Category Archives: paper

Ready for My Close Up

Posted on July 12th, 2009

Dirty Byrd paper CU

Not too long ago I got a request from an art book writer to potentially have some of my work published. That was pretty exciting to me because… well, you know… My main concern was the photos that I would show. I had to take the initial photos on my own with awful lighting to give Charlotte Rivers an idea of some printed pieces…

I wanted to post these ultra almost scary close ups because I think it makes the letterpress look scientific and kind of alive. The paper is cotton on all of these. The Dirty Byrd paper on the grey one looks crazy hairy and is probably my favorite of these ultra crisp…. they are kind of scary. I hope it doesn’t frighten people away from elegant letterpress! 2009_07_11_20_53_540_1

International Mail! My Favorite!

Posted on June 13th, 2009

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czechenvelope I am telling you, there’s nothing better than being a lover of stamps and then receiving some well composed postage combos of art that I haven’t seen before!

These are so thoughtful… especially given my penchant for postage… varietyenvelopes

Super Recycled

Posted on June 9th, 2009

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The truth about recycled paper is that normally it’s not so great. Usually it only comes in light weights and smooth finish and, well, not the super duper best recipient of letterpress…

So when I caught wind (no pun intended – you’ll see) of this fairly new product, I had my doubts. This paper is not only 100% recycled, it super soft and comes in some great colors.

It also is comprised of 75% or so Elephant Poop. monkey on poop paper

YUP.

I printed on it recently. The color is a super awesome bright green. I used it for a birth announcement (appropriate, right?) for my friend Nikki Flores (who has logged some hours as a letterpress printer but gave that all up to go to Harvard Law and raise a child at the same time…..) and printed this monkey on it.

It took pressing really nicely. It’s super airy, giving the print a pillowy feel that all us letterpress lovers seek.

As I was printing it, I kept wondering if it was weird that I was touching this processed poop, but at the end of the day, touching elephant pooh paper doesn’t weird me out…. but I would second guess licking any envelopes!!

Lavender scented wedding invitations…..!!!

Posted on May 30th, 2009

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I have been slammed. I will be honest. It was as if everyone was getting married on the same day this summer thus sending out their invitations on the same day! Now, that isn’t at all true, but that’s how it felt over at the Tiny Pine Press studio.

In the hub-ub of the past month, I had many notable moments which I hope to share in the next couple of weeks. One notable experience was with this Lavender invitation. It was inspired by an invitation I did a couple of years back for Jeri Ryan & Christophe Émé’s wedding in the French countryside. (Though starred on Star Trek : Voyager, these are the most opposite of outer space invitations ever! Cotton, hand-made and old world as it gets with the hand letterpress!)

(Though actually, they were completely 100% tree free… and THAT is sort of like outer space, but I digress….)

This new client was very detail oriented and wanted two lavenders attached to this beautiful cotton handmade paper. I searched for the perfect lavender plants and found a really wonderful local farm who supplied a bounty of lavender stems to choose from. They smelled great. and when we glued them on, and stacked all the invitations, the lavender scent emanated from the papers to fill the room…. yum!

Sharon gluing Hidecote Lavender

(I hope the guests got a whiff of the lavender when it came in the mail. I have worked with dried lavender many times and this was the most fragrant batch. OH, the variety is called Hidecote.)

It was a fun afternoon of gluing. I had my good friend Sharon Lowe (who is a floral designer – smart right?) help me glue the lavenders. Sharon understands how the plants want to go… and even which ones. We chatted with the lavender stems all afternoon. And then a week later chatted them into the envelopes and off to the guests.. You know that plants have feelings too! I think these lavenders were happy in their more permanent home, glued on these elegant invitations. I hope!!

I think I am a pretty good communicator but if the lavenders aren’t happy, I fear they will get revenge on me by getting lost in the mail! or revolting and busting out of their envelopes or something. It happens (More on that subject later)!

See… I AM delirious! Personification of Plants. Not a good sign……..

hanging out to dry…

Posted on April 6th, 2009

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I have this very favorite paper/fabric cotton organdi…. It’s the perfect fabric for wedding invitations because it is white, starchy, sturdy, translucent, 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?!

dieandvat Well, 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…

fabric What 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!

Is it post-modern to blog about a blog about Tiny Pine?

