8mm IDEAS Stationery

I met Molly Meng this past May at the New York Stationery Show, where she was introducing a new line of cards and stationery items. She has a great design sense and intermixes vintage ephemera with a modern aestethic. Her humor is clever, and I like the play on old materials mixed with these little pencil drawings. She has a full line that you can see at 8mmideas.com but what got my attention was a single group of cards, three of which I'm showing here.

NAMA ROCOCO

I met founder Karen Combs in New York last May and can't stop thinking about her line of wallpaper. All prints are handscreened and hand painted, all the inks are hand mixed and applied. I love her approach-- wallpaper isn't just pattern, it's rhythm, art, and movement. Her work came out of a desire to see her art spread across a large expanse of paper-- like the Japanese scrolls she'd seen at the Met. She has created a truly original line of beautiful papers. If you're short on wall space, you can buy a single sheet and frame it!
Her website is a work of art too. Check it out at namarococo.com

DARREN BOOTH

Darren Booth is a graphic artist creating hand-lettered custom pieces for print media. He also creates custom illustrations, but the hand lettering is superb. I'd love to have my initials drawn to use for stationery. Check him out at darrenbooth.com. From his site:

"Some of my clients include The New York Times, The Los Angles Times, Herman Miller, PF Flyers, Canada Post Corporation, Faber & Faber (UK) and Penguin Books. Work has also been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts and The Society of Illustrators New York and Los Angeles. My illustration portfolio also specializes in animals, the human figure, conceptual illustration and portraiture."

LindaLo

Linda Sjodin is an apparel graphic designer is Sweden whose work I saw at the 2007 ICFF in New York. She creates most of her work with pen and ink, then it is transferred to silkscreen or printing plates for use on textiles, napkins, store merchandising, etc. After my trip to Sweden last year, I've become very enamored of Swedish textile design! You can see more designs at lindalo.se

XENIA TALER & STEVEN KOBLINSKY

Xenia Taler and Steven Koblinsky hand make wonderful tiles in their Toronto studio. This makes me want to go to Canada! Imagine a whole installation of them. I purchased a single large tile at AERO in NYC last February and look at it every day. From their website:

Who: Partners Xenia Taler and Steven Koblinsky. Xenia designs the tiles, Steven crafts the clay and glazes.
Where: In their Toronto studio.
When: Since 1996.
How: Tiles are pressed in molds made of wood, or extruded. Glazes are mixed from scratch. All tiles are decorated by hand.
Why: Because we hope that one day, a long time from now, not only will your children fight mercilessly over the wonderful tiles you had so wisely purchased, but that even when humankind must venture off this world to fend amongst the stars, those tiles are the second or third item on a strict ten item list that your descendents feel they must take along with them on their arduous journey.

HEATH Ceramics

Recently someone gave us a little vase from Heath Ceramics in California. It has the feel of a river rock and the mi-century design of something made by a craftsman. From their website go there now:

Heath Ceramics is one of the few remaining mid-century American potteries still in existence today. They have been making tableware and tile for over a half-century in their Sausalito, California factory.

Edith Heath (1911-2005) founded Heath Ceramics in the mid-forties when following her one-woman show at San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor, her pieces were picked up for sale at Gumps of San Francisco. For the past half-century, Edith's life was dedicated to the craft of ceramics as one distinctly tied to the skill of the artisan. This passion, along with the legacy of her work in stoneware body and glaze development, gives Heath its unique place in ceramics today. Many of Edith Heath's pieces are currently in the collections of museums such as the MOMA in New York City.

In 2003, husband and wife team, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey purchased Heath Ceramics. Their shared mission was to revitalize the brand, placing strong emphasis on design, while preserving Edith Heath’s handcrafted techniques and classic designs – all while continuing to manufacture Heath products in Sausalito, California. Old molds have been revived and new glazes have been introduced but craftsmanship is still responsible for our product’s unique quality and aesthetic.

Aesthetic Apparatus

I could look at screenprints all day long. This site is a great resource for old-fashioned screenprints-- still made with silkscreens and human hands pushing the ink back and forth. Here are a few examples from the hundreds they carry. It's interesting that this artform has especially resurged in the college band circuit-- probably because its incredibly cheap compared to commercial printing methods. Great stuff. Go go go! aestheticapparatus