Man, can you even believe that it's December?! I sure can't. I also can't believe that I haven't posted anything since October. I've been making lots of things, but they have mostly been gifts and I don't really like to share gifts on the blog until they have been given!
So instead here are a few pics of some holiday related things, like our little tree, a little present under it and some gift wrap I made.
Adam said he didn't want anything for Christmas, but I still got him a couple little things. I told him that that little gift is a pack of cigarettes and that I thought he might like to take up the habit, (they're not and he doesn't) but he doesn't believe me.
I made the wrapping paper with some stamps that I had carved a while ago and a paper bag. I love wrapping stuff in kraft paper. I think it looks so nice! Oh and that pom pom was unused decor from our wedding!
I'm really into and can relate to the indifference on this bear's face. I, too, feel indifferent about many things.
Funny thing about this week's buddy, Nick...I've never met him! However, he is the boyfriend of one of my BFF's, Bobbi and I'll be meeting him when I go back to Maine in about a month. I'm really happy that he was able to do the questions for a couple reasons - I think his work is awesome and fits perfectly in my goal to use Buddy Monday as a way to highlight all different kinds of art. So enjoy Beartrap because it's full of good stories, links, artwork and even a recipe! I couldn't have asked for more of a soon to be buddy!
1. Tell us about yourself?
I am Beartrap, A 24 year old tattooist and mascot. I live and work currently in Portland Maine at BLNDSGHT Tattoo with Watson Atkinson and Shannon Doah. I also play music; formerly, I played bass in the New Hampshire based band Backstabbers incorporated and I currently play in the band Waranimal. I can usually be found riding my bike or shooting fireworks at stuff and trying to skateboard. If I get lucky I might graduate someday from the University of Southern Maine, where I have been studying printmaking since 2004.
2. What do you make?
Jokes [ http://www.youtube.com/user/xieatbagelsx#p/u - check out my hightime for a jokes ] Flyers. Stone teeth. 2-d and 3-d prints. Logos. Lots of drawings . Loud noises. Dinner. The bed. Plans to party. Fun. I once made a my sister pass chicken noodle soup through her nose at the dinner table, I think we were being loud and my mom had yelled at us to be quiet or stop laughing or something. I looked at my sister and pretended to silently stifle a laugh as she was eating some soup and she could not hold it. It was awesome ( it might have been orange soda actually, or milk, I don't remember which one that time was )
I also make pizza and once made this Pb&J pizza for dessert at a pizza party I had - its awesome.
3 cups of Bisquick Heart smart mix
1 cup of Soymilk
peanut butter
Jelly
Chrushed Graham Crackers
Shredded coconut
follow the directions on the bisquick heart smart box to make a double batch of biscuit dough and roll it out/stretch it out so its really thin and instead of cutting it to make biscuits just leave it whole and bake it like you would normally.
Once it has come out of the oven let cool a little and then spread peanut butter and jelly to taste over your giant biscuit.
Sprinkle Graham crackers and coconut to taste as well atop and enjoy.
you could also put banana and honey or fluff on top if you wished. I bet that would be good and if you eat meat you could omit the jelly and add banana and bacon for Elvis Pizza, or just use veggie bacon if you wanted, that also sounds awesome.
3. How did you come up with your shop/business/blog name?
Beartrap is a childhood nickname I was given after trapping a young blackbear in a walk-in cooler at a campground/restort that my family once ran in northern Maine. Til Death Do us Party comes from a tattoo I have on my leg of a heart shaped pizza with wings and a banner that reads " Til Death Do us Party, Rest in Pizzas" I could not decide if I wanted "rest in pizzas" or "pizza my heart" I got the idea from my friend Jeremy Myers and I have not asked him but I think he may have gotten it from the Groovie Ghoulies song "Til Death Do Us Party" which I had not heard at the time of his suggestion. Til Death Do us Party is also an army I am starting of people who party hard, there are some stipulations which can be revealed at the time of recruitment if one should wish to enlist but it basically entails getting some sort of ridiculous tattoo that somewhere says " Til Death Do us Party"
4. Influences? The outlaw print makers - Dennis Mcnett, Sean Starwars, And Tom Huck. I am largely inspired by people who in addition to their work/music/ whatever they are producing have created an alter ego/pseudonym that they adopt and stubbornly refuse to break character. This is something that has always intrigued me and I am starting to notice it around me with some of my friends and people I see and interact with on a daily basis and it is really awesome. And as far as my tattooing goes my mentor, Watson Atkinson, has been incredbily influential but I am also really drawn to the work of Thomas Hooper , Daniel Dimattia, Yann Black, Guy Aitchison and in large by the sort of spirit and play on words / humor of a lot of Americana tattooing.
Blind Guardian - " The Soulforged "
Manowar - " Sons of Odin "
Basil Poledouris's " Anvil of Crom" from the Conan the Barbarian Score
Tragedy - " Conflicting Idea"
Van Halen - "Jump"
Polyphonic Spree - " Light and Day"
Jeff Walker and Die Fluffers covering "You're still on my mind" by the Byrds
Today was great! Austin and I went for a nice walk this morning. It was nice and dry out and even sunny. Adam and I had lunch together and then we went to see Kristin from Twin Ravens Press to talk about our wedding invitations. We went over not really having any idea of what we wanted to do. Kristin showed us so much beautiful and creative work and gave us so many new ideas of what we could do that I think she got us both pretty excited. Earlier in the day she mentioned that she needed some help in the studio (She broke her leg about 4 weeks ago! Ouch!) so after our meeting I brought Adam back to work and went right back to help out.
Kristin printin'!
I had SO much fun. I mostly just carried stuff around for her and passed her stuff but it was so awesome to see all the steps that go into a letterpress project. I kind of felt like I was amazed by everything. Even cutting the paper! Even the little ticking counter on the letterpress! Even all the boxes of envelopes and all the paper samples. I think you are getting the point that I think what Kristin does is pretty awesome.
Alright you guys! Here we go with the first Buddy Monday.
I met Kristin of Twin Ravens Press when we both had tables at the first Meet Your Maker show here in Eugene. I remember loving her work right away and how clean and fun her imagery is. It was not until I started following her blog that I found out she also does beautiful business cards, wedding invitations and any other kind of announcement you could possibly want. She is totally awesome and friendly and I'm so happy to have met her and be sharing her to kick off Buddy Monday!
1. Tell us about yourself?
I was raised in the small, mountain town of Wilson, Wyoming and lived there my whole life until I moved to Eugene, Oregon to go to college. I studied photography, graphic design and printmaking at the University of Oregon and knew that I wanted to eventually be an independent or studio artist as a career when I graduated. I spent some time working odd jobs and applying to work in studios outside of Eugene and when my job applications turned up fruitless, I decided to start my letterpress printing and graphic design business, Twin Ravens Press. I continued working my side jobs for a while until at one point I realized I was making more money and enjoying myself more when I was doing my own work than I was working for others. At that point I quit my day job and started running Twin Ravens Press and developing my own work further, full-time.
When I'm not working, I love playing soccer and tennis, roller skating, reading, playing games, gardening, hanging out with my geeky boyfriend, cooking and eating tasty food, hanging out with awesome friends and doing pretty much anything outdoors.
2. What do you make?
I design and print custom wedding invitations, birth announcements, shower invitations, Bar & Bat Mitzvah invitations, menus, programs, business stationery and business cards, greeting cards, letterhead, small hand-bound books, calendars... you name it! I also have a small line of greeting cards, personal stationery, coasters and small gift cards and tags that are available for wholesale and retail sales. All of my work is designed either on paper or in a computer program like Adobe Illustrator, then printed on an antique 1912 Chandler & Price Letterpress. I pride myself on using organic, recycled, and tree-free papers and materials whenever possible, including vegetable-based inks, handmade papers, cotton papers, and recycled and biodegradable packaging.
