Event rescheduled for February 10th!

The Valentine Calendarbook giveaway in our studio is rescheduled for Sunday, February 10th, from 11 to 4, due to the huge snow storm moving toward the Boston area on Friday. Hopefully roads will be clear by Sunday and it seems it will be a bright sunny day! A big plus, Susy Pilgrim Waters will join us at the studio for the day. Stay warm and see you very soon! online giveaway still on until the 11th. Thank you so much for all the comments and "like" until now!

Calendarbook 2013 giveaway

In a few days we will have a giveaway in our studio, but if you can't come and take your own copy of the Calendarbook 2013, you can partecipate here on the blog or by sharing the post on facebook. Two winners will be selected separately, one from the blog and one from FB, on February 11th. I'd like to hear your opinion on our annual project. This Calendarbook is Number 14 in our collection! It is a collaboration with my old time friend Silvana Amato from Rome, Swiss type designer Sibylle Hagmann that kindly donated Cholla and Brooklyn based illustrator Steven Guarnaccia. We feel very lucky to have been working with such talents! In the photos you can see bits of the full project, from the very beginning, until completion. The Calendarbook is now hanging from the pipe in front of the studio window. I designed the mobile by cutting circles of paper out of my tea glass cup and decided to use the Wrapped Cotton in the design, even before the mobile came into shape. The same for the Merchant and Mills pins, we used for the glassine packaging closure. Cholla and The Men diving into Time by Gurnaccia completes the great layout design by Silvana. A true collaborative work! the Calendarbook is a limited edition, I'm sorry, not available for sale, but it is something we enjoy working on year, after year, for our long distance project. A labor of love, that we share with our clients, colleagues, designers and new contacts, every year. The Calendarbook, usually travels back to the U.S. in my suitcase, after it was offset printed on Fedrigoni Paper and dye cut in Rome by Futura Grafica. Assembled in our studio, completely by hand by Hillary Deane. I hope you will enjoy it too and good luck for the giveaway! Come to visit us this Saturday, from 11 to 4 and meet us all, if you can!

A valentine calendarbook giveaway

If you are wondering when the new Calendarbook 2013 will be release and what are all of those dye cut circles of paper in our studio, it is time to complete our project! The annual Calendarbook by Edizioni Almenodue did come back from Rome in my suitcase and after hours of work assembling the mobiles, now that the NYIGF is over, it is time for the giveaway. Some of you might receive a copy in the mail, a giveaway will be announced on the blog and FB, but mostly I would like to announce a small celebration in our studio on Saturday, February 9th, from 11 to 4. Stop by to say hello, take your copy of the Calendarbook and have a bacio perugina! Last year, this event in our studio was really fun and we might start a new tradition. Come to celebrate a new year, valentine's day and your love for hand-made books with us. We hope to see you soon!

The event

Last Saturday snowed all day during the time of the event and I was so happily surprise when some friends, clients and other designers actually brave the cold and walked in the studio for the giveaway. I hope they found a warm welcome with Italian chocolate, espresso and lots of cheers. The online giveaway is still on until this evening and you can see a bit more of the Calendarbooks in the photos below. If you remember the post of the wood spools dye by hand in the fall, you can guess that the same idea of rolling ribbon, brought me the inspiration to use a strip of paper for our project. Silvana brilliantly designed the Calendarbook as a piece to measure time as well as space, based on 1 meter length of paper. Six months on one side and six on the other, each centimeter listed with date and day of the week. The paper tape is rolled around the spool and secured with metal eyelets and linen thread. To complete the object, I look for some Kraft paper boxes and brought 150 of them in a suitcase to Rome. If custom would ever stop me at the airport, would certainly wonder what do I ever do with these kind of materials back and forth from one country to another. But it is part of the fun of our collaboration. A big thank you to everybody that came on Saturday. Facebook and blog winner will be announced tomorrow, so please continue to let me know what you think of this project!

Measuring tape or calendar?

Metro di carta o calendario?
All photos by Nada` Alaeddin, my 11 old daughter that is quickly learning how to use the camera with an interesting prospective. So lucky to have her help at the studio! Thank you for all the comments so far, the blog giveaway is still on for another week. On facebook too, where all page likes and comments count.

Calendarbook giveaway party

I'm working on the final assembling of the Calendarbooks by Edizioni Almenodue. Schools are closed today, so Nada` is kindly helping me to punch holes and putting eyelets on the strips of paper. As every year, Silvana and I design the self-promotional piece in the fall, it gets offset printed the last week of December in Rome and copies of the Calendarbooks comes back to the US in my suitcase. Sorry if the calendar is always a present closer to valentine's day, rather than the end of the year, but the best wishes for 2012 have the same good intentions. The design, this year, is particularly close to me, growing up with my mother being a seamstress and remembering the measuring tape always on her shoulder. I will slowly reveal the calendar in the next days, but I like to keep it as a surprise for the ones that will have the time to stop by the studio next Saturday from 1 to 5 and pick up their copy. Instead of only sending the calendars via mail and a giveaway online, this year, I thought to have a small get together at the studio, to bare the cold and to meet some of you in person. If you have time and you live in the Boston area, please come by and say hello! Otherwise, leave a comment on the blog, facebook or both, by Monday the 23rd and I will announce a winner the following day. Thank you everyone for your precious support, I wish you could all come to visit! everyone is invited, bring a friend!

Calendarbook 2011 and giveaway

Some shots of the Calendarbook 2011 in progress, some in Rome, some on my studio/blue table. This is maybe the real treasure I brought back from the trip, a huge, heavy package, in my suitