Calligraphy for Autism Awareness Poster

For Charlie

My friend Jaime Rugh made this poster with Briana Feola for her daughter Charlie . She asked me,  Ann Vollum, to do the calligraphy.  Charlie loves flowers and this poster was Jamie and her husband Jeff’s  way of reminding her how much she is loved. Five color silkscreen printed on white paper. 12 1/2 x 19 inches. Edition of 45. Five Artist Proofs.

The Making of a Beastly Book

Soma Artisan’s Guild Logo and Flyer

Craft show flyer by Ann Vollum

Logo by Ann Vollum

SOMA Artisan’s Guild

Recently I have been busy organizing a new group, along with my friend Katie Clayton, for artists and craft people in the Maplewood South Orange area of New Jersey. The group goes by the name of SOMA Artisan’s Group, our purpose is to bring like minded people together and to help our small businesses grow. So far we have organized two small craft shows and are working on an Etsy team. Our first meeting on September 10th was a big success with 22 people coming to our first meeting. More details on our blog and on The Maplewood Patch.

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BeastlyBeasties at our first craft show on Springfield Avenue, Maplewood, NJ

BeastlyBeasties at Mia Cose Bella in South Orange, NJ

calligraphy and print by Ann Vollum

Mia Cose Bella, or “My Thing Beautiful” is located at  8 West South Orange Avenue in
South Orange, New Jersey  07079.
Telephone: (973) 763-5270

Mia Cose Bella or “My Thing Beautiful” is run by Lisa Marie Murray and is full of unique, and  elegant pieces. Lisa is also a great supporter of local artists and artisans. Her shop is full of wonderful, beautiful things!

Lisa now carries a line of BeastlyBeasties letterpress prints, cards and screen printed limited edition T-shirts. I am very excited to be in this store. The calligraphy on the print above is by Ann Vollum.

Mia Cose Bella

A BeastlyBeasties Fea Cat print in the window

8 West South Orange Avenue with BeastlyBeasties

BeastlyBeasties Fea cat print with calligraphy

BeastlyBeasties in the windowMy calligraphy around one of my letterpress prints to advertise BeastlyBeasties

South Orange and Maplewood Artists Studio Tour

Images from Kali Cat by BeastlyBeasties

My wall at the Baird for the Artists Studio Tour

Letterpress cards by BeastlyBeasties

Aprons by BeastlyBeasties

Letterpress prints by BeastlyBeasties

On Sunday I took part in the South Orange & Maplewood Artists Studio Tour which was a wonderful experience. Artists open up their studios to the public for the day. I was at the Baird in South Orange with six other artists. These photos are not great but they show you my little corner where I sold my latest t-shirts designs and aprons.

Check Out this Cool Shopping Site!

I am very excited to be featured on this great site run by the creative  Jaime Rugh, she has lots of really neat stuff.

Another Beastly Book

Hand bound artist’s book. The covers and pages are all sink art paper that I colored. The book is bound by sewing over leather tapes with the link stitch. I hated the bright green leather that I ended up using as I was not properly organized. As a result I used sandpaper to age the leather and remove the bright green. Originally, I was going to feed the tapes back between the covers through slots. This looked ugly to me, so I left the tapes loose and sewed on some beads. The title is written in calligraphy on brown paper.

All the pages of this book have beasties drawn on the sink art paper. Circular cut outs are positioned through out the pages. This book was recently in the "Booked 6" show at the Pierro Gallery in South Orange, New Jersey. See: http://maplewood.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/reviewing-booked-6-at-the-baird/#more-1699 for a review of the show.

Printing Beastie Cards on the Vandercook

The following images will give you a visual idea as to how letterpress printing is done on a flat bed proofing press.  This  press is a Vandercook 20 Rigid Bed Roller Series Proofing Press. I print at the Baird Center in South Orange, NJ. I print on Stonehenge paper. When I have finished printing, I pull lots of proofs on scraps of newsprint, with out inking up the plates. This is a great way to get the excess ink off the plates. The plates are then cleaned with cooking oil. I leave a thin coat of oil on the plates and then store them in air tight zip lock plastic bags. The ink is scraped off the inking plates using a palate knife, I  then clean evrything with cooking oil, using paper towels to wipe away the ink.  BeastlyBeastie cards and prints can be found on my Etsy site. Thanks for looking.

Vandercook 20 Rigid Bed Roller Series Proofing Press

the rollers have been inked

ink is on the second inking plate waiting to be rolled and spread. This press as an inking plate at each end

locking in the magnesium plate and checking for position

locking in the two plates and checking for position

magnesium plates mounted on wood are locked in to position using furniture

using a print out of the image to check that the positioning is good

a piece of newsprint the same size as the paper to be printed on is placed in position on the plates and the drum is rolled across until it grabs the paper

tape is placed on the drum to mark where the paper should sit

the plate is not inking up evenly. Small pieces of paper are put under the plate to raise the areas that are not inking

a proof is pulled on the newsprint. Any needed adjustments are made before printing on the good paper

a mock up I made from proofs to help with positioning

masking tape is used to mark the four corners where the paper should sit

a proof on newsprint. I have folded it to double check that my positioning of the logo is good

prints drying

printing fea

fea drying

More From The Beastie Book

the front section is completed, I will come back later and add to the back ground

the tail section is complete

working back to the tail

the tail is done

the tail of another beast is added

This is a book that I bound using the sink art paper that I made. It is perfect for beasties. I use a MICRON pen, the paper is Arches 90lb. This is a work in progress for a Book Arts Show in South Orange in March at the Baird center.