tiny-pine-press-blog-featured-image

Martha and Tiny Pine officially meet.

I realize that it’s been a couple of weeks since this news broke but I have been too much flurrying around the workshop to post it here… but it’s definitely worth hollering about – betther late than never!

This has been making me smile since they inquired. Tiny Pine Press got a stationery feature on The Bride’s Guide: Martha Stewart Weddings!

Splendid!!

It’s  fun that my personality shines through in the written interview so if you just miss talking to me,  check out this feature. It tells the story of how Tiny Pine Press was started, and then goes into all the inspirations.

Here are a couple of the photos that were featured but check it out and look at all the pretty pictures! (thanks to Gia Canali!)


Little Book of Letterpress

Check it out!

I was so excited and grateful when Tiny Pine Press was to be included in Charlotte Rivers new book “Little Book of Letterpress”. What an amazing honor to be situated next to the most innovative and captivating letterpress designers from all over the world.

 

Yesterday I was poking around a bookstore and I saw it on the shelf. That was the moment when it hit me that this artful social stationery which is usually marking a one time event in someone’s life has made it into a slightly permanent slot in a book which will be used as reference for awhile.

This makes me feel good!
You can get a copy for your house at amazon.

 


On becoming a General Loafer

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

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

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…

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!

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??