Tag Archives: stamps

Letterpress of Pray (for Japan)

Posted on September 7th, 2011
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About a month ago I got an inquiry from Bluemoon Letterpress – a letterpress studio in Japan. Takuma Nakagawa is organizing and exhibition of letterpress work titled “Letterpress of Pray” where she will show and sell in a few different galleries with 100% of the proceeds benefitting orphans of the tsunami.

I was unsure about what my printed prayer would look like until I went to a vintage stamp shop in New York on my vacation. There I dug through a pile of vintage Japanese postage stamps and found my inspiration. Mine would be a sort of letter, using Japanese stamps for the recipients and United States stamps for the senders (I suppose I was speaking for everyone in the good ole USA… is that weird?)

I found out from some special Japanese fluent helpers that one of the stamps portrayed Fukushima, which isn’t where the tsunami hit, but was badly injured as a result. 

I particularly loved the coloration of the two palm tree stamps. I think they really showed the similarities between that area of Japan (not sure!) and California. This was an instant match.

Then in my not very practiced handwriting, I wrote what I wanted for Japan. I chose green ink for growth, and printed away.

I sent off 17 prints today to Japan with hopes that my message will reach far more than 17 people and that the beauty of communication will be translated.

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!

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?

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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

More homemade envelopes, please

Posted on January 17th, 2009
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black feather envelopeOne day, a month or so ago, I got this little prize in the mail. It was so sweet and thoughtful to for once receive a piece of paper art from friend Adam Myers, working as a business called Black Feather out of Maine or where ever he happens to be vagabonding around.

He can make just about anything. He seems to be focused on making useful things like this envelope…. he probably created it because he needed an envelope to send me a check for his business cards. He didn’t mess around. Naturally I took a closer look because I felt a little outdone for a moment and discovered that he had a couple of layers of a wood catalogue of some sort that he pasted together. The frame around my address is pure genius, I think. It is quite petite in size… always right up my alley (TINY pine?).

I have to admit that of all people, I am experienced with testing the postal service by placing stamps and addresses in rule breaking places. But I have never done a complete reversal of sides. Adam is adventurous and clearly thinks he is above the law, but it got here! I mean, I probably wouldn’t stamp my credit card bill on the wrong side, but here’s proof that it WILL get there…. eventually, anyway.

Now, I know everyone is going to want to start sending me cute pieces of mail to write about… feel free, but go to my website and send it to my office address, will ya?

Oh, here is the business card / logo I designed for him. Black Feather Business Card

Vintage Stamps have Vintage Glue

Posted on January 9th, 2009
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stamps and envelopes and handsToday I had a project which called for vintage postage for the envelopes. It’s my favorite time of the design process. 

I get all stamp happy and pick out bunches to choose from and agonize over which ones are best suited in color, shape, value and theme. It’s a puzzle and I get to solve it. 

I design these stamp configurations with love, not logic, and then when it comes time to actually assemble them… Well, that’s when it gets interesting. Or when I get anxious. 

Everyone thinks that the final assembly of an invitation, the “stuff stamp and seal” is really fast and just the final bit of getting out the mail. But I am here to tell you today, friends, that one needs to allow a good amount of time for this process. Even if there is one stamp…. and especially if there are 10

 

bunches of stamps10 NON self-adhesive vintage stamps with vintage glue. That’s what today’s assignment was. Fortunately I have a crazy friend, Joanna, who LOVES sticking stamps. We had our mock-up and set out to stamp 130 envelopes – that’s 1300 individual stamps, if you want me to do the math for you. Together, it took us about 3 1/2 hours (so it would have been an entire day if it were just me and that doesn’t even include the sealing phase). She is typically employed as an illustrator/conceptual artist on feature films and I can’t afford that kind of help… but fortunately, she works for me in exchange for food… and then bought her own lunch! That’s how much she LOVES applying postage!

joanna with the finished product

joanna with the finished product

It is actually quite zen when you get into it. And only once in awhile did we go crazy and stick the same stamp on twice. and sometimes your fingers get coated in vintage glue. And then you are smiling cause you were smart enough to not lick the stamps. Do you know when they made 3 cent stamps? Well, they made them for a bunch of years, but it was awhile ago… and they don’t taste good.

Anyways… here are some photos. And no, I am not telling you where I get them. That’s my little secret……