from the mess

it's a new year.

2011-01-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

okay, so i have fallen too far behind on my blog. i didn't even post the 2 holiday fairs that erin fong and i set up. we definilty had a cute table but didn't get rich on it yet. yet. i'm jonesin' to get my nails dirty with ink, the letterpress is calling me and i've neglected it too long. making ornaments is also fun, but not nearly as toxic as printing, so who wants that?! cheers to a great new 2011!

before/after

indie mart and alamo square flea market! 8/21/10

2010-08-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Let's hope for sun! Cause this is going to be awesome! I'll be selling some goods (along with my favorite roommate, Erin Fong) and talking about the new book binding classes I'm teaching at WorkshopSF starting in September. I letterpressed some special prints for the 'hood as well... more SF street prints available at the mart on Saturday. 9 to 3! Please come say hi and support the participants! xo.

spreading the letterpress love.

2010-07-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Welp. I'm way behind on this blog. Maybe I'll blame it on the weather, I'm in SF now and the weather pretty much never changes. Same Same Same. More or less sun, more of less layers, but always layers. I forgot I had a blog. I forgot time passed. BUT it did! My last post was in February and now it's July. Enough with this talk. Here's what's happening...

A Printshop put on by Levi's is in full swing in the Mission district and I've been lucky enough to spend some quality time with, not only, my favorite press (a Vandercook) BUT also meet some amazing printers, artists and new friends as well! I've been able to teach anyone who walks in how to print! Which I love. Spreading the letterpress love. I've got till the end of August to come up with projects and collaborations...

Side note: I don't have a camera anymore and so I've been unable to document anything that I've printed. Bummer. This is another reason I've fallen off the blogger wagon. I'll get there. I will. And you can bet I'll document my printed matter once again.

Thanks for reading this. Happy Summer. xo.

come to this!

2010-02-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

If you're in the bay area come check this out!! Support a cool store and me too!

website coming soon!

2010-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

In a matter of days I'll have a website! Ya hoo! It's still under construction but check for it soon.

Holiday Sale!

2009-12-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

This Friday, December 11th from 5:30-8:30 Erin Fong and I are setting up a booth at the San Francisco Center for the Book! Come by and see us and support local book artists! Here is the link (click me) incase you need more information. Thanks!

refreshed etsy.

2009-12-01T01:16:00.000-08:00

I've added a few things back into my Etsy shop. Feel free to take a gander!

courtney's exhibit

2009-11-24T22:25:00.000-08:00

Of all the exhibit mailers I sent out, here is the first one to come back. Thanks Court! It's an awesome exhibit of her busy busy New York City life:

#1: "A perfectly symmetrical fall leaf. Waverly & Washington Square West"

#2: "Regular Wednesday chiropractor appointment"

#3: "Note for Lauren re: paying the cable bill and warning her of mushroom in Mom's stew."

#4: "My Lifesaver. (jack's coffee)"

#5: "Two trees drawn by my kindergartners after seeing me draw a tree. by: Eli & Jackson"

can't sleep.

2009-11-03T23:24:00.001-08:00

I just went through a pile of letterpress things I printed and books I bound... and then I got to thinking about woodtype and how long it's been since I printed. 72 days!! There is just something about wood type, before it's even printed or inked, that I just love. The smooth type, dented, scratched and solid.... It's not just wood type keeping me up tonight, it's colors too. I love mixing a beautiful teal blue and then contrasting it with a warm orangish yellow (like a burt's bees chapstick)... Here are some pictures of things that I want around me right now:

yes, please.

EXHIBIT

2009-10-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

Oh office supplies, how I love thee. Tonight I sat down to "make" things, however living in a sublet apartment with minimal supplies I was surprised at my lack of creation tools. In other words, I miss you: typewriter, dry-transfer letters, scissors and envelopes. But post-its, glassine envelopes and exhibit stickers in hand, I have a little mail art project. It sets sail (post) tomorrow. If you want one, by all means, let me know!

Something happened to me, I check facebook WAY too much- so this project is my break from that, I'm asking for real, tactile, samples from my friends lives. I want them to pick up a feather on their way to work, or a receipt from their morning coffee, or maybe it's a movie ticket- it's anything! It's saved in an envelope, labeled and sent back to me! Lucky me. I'll post the results afterwards, and I hope it's a project that can grow!! I'm taking you down facebook. Mail "Exhibits" are the newest and hottest networking tools.

Print me out and Hang me up!!

2009-10-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

2009-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the images of the wedding invitations I printed for a San Fran style wedding! Erik did the beautiful drawing for the invites... and we get to go to the wedding too! Woo hoo!

announcing...

