Gesine Hackenbeg

I was going through my recent bookmarks when I came across the beautiful work of Gesine Hackenbeg. I originally saw her work posted on Bloesem {a wonderful blog by Irene Hoofs} and immediately fell in love. I particularly enjoy that she uses old plates to create new pieces of jewelry.

In her own words, Gesine says: "I’m fascinated with this aspect of personal preciousness that I observe in relation to all kinds of belongings. Especially such objects that usually seem to find a place quite close and near to the body. I like exploring the ways in which such a connection to us and our body manifest themselves."

Personal preciousness...what a wonderful way to describe this idea. I have been interested in preciousness in art making for a while now, and it's something I discuss with my students when they start making work.

thank you

I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who braved the weather to come to the opening of The Raven and the Writing Desk!

I was completely amazed at the turnout we had, especially considering the weather and all of the other openings that night. I'm so happy that my work and Nancy's work fits so perfectly in the space. And the pieces really play off of each other well!

This is a detail from one of the books in my show. The title is Will they find me in time? It's made from screen print, inkjet print, acrylic, hand stitching, cloth, and ribbon. Will post more show images on my Flickr site shortly.

Rachael Loves Dogs

So, I am posting about the best dog in the universe, Sammy the three- legged lab (Rachael has yet to take my access off of her blog, so I am populating it with puppies).  Sammy is currently being housed at Animal Services League and I have been in charge of his therapy since the beginning of the year.  Sammy needs a home.  He is fairly agile on his three legs now, but needs his customized cart for long walks in the park (he loves the dog park).  Please pass his information along, and read and fall in love with him here at his very own blog. 

Hope to see you tonight!

Eliza and Eninaj

Check out this beautiful pebble ring by Eliza Mundy of 12linden. All of her pieces are so sweet, but I just love the contrast of the silver on the dark metal. While I was looking at her shop I found her great blog, which featured this incredible scarf by Eninaj. Eliza certainly has good taste!

When I first saw this I thought it was a necklace...and I would like to keep thinking it is!

Auction frenzy

Abbey introduced me to a very evil auction site and I spent the better part of evening trying to out-bid other buyers for these gorgeous chairs {after I finished hanging my show, of course}. I stopped at $170! When I told Jake my final bid he was very obviously relieved that I didn't win them, but my dining room continues to be very sad. In some happy news, Marni and I did win some beautiful card catalogs! I'm trying to decide where to put them and will post photos when I find the perfect spot.

for the market

Ok, so now I have a bag fetish, not like I didn't before. These market bags are super cute, and would actually make great totes for school books.

Yellow messenger bag by ZiaZia.

Beautiful twill bag with blue accents, also from ZiaZia.

And finally, a great moleskin-colored bag from Bespoke Boutique.

A whole year!

One year ago today we adopted Cassie! And we're very happy that we did (although I wanted to send her back at the time). Our girl turned out to be super sweet and cuddly, just the kind of dog for us!

Check it out!

Abbey Hendrickson's originals and prints are for sale at The Shiny Squirrel!


The Visual Studies Workshop silent auction is March 7 from 6-9 pm. The work above is by the talented Kris Merola.

I'm having a show with Nancy Topolski next week at Studio 354 {in the Hungerford Building}. Opening reception is March 7 from 6-9 pm. It's the same night as the VSW auction, so if you're close to Rochester stop in to say hello!

It's begun...

It's definitely wedding season, or at least wedding invitation season. I'm working on quite a few weddings right now and seem to get daily inquiries! This is really exciting and gives me a chance to work on several different projects at once, which is generally the way I work.

It's also exciting because I have teamed up with designer Tara Hogan for a few of these weddings {you may remember our calendar collaboration}. Over the weekend I printed the above design {created by Tara} and mixed the exact shade of Raspberry Pudding ink the bride requested {from a Behr paint chip}. I love how they turned out!

Whatever

I love this print of a collage by Dollface Design. I think it would be great to reflect on this during those days where I don't feel like making decisions! You can learn more about Layla on her blog and Flickr.

