handmade awsomeness!

LOOK LOOK! just when i thought it was amazing to have my own copy of  lotta's new book, another super handmade hero of mine, lena corwin, will be launching a new book also on handmade printing techniques this july. you can pre-order here. (i had to include this totally adorable outtake shot of lena and her pup, gus!)

ReadyMade goes digital

ReadyMade’s Green Design Issue hit newsstands this week but even better, ReadyMade has this issue here for free. That’s right: they are now offering a paperless edition of the magazine and the first virtual installment is completely free. Plus, it’s got all sorts of bells and whistles, like direct links to online exclusives and a clickable table of contents. Check it out!

LINES & SHAPES

(UPDATE: The site is up and is fantastic, congrats to Mav and Lena! go now to reserve your copy of the very first issue of Lines & Shapes)

I am soooo excited about this new project in collaboration with Mav & Lena Corwin.

Quoted from Mav's post today:

"in our words, this is LINES & SHAPES:

we create small books {6 volumes this first year}.
we are an independent art and design collective {creating new work for every volume}.
we are a rotating group of artists whose visions converge {4–6 different artists in each volume}.
we are always thinking of new ideas {each book will have a different visual theme}.
and lines & shapes connect us. "

ooohhh I'm sooo giddy, I just can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and see whats in store at the Lines & Shapes site.

LINES & SHAPES, originally uploaded by mav | port2port.

bathroom :: tile

We are now in the middle of redesigning our bathroom in the new house and so I'd like to dedicate a few posts to the bathroom. while some people never really think about bathroom design, it's merely just thought about as a room to get clean in...others think of it as a spa or a place to retreat to when life gets hectic so they want to accomplish a certain feel to it. I personally never really thought about it...UNTIL...we saw what ours looked like at the start of a home purchase. I'll be showing a before and after pic when it's finished, in the meantime i'd like to show some really gorgeous tiles that at this point in life could only dream about!! (te he)

(from top to bottom: Angela Adams ceramic tile, Sakura graphic tile, Erin Adams glass tile. All tile via Anne Sacks)

blanket magazine

Blanket is a free PDF online magazine that is aimed at uncovering Art, Design, Photography. In the recent issue, there is an article with a great little bookmaking tutorial from five and a half, the illustrations are of cut paper by Judy Lee.

Follow up on Gocco

As you can see, freshlyblended has a new look to it. Most things are in place but there are still some things missing as you can see on my side bars. I'm still doing a bit of reorganizing and tweeking so you will be seeing some more changes for about another week or so.

Anywho, I have been trying to get around to posting a revised Gocco resources list for a while now and as the email inquiries keep funneling in, i've been constantly reminded to make a follow up post about it. In a recent article from the New York Times, entitled The Cult of Gocco, Jill Bliss was interviewed about her site savegocco.com and how this little machine has become a favorite tool for craftsters and designers alike. So in this, I do want to highlight that savegocco.com will probubly be your best bet for finding resources for the Print Gocco. I however, can only give you a direction from what I have bought and where the deals are.
Since hunting for the cheapest prices on inventory for myself, I found that Welsh Products has the best prices for supplies thus far. As the gocco becomes more popular, it's also becoming more expensive to acquire the inventory to run the machttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhine so don't jump on the first price you see, shop around.
As for purchasing the actual machine, I think ebay will be your best bet although and Northwood Studios have the B5 for under $200.00. One other tip is to be careful about buying the inks in chunks from certain places, you could see a great price on say a 7 ink bundle but the shop offering them is located in japan so your paying more to ship them then what you bought them for. So definitely do your research before you jump the gun and buy, i made that mistake in the beginning and had to learn the hard way. All in all, it should be a fun buying experience so don't feel overwhelmed to just get it because you feel like they'll all be gone if you don't, find a good price first cause they haven't all disappeard yet.