Cards at The Curiosity Shoppe

I'm a big fan of The Curiosity Shoppe-- they have great taste, carry lots of unique products, and have a love for the handmade. To that end, you can find these terrifically UPBEAT cards (who couldn't use one?) among their collection of letterpress, silkscreened, and Gocco-printed cards. Pictured are "Hey," You're Swell," and "DIY LCD Card."

2008 NY Stationery Show Highlights

A few of my other favorites from New York's Stationery Show.

1. Orla Kiely stationery line (view here)



2. Pikku: new line of calendars, paper wrap, and best of all, textiles.



3. Old School Stationers: Brian Reed's beautiful designs and expert letterpress.



4. Fugu Fugu Press: handmade letterpress cards from Pasadena, CA.


5. Hammerpress; In a world of letterpress, they have created a unique look and brand. I like their use of chipboard and their new line of goods with Chronicle Books.



6. Calendars and cards from Magnolia Moonlight.



7. Cards from Hello!Lucky: Especially their new collaboration with Julia Rothman.


8. Paper and patterns from newbies Whigby.


9. Rock star attitude from Made by Girl.



10. Fun type treatments at Orange Beautiful.

Royal Buffet

Reading SimpleLovely the other day, I saw these new cards from Mollie Greene and Annie Koelle, who created Royal Buffet "so that we could make fantastic things to share with others." Check and double check. These handmade, individually cut and composed collage cards (images are from vintage magazine and books) are each a great little piece of art. Wouldn't you like to get one of these in the mail? Clever and fresh. From Royal Buffet. (Thanks Joslyn.)

Everything Old is New Again

I like this idea: Cut down vintage paint-by-number oil paintings to postcard size, stamp the back, and sell them for $10 here. It's a cool recycling program and what was handmade years ago is relevant again in a new look. And cropping the pictures actually makes them more interesting.

bread + butter

This collective of artists and designers located in Brooklyn, makes outstanding cards and paper goods. I love the play of design and typography-- typefaces can be so powerful. I love seeing words treated like art and these products have it! From their online shop: "When we are not designing book covers, art directing or laying out magazines, the 3 of us are busy working on projects and making things in our studio. And now, we're happy to finally share these things with you! All of our letterpress goods are hand-printed on a Chandler and Price table top press, using soy based inks." Simple, elegant, smart.

Bubbledog

I think the creative mind(s) over at Bubbledog are right on with these cool Gocco-printed cards of trees. Each color combination is a separate card. The design is one of my favorite techniques-- a line drawing over a block of color. (Hey, just look at my profile picture for a similar look!) This is one thing I always liked about Warhol's early commercial art-- very simple clean line drawings and uncomplicated color (see bottom picture). More inspiration here.

New work: Port2Port Press

The art and artistry of Maria at Port2Port Press is well crafted and beautiful. Her design sensibility is very fine and I like the simplicity but stark beauty of what she creates. New in her shop are these letterpress cards, a collaboration wiht Scottish artist Natalie Tweedie.


In addition, Maria has launched a Photographs & Drawings project, in collaboration with Swedish artist Elisabeth Dunker. This series, called Levitate/Sväva is made up of three entirely different pieces (sold separately) featuring Maria's photographs paired with drawings by Dunker. These drawings were made just for these photographs and then silk-screened on top creating an entirely new image. Interesting and fresh.

Sweetbeets

Great letterpress designs on recycled cardstock, all hand letterpressed by Canadian Lisa Zuraw on a vintage press from the 1920s. As she says, "ink is applied to a custom engraved magnesium printing plate and then pressed into the paper, leaving a crisp impression that you can see and feel." Her designs feature her own illustrations of children and childhood pleasures. Great colors and technique. Visit her shop.

Essimar

I've mentioned Essimar's cards before-- her work is original and compelling. Silkscreening usually gives us a very uniform look-- it's a way of standardizing a small number of works. I like that she's using this method to create pieces that seem random and hand drawn. For these "la mano" cards, she screen printed "thin angled lines and graphite lines while improvising hand die cut shapes." See more of her work at her online store.

Mary & Matt

If you haven't seen the blog or general store of this Brooklyn duo, go there now. I love their bold die-cut cards and linoleum prints, but their design sense and sophisticated taste goes way beyond these simple cards.

Townsend Sakai

Townsend Sakai is a new line of handmade stationery for the thoughtful note writer. Each design is embroidered and sewn onto thick cardstock-- all cards are assembled by hand. You can even take the muslin patches off these cards and sew them onto something else (a t-shirt, a onsie, etc) when you're done.

Renegade Holiday Favorites

Above is the very talented a. favorite, a graphic designer turned letterpress artist who uses type and clever messages to create her line of stationery goods. I really liked the "I (heart) U" cards and the letterpress line she created using old typewriter fonts.


Artgoodies is a line of handmade goods from Lisa Price. She uses woodblock printing to create aprons, pillows, towels, and paper goods with woodland or holiday themes. Her technique and subject matter is a perfect combination.

Yee-Haw Industries

This company was one of my favorites from the show. Smart, funny, and so well executed, their posters and cards left a serious dent in my wallet (we bought the Kenievel and Loretta posters, having a long-term infatuation with both of them). Started eleven years ago, Yee-Haw is run by Julie Belcher and Kevin Bradley. They have a 6000 square foot letterpress shop in Knoxville TN where they design and print their work from woodblocks (like the Kenievel poster), linoleum, and vintage typography. I have a Howard Finster painting in my house, and their work recalls that folk art tradition. Their cards are sold nationally, and you can find their line of posters and fine art prints at Yee-Haw online.