Posted on February 18th, 2009

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My friend and one of my favoritest picture-makers Gia Canali has a blog and she just interviewed me a couple of days ago for it. I thought it would be fun to link to the blog because that would maybe become a blog vortex of clicking and no one would ever leave! yay!

It was actually really fun to do the interview. I did fell a little funny that my answers would be on the internet but I then i realized that I am already talking on the internet…. so I must be a little bit entertaining if YOU are reading this right now? right? Hopefully I can come across sort of knowledgeable too! (Don’t tell me any differently, please!)

I was a little surprised when I read back over my answers in some spots… particularly the Ugly Betty comments – you will have to read her blog to know what I am referring to – because I had just seen an episode a couple of days before and I felt maybe that I was misinformed about soy inks, or that the writers didn’t research very well… I think it was the latter.

Here's the card I made for Gia's Business

I loved talking about Verdie, my press, and I think I come off a little more chatty than I am on this blog about myself…. if you can imagine that. It’s easier sometimes to answer questions than to just make up what you want to say……..

But enough about me and Tiny Pine, let’s talk about GIA! She is a great photographer. We have both been apart of a couple of weddings as the vendors. She is super organic in her style and aesthetic. She uses both film and digital photography (kind of like how I use letterpress and laser or inkjet) and she does a variety of printing processes and treats her photos in lovely ways. I think we are sort of fraternal twins, maybe. We come from the same place but we do different things. (We were just talking on the phone about how we both are from the country and mountains and if that comes across in our work…)

Anyways…. I am so glad she decided to feature me in her blog…. I will do the same for my fraternal twin… Gia Canali is great. take a look at her site!

happy heart day!

Posted on February 13th, 2009

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Love letters are probably why I am in this business. I am sentimental and romantic and when someone puts love into a scrap of paper, whether it is only friendly or something more, I cherish it. Words, images, craftiness. I have a little box where I keep these little things… paper pieces from old romances – letters, postcards and notes. I think I have a piece of paper where an old flame had mailed something to me…. I cut my address out of the box, like when you have to send in the UPC seal of a product. I have that little memory of a thought.

So, it’s Valentines Day tomorrow, and all the little romantic bits of me are getting drummed up… That paragraph above is a perfect example! And all I can think about is writing love letters. It’s almost worth it to be far away from the person you love so you could send and receive love by post…. What’s so nice is that the words are very permanent and tangible. And then you can put them in a little box and one day someone will find them and isn’t that just romantic?

When I was working at soolip as a designer, we created a product with the perfect, I mean PERFECT love letter materials. I helped design it. It really has everything you need except a pen and nice thoughts. It has onionskin paper – which is not being made anymore – a handmade and printed shimmery and soft Dirty Byrd envelope (one of my bestest friends) AND one of my favorite things of all times…. Vintage Stamps.

I swear, if someone gave me one of these, I would shower them with kisses. And I designed this thing. So. that should give a clue about how much I love the love letter kit…

You can order them from soolip.com, but really, you don’t need this kit to tell someone how much you care… so in lieu of time, get out a sticky note, a legal pad or the back of a bill and let them know!

If you haven’t posted your letter by the time you are reading this, you may be late and there may be an slightly sad or annoyed valentine on the other end…. so you better give that person some chocolates too… along with your love letter!

xoxo,

jennifer

A Crow and a Swan

Posted on January 27th, 2009

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soy crow

These days I feel inclined to write a lot about ways to reuse or recycle things we sometimes think of as waste. Let’s talk trash!

I have always used soy-based inks for letterpress printing, except for the metallics which don’t come in soy. When I mix an ink color for a job, I try to only mix the right amount… you only use a teensy bit really to print. But sometimes it just happens that the ink blob gets bigger and bigger as you try to get the right shade of whatever. It just happens….

When I was working at soolip in west hollywood as the designer, the printer at the time, Joel Larson, would make crazy paintings with his leftover ink. They were beautiful abstract works that he would layer on to whatever scraps of paper he had lying around.

I took that as inspiration when I had extra ink to get rid of. So even though I tried only to mix as much as I need, there is always some leftovers and so I started making paintings of my own.

soy swan

These two birds are my favorites so far. Soy has a much faster drying time than most oil or rubber based inks for some reason. And what is cool and sort of unique is the way it dries when layered on the paper thick. It takes a sort of brainy texture giving the ink pile depth, almost sculptural.

Just a side note, the cardboard pieces are the packaging from the letterpress plate shipment. Making art from trash….my favorite thing!