I didn’t know where to start since I was all over the world for the last 3-4 weeks or so… but I’ll start with the timely things so you can still check it out!

I visited Levi’s Workshops while I was in San Francisco — a community print shop! During July and August, they will be teaching classes on classic letterpress machinery, screenprinting designs, setting type etc. How awesome is this?! I was so excited to see the whole place really active and everyone just creating and printing.

Vandercook press in action.

“Keep Calm and Press On” — I would love to have this!

A couple table-top presses.

Stamps! There were so many cool ones, I played around a bit, too ;)

You can also make photocopies and make art here. Love the wall full of work.

and of course, the screen printing area. It was pretty busy looking so I couldn’t take pictures of the machine, but it was pretty big.

Walls with printed work. Love this “I’m Just Sayin’” series, so fun :)

and more posters on the wall.

If you are in San Francisco and if you haven’t already, please go check it out, just feeling the creative vibe is worth the visit!

Posted under Inspiration, SF, art, letterpress

I have a very exciting news to share… my letterpress work and my studio has been featured in this new Japanese book called “LETTERPRESS ~Select Designs from San Francisco and New York” — if you are in Japan, it’s going to come out this week on August 14th!!! ((If you are in outside of Japan, you should be able to pre-order from Amazon.com or it’ll be available at your nearest Kinokuniya or any Japanese book stores in 6 months or so, I heard))

I think I’m getting a copy soon, I will share some of the pages when it comes! The author, Miki-san is an amazing writer & person, I enjoyed meeting with her and showed her my work and my (new) space. She also took a lot of photos for the book, I can’t wait to see and read everything! She is covering a lot of amazing letterpress studios in SF and NY, I can’t even tell you how honored I am to be a part!!! Thank you so much!!!

***************

『LETTERPRESS ~Select Designs from San Francisco and New York』
Edited by Miki Usui (author) / PIE BOOKS / Y2310 / Size: A5 / Format: 210mm×148mm / Pages: 192 / Full color

Posted under Japanese, letterpress, studio news

I have a great news to share today — my work has been featured in this awesome book called “Impressive –Printmaking, Letterpress and Graphic Design” by Gestalten! I could not be more excited to be a part! The book should be out all over the world now — if you happen to see it at the book store, please take a look or grab it (you will not regret) — really great design book I’ve seen in a long time!

Here is my page! Page 96 to be exact. Next to Sesame Letterpress page, how exciting!

***and some sneak peeks of the book***

Yay for my friend, Tota Press:

Studio on Fire:

Fortress Letterpress + Design:

The Paper Nut:

LOVE their work — by The Caseroom Press:

Stéphane de Schrevel:

I have been her fan — Ophelia Chong:

Mike Burton & Cranky Pressman:

Mike Burton:

I wish I could share every page with you… 240 pages filled with printmaking, letterpress, graphic design goodness!

I am so inspired, thank you again so much, Gestalten editors!!

Posted under design, letterpress, studio news

Father’s day is June 20th this year — have you gotten a card for your dad yet?!

I recently reprinted my F is for Father letterpress Greeting card :) For all the hard working dad… with love <3

and my alphabet greeting cards are almost A to Z! LOVE how they look all together! Can’t wait to complete the set… soon, soon…

Posted under letterpress

and here are the final products… (see “in the making” post here!)

The pop up card — the moment of the truth….

yay! The flower blooms! :)

I love the surprise when you open the card — there are spaces for your personal message, too :)

and the paper flowers — the cotton papers gives really nice texture and quality. I love how it came out!

