Someone sent me a link to a website that shows a whole bunch of "artistic printing" like the images shown in that book I mentioned the other day, "The Handy Book of Artistic Printing." When you get to the website, click on 'Artistic Printing Album.' Here's the website:

http://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/

Hello Hello!

Hello all!

I'm been meaning to post on here ever since Beth got it rolling, but alas, time has gotten the best of me!  So good to read your notes John, Beth and Ally!  It's nice to hear what y'all been up to.  Hopefully more people will write! :)  

All is well here in Bakersville/Penland!  I'm actually sitting in the Penland coffee shop as I type.  It is the second summer session right now.  The place is crawling with students again!  It's nice to see the place bustling as it got rather quiet here after spring session ended.  I believe there are a couple of Letterpress classes in July/August... I hope to poke my head in to check out the crazy work that I'm sure will be created.  It's fun being here.  Wish I could take another class, but for now I'm knee deep in the web world!  Work is busy and good and I'm grateful to have it!

Weather around here's getting nice; we too had a ton of rain (raining now!).  More so than there's been here in many years.  It's good, but I'm certainly thankful to see the sun again when she manages to pop her head out!  Taking a little vacation at the end of this month to the Outerbanks.  I'm excited to get away from work and I haven't seen the ocean in a couple of years, so that's doubly exciting.  Other than that, we've been trying to get our garden in order and we also acquired 7 more baby chickens a few weeks ago.  It's been fun watching them grow and integrate with the rest of the ladies in the coop.  :)  

Well, it is so good to keep in touch with you all.  I'm looking forward to keeping this up!  Fingers crossed that we will.

-Marisa

EXHIBITION

One of the things I’ve been meaning to tell ya’ll is about the exhibition I had in my shop on returning from Penland. I pinned up all the work you so graciously allowed me to have, so that my apprentices here could see what you did in one week. Most of my apprentices were pretty amazed and one of them was even upset that so much was done in just a week by “beginners.” I think, I hope, that your enthusiasm and creativity was an inspiration to the folks here.

  I’ve been asked to do a two-week “beginning letterpress” course at Penland next year. So I’ve been wondering what else I should include in a longer course. More on illustration techniques? Carving linoleum blocks? Making photopolymer plates? Any suggestions? What else would you have liked to have learned that we didn’t cover?

  Brandon Mize at Blue Barnhouse (  http://www.bluebarnhouse.org/wordpress/  ) is thinking about doing a book on letterpress printing and has invited me to submit images. Trouble is, I don’t have images, I only have the real thing. Guess I’ll have to get a photographer to make me some images. If they end up in Brandon’s book, I’ll let you know.

HEY Y'ALL

I am not in savannah anymore! or kansas for that matter. i have made my way up to New Hampshire...I followed my heart and answered a post for a 'resident farm artist' where i am working part time in the fields and the rest of the time making signage for their CSA (community supported agriculture) store and surrounding grounds. being a farmhand is HARD work! its an organic farm that is making an effort to not use any machinery to avoid the use of fossil fuels so we are weeding etc. ALL by hand. whoa. we grow only vegetables and herbs and have member-pick-up twice a week. Its really great here with the other interns and sleeping in a shed. really.
i'm lovin the hard work and the art opportunity! love you all! i'll be posting more later!

NEW BOOK

I just got a new book, "The Handy Book of Artistic Printing" by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas. It's full of color illustrations of silly Victorian ornate typography that old geezers like me love. Incredible feats of type composing and rule bending.

What I've been doing.

OK, so now I'm on a blog. Will wonders never cease? I’m still having trouble figuring out how to work this blog so bear with me.

  I've been incredibly busy since our Penland class. Some travel, Puget Sound area (gorgeous), NE Louisiana (NOT gorgeous), Ft. Smith, AR (ditto).

  We’ve had lots of rain here so have been unable to get into my veggie garden until recently. Lots of hard work there and I’m gettin’ too old and fat to do that kind of work. Stiff and sore after a day’s work in the garden.

  I’ve done very little printing since returning from Penland but do have a couple of projects in the works. I’ve spent some time proofing and indexing some of my wood type collection. I'm trying to acquire a really big Vandercook and if it happens, you'll know about it.

  I got a real nice letter from Jessica that only took me two months to answer. Alex called a couple of days ago to say he’s on his way to pick up the shop he bought in Wisconsin and visit Carrie while he’s there. According to Alex, Carrie discovered a letterpress gold mine very close to her. Care to fill us in Carrie?

  So what's up with everyone else?

Visit to John's Shop coming up Wednesday

Hi everyone, Beth here.   Not much going on hmmm.  Maybe someone else will post.  In the meantime, here is my newest poster, printed for the cd release party of my friend Kevin Kerby, great songwriter.  

My teaching semester is over and I have a couple of weeks off.  That means I get to go to Tuesday night print shop at John's!! Lucky me.  This week I'm taking my camera and will put up some pictures.