I do so love sewing paper. Read more about my process on The Paper Place blog…
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Letterpressing in Nebraska
Lindsay Zier-Vogel at the letterpress ~ Photo by Jenny Lederer
I had an extraordinary writing (and letterpressing!) residency this summer at Art Farm, in Nebraska, USA.
More about my creations on The Paper Place’s blog…
A miracle somehow
embroidered cover detail
A miracle somehow
Hand-embroidered cover, printed on a 100-year-old letter press at Art Farm in Nebraska, USA.
Even with all of her swimming badges
sewn onto old bathing suits,
and the lifeguard whistle
around her neck,
it seems impossible
not to drown.
love.
love.
Nebraskan inspired love letters, printed on a 100-year-old letter press at Art Farm.
The green that goes on
and on
and on,
the copycat
sky.
Embroidered prairie plants
Blue-eyed grass
Queen Annes Lace
Coneflower
Embroidered prairie plants on Japanese Kozo.
Paper art in Nebraska
Paper art from my time in rural Nebraska.
What the lake has taken
“What the lake has taken” *SOLD*
~ part of The Paper Place‘s ‘six by eight’ exhibition showing
~ printed on Etchu Hagaki – handmade paper from Japan from mulberry (kozo) fibre
July 6-August 5, 2010: The Paper Place: 887 Queen St. W, Toronto
~ Opening Reception: July 8th, 7-10pm
Letterpressing in the great Midwest
I’m in rural Nebraska doing a writing residency. It’s stunning, with huge rolling fields that go on longer than my eyes can make sense of, hot, hot winds and an even hotter sun, barns filled with art and artists, late night bonfires and more lightening bugs than I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s truly extraordinary.
I’ve made my writing home in the back of a barn, surrounded by salvaged paper and coffee tins full of nails and screws and bolts and things I don’t know the names of…
And when I’m not writing, or at the swimming hole up the road, I’m playing with the 100 year old letterpress! There are nine printing presses here and the 240 fonts all in little perfect drawers (called ‘cases’).
...except I forgot the "n" in "sounds"...oops!
Not only am I falling in love with the metal type and the thick gooey ink, letterpress terminology is amazing: you fill a ‘composing stick’ with each letter, ‘the quoin key’ locks the type in place (called, ‘locking up the chase’) and the ‘furniture’ fills in the space around the text.
After inking up the press, I printed my first sheet – only to discover I had forgotten the “n” in sounds. Oops. So back to the drawing board for me. With the “n” firmly in place, I started playing with papers of different weights.
It certainly is a labour intensive process and totally changes how I feel about words. It’s so easy to toss words around now, it just takes a finger against a key, really, but back in the day, each letter had to be chosen, then placed, stringing words together so painstakingly.
TA DA!
I dream in fonts now and have a notebook full of ideas to play around with…more soon…
ps: truth be told, the rain doesn’t sound so much like clapping ‘round here as it does like the apocalypse…
pps: check out my guest blog post about Nebraskan letterpressing at the Paper Place…
