Tag Archives: Jennifer Parsons

Tiny Pine Press – Variations

This past Friday night I had a launch party for the new album collection of invitations which are available now to view and purchase at Urbanic Paper Boutique in Venice, CA. (it’s the first store I have offered any invitations – custom & pre-designed)

Photos of that party are forthcoming but I thought I would post the designs. They are also viewable as scans on the Tiny Pine Press site but these photos are a bit nicer and bigger….

On a side note, these are all variations on invitation designs I have done in the past as custom options. I think this shows 9 of the all time favorites which have been redesigned for the brides all over who can’t meet to create custom invitations.

They are digitally printed (but can be done letterpress, obviously) and use recycled papers and some tree free papers… to be as green as I can!

Take a look!

waves

waves

horizon

horizon

california

california

garden

garden

flora

flora

sky

sky

sugargrove

canopy

canopy

Little Letterpress Pillows

An art book publisher has requested some photography of my work! yay!

I think the photography turned out great. They make the letterpress look the most cozy. like a daybed on a Sunday afternoon.

3715466684_670891a7d0_b

Sillapere Events Holiday card – Handmade card by Dirty Byrd Papers

Julia & Eli Wedding Invitation

3714637737_38a5425e29_bAshley and Jeffrey Save the Date – hand calligraphy for letterpress

3714649031_bd32397974_bGone West Moving Announcement- handmade card by Dirty Byrd Papers

3715452706_6f608cf1e1_b

Lily the Dancing Bear Birthday Party

hanging out to dry…

I have this very favorite paper/fabric cotton organdi…. It’s the perfect fabric for wedding invitations because it is white, starchy, sturdy, natasha wagner invitationtranslucent, and has just the perfect feeling… a little like tulle and a little bit like canvas… I  have been using it for years… (here is my first wedding invitation for Natasha Gregson Wagner using a cotton organdi belly band).

It comes in a few different colors but white always seems to be the best. However, sometimes white is toooooo WHITE. Blaring white is no good for organic handmade looking pieces.

What to do? What to do?!

dieandvatWell, DYE IT!! That’s the answer.

The last two times I used this fabric, I tea stained it with Lipton. Those turned out lovely but probably a little dark for my current client. She wanted something more in a “cream”… a little less orangey than tea stain…

So today, a super sunny Sunday afternoon in California, I mixed up the RIT – a little taupe and a little yellow – in a big vat and dyed all these sheets…. Now they just need to be pressed out flat again and they will be ready to go cut and wrap up a pretty warm white wedding invitation…

 

fabricWhat a nice way to get back to my country girl roots, hanging out clothes on the line for the sunshine to dry. It’s kind of zen, creates a perfect embellishment, and allows the sun to do the rest of the work… oh, it’s kind of green, actually!

I am goodbye, too…

I went to film school. That’s no secret about me. I LOVED working on films in college. I was the laborious production designer and/or editor on many films during my time at Northwestern…. There is a nice stash of VHS tapes next to my TV to proove it. Too bad the VHS may not even work anymore!

The first actual “film” I made was a collaboration with my friends John Randono and Abbey Rothstein. The assignment was to shoot on a Bolex an in camera edit which would be processed and then screened in front of class to a song of our choosing. The catch was that this screening would be the first time we would be seeing the film so there was some pressure. Long story short, our group decided on “I am a Cinematographer” by Palace to be the song and it was so perfectly in sync that I took it upon myself to contact Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy) to ask him if we could actually use his song in conjunction with the film with his official permission. Shortly I received a phone call and a yes (this was 11 years ago).

Next thing I know, by a strange pattern of coincidence, I have made two videos for Will’s “The Letting Go” record (Ebb Tide and Strange Form of Life) which were shot and edited very very very cheaply and consumerly… mostly because I believe it is the skills and the quality of the work that speaks strongest about a piece of art…. Quality doesn’t rest in the medium. does that make sense??

When Will asked me about doing a third video for his latest record “Beware”, I was excited to once again do a music video for just fun… It’s great to have a break from letterpress and print and to be able to use my eyeballs for a moving form of art… (though technically, stationery does move through the mail, right?). I pointed Will’s attention towards another college friend/filmmaker – Leif Johnson – who frequently positions his eyeballs behind lenses of film and video cameras.

I wasn’t present, but I hear that the wrap party was longer than the shoot since they only had a fraction of daylight left to get the singing and walking in…. Leif gave me the footage and about a week later, I had put this little ditty together on Final Cut Express. Just a little exercise of my college education!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5__UQbZVcMU&w=320&h=240]

That film school really is paying off…. yup… I got really good at syncing Mr. Bonny while he chomped on chewing gum singing along with himself in harmony…. I am putting THAT on my resume… Enjoy!

Little Verdie in her New Home

In the past couple of weeks there has been LOTS of change at Tiny Pine Press because I moved my studio across town, from a becoming over-crowded space to a shared studio with lots more privacy, without shutting down production and even squeezing in jury duty throwing a baby shower for one of my best friends (who had her baby today!! and I got to be in the room for the birth shooting video and photos).