I hate dishes, but I love lace

Two exciting things happened this weekend. The first, our electrician finished wiring our kitchen for the dishwasher (a Christmas present from my parents) and the counter that Jim helped us install is awesome! I love the new set-up of the kitchen. The space is much brighter and I have so much more room to work now. You can really see the difference in the pictures above.

And my second piece of fun news is that I have a new card design in the shop. I love lace and blind embossing, so this card is the perfect fit for me. I'm also working on incorporating this pattern into a wedding invitation, which I think will be quite beautiful!

Yesterday marked our one-year anniversary of losing Tipper. I can't believe how quickly this year has passed and how much we still miss him. But, if this hadn't happened our ladies would never have been brought together, and they love each other more than any two dogs I've ever met. And every so often I'm lucky enough to have a vivid dream about my boy.

how to do nothing...

I've been reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I love it! She's a beautiful writer and I feel like I couldn't be reading this at a better time in my life. For starters, I've barely read any book in the last three years just for fun. I used to be a voracious reader, but the intense reading load in grad school just took all of the joy out reading. Every time I pick this book up I don't want to put it down!

In the first section of the book she travels to Italy in pursuit of pleasure. I was particularly excited about this because Jake and I are going to Italy this summer with another couple and I'm looking forward to relaxing. But as I read further into this section I came across the following excerpt, written by the author when she was trying to "learn" how to relax and take pleasure in doing nothing:

"...many Americans feel more happy and fullfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box, and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure). Americans don't really know how to do nothing. This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype - the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax."

This really hit a nerve for me. From the time I wake up until I go to bed I feel like I'm constantly working. The only time I even watch tv is if I'm folding cards at the same time! The fist thing I do when I wake up on Saturday is check my email and I can't even seems to make time to go to a yoga class once a week. How is this possible? How am I going to be able to go to Italy for two weeks without my cell phone or computer? I'm taking this excerpt as a sign that I need to prioritize a little bit of time for myself every day to do something (or nothing) without feeling guilty. With that in mind, I'm going to make a real lunch (no Cheetos) and read some more of this book!

Thank you

I made my 300th sale on Etsy today! This is a personal milestone for Pistachio Press and I'm super excited. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and the press!

For your Valentine...

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this...chocolate type! Two of my favorite things wrapped up into one! Typolade is a German-based company, which means that I have no idea how to order these lovelies.

Equally tasty and awesome, chocolate bubble-wrap from DeLessio Bakery. I think Jake would also love this, although it might not give him that satisfying pop that real bubble-wrap does!


{both chocolates were found via sub-studio design}

Whew!

Well, after many long hours I finally finished binding a set of beautiful save-the-date booklets. I printed and bound 80 booklets (12-pages each) for an upcoming wedding and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out! And this whole experience has reinforced my love for my guillotine paper cutter, which was one of my best studio investments ever!


The pages were printed on pearl white Lettra and the cover was printed on light blue Magnani Pescia (a gorgeous Italian paper).

Pistachio Press BABY

I am so excited to announce the launch of Pistachio Press Baby! I've been working with Canadian designer Sam Posnick on a set of super cute onesies and caps. This set features a dreamy squirrel on the onesie and two acorns on the brim of a cap. Both are printed with water-based inks on organic cotton. Check them out in the shop!

shop update {valentines}

I just updated my shop with a few Valentines. They made their debut at second storie {which was really wonderful} and I'm happy to finally have them available in my shop. I've been pretty busy printing weddings, but I promise that more updates are coming soon!

second storie} i heart handmade

Please join us (and Pistachio Press) for i heart handmade this Friday, February 1! second storie is Rochester's answer to a growing movement towards a new approach to art + craft. This unique craft event comes just in time for Valentine's Day!

With letterpress, pottery, jewelry, fabric and much more, we bring our passion for hand-making to those who have a passion for the handmade. second storie} i heart handmade is sure to be a warm evening full of live local music, warm drinks and fine art & craft. This craft fair will truly be one of a kind.

second storie} i heart handmade
Spot Coffee
Rochester, NY
Friday, February 1, 2008
6-10 pm
live music
admission is free

www.secondstorie.net
http://www.myspace.com/secondstorie
http://www.firstfridayrochester.org


{awesome poster image by Marlene Heuer}

Belted

Why are there so many great spring dresses? And why aren't they sold in my price range? I'm totally in love with these pieces!

