Some of my favorites

Today my etsy shop officially closed. In the last months I decided to focus on my new online shop and slowly there were always less on my beloved etsy. Though, I went through my favorites and found some great shops that I don't want to forget. Thank you for everyone that supported my etsy in the last two years and to the amazing artists, crafter and community that continue to inspired me with their creativity. I selected here below only a few, but you can find much more at this link. I hope you will enjoy it!

Letterpress in Japan

What about typesetting in Japanese? love the images from this studio and the links connected. I also remember reading about letterpress in Japan by Rebecca of Moontree during her trip, a few years ago. During a rainy day, It feels nice to dream.....

Bornay, Spain

Spring is always too late for me to come here in New England and the lack of colors is too hard to miss after months of winter. I saw these almost abstract photos by Bornay in Barcelona and I feel already better. Absolutely charming, beautiful flowers arrangements. Happy weekend everyone!

Making books

A lot of bookbinding in a day for the university library order that is going to be shipped by this week. I was happy I had a change of having some pictures of the process, to share. It is the making of three books in different steps, with a little view of my studio, with a present of Bookhou on the wall. It is sunny today and I need a little break!but first I need to thank Simple Song for the lovely post. It was a big surprise to find during my daily reads.

Rachel Hazell artist books

Today I'm really thinking about hand-made books, as I woke up finding an order of our limited edition books from the Special Collection Library of the George Mason University in Virginia. A happy news indeed, something it doesn't happen everyday!
In my inbox, I also received a newsletter from Rachel Hazell in UK, reminding me of her amazing artist books, with her traveling to Antarctica teaching book arts! There is a lot to see and read on her website, what an inspiration!

More books

New finds at the local library, from my Friday trip. Another Paul Rand book cover design from 1960 and his signature is on the cover itself, top right. Love this collection!

Book design by Silvana Amato

Rarely I have something to show of Silvana's work, as she doesn't mind too much of the web world and doesn't have a website, but I received these images of her book designs I thought they needed to be seen. Silvana worked with several international calligraphers for the book covers of a philosophy series by Editori Laterza. I think the result is stunning!

Calligraphy on the last sample, by Susan Skarsgard.

On twitter

I would have never guessed I would like twitter so much. But, it's a new universe I really enjoy. I hope you will too!

Cotton twine ready for spring

New spools of 100% cotton twine, just in time for spring projects! Every spool is half a pound weight, 300 yards of twine, 10 ply width. Available in my shop in six vibrant colors: Blue and Green, White and Light Blue, White and Black, White and Red, White and Green, Red and Black. I'm happy to provide them at wholesale price too, as I don't need to make the spools by hand as my other soft, cotton twine spools. Any wholesale inquiry are always welcome, contact me directly if you are interested.
Still sunny and warm here in Boston, I look forward to a relaxing weekend, no printing this time! happy weekend to all of you.

Spring wedding invitation suite

The present for my oldest niece's wedding is the wedding invitations suite, today packed and ready for express mail to Rome. I had the pleasure to design it and also print it on my new press. Quite a challenge to start printing something so precious for the first time on the table top, but I thought it will make the present more special if it was made to start to finish in one studio. And so here it is....
150 wedding invitations, letterpress printed in two colors, some of which assembled with the reception card, with cotton embroidery DMC thread. Printed on beautiful 600 gr/m Hahnemuhle paper, with round corners. Essential in the process, the corner rounder I bought used, with my press, at the Printing Museum sale, last year. A tool I always wanted to have.
And more appealing than all of this, is the villa from XVIII century, in the countryside outside Ravenna, where the wedding will take place...

A day and night printing

I spent many, many hours printing for the first time on my press from 1928 with a lot of frustration at first, trying to figure out what it works and changing my mind setting that registration on the table top press it is not exactly as working on a layout in Indesign. Printing the image and the text evenly is one of the hardest challenge and learning how your press has its own balance, that needs to get adjusted constantly, it's another long, working process. But with much determination, the result is beautiful and fulfilling. Soon more photos of the printed pieces....
I need to first thank Shelley for convincing and physically taking me to the Museum of Printing a year ago and helping to purchase the press. And to Arounna, Maria and Tanya for inspiring me that good design and printing is also possible on a small table top press!
More informations and open discussion on letterpress always available on Briar Press and for who lives in New England, the next Museum of Printing sale is coming up on March 27th for over 100 cases of type!

