New Cards

I worked hard to get some new cards out for the Urban Craft Fair. I'm going to keep the creative ball rolling and get some spring-y cards, since I've already seen a robin, the harbinger of the warmer season.

Some of them are already available on Etsy.

Another amazing craft show!

This morning I spent a wonderful 5 hours in the sunny second floor lobby of the GCTC Irving Greenberg Theater with my cards and map collages on display for the Urban Craft Market. It was my second craft show, so I'm still relatively new to the scene. It was nice to not frantically be printing business cards, getting a cash float, or a table cloth this time. All those countless, small items that are absolutely necessary but easily forgotten take their toll on my brain capacity. I have a new display stand, and everything came together nicely.

I'll be trying to update my etsy store and this blog over the next few days, so please check back.

Hibernation

Has it really been months since I posted something here? I've been hibernating every chance I get these days, it's just easier to go to bed at 4:30 when it gets dark than to fight it sometimes.  However, in more recent weeks I haven't been blogging because I've been some what frantically getting ready for the February edition of the Urban Craft Market. I've spent the last couple weeks worth of evenings and was holed up inside all weekend getting some fresh new cards designed and printed for the market. It's always an exciting craft fair, with lots of people, beautiful hand made artisan goods, and fun all around. Hopefully I'll see you there!

from start to finish

I'm still figuring out what process works best for me to take an idea for a design from start to finish, but it's always some variation of this:

1. get an idea for a card

2. sketch it out until I have a design that will translate well into block printing

3. transfer design onto the lino

4. carve it out (carefully so I don't cut off any important fingers)

5. print!

I enjoy every step, but the first print is always exciting.  It's sometimes hard to picture how something will really look until you see it in ink. 

The sketching process takes me back to school days when sketching was akin to thinking and communicating ideas ranging from simple shapes to complex systems. I like using a small 5x7" sketchbook for card designs, because then I get a good sense of scale and how a design will look when printed on a card.

I sometimes use Adobe illustrator to get some crisp linework if I'm working from a photo. This has the added advantage of precisely scaling the image up or down to fit the block I plan on working on.

I was playing around with the idea of hand printed gift wrap using brown kraft paper. It turns out it's much more labour intensive than I thought it would be. I'm determined to find a way to make it happen, because I love the way it looks!

go to market (inspiration)

As part of my day job I got to work at the Kanata farmers market and picked up some beautiful produce. The market is done for the year, which is both a relief as it was soooo cold to stand around selling bread at 8am outdoors, but also a little sad.  It was fun to talk to the different farmers and getting fresh, local produce which not only tasted amazing, but looked good enough to inspire me to pick up my camera and snap a few photos.

I love the textures, colours and shapes of the vegetables. Maybe a market inspired series of cards in the future?

Craft Show Success!

I just wanted to write a big thank you to everyone who came out to the Urban Craft Market today. It was my first craft show ever as a vendor, and I had an amazing time. I'll be updating my etsy store this week, so if there was something at the show that isn't online yet it will be in a couple of days.

Deer oh deer (inspiration)

The other weekend I got out of the studio for a photo taking excursion to Parc Omega, a "drive thru zoo". It's a park with lots of deer and wild boars, and bison roaming around that you driving through in the car. You're allowed to feed the animals carrots, so they've all become beggars and will basically block the road until you give them some food. These deer are not shy; they'll stick their whole head in the car window if you let them.

It's pretty neat to get so close to these animals that are so rare to see in the wild. My favourites are the ibex. They are agile mountain climbing goats with sweetest faces:

There are other animals as well, coyotes, wolves, bears, and near the visitor centre there are foxes:

The predators are all kept in fenced in areas, which makes them easier to spot and the deer population relaxed and unthreatened.

It was fun to spend a day focused on taking pictures. These woodland animals are sure to be appearing in card designs in the near future.