3. How did you come up with your shop/business/blog name?
Coming up with a name for my business was really difficult actually. I wanted something unique and interesting, and I also wanted it to be non-specific enough to where the name could suit my ever evolving line of products and designs. My boyfriend was really into greek and roman mythology and was reading a lot of books about it when I was trying to figure out my name and he told me this story about two ravens: Hugin and Munin. One of the ravens represented thought and the other represented memory and the story went that they would fly around the world every day and return to the god Odin and tell him what was going on in the world. I really liked this idea and thought about how people use stationery to commemorate important events that turn into memories and how they also use nice paper products to write down their day to day thoughts and the thoughts they share with others. The more I thought about it, the name just sort of fit.
4. Influences?
There have been a lot of artists and illustrators whom I'm sure have influenced my work over the last several years. A few whom I absolutely love though are:
Among others. I also feel very inspired by the "older generation" of letterpress printers whom I've been fortunate enough to meet and/or stay in touch with. One such gentleman, in particular, my good friend, Bob Giles, has been both incredibly helpful and inspirational.
5. Who would you like to collaborate with?
I feel very fortunate to have gotten to collaborate with several different individuals so far. I work with two amazing calligraphers and illustrators on a regular basis, Fran Heider of Little Flower Calligraphy (www.lilflower.etsy.com) in Dayton, Ohio, and Crystal Kluge of Tart Workshop (www.crystalkluge.com), of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Both of these ladies are amazing to work with and I love their individual styles!
I tend to consider all of the custom work I do a collaboration between myself and the client. I want the work I create for others to really reflect their personality, business and/or event.
Who would I love to work with that I've never worked with before though? Sarah Lomba of S. Jane, Heather Moore of Skinny Laminx (www.skinnylaminx.com), this friend of mine named Amanda Ryznar who owns a pottery company named Yoga Goat (www.yogagoat.etsy.com) and does really amazing designs, Brook & Cory Burnett of Crowerks (www.crowerks.com), Nikki McClure, & Bruce Mau, just to name a few. There are probably dozens of others and many that I haven't even thought of yet. You can learn so much from collaborating with other artists and it's so refreshing, in my opinion!
6. 5 songs you like to work to?
To see more of Kristin's work you can click on any of the images in this post or visit the Twin Ravens Press blog or shop.
Monday, September 24, 2007
so it seems that adam and i will be packing up and moving! again! it's funny to think that just a few months ago i had never lived outside maine and now i will have lived in 2 other states before the year is over! i'm excited though, i think i will like oregon more than i like wisconsin. i think i will just feel more at home there. green bay is nice, but adam and i are used to being able to walk places and go to the ocean and that kind of stuff, so it will be nice to be in a city like that again!
it sucks that we have to leave our house! it's so nice and big and in a really nice neighborhood, but oh well! i've already got my eyes set on some pretty adorable looking places on craigslist. so hopefully we will get to look at those when we go visit in a few weeks.
ANYWAY!
i haven't been very productive the past few days. it's partly just been me being lazy and also partly me being distracted by adam being home. i did do lots of printing the other night though! i made prints that i think i'm going to turn into notecards, stickers and some other stuff...like these:
there were two coin purses, one of each twin, but i already sold the other one to a friend. i love those two drawings, i could literally print them on everything, buuuut i think i should probably stop some time soon.
so i finally printed up some little business cards for myself. i'm really, really happy with how they came out. the background is gold dots. which you can sorta kinda tell from the image. they look much better in person. i'm glad that i made them myself and didn't just have some printed up at vista print or something.
i also printed up some little cards to go in the packaging of my note cards that i will be sending off any day now. they're in gold ink too..which i now know looks amazing on vellum.
i love vellum and gold gocco ink.
Friday, August 17, 2007
i can't wait to add these pins to my shop! i still have to make one more batch though!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
today i started printing up some note cards for some sets that i am going to make. i almost forgot how much fun it is using my print gocco. so yeah, i printed up about 40 mini note cards and still had lots of ink left on my screen. i'm not sure how, i never really put much ink on.
but anyway!
i tried my gocco on felt for the first time and i have to say i was really surprised how well the line quality came out on the felt. i expected it to be all fuzzy and the fibers to be all over the screen.
so i printed on a bunch of scraps that i have. i'm going to make them into little pins i think. i'm excited! and for like...the first time ever i remembered to clean my screen so i can use it again.
i think that tomorrow i will burn my other two screens and print the rest of the cards.
