it’s a new day!

It’s a new year and we have a new mayor-elect, Michael Nutter. Philadelphians sure do have high hopes for this guy, in a city so fraught with mismanagement and corruption.

Sean’s new design was based on a sound bite from his acceptance speech. It’s our second experiment with the oh-so-clever Gocco screenprinting device, this one a two-color separation image. The blue section was printed first, then the brown.

Cards and notebooks will be available soon in our new Etsy shop as well as at the Emporium. Suitable for New Years, inaugurations, birthdays, or first thing in the morning.

Happy New Year!

rhymes with “cocoa”

Our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a Print Gocco, a clever Japanese small scale screen printing device. This was our first experiment with it and we are very pleased with the results!

First, we created the image on the computer, using type and clip art. Then, we printed out the image and inserted it into the machine. The Gocco actually burns the image out of the screen emulsion, using the heat from its special old-fashioned flash bulbs and the carbon in the laser printer toner. The screen is then inked inside its plastic bubble and inserted into the press, and voila! Many, many impressions can be made of the highly detailed screen, on paper, cloth or any number of surfaces, and it can then be cleaned and used again later.

We plan to use this as much as possible! Fans of the West Philly t-shirts can look forward to new hand-inked designs, as soon as we get the right kind of ink for fabric. We also have an upcoming in-store event in January with Amy Walsh, a local artist who uses a Gocco to make prints of her original images on the pages of old books and other interesting paper surfaces. Watch this site for details…

happy holidays!

Wishing all of our friends and neighbors a joyous holiday season and a happy New Year.

Thanks for the warm welcome!!!

Emily & Sean

clang clang clang

Sean got an early Christmas present: a little HO scale motorized trolley for the store window. It goes around and around in the window, and it even lights up so you can see the people inside. It’s just like the old Philadelphia trolleys used to be, a green and cream PCC Streamline. They still run those on Girard Avenue, but the 34 on Baltimore is now a Kawasaki in white, red and blue. Ours definitely catches the eyes of the passers-by…

yay party!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our holiday party last night. We had a swell time!

This box is a special souvenir.

Lorraine made this box at our party. It depicts the party, partygoers, artists and me taking pictures of the party. On the sides are notes of music, some very complicated ones to represent Brendan’s skillful mandolin playing. So it’s a craft made at a craft party of the craft party. And here are some of the pictures I took. You can see that I took pictures because it shows me doing it on the commemorative box.

I only wish I had taken more pictures of the party, like one of the making of the commemorative box that shows me taking pictures of the party. Oh well, no party is perfect.

We played with Lindsey’s handmade stamps and linoleum blocks as the smells of mulled cider and artfully burned wood filled the air. We had beer from Dock Street and egg nog as we chatted and shopped. A fine holiday party indeed, and many lovely gifts to change hands soon…

Join us for the next one, won’t you?

ah, another december in retail…

December is what it’s all about in this business, let’s face it. I’ve been through a bunch, but always working for someone else. So, needless to say, I’m kind of getting into the spirit of the season with this wonderful new opportunity in a new store of my own! Busy busy busy…

Some views of how the store’s coming along…

Check back often and I’ll post individually about some of the different artists represented. There are around 75 people so far! (with room for more too.)

Did I mention some of them will be at our holiday party? You can come learn a little about what it takes to spin yarn, make paper into 3-dimensional books, or burn images onto wood. (see post below). There might also be one or two that I haven’t mentioned…

Friday, Dec. 14, 6-10. Live music, refreshments, handmade holiday shopping in West Philly! Sounds like fun, I’ll see you there!

holiday party!

West Philly Handmade Holiday Shopping Party!

We’ll have festive refreshments, oh yes.

We’ll also have a handful of featured artisans in attendance, sharing a bit about what they do and how they do it, such as:

• Paper artist and book designer Kristina Bonning of B. Inspired Designs
• Fiber artist Elissa Kara, crocheter and maker of handspun yarn
• Pyrographer Lorraine Dalessio (pyrography = the art of decorative wood burning)

Live music by Serpents of W.I.S.D.O.M. who can play the mandolin like you never did see.

Friday evening, December 14, 6-10 pm.

Join us, won’t you?