Blog
June 16th, 2014
This is my friend Carl.
He’s a wood engraver extraordinaire—
—and his West Seattle letterpress studio is a thing of beauty.
He does lovely, painstaking work (those are his engravings on the wall there), and he runs a tight ship at that studio of his.
Which is why my friend Mary-Alice called on Carl when she picked up a vintage Adana flatbed press, and wanted help whipping it into shape. She and her husband were planning to bring the press to West Seattle yesterday. I’d never seen an Adana in action before (I’m more of a Vandercook gal myself), so I asked to tag along.
Carl was more than ready for us.
He gave the press a quick once-over. “I think you’re getting off too easy, Mary-Alice,” he said. “There aren’t even any spiders under here!”
A few drops of oil,
some careful adjustments,
one of Carl’s own engravings to use as a test,
and a little text M-A set from his massive collection of type—and all of a sudden the Adana was print-ready.
Carl even broke out the fancy handmade paper—”This is an important occasion!” he said.
Pretty darn good results, if you ask me. Carl made us all sign the finished broadside. (Mariners pencil for the win!)
“How come I get to sign?” I asked, confused.
Carl chuckled and said, “You documented the occasion. Sign it!”
Aye, aye, Captain!
June 12th, 2014
Well, I’ve eked out just about as much pigment as it’s possible to get from some of these half pans, so I think it’s time to break out a brand-new paintbox. Somehow it feels like I’ve refreshed the whole studio.
June 2nd, 2014
I know I should be in the studio right now, but the first strawberries of the year deserve something like a holiday.
May 19th, 2014
We celebrated the 100th anniversary of the restored Point Defiance Pagoda yesterday, marked by its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places this week.
I spent a day sketching at the Pagoda this month, raising a silent toast to the next hundred years. You can see my sketches over at the Drawn the Road Again blog.
May 8th, 2014
I was out running errands the other day, and had just gotten out of my car when she appeared—out of nowhere, not ten feet from where I stood.
I froze, not wanting to spook her. But she was utterly unconcerned about me. She stopped and turned, apparently waiting for something.
Or someone.
Then, without once looking back, she led her fawn right past me—I could have reached out and touched them—and on down the street, on some errands of her own.
May 5th, 2014
I cross-posted this (in a slightly different form) over at Drawn the Road Again, but I’m too excited not to share it here, too. After I illustrated two iconic Tacoma theaters, the kind folks at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts offered me a media sponsorship of one of their upcoming shows. I was happy to say yes (hey, free tickets for me and my friends!), but I didn’t give it much thought beyond that—the illustrations were plenty of fun on their own. But then they said, “We think we have the perfect show lined up for you.”
Photos by Mariesa Bus (left) and Laurie Cinotto (right)
And that’s how I got to chat with Ira Glass yesterday. (Yes, of course he’s charming and super nice!)
While I waited my turn at the meet-and-greet, I did what I always do: reach for pen and paper. The best part was the sketch turning into a collaboration—when I asked Ira for his autograph, he added the word bubble.
Yep, that was a good day.
April 14th, 2014
It’s gloomy again today, but last week was so gorgeous I just had to drop everything and sketch outside. This is from one of my favorite neighborhood spots in Tacoma—sometimes it’s still hard to believe I live here.
April 7th, 2014
I picked up a whole passel of display fixtures this week—just in case I need a helping hand (or 12) at my next craft fair table…
March 31st, 2014
I just picked up a sheet of the new Shirley Chisholm postage stamps—not just because Shirley is awesome, but also because the color scheme matches our Shirley broadside perfectly! (Great minds think alike?)
February 24th, 2014
Our local ferry system is a major part of public transit around here. But unlike a bus or a train, the ferries provide plenty of room to spread out while you pass the time. So we have a little tradition that happens on nearly every vessel: communal puzzles.
I think this is one of the most charming things about Washington.
As a puzzle fan myself, I know how easy it is to get sucked in—but I love how it’s something that anybody can work on for awhile, and then leave (or dismantle) for the next person to come along (or come back to yourself on the return trip!).
Once I got delayed on a ferry for almost two hours in the San Juan Islands, waiting for a dangerous bank of fog to clear. This guy was at his puzzle the entire time—I never saw him look up once. I wonder if he even noticed the time passing…
Even Candace got sucked in when she was here.
Actually, I wonder if the ferries ever have trouble getting passengers to actually leave the vessels—just one more piece, and then we’ll go, I swear!
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