Linocuts by Katie Muth

Printmaking was extremely well represented at the Stationery Show, mostly in the form of letterpress and screen printing. As far as I could see, there was only one other vendor who worked solely with linocuts, and that was Katie Muth, who does gorgeous linocuts of every day scenes.

I walked past her booth many times admiring her prints, and at the end of the show we did a card swap and I got to pick my three favorites. I chose these three from her Calendar Series, which are two (or more) seperate linoleum blocks, one printed in black and white and the other underneath in color. I love how she combines an every day scene (they coordinate with the months when you see the whole series) with a pattern or detail from the occasion.

Beautiful work, and it was great to meet a fellow printmaker at the show! I will definitely be following Katie's work in the future to see what she comes up with next.

Minted Holiday Challenge!

At the National Stationery Show, I got to meet the amazing staff at Minted, where they urged me to submit a design for their Holiday Photo Card challenge. Minted is an online stationery company, and all their designs are submitted through competitions to pick who gets to have their designs printed and sold through the website. The quality of the designs available is amazing, and I was so excited to be approached to design something! The final judges of the competition are Jenna Lyons from J.Crew, Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan from Apartment Therapy, Kristin van Ogtrop, Editor of Real Simple Magazine, and Kelley Lillien of Mrs. Lillien. In order for these judges to see my design, it needs to have a high score and that is where you come in!

Voting for the Holiday Challenge just went live, and you can click through designs and rate them on a scale of 1-5. So head over to Minted and vote! I've already made it through the first round, will you rate my design and help me get to the finals?

Before you ask, I don't know Jenny and Peter, they give you stock photos to use in the mock card. The design was carved from linoleum and block printed, and then I added the text and photo digitally. I took a few pictures of the carving process to show you:

Voting closes next week, so head over to Minted and rate the designs! You have to have an account to vote, but it is quick and easy to set up. Thank you!

And the Winner Is...

After going through all my Stationery Show orders and calculating the totals for each item, the winner of most orders at the show (by a landslide) is this card:

Congratulations, little card, on being so popular! And if you want to pick one up for yourself, you can find them right here.

Mata Traders

Last Thursday, Nana did a trunk show of new summer dresses by Mata Traders, an amazing line of clothing that works with women in India and Nepal to create beautiful block printed dresses, skirts and tops. Usually fair-trade clothing comes out looking more soccer-mom than stylish, but their dresses are gorgeous. In fact, I bought this first dress and will probably wearing it every day this summer. I love the way they combine prints and solids in their designs, and will definitely be getting a few more. Check out the full collection online here, or if you're in DC, stop by Nana to see them in person!

 

All images courtesy of Mata Traders.

Stationery Show In Review

I'm back home from the National Stationery Show, which was simultaneously one of the most of exhausting and one of the greatest things I have ever done. It was amazing to meet so many people who do what I do, and make real-life friends with people I have been talking to online for so long. I'm already planning new ideas for next year's Stationery Show.

I had heard that the last few minutes of the show could be the busiest as buyers rushed around to place last-minute orders, but almost no one came through on the last morning. People were watching their clocks as the last few seconds ticked down, and at 12:00 exactly, the whole hall erupted as people started rushing to pack up their booths and get out. My booth took twelve hours to install and less than an hour to tear down, as we rushed to beat the crowd and make it to a Thai restaurant for a huge lunch and celebratory beers. We did take a few minutes pre-tear down to take some final pictures of the booth though, including the picture above where I appear to have only one arm.

It was bittersweet to end the show; on one hand I was exhausted from the long days and months of preparation and so ready to have a day to relax, but it was sad to take down the booth and say goodbye to everyone I had met during the show.

We were in the fantastic row 1200. I got out of the booth a few times to meet people and take walks, but after seeing post-show write-ups on other blogs, I am realizing just how many great booths I missed. It was hard to see everything because I didn't want to leave the booth for too long and miss people coming by, so I'll just have to discover all those amazing vendors online.

And now I'm home, with a huge notebook of new contacts and follow up emails to write (and my note from Lotta Jansdotter, which I'm going to hang in my studio), orders to work on and packages to ship. I took the whole day off yesterday to recover, and now it's back to work. See you at the 2012 Stationery Show!

Plus: for some great round-ups of the Stationery Show, check here, here and here.

NSS So Far

I just got back from Day 3 of the National Stationery Show, and it has been amazing so far. I've heard so many nice things from people at the show: buyers, other exhibitors, press. The best part for me has been meeting people whose work I have admired for so long. This morning, I came back to my booth after getting a snack to find a note from the amazing Lotta Jansdotter congratulating me on my great work. I couldn't believe she had been there, so I found her a few aisles down and had a great conversation with her, it was so surreal!

I also got to meet the amazing women of Minted who were incredibly friendly and smart, and I got to schmooze with them for a while. Other highlights were meeting Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co., seeing faces behind all my favorite cards, especially the T.Hanks card, and meeting people who own stationery stores around the country.

There's one more half-day left, and I'll definitely be sad to rip the booth down at the end of the day tomorrow. After working so much for the last six months to get it ready, it's been great to see it come to life, and to share what I've been working on with so many people.

Right now, I'm looking forward to spending one more day at the show, and then I will really need the massage I booked for Thursday. Standing, selling and smiling all day is exhausting.

Thanks to everyone who has made it a great show so far, and if you're at the show tomorrow, make sure to stop by Booth # 1256!

All Set Up

It's all ready! We spent eight hours today getting everything ready, and it looks perfect. There were definitely some roadbumps, the booth was much smaller than I had anticipated so we had to cut down the shelves, and the table legs didn't fit but we found a great solution. So now I'm going to eat dinner, watch bad TV and relax before the show starts tomorrow.

And the final setup!