big notebooks

for the larger wire-bound notebooks (5.5 x 7), I designed two different patterns, in a variety of color combos, some of which:

small notebooks

I started wire-binding blank books this year. The first 2 designs for small books (4.25 x 5.5), as modeled by Womack, were made from patterns of burrowing owls and Chantale's cloud drawings. I found some lovely heavyweight cardstock in lovely lovely colors and printed a variety pack of colors...

silver on pink:
silver on dark gray:

red on light gray:

silver on minty blue:

safety orange on white:

red on white:

and Chantale's clouds:

kitties

whilst in japan last summer, we went to a toy museum in an old rice storehouse. i took photos of everything, that is until a rather insistent retiree/volunteer made me put my camera away (i'd missed the no photos sign apparently). amongst my illegal stash of photos were a number of traditional stuffed animal toys, made by silkscreening a drawing of the animal onto fabric, sewing into the shape and stuffing. my favorite might have been the cat, who i have since paid tribute to in the form of a small blank greeting card:

magic ink bombe!

my friend dave is putting together a heroic project this year--he's asking 365 different artists to do a drawing on a specific day and submit it to him for inclusion in a perpetual daybook. i had one of the early days, jan 4, and set about painting a couple of my favorite packages from our 2008 trip to japan. dave chose the bombe, but i'm partial to the ink...

eaves

I've been holding on to this image for a long time, so long that I don't remember where I found it, to give the source proper credit.

I finally translated the image into a project, by using the floral eave pattern (I feel like my Nana had a similar pattern on her kitchen cabinetry, but then again my memory tends to exaggerate...) as a border on sets of flat cards and labels.

seafoam on white:

and silver on pale yellow:

i like lists

when i'm getting ready for a fair, or similar deadline, i start filling notebooks with list after list after list as a way of keeping my swimming brain sane. but then i look back at the dense notebooks and can't help but wonder if i was actually _in_sane. here are a couple of the more legible lists, one as i am getting started:


and then a bit later as things start to cook/unravel:

bird prints

I printed a selection of the odd birds from the calendar, as limited edition prints on archival stock--the calendars come and go and I thought this was a nice way of being able to frame the birds individually beyond the calendar year...

more patterns

I'm clearly on a pattern tip. This set was inspired by an outfit in a Japanese fashion mag, wherein all three patterns (zigzag, check and stripe) were represented in a single, lovely outfit. The last photo most closely represents the outfit in question, with the colors printed on a powder blue paper, much like the fabric in the ensemble. I printed three variations--I printed 6 different colors on white paper, I printed a set just with my new safety orange ink, and I printed the aforementioned set on powder blue. Because of the simplicity of the colors (only one color per card, real restraint for Krank Press) I can sell these a bit cheaper than my normal card sets...

new new new

I had so many new things at Renegade this summer that I haven't even managed to get them up on etsy yet. And if you check my sketchbooks and lists and lists and more lists, you'd know that I only managed to print a small fraction of what I dreamt up (in fact, I should probably post some of those lists, as proof of my insanity).

Of the new items I think these little guys are my favorites--as inspired by the old stationery items I used to unearth at one of my favorite corners of the world, Bruce Variety on Bradley & Arlington, downtown Bethesda: blank gift tags in small coin envelopes printed with retro to/from arrows. These turned out so well I think I'll try doing more in this vein--not too too retro, just good basic stationery stuff.

clouds

Chantale Doyle, from the Greatest Store in the High Desert, Mt. Fuji General Store, was kind enough to let me try turning some of her delicate cloud drawings into letterpress. She upped the ante by coming down to LA to print, and we decided to break the rules by adding new inks without removing the old ink from the press (gasp!). excellent results (though i wish i had taken better photos). Chantale packed these prints off to shows in Vancouver and Japan & I will be slowly using the same plates for cards and books & will post them to etsy as they appear...

updates!

Alex (with a little help from Womack) ultra-kindly plugged away under the studio lights and photographed ALMOST all the new stuff from Renegade. and I am plugging away at updating the etsy site--I still have a ways to go, but I love how bright and cheerful everything looks in the shop. hooray for alex. I'll post the highlights here in the coming weeks, including the much-labored-over and miraculously-finished-on-time Produce Calendar, as well as the cloud prints I've been working on with the extremely patient & talented Chantale Doyle, owner of Mt. Fuji General Store.

post renegade post

lucy and aandrea looking tough.

we had a great time at renegade, or at least thanks to team krank (lucy, aandrea, alex) *I* had a great time at renegade. lots of people came, many krank pressed items went home with customers, i met new-to-me & inspiring co-vendors (see: sycamore st press, tugboat printshop, erinzam books, 3 fish studios, orangyporangy, mincing mockingbird to name a few)...

and alex is kindly going to photo the new items so I can finally refresh the etsy site, very very soon.

much gratitude to my helpers and renegade generally for such a nice experience.

RENEGADE!

Am thrilled to report that I will be vending at the 1st Annual Los Angeles Renegade Craft Fair. Renegade is the craft fair granddaddy, but until now was keeping to other locations (started in Chicago & have branched to Brooklyn and San Francisco). I'm looking forward to their posters as much as anything (always a cool drawing, always with a cool owl). And I only have seven weekends between now and then (though I'll be in Butte for one of them...)!! yikes.

new pattern incarnations

new sets of tags from the pattern prints:


and now the book sets come in a Krank Press bag:

business kards

job work

I have been lost in custom invitation land and am just now returning my sights to krank press retail adventures. Of the invitations recently printed, this is the one I'm most smitten with (especially considering that this was the second draft, after I scrapped a less-fun first idea...):

calendars, past and future

a sooper dooper belated link to krank press's mention in the NY Times moment blog way way back in January.

Am ruminating over which calendars will get reprinted for 2010, to join the new calendars currently in the pipeline. Alex has already compiled the 12 entries for a new LA history calendar--somehow he managed to find 12 equally giddy nuggets of history gold for round 2. And per Gina Kwon's *excellent* suggestion, I am also creating a southland-oriented seasonal food calendar (both what to grow in your yard and what to buy at the market). I think that one will be 'perpetual' (ie, not year specific)--we used to call them birthday calendars...