable cloth wrapping project from arounna of bookhou on poppyalk (including a printing how-to).
and hello sandwich has a new zine all about wrapping!

gingerbread ornaments from inklore

i'm loving these gingerbread house designs printed by sam of inklore. not only are they available as ornaments, but be sure to visit her shop to see them on tea towels and reusable linen gift bags. and there's a free shipping sale at inklore through monday!

busy

check out this lovely chalkboard calendar by the ever-inspiring something's hiding in here.

kyoto

i'm moving to kyoto! this week i will be going back and forth a bit between kobe and kyoto, and blog posts might be a little sparser than usual.

this image above is a beautiful print by mizu designs, and i agree that these geta perfectly capture the feeling of kyoto, and the sound of the footsteps of women wearing traditional kimono and geta walking down the old streets.

i love kyoto, the beautiful old buildings and traditional crafts, lovely shrines and little shops. i will continue to teach part-time at my conversation school in kobe, and hope to enter kobe university this fall. but i am also looking forward to being able to explore kyoto, and i will share my adventures here, of course!

printed textiles from girlscantell

i've been daydreaming about outfitting my new apartment (i'm moving next week!).

i love the style of girlscantell on etsy, line drawings or diagrams printed on fabrics, or in this case felt!

printed textiles from jewelweeds

jewelweeds prints lovely designs on natural cloth, and sells a range of products in her shop.

house portrait tea towels printed by leanne graeff

check out these excellent tea towels printed by leanne graeff and available in her etsy shop. they can be ordered as a custom design based on a picture of your own house. what a lovely housewarming present!

sevilla rock collection from skinny laminx

heather moore of skinny laminx is a genius fabric designer from cape town, south africa. her new collection, sevilla rock, is based on cave paintings, and it's gorgeous. these are just a few of the patterns and colors.the sevilla rock collection will be available for sale as tea towels, aprons, cushion, shopping bags and zip pouches. tea towels are available now in the skinny laminx etsy shop. via design*sponge.

william kentridge: part 2

the show last night was great! and today i visited the exhibit at the henry (runs until may 3), which i highly recommend. there are prints, drawings, stereoscopes (very cool!) and multiple video installations.

his work is also on display at the greg kucera gallery until march 28th (image from the gallery website).
and what looks to be the most amazing, kentridge is also directing 'the return of ulysses', the first opera for the brand new pacific operaworks company, which includes life size puppetry by the south african handspring puppet company. wow. the first show is tomorrow night (march 11) at the moore theater in seattle, and there are also shows on march 13, 14, 20, and 21st.

bookhou in toroto

i was in toronto for a few days last month, and one of the places i made a point to visit was bookhou, a most lovely shop. their pieces made of felt, linen, gorgeous prints and elegant simple furniture are a perfect collection. and they have screen printing workshops in their attached shop, too!

happy new year!

2009 is the year of the ox. this image is an original traditional japanese wood block print, or moku hanga, made by qi papers http://qipapers.etsy.com. the artist also has a great explanation of the process of this intricate art form on her blog.

2008 has been a great year for me, and for felt cafe. thanks to all my wonderful customers and readers! i am excited about the many possibilities that 2009 holds.

this is the stunning felt work of oyku, a very telented feltmaker from turkey. okyu has etsy shop at http://oyku.etsy.com, and she and her sister showcase their lovely collection at art.i.choke.

shopping local in the pacific northwest

i'd like to share a few of my favorite finds from the urban craft uprising in seattle last weekend. the pear print moleskin cover with the pencil pocket is from the genius that is chikabird, in collaboration with slow loris (whose shirts i love), now located on guemes island washington. that's an image of their gasworks park design below.
be sure to check out the slow loris shirts, i am pretty sure you will love them.also spotted: these wonderful ormanents made from vintage wallpaper available from ladies and gentlemen, a new vintage store by jane from chikabird.


from portland, the beautiful ceramic work of leah nobilette. the colors are wonderful,
and the texture is stunning.


and more pretty portland art from twosarahs, printmaker.

