Author Archives: tinypine

On becoming a General Loafer

Posted on September 20th, 2010

Wayne C. Henderson of Rugby, Virginia is one of the best kept secrets in the world of guitar making. He’s not even that much of a Secret. He’s played at Carnegie Hall and has made instruments for some fancy musicians including Doc Watson and Eric Clapton. So, Wayne’s been around….

He’s also a friend of my family. My mom went to high school with him and my dad used to be a “General Loafer” as Wayne refers to the fellers who hang around the shop…

In my opinion, there are two reasons those general loafers hang around. Number 1 is that there is a lot of beauty that comes out of that shop despite the clutter… and Number 2 is that if you don’t hang around, there is no way your guitar will ever get worked on.

My good friend Sarah (who lives in Minnesota) ordered her guitar two years ago. She schlepped her way to Southwestern Virginia back to Wayne’s shop and gave him the size and dimensions she was looking for. While she was there, they picked out the wood for the back Wayne clamped the sides to bend them into shape.

This past August, Sarah wanted to check on the progress. Calling Wayne was not really working. He’s always out of the shop and a phone call isn’t really urgent enough. So Sarah and I both went to Virginia to see what had happened.

We got to the shop and started our own “General Loafing”. I got obsessed with a wooden mind tricking puzzle sitting there, and Sarah inquired about the progress, and found the guitar in the same shape she left it… bent sides and a back.

Since we were there, and we just kept hanging around, Wayne just started working on her guitar. They picked out her top out of spruce, and then he sanded it down to the right thickness for good resonating glued it together, added some ribbon to the inside of the sides of the guitar, put the sides and the back together and added another piece (i can’t remember what that piece was called) and then we loafed our way on back home….

Patience IS a virtue. Good things come to those that wait. There are many more sayings that can make Sarah feel better about how many trips to Virginia it will take to get her Henderson Guitar.

inspirations from the old home place

Posted on September 5th, 2010

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Going home gives renewal of my creative vision. When I return to the home where I grew up in Sugar Grove, Virginia, I am surrounded by inspirations.

My mom is an avid quilter. So was my grandma. This huge pile of quilts that probably is about 5 feet tall is comprised of family tradition. Some of them were just the tops that my grandmother pieced, or the pieces before being sewn that my mother finished years later…

My mom’s thimble collection is so sweet.

and here are just some laterns that hang on the wall, also there is a section of just washboards and another section of tiny cast iron skillets.

My nephew’s rusty dump truck on the front porch.

AND one of my favorite all time activities, the Wythe raceway dirt track. When I was 5, I wanted to be a race car driver….. Instead I operate a giant piece of motorized cast iron, printing as fast as I can!

Mobile Stationery Unit

Posted on August 13th, 2010

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I was looking through some photos that Gia Canali took for me awhile back… and I came to a shot of my collection of suitcases, otherwise known as the Tiny Pine Press Mobile Stationery Unit.

These are the carrying cases that all my samples have to fit in when I take meetings outside of the studio. I carry them around like a traveling sales lady. I think that would be a fun job… to go door to door designing personal stationery for everyone. I would certainly get a good sense of their personalities!

how to interview your plants…

Posted on July 31st, 2010

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Megan from Forget Me Knot Weddings Blog probably thinks I am a crazy person. In my interview, I talked about talking to pressed leaves and plants and once again personified my presses. (Good thing I didn’t mention that I am a like a single mother to my only child, TPP… and I spoil little TPP. ok. this IS sounding kinda kooky)

But she was sweet enough to post the interview despite my silly typed out answers. And I am very proud of being featured on her blog. It makes me smile…

Here is a photo of a plant application. This one was adhered to wood veneer (hey, that rhymes!). I really did let the energy of this little plume guide me on all the invitations.

Ok. that’s enough kook for any blog post.

ps photo by Gia Canali

It’s tea time tiny pine!

Posted on July 24th, 2010

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Here’s the thing about coming from a creative clan…. you get crazy good presents on your birthday!

My little brother is not only a musician (frontman of bluegrassy americana band Thomas A Minor and the Picket Line), leather worker (Foak is his company name), letterpresser, he is also quite the carpenter these days.