I’m thinking of attaching either magnet or push pin… or double-side tape for present wrapping…

and this is the bigger flowers — perfect for a special present wrapping :)

It was so fun creating! Thank you so much, Jack + Jenn and Jody from Brin & Nohl!! Make sure to check out their final products, too!!

p.s Jack + Jenn and Jody, you guys will receive different flowers — it’ll be a surprise! :)

Posted under project

The project Folded :: The Origami Collection with Jack + Jenn and Jody from Brin & Nohl came to the end! It was so fun creating something different inspired by folded origami, I hope they enjoyed creating as much as I did… :)

Since my last inspiration post, I had to try lot of different things, lot of them didn’t work well because I usually work with 110lb+ papers and they do not like to be folded… (maybe once, but no more than twice)

oh, and I had 2 ideas going on, one was the pop up cards and one was the paper flowers out of recycled papers. Well, I couldn’t decide in one direction so I tried both ideas! Here, I will share some images from the “making of” and then, later this morning, I will have the final product post so stay tuned…

After trying and failing, I decided to just use the thin papers so they fold nicely. I wanted to make an original pattern by printing with wood type… and picked a word “HELLO” — greeting word!

Wood type set on Vandercook press:

First run:

and then, I went through the paper one more time in different direction to make some overlapping and pattern…

OK, now the folding part…

Cutting and shaping…

so it makes flower like this. I love the pattern!

Keep creating the same flowers…

Now, start placing each flower onto the card…

Total of 9 flower papers…. Do you know what it’s going to be?! To be continued… :)

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Here are “in the making of” my second idea — paper flowers! I have so many misprints that I really wanted to recycle somehow and this was a perfect opportunity. Here is a Live What You Love misprint…

On the back of the print, I drew 3 6-petal-flowers.

Cut them out… (and erase the pencil mark on the back)

and start forming each layer… lots of folding over petals and gluing them together…

I took my Iris letterpress misprints and tried it, too… this time, one flower layer from one whole print…

and oh my god, I LOVE these flowers! The final post will follow…!!

Posted under project

Continue reporting from last Saturday’s Brooklyn Flea… it was the launch day for the Flea Design Co-op! It is curated by Lena Corwin, featuring top Brooklyn artists in design, painting and printing, ceramics, letterpress, and more — it was worth checking out!

The limited-edition poster designed by Wayne Pate:

One of the tables… MAPTOTE – Wayne Pate….

Wayne Pate posters and mini prints — the mini prints were letterpressed! I had to grab some… I love his work.

Lovely Moontree Letterpress:

Wren Handmade (so cute!):

There were more from Lotta Jansdotter, Marcie McGoldrick, Sesame Letterpress, and of course Lena Corwin, but I couldn’t take all the pictures, I was busy shopping around :) (and lots of people were there, too so.)

The design co-op is at Fort Greene every Saturday now on (through they close for the winter time) so if you have a chance, stop by! :)

Posted under NYC, design

This video is so cool � from Hatch Show Print in Nashville � I have to visit here someday. Very inspirational and I see the Vandercook press I’ve been using!

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but again, this book is highly recommended!

Posted under Inspiration, letterpress

Happy New Year 2009!! I hope you are having a great start. May year 2009 be filled with love, hope and prosperity!!

This year, I’m going to keep working harder, keep motivated, enjoy and take advantage of this great city, New York, and start and finish lots of projects that I have on my list. I am very excited where it all leads me!

To kick off, I am participating this project with Samantha Hann at Maquette, I was so honored to get included, it’s going to be so exciting! I’ll share more about the project later soon… and also, I am participating letterpress print exchange that Kelly from Paper Stories is organizing with many of my favorite talented letterpress artisits, this is going to be super cool!

Plus, I am so excited to finish sfgirlbybay new site this year along with a few projects that I am still working on from 2008, and I am going to print more of the “Live What You Love” prints this weekend. Thanks to everyone, the 1st edition and the 2nd edition of the print is all sold out!

Speaking of… my friend Sarah sent me her print in her lovely wall — it looks sooooo great, Sarah! Thank you for sending me! Makes me happy so much to see it on your wall and hear that you like it!

Love all the frames she has, too. I am gracious that my print made it on her wall.

I think this is such a good reminder for everyone because it is important that you are living what you love. Right? I’d love to start taking clients for customized letterpress project, too!

Happy 2009!!

Posted under Inspiration, studio news

I just bought my 2009 calendars, but I found another one I’d like – Jim Flora calendars! I love Jim’s work, jazz influenced and whimsical, and this calendar is no exception.

Hand-printed and letterpressed by Yee-Haw Industries… ohh, you gotta love that.

Posted under design