Ampersand

I think of Ampersand as an elegant typography element that continue to surprise me for its beauty. I use them when I can and I own a set of Poetica typeface that I love. These samples are from an amazing site of daily ampersand that fascinated me and I choose some of my favorite. Imaging when after a all year, there are 365 ampersand to choose from!
Found via Felt and Wire.

In the press

To end this busy week, I went to pick up my copy of the Boston Magazine Home and found my hand-bound books on the Paper page, top left. I like their brief description:Rome native and Boston transplant Angela Liguori uses luxe Italian paper to craft her stationery and handbound notebooks. I guess Boston is really my new home now!
Some local designers friend, among others, are also included on the page: Susy Pilgrim Waters, Jenn Ski and Jennifer Hill. Glad to be there together. Have a nice weekend everyone!

New retailers

This week has been very busy shipping orders of books, cards and ribbons, to some shops I like to mention. A new retailer on my list is Gus and Ruby Letterpress that open a lovely shop in Portsmouth, NH. I had the chance to meeting one of the owner during our Letterpress and Bookbinding Workshop and I guess that was a beginning of developing the idea to open a stationery and letterpress store. I'm happy to see their creativity focused in that direction. And I love brick walls!
The other retailer is the gift shop of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, one of my favorite Museum in the city. It is not allow to take any picture in the Museum or of the beautiful court yard. Their website unfortunately, doesn't make justice of the beauty of the place, but it is one of the best spot of the city, if you like to visit.
At last, I'm shipping today new products to Australia to Flora and Ceres, which makes me dream of far and warm lands...
This week I also ordered inks, plates, base and even the citrus natural solvent, for my press project that slowly is coming along!

Design shop

Simplicity in lines, colors and aesthetic from Japanese Design Shop, I just love.

A letterpress studio

I'm lately designing some business cards and I pulled out a few from the hundreds of favorites from my collection. There are some I designed in the past, among others that I just love. What about the Manifesto Letterpress card printed on a circle? This process, reminded me of the beautiful letterpress studio by wood engraver Jim Horton, that I used to use for my printing. Machines and type are everywhere in his house, remote in the woods of Michigan. My absolutely favorite spot, was one of his studio set up in the green house. And the ever challenging Gordon Oldstyle Press from 1870!

A Camus book

Every time I go to the local library, I always come back home with some used books, I purely buy for the cover design or illustrations. This time, when I opened the Albert Camus's book published in New York in 1960, it said:"jacket design by Paul Rand". No wonder I thought it was the best find in the library that day!

Around Fog Linen

Have you seen already the new, beautiful Fog Linen book? I'm happy to find work by some of my favorite artists, clients and even friends, all in one place. To name a few: Rae Dunn, Lotta Jansdotter, Maria Vettese, Alissa and Ryan of Horne and Julie Baine, who I'm going to see just today!
Thank you Jill for mentioning it. I'm off to buy my copy.

Letter M

Talking about letters, just yesterday I receive a shipment from Rome of the Alphabet Brocaded Ribbons. Finally, after a few months, I do have the letter M back in stock!

Purl Logo

I'm on my way to the post office to ship a large order of ribbons to one of my favorite client, Purl Soho, in New York. I like to read their blog for bright, colorful ideas for the day. They are moving to a new location and they just posted their process on the new logo. Much of my interest is from where their inspiration came from as I love letters and type in any form. How lovely is that vintage, Swedish book of embroidered letters where they found the letter P!

New in the shop

I wanted to post these new items for while, but waiting for the right light to photograph. After a full week of rain, today we see the first sunshine! So here they are: 10 yards of ribbons in a combination of red and white, red and black, white and black, 5 mm width, imported from Italy. Uniquely packaged in vintage, glassine envelope. I found them in my collection of ephemera and thought they complement perfectly these rolls of ribbons. Available now in the shop!

Letterpress and Bookbinding Workshop No. 9

A repeat of our workshop on the same theme with the Lotus book structure and accordion folds books, always bring us something exciting. New students, new designs and colors and more ideas to share. Thank you for the fantastic group of students to join Shelley and I during this past weekend! With so much letterpress in mind, I'm ordering inks and plates to move on with my press project, always a challenge to find the time to accomplished everything at once!