Play All Day

The "Flight by Kite" illustration I created last Autumn for Small Magazine has been featured in a wonderful book called Play All Day, Design for Children by Berlin-based publisher Gestalten Books.

I'm so pleased to have my work included... and alongside that of so many talented artists I admire! Elisabeth Dunker, Ann Wood, Sandra Monat - just to name a few.

You can read more about the book, and purchase a copy, here.

On the subject of weddings - I think Anna Bond of Rifle Design does some of the best custom stationary around. Don't you agree? If I hadn't made our announcements myself, I would have definitely asked her. I just love all the little details she includes to make each piece unique.

All images are from Anna's Flickr page. You can follow her work, and keep up to date on her approaching shop opening, by reading the Rifle blog.

Thanks so much to everyone for the kind compliments on my card. Here are some photos of the beautiful place we stayed at on the coast...

Sea Ranch is a small community by the Pacific Ocean, a couple hours north of San Francisco, known for its architecture. It was one of the first eco-communities built in the late 60s and the homes there (as well as the public lodge where we stayed) were designed to merge with the ocean landscape.

All of the building exteriors are unpainted wood and fences are prohibited to keep the space wide open. Also, only indigenous plants are allowed for landscaping AND - to keep the fire threat down in the summer - a herd of sheep is used to cut the grass back!

It was one of the most beautiful, peaceful stretches of land I've ever seen. Wildlife was everywhere: colorful flowers, birds, butterflies, deer, seals - we even spotted a couple of whales.

decks at the lodge

best post office ever

The barn and fences on the bluff are well over 100 years old. They were built by earlier settlers who raised sheep there.

A couple of kids made this awesome thing- you've got to check out the video of it below - water flows from a little waterfall, through piping made of kelp found on the beach, into these little pools and back out into the ocean. We may have been the only people who got to see it, as it was washed away with the next high tide...

Married!

The project I mentioned earlier in the month (and the reason for my lack of blog posts lately)...

Image for the announcement card
(click to see it bigger)

. . .

Original art for the card
mixed media in handmade wood box
6" x 9"

I just got word that Carson Ellis has a new website (as well as a shop and blog) officially up and running as of today. The site features a catalog of all the books she's illustrated and a portfolio showcasing album art created for The Decemberists over the years. It's so nice to be able to enjoy all of her work, now conveniently located in one place! I was also pleased to find several pieces I had never seen before, such as this gorgeous 2006 commission:

Walk by Carson Ellis

In addition to the personal project I mentioned in the last post, I'm working on designing another wall clock for my shop. Here's a little peek at the work in progress...

The Wednesday morning desk mess

Before I began the piece I had to gather up some photos of horses to look at and sketch to get the basic form down, and got massively sidetracked, lost in the LIFE magazine photo archives. I don't remember how I first found out about this, but if you add "source:life" to your Google image search, it will search among millions of photographs from 1750 - 1970 taken for LIFE magazine. Here are just a few of the many gems I stumbled upon...

Horse Diver, Atlantic City, 1953

Spent the past week working on a personal project I'm very excited about. I can't really tell you much about it right now unfortunately - you'll have to wait until the end of the month to see pictures of the completed work. But what I can say, is that it involves some very special old paper I've been holding onto for years... finally I have the perfect excuse to use some of it. Ok, I better stop talking before I ruin the surprise. ;)

In case you were wondering where these came from and what the stamped numbers are all about - they're mostly endpapers from antique books and magazines.

I just discovered the art of Ann Wood last week via Design Sponge. They did one of their "Sneak Peak" home/studio tours of her space in Brooklyn. I'm in love with her paper mache ships.

The Odin

Check out her blog and Flickr for more gorgeous work and glimpses behind the scenes at her process.

My latest art supply obsession is decorative tape. I recently ordered some made from Japanese washi paper and it's the greatest stuff. You can re-stick it over and over again, it doesn't leave any adhesive goop behind when you peel it off and it takes pen really well so you can use it for labeling boxes and whatnot. The possibilities are endless. Here's one little project I used it for yesterday...

There's tons of awesome tape to be found on the internet these days. At the top of my wish list:

More washi paper making tape from NothingElegant.

Faux bois at TapeSwell.

"And I Walked" & "Charm Bracelet" by Rob Ryan. Genius, as always.

"Alpine-Themed Packing Tape #2 (Wind)" designed by the multitalented Phil Elverum.

More Japanese goodness at RetroNaNa - flying, polka dots, rooftops? I think this one was made especially for me.

Clocks Restocked - Now in Navy Blue

I've just listed more clocks in the shop - now in a lovely shade of navy blue that matches the bicycling girl's dress. (You may notice that the clock in the listing photos looks dark- almost black- but trust me, it's blue. The translucent nature of the clock frame makes it appear more/less blue depending on the color of the wall and the amount of light in the room.)

Off to the Post Office
(This is how I stand, with the boxes in front of my face, so I don't have to see all the people glaring at me for holding up the line.)