and finally a bit more from some neighbors to the north, bellingham that is. spincycle yarns spins and dyes all their own yarns, and if you get a chance to see them in person, their yarns are spectacular.

piano nobile collaboration

i am so excited to share a collaboration that i have been working on with isabelle from piano nobile. piano nobile is a group of artists, designers and builders who create lovely work.
for this project, isabelle has been screen printing original designs based on antique letterpress type on my hand felted and naturally dyed scarves.
they are for sale over at the piano nobile etsy shop.

monocol=awesome

you know when you find something new, that is just so perfect it makes you deeply happy? like your new favorite CD that you play constantly, or a new amazing artist?

this week, i discovered monocol. their tag line "art and pocketlucre via collaboration and skulduggery" should be the first clue that you are in for something great.

they make the excellent 'daruminals', a combination of the traditional japanese wishing doll (daruma) and other animals. i am already a big fan of the daruma's aesthetic, and i think the daruminals are just great (as if you couldn't tell)! the top photo is the paper mache version.

and then there are the prints. i don't know which one i love more, laika...

the polar bear...
or the deap sea diver? i can't choose, i love them all.

oh my, i am in the etsy autumn gift guide!

look, there are my acorn coasters right in the top row of the autumn gift guide! and they were even mentioned in the highlights from the fall guide on etsy finds for today. thanks etsy:-)

renegade roundup: cuteness on paper

first up, 16sparrows. with a tag line 'sarcasm folded in half' you know they it's gonna be clever. that's their moving announcement card above.
and polaroid themed thank you cards.

rhymes with twee is another clever card maker, featuring artichokes (above), pirogis, croissants, and other characters expressing sweet sentiments. oh, and they're gocco'd!

renegade roundup: prints

i'm not as organized or timely as i hoped, so i think i will do a series of short themed posts featuring renegade artists. today's 2 are both printmakers whose work i've been following on etsy since i was in japan an discovered the gocco. the top image is from circa ceramics, who i talked about in my earlier renegade post, and the bottom image is the work of michelle brusegaard, who has a website here and an etsy shop. the photos above are from her website, showing works on linen. and they are just lovely.

no sweat apparel

since i finally got around to using my print gocco to print on fabric and felt, i sort of want to print on everything! back in college when i studied printmaking for a year, i loved everything about the process. i love the gocco too, of course, but the process is so different, it feels like its own media. anyway, now that i am always thinking about what i can print on, i started to look into what kind of blank clothing is available. american apparel has been very successful with their rhetoric of made-in-the-usa...but their founder is widely known to be a huge skeeze-ball, misogynist, union-breaker, and basically a big jerk.

a better option is no sweat apparel, who uses unionized labor to make all of their products. they have organic tees made in bethlehem, which also provides a rare source of labor for local residents. no organic onesies yet, but i received two (!) prompt and person responses to my web-based inquiry. they are an awesome company, support them if you have a chance!

how to print with the print gocco pg 5

the print gocco is a fantastic little printing machine. the pg 5 is the new model that replaces the old b6 (the classic light blue one). the print area is the same, about the size of a postcard, with b6 size screens. the print gocco burns a screen using a special process (special flash bulbs that burn away anything drawn with a carbon-based writing instrument or copied on a photocopier). the print gocco machine can then be used to print your designs on paper or fabrics (using different inks).

disclaimer: i am not a gocco expert! i have tried to do a few different things, and i have learned a little bit in the process, but i have a lot more to learn.
there are a lot of great gocco resources out there that i will list at the end of this post, and are very helpful. i just wanted to make a simple tutorial to demystify the pg 5 gocco for someone starting out. any comments, corrections, or suggestions are welcome.
here's the pg 5 gocco. the yellow part holds the flashbulbs. the bulbs are one time use only, and it takes 2 to expose one screen.

this is the gocco open. it ships with a paper in the clear plastic holder, and a plastic film over the grey sticky foam printing bed. these should both be removed before use.