I don't usually like belted dresses, but these two by Lela Rose are amazing. The length is perfect for me and the patterns is just great!

And who couldn't like these Badgley Mischka dresses {yellow and patterned!}.

Sweater...dress?

I never thought that sweater-dresses would make a comeback, but they have! Check out this great H&M dress...I love the buttons and the jacket it's paired with is too cute!

Need to start playing the lotto

Oh, beautiful yellow dress, why do you have to be $350? This would be perfect for my trip to Italy this summer, light, silky, patterned, yellow. What more could a girl want?


Hmmm, not sure that I could pull off this little black dress, but I would love to try!


{yellow dress is from Tibi, black dress is from Burberry Prorsum}

Continue to give

For me the last few months flew by and I can't believe it's almost February! But, that doesn't mean that we should forget about the holiday spirit of generosity. I recently discovered an amazing challenge that is being offered by Six Degrees (yes, Kevin Bacon!). The four US charities that have the most unique donors through the America's Giving Challenge will receive $50,000 for their cause (in addition to the pledges).

A Place to Bark is one of the charities that has a shot at this amazing opportunity. Please check out Bernie Berlin's blog to learn more about her animal rescue. In addition to running the dog rescue full-time, Bernie is a mixed media artist. In order to win the grant they need to have the most amount of donors, not necessarily the amount of money donated. Each $10 (unique) donation give the rescue a shot at winning $50,000. The challenge ends on January 31.

You know my soft spot for dogs...let's help make a difference!

New Obsession

Remember my ring obsession from last month? Well, I've moved onto dresses! I love gray right now {and we all know how much I also love pattern}, so this beauty is perfect for me. It's for sale at Olio United...I wish I could visit Portland and try it on.

Hello new garage!

I haven't been the only busy person around here. Jake finally managed to clean out the garage {with Lindsay's help, of course}. We haven't been able to fit a car inside the garage for almost a year, and Jake could never find his tools when he needed them since they were spread out over the floor.

I took this after they had already been cleaning for three hours, so you can imaging how bad it was!

Now all of the tools are organized and he has clean space on his work table.

And we can fit a car in here!

Hello new office!

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post...bad blogger! Well, I haven't been sitting around, I've been working my butt off on this new organizing kick. Here are a few pics of my newly organized office {before and after}.

My desk was such a disaster even the drawers were overflowing. Now I have clean drawers and these cute new shelves {complete with Julia Rothman mug for pencils and my Matryoshka dolls from Sara}.


My sewing area is much better now. I couldn't even get to my sewing machine before!


And my favorite part is the closet. Lindsay talked me into making this closet "business only" and we moved all of my crafting supplies to the closet in the spare room. I love all of the little boxes. They're all labeled and filled with inventory, so no more searching for a pack of cards to send out!

Welcome 2008!

I hope everyone had a great time last night! I was lucky to have a very low-key night...dinner with a few friends and then board games are Luke's. It was the perfect way to start the new year and is the beginning of what I hope will be a very peaceful and productive year. I'm not making any resolutions, although I am going to have some life goals in the next few months.

Goal #1 is to get organized and live a {mostly} clutter-free life. I'm inspired by Organize Magazine, which I just found! In honor of this new goal I spent part of today cleaning my office closet and desk, filing stationery, and making a list of organizational things to buy. I'll be posting before and after pictures to keep myself motivated. Speaking of organizing, I just found out about Bloglines {thanks Shanna!} and created an account with all of the blogs I read daily...woo hoo!

Goal #2 is to complete half-finished projects around the house. Jake and I started remodeling our bathroom about two years ago and have been 90% finished for two years! Today we started patching drywall, which lead to another list of supplies that need to be purchased! By the end of the week I'd like to have finished patching, nail in floorboards, and paint the trim. Personal zen, here I come :)


{image from Organize Magazine}