In that time, I moved Verdie, my Chandler & Price Pilot Press. I was so nervous about shifting her weight that I had my friend drive her separately, very very slowly in his ultra large SUV and daring him make any dramatic stops…. begging him to drive with ease and quiet through Friday afternoon traffic in Los Angeles, changing freeways 4 times…

littleverdie

She faired just fine, and I placed Verdie into her new home. I tested her out sans ink to make sure nothing shifted somehow – she IS held together by bolts. OLD bolts – and then I left her. 

She has a room with a view out the window in this new place. She has her own room. It’s sort of small but she is small (only 200 lbs.) She sits on her tiny table made of pine and just waits for me.

Tomorrow I am making the final move…. Putting all the computery things in the big office space section of the studio, and I am going to print 3 runs on Verdie and see how she likes her new space. I think she does… there is a little window that lets in a good amount of light and it is quite cozy in there with everything in reachable distance.

Here’s a picture of my little press, in her new space… Doesn’t she look so happy??

The Parsons Family gets more press….

If you saw where I was raised in the tiny community of Sugar Grove, Virginia, where our nearest neighbor is about 1/2 of a mile away, then you would be really surprised at all the attention us Parsons’ seem to get in the media these days… 

http://radioproject.org/archive/2009/0209.html

This story isn’t really about my family completely, but it does include an interview with my Mom, Virginia Parsons. The story is about Wayne C. Henderson, a pretty important guitar builder who is just over the mountain from where I was raised. He’s a friend of the family and so when a friend of mine, Ben Hubbard, wanted to journey back to the old home place to do a story for his graduate school project, well, Momma put him up and pretty much vouched for him – which you really need when you are an outsider coming around with your semi-imposing recording equipment… 

Ben actually had visited Sugar Grove before. When we were freshman in college at Northwestern University, Ben decided, at the drop of a hat mind you, to ride along with my family and me during the holiday break for 13 hours from Chicago to Virginia to see what it was like. I suppose he was checking to see if I was telling the truth about being a hillbilly! He got along just fine and so when he wanted to come back to do this story, my Momma welcomed him. Now Ben is roaming around somewhere near the Gaza Strip for the Associated Press…. a far cry from southwestern Virginia!

What I love about this radio documentary is that Ben managed to compose it in a way to give justice to all the people participating. I cry every single time I hear my mom talk. And when my dad’s recording fades in towards the end, I can’t take it. I am mentioned and so is my younger brother, Oscar. And it is just nice to have this little snippet of family history available for everyone! 

jennifer parsons and wayne c henderson

It is also an extraordinary story about Wayne’s way of life… his passion and simplicity. He has really a good model of business. He’s old fashioned and does things in a way that makes him happy… the most important thing?

Take a listen and you will see what I mean…

And here’s a picture of me with Wayne when I received my Henderson for Christmas a couple of years ago..

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A shout out in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker… What???!!!

This summer my little brother Oscar asked me to print tickets letterpress for a small concert he was putting together with his band, Thomas A. Minor and the Picket Line, in Kentucky. Because Bonnie Prince Billy, our good friend and patron, would be the headliner, they were sure to sell out like lightning and he reckoned that if they were printed letterpress then counterfeiting would be highly unlikely. So I obliged him.

Funtown Ticket

Funtown Ticket

It was really a bit secretive… when he gave me the wording, he didn’t even put a location on the ticket. I insisted that he needed to tell the audience what state they would be traveling to, at the very least… I mean, this wasn’t Charlie Sheen’s wedding (I did his invitations and there were all sorts of non-disclosures and I still don’t know where they got married! There wasn’t even a time on his invitations).

My other favorite part was “The Rules” on the back. I printed those on my laser so I didn’t need to dent the card twice. Since when did rules deserve such fine printing?? On the front of the ticket were the most essential restrictions. “No beer, alcohol or drugs” – only a hillbilly would not consider “beer” as a type of “alcohol”. (I can say that because I am a hillbilly.)

Anyways, those things were really not possible to fake. I put them on discontinued 100% recycled leftovers from a postcard I did for David Pajo years ago. And they had a deep clean impression with super thin type.

However, the point of this story is as follows: sometimes work one does is barely noticed at the time… maybe done for free… given with love and no expectations to family and friends. I printed the tickets and then I got to go to the show. I had to pay for my flight from Los Angeles, but I got my favorite Bonnie Prince Billy song dedicated to me and sang so lovely and then I got an amazing shout out about my work. How exciting!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/05/090105fa_fact_sanneh?currentPage=all

Here’s what K. said…

“They asked Oscar’s sister Jennifer, who lives in Los Angeles, to print the tickets on a letterpress. She made three hundred, and they quickly disappeared from Louisville shops, at ten dollars apiece.”