to make the screen: insert the hi mesh master in to the slots, with the arrow pointing down.

push down on the notch until it 'clicks' into place. the screens are designed so that there's really only one way they can go in all the way.
make sure you have inserted your 2 AA batteries (you can see where they go in the above picture), included in the pg 5 basic set.
NOTE: if you are using a photocopy, put the blue filter behind the master and insert them together.
put a blank card on the foam bed (to keep your artwork from sticking to it), and put your original artwork on top of that. i drew this image using the gocco marker (included in gocco set). position your artwork where you want it.

close the lid can check visually that your artwork is where you want it to be.
but 2 bulbs into the print hood (yellow part) can insert the hood into the print gocco body. here's the first side.
here's the second side.
at this point the order is top to bottom: yellow flash hood; clear plastic window in the gocco; blue filter; mesh master; original artwork; blank paper; foam bed.
when it's pressed down, the hood makes a complete circuit that will cause the bulbs to flash.
put both your hands on the front of the gocco (the picture just has one of my hands, because the other one is holding the camera, but you can see where your hands should go).
push down (you will see the the flash and hear a crackling noise) and hold for 3-5 seconds.
open your gocco. your artwork will most like be stuck to the master. remove the master (and blue filter, if you used it to create a master from a photocopy).
when you remove the yellow print hood, be careful not to touch the bulbs until they cool.
here's the master with my design exposed on it.

with the master out of the gocco, screen side down and sitting on a piece of scrap paper, lift the clear plastic up and squeeze ink out of the tube on to the area where your design is. if you haven't yet, peal your original off the master. (leaving it on until now can be helpful to see where exactly you need to ink).
replace the clear plastic layer and and put the inked master back into the gocco the same way and position as before. if you haven't removed the flash hood, do it now.
now the order is: clear plastic window in the gocco, clear plastic sheet over the ink, ink, mesh master.
put whatever you want to print on on the sticky grey foam bed. now it will be helpful that it's sticky as it holds your prints in place.
close the gocco to make a print. *repeat.*
this is my print on fabric.
these are all the things i printed on. and printing on felt was awesome.

this technique above can be used to print on paper or fabric, although to print on fabric, you need to used special gocco fabric ink. (EDIT: you can print on fabric with the same kind of screen and same process that you can use to print on paper-just use 'gocco stamp ink for fabric').

another way to print on fabric is instead of using the hi mesh master (which can be used for both paper or fabric printing), use the gocco screen masters especially for screen printing on fabric. with these, you can't use the gocco to print, rather you use the gocco to make the screen, and then print like typical screenprinting, using gocco screenprinting ink, which comes in jars and is not the same as the 'stamp ink for fabric' that comes in tubes.

this is a screened print i did using the gocco screen and screen inks. it was from a photocopy of a traditional japanese screen, so the meshy background is from the original image.

cleanup:
the screens can be re-used many many many times. you can store them in a ziploc bag in the fridge and take them out when you are ready to use them next time. this way, you don't even have to clean off the inks.
the fabric inks are water based. i recommend taping the cardboard edges of your screen before you start, that way they won't fall apart or warp after cleanup with water.
you can use the gocco cleaner with the paper inks, but they will also wash off if held under running water (this is where the tape comes it). you can also wipe with a sponge or paper towels. keep in mind that it's important to clean the print area only, and it the screen is stained in other places it will not affect your future prints.

current situation:
several years ago gocco' s parent company riso announced that gocco's would no longer be exported to the united states. this caused a bit of a frenzy and lead to creation of the save gocco campaign. EDIT: after several years of limited supplies, it seems that gocco will indeed be ceasing production in the next year or so. supply availability is not clear for the long run, but there are people working on getting a u.s. company to take over production, and other people working on developing supplies and systems that will work with the gocco machines. this author is optimistic that the gocco will live on.

resources:
nehoc the australian supplier, tons of information
the small object tutorial
the yahoo gocco-printers group
flickr gocco group
EDIT: i am no longer in japan, and therefore no longer selling gocco supplies in my etsy shop.