I found this postcard on my recent trip to Austin, in an amazing shop called Uncommon Objects. Seriously phenomenal vintage shop, and certainly worth a visit if you’re visiting Austin. I included this card in a roundup of vintage postcards for my guest post on the Paper Pastries blog, which goes up Monday, Nov. 19th! I’ll be sure to post a link to the full post after it’s published.
I recently discovered this etching by Julie Mehretu on the Crown Point Press website, and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of all the little details. Mehretu has a gift for creating a cohesive image from millions of tiny parts. Having seen her work in person, I was delighted to study all the varied marks of her prints and drawings, and this print, called “The Residual,” fascinates me in the same way. The image was created using a variety of printmaking techniques: color sugar lift and spit bite aquatints, with hard ground etching, drypoint, and burnishing. I can only imagine the hours of work that went into creating this stunning piece.
I love this stamp set from The Small Object, it’s perfect for anyone who is as obsessed with snail mail as I am. The stamps are all made from Sarah Neuburger’s original drawings, and look completely adorable when stamped on the outside of an envelope. Find all sorts of awesome stamps and paper goods in The Small Object shop.
Kyle Durrie is the proprietor of Power and Light Press, and an all around cool lady. Besides making these awesome letterpressed cards and prints, all of which make me chuckle, she also runs Movable Type, cross country adventures in printing. She’s the lady in charge of the Type Truck, a mobile print studio that she created by turning a 1982 Chevy step van into a fully functional letterpress print shop. Check her blog to see if she’s bringing her awesome mobile print shop to your area anytime soon*, it’s not to be missed.
*For those of you in Los Angeles, the Type Truck will be hosting an event at Poketo this Monday, October 29th called “Type or Treat!” It sounds like it’s going to be amazing: besides simply witnessing the art of letterpress printing via Moveable Type’s Letterpress truck, there will also be free limited-edition prints and Halloween masks using artwork from artists Kate Bingaman Burt, Michael Hsiung and Kim West. There is also talk of free donuts. RSVP here.
My friend Scott is an amazing pen pal, and is always sending me awesomely kitschy vintage postcards, which are too strange not to keep. He’s sent me dozens over the years, all of which I’ve kept, and many of which I’d even consider framing!
Believe it or not, this is just a small fraction of what he’s sent me over the years. I don’t know where he finds them all, but I know many of them come from flea markets or vintage shops. I love shopping for vintage postcards at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, there are always lots of postcard vendors there.
The now defunct YeeHaw Industries was one of my all time favorite print studios. This duo of printers in Knoxville, Tennessee made amazing prints and posters, working entirely by hand using either hand carved blocks or hand set type. They created a wide range of work, from delightful posters honoring the greats of country music, to their stationery line, to a print (my personal favorite, which hangs over my press) which is best described as “A Printer’s Inside Joke.”
YeeHaw Press produced amazing work for 16 years. More than that, they were ambassadors to the world of printing, sharing detailed information about their processes, and opening up their studio for tours on a regular basis.
While the YeeHaw print shop is now closed, you can browse through their sold work on Etsy to get a sense of the range of work they once made.