Last time I visited Oscar in Louisville, I spied a his girlfriend’s tea box…. I casually mentioned that I wanted one.

OK! maybe it wasn’t just casually mentioned. I laid it on pretty thick…

Ask and you shall receive! On the eve of my birthday, there was a sweet package for me on my doorstep. written in LARGE letters was Happy Birthday in very familiar scraggly handwriting…. so haphazard its a miracle I even received the package!

Inside was a carefully crafted wooden box (made of cherry, I think) which had been carved and then filled in with the wood filler stuff creating the matte and low contrast look. The cherry wood is curly and shiny. A glance at this piece of functional art really comforts me and sends me back to my home in Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia…

I was very very excited. Although I kind of knew it was coming when Oscar asked me how many different teas I liked…. I had NO idea how sweet it would be. It really shows off oscar’s illustrating skills… and his silly sense of humor. I LOVE IT! He told me that he was the rabbit, offering up tea to me.

Sooooo, It’s Tea Time, Tiny Pine. Come on over and take your pick. There are lots of choices including Licorice Mint, Bedtime, Peppermint, Everyday Detox, Chamomile, Immune Support, and Cucumber White.

Now don’t you wish you had such a great little brother??

a little antiqued and a lot lovely.

Posted on July 22nd, 2010

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I was so happy to be mentioned on Style Me Pretty for Negar and Peter’s wedding invitation… We worked together last summer to design the perfect invitations that would set the tone for their romantic nuptials at the California Club in Los Angeles. What they really wanted, and I think we delivered, was a very timeless invitation that was subtly romantic…. and not at all “cute”… something that they will love as time passes…. something very classic.

To get there I used hand calligraphy for print for their names and charcoal grey ink (I liked the idea of it being grey instead of black as if years had taken their toll and faded the print) with just a little bit of victorian floral embellishment… popped in my inked up press and mashed on a textured but cleanly cut stock…. et voila. It did just the trick.

thanks to Gia Canali for taking the pictures… again! check out Gia’s blog for some other photographs of this wedding and invitations…

Brown Paper Bag Packages

Posted on July 16th, 2010

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As I was printing some brown paper bag envelopes yesterday for a wedding invitation, I was thinking there’s a lot of thinking time in printing, but also I was thinking about where I got this penchant for the good ole grocery bag.

Tiny Pine was started 7 or 8 years ago when I sewed presents onto chopped up trader joes bags and then sewed those onto cardstock for last minute birthday cards. I sold those for a while and made a sort of card line. They were cute and quirky. I know where the sewing thing comes from… , my mom and several aunts and uncles worked at Mr. Casuals for 30 years – a sewing factory in southwest Virginia that produced Ralph Lauren and Osh Kosh and lots of sort of high end jeans and pants and such. My grandma made many many quilts (my mom too). It’s almost genetic.

But why do I love the brown paper bag?

Well, I got a delivery on my doorstep yesterday for my Birthday Present. Every package from my mom looks like this. She literally puts everything in a brown paper bag and wraps it with tape and addresses right on there. The shape doesn’t matter (I’ve gotten round packages) AND she also sticks crazy stamps and stickers on it. I almost don’t want to open it I love it so much.

PS Here is another good example of reusing. That paper bag got a good work out before it got to me.

Thanks Momma!

blog times = good times

Posted on June 29th, 2010

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especially when it’s Martha Stewart’s Wedding Blog!!

I was so so super excited when Yifat Oren gave me the word that Kristina & Jesse’s Wyoming wedding invitations were shown by Martha this morning. HOORAY! I felt like Tiny Pine Press hit the wedding blog jackpot!!

I love this invitation. It’s classic Tiny Pine. I mean, there are pine needle clusters stitched on every invitation. Can you get more piney?

The save the dates were also one of my favorites… with the tinted photograph of the property delivered to the guests, giving them just a peek at where they would be traveling to.

So now a new goal has been reached, and I can rest a bit before working towards a new goal of getting Martha Stewart to follow me on Twitter……

Thanks to Yvette Roman for the pretty photo of the stationery!