2009-06-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Erik graduated this May- woo hoo! So I whipped up some announments, inspired by his tattoo:

Q and A with myself

2009-06-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Q: Hey Taelor, didn't you start a blog to post your work?

A: Yup, sure did.

Q: Don't you also try and take pictures of your work to upload?

A: Why, yes I do.

Q:Seems like the last post was nearly 3 months ago, is this correct, or did you start another, amazing and mind blowing blog?

A: I have been busy blogging in my sleep, I've forgotten to do it in real life.

Q: Is that an excuse?

A: Yup.

Q: What have you been up to?

A: To be honest, Facebook Scrabble.

Q: Enough of that! Why don't you get on top of it already? Multi-task.

A: Well... if you say so!

Q: Good Luck.

A: Thanks.

Here is a broadside I printed for the Center for Book Arts Poetry Reading Series.... I'll get more up soon. Fo' real.

inspiration

2009-03-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

okay- i'm just going to sneak this on here really quick. it's half-way to remind me to MAKE something with the 'animal on a hillside silhouette' idea i've had in my head for years. it's also to show everyone else this rad book. hidden forest. love it.

here is a link to the artist's site: Lizzie Thomas

thank you very much,

2009-03-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

thank you cards for my niece's 2nd birthday party. she is the cutest kid ever.

cards for kim!

2009-03-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

i printed these cards last week for my friend kim. the lace was printed from a plate, but the type is handset... i think i found a new favorite type.

i met my friend kim at the brooklyn flea market back in the fall, or early winter. i can hardly remember when it was because this winter just won't end! and it feels like forever. i bought one of kim's necklaces, even though i wanted to buy all of her necklaces. later at home i stalked her on the internet and wrote her an email asking her if she wanted to do a trade, and she did! so months later, i printed her some business cards for her newly re-name business of making awesome crafts. she's a good cook too- the first time i ever liked butternut squash soup! you can see more about kim on her esty site!

printing history...

2009-01-27T16:16:00.001-08:00

"The first print shop was the garage behind the house at 829 North Virginia. John Cavilia [my grampa] furnished it with a 1250 multilith, a large work table and a hand operated guillotine cutter. In addition to the equipment, John taught the first sisters the art of printing..."

Sadly, I don't know the roots of my grampa's printing- where he learned to print, what he printed nor where he got a press. In the basement at my gramma's house my grampa built a wine cellar and a "shop"- it's now filled with dusty tools, old spray paint and finger prints from all us grandkids searching for treasures. My gramma told me that he used to keep the press down in the shop, but when I asked for a photo she said she never went down there to take one of him printing.

My grampa was a Catholic and did a lot to help the church and fellow Renoites, the quote above is from the Carmelites of Reno website, a monastery in Reno which started in 1958. I knew he had set up the monastery with their first press and was happy to find mention of him on the website!

"From the time people knew that the sisters had a press, (late 1954 on) we were asked to do small "job work": letterheads for businesses (like Vaughn Millwork [my grampa's business]), business cards, invoices, etc."

I like to think that printing is in my blood and that I'm doing the same printing that my grampa did himself- and that makes me feel pretty good inside.

here is the carmelites whole printing history

brooklyn bound: 3,800 miles

2009-01-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

the long way to new york.
directions:
-start in reno nevada
-head south
-drive 3,800
-visit your family
-visit your friends
-enjoy the sunsets
-enjoy the stars
-look for ghosts
-drive 3,800 miles
-park in bed-stuy

downtown reno somewhere between reno and vegas

kingman, arizona: getting on route 66

two guns, new mexico: abandoned "kamp"

santa fe, new mexico: crow's house marfa, texas: chamberlin's cars.

texas: railroad x-ing

sweetwater, texas: ranch house motel

gurdon, arkansas: fill the ford fully folly

gurdon, arkansas: awesome breakfast with emmy and buZ

nashville, tennesse: country music hall of fame

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.......

hatch show print in nashville.

for 130 years the folks at hatch have been designing and printing posters for everyone from elvis to hank williams to tool. erik and i got a great tour from neives who is designer and printer at hatch... walls and walls of wood type. it's so rad.

holiday cards.

2009-01-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

when i mailed out my holiday cards i included a pencil- the idea being that everyone could draw in the faces on their photo booth strip people...no one got it! ha ha. i was thanked for the pencil more than once, that's when i realized people didn't think of the pencil as a tool for their "interactive" card. c'est la vie!! and happy new year!!

more blank books!!

2009-01-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

practicing french groove

2009-01-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

this book "Berna" includes 3-d glasses and an old strip of 3-d Gumby comic- my goal is to figure out how to print something in 3-d. my research has not been informative- i should probably just start experimenting to see what i can figure out, layering the blue and red and then putting on the glasses...

obama!

2008-11-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

it just feels so good!

and this feels good too:

broadside for the center

2008-10-26T21:03:00.001-07:00

first image of the poetry broadside i printed for the center, october 17.

"drowning in paradise"

(on the left)

click here for the center's flickr page.

almost famous

2008-10-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

so, the new york times featured the facade of a house in bushwick. a house erik painted. rad.
here's the house. and the link too!

chocolate chip banana bread

2008-10-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

i made some banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips. not because i like bananas but i kept saying i would make it at the house. baking is a different, and healthier experience when i don't end up eating half the dough/batter. when it came out of the oven it looked so cute i made erik take a photo of it by the flowers before he ate any!!

sunprints

2008-10-21T19:52:00.001-07:00

so a few weeks ago. or maybe months now (time is flying by) megan and i did some quality research at work on Sunprints (don't know what this is? click this yo!)... with an entire toy store full of items to lay on the the light sensitive paper we had so much fun. plus it was nice and sunny out! as we took turns standing guard with our prints, not ONE person asked what we were doing. if i had stumbled upon us, i would have asked.

while working at the toy store, selling numerous "open ended" play items i try to remember when i was a kid. a real kid. not a quarter of a century old kid. anything that was a "kit" i was into, constructing with blocks, making potions, the more i sell toys the more i realize how AWESOME it is to be a kid! it's another world and it's so easy to forget how simple things could be if we just played a little more! so megan and i ran around the store and we ended up laying down transparency cards with awesome images, plastic animals, prisms, tape, tape measures, nets, tea bags... we tried everything. and we played. and it was awesome!

frontin' on books

2008-10-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

here are a few books i have been making in classes as the center: lots of layers and collage went into these. using japanese mulberry paper, adhesives, and beeswax these books have a soft and muted sort of look. and i love that they smell like beeswax. yum. (these are just quick scans on a secret scanner. i will go for photos soon, so you can see the texture of them!)

happy birthday megan book

2008-09-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

new york city.

business cards

2008-08-19T17:07:00.001-07:00

2008-08-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

a mini photo resume...

thanks to buZ blurr

2008-07-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

i finally got to meet buZ blurr- and even have this to remember it by...

coney island!

2008-07-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

took the train to coney island on july 4th this year- a good dose of america!! the first thing on our agenda was HOT DOGS and the mission was completed with glee. every ride has music blasting out of it's speakers...kids, families, "freaks" (both the freak show and the one you shoot), a beach packed full of new yorkers soaking up the greyish polluted air. ummmm... america at it's finest. coney island is an amazingly trashy sort of novelty. it is so werid out there. perhaps some of the finest people watching i've ever experience. a headach inducing wonderland of cotten candy, clown shaped garbage cans, rides and humans.
http://www.coneyisland.com/

grandmother is also there dishing out her prophesies for just 25 cents.
here's mine:

calling card

2008-04-01T13:31:00.001-07:00

wood type business cards. march 2008
first time using the guillotine- results a little off centered...c'est la vie

polaroid love.

2008-03-06T11:09:00.001-08:00

top right: kayluh & amanda, willamsburg water front
top left: virgin mary figurine in barbwire, bushwick
bottom left: erik? in disguise in my favorite photobooth, manhattan
bottom right: me wiating for a train, broadway junction

my project: www.polaroidexchange.blogspot.com

platen jobber

2008-03-06T10:58:00.001-08:00

http://www.handpress.org/

platen press printin'

2008-03-06T10:23:00.001-08:00

my first work on the platen press!
(an exclamation point: for my exciement at the act of printing,
not as a reaction to this haiku i printed...)

(i took a workshop at the center for book arts this past weekend.)

printed on a small hand press like this:

many of these small presses that sit on the table with a handle were made and sold as toys for kids- or as a useful household item. rad.

the vandercook press

2008-02-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

hours and hours have been put into these things. the vandercook press! on a busy day at work there are 10 or so printers each using a press to craftfully print the junk mail of america's rich and famous.... i'm sounding so cynical. these old presses were used to proof the hand set lead type before hundreds of copies would be printed- at soho letterpress we print all jobs from start to finish on these babies....the final product is a hand mixed ink color pressed into the paper- a finished look that one can see and feel. the best of printed matter.

valentines.

2008-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

the day started out sunny. friends in town from boston. my favorite french toast for breakfast and an endlessly full cup of coffee. big plans for a sunny day with no work; tour of the neighborhood, bike riding, getting lost in the chaos of manhattan.... alas, i started making some valentines and spent the day inside. the blue sky was washed away with grey, the wind picked up and then the snow came. it's now entirely freezing outside, dark and my room is a mess! happy valentine's four days early!

coming soon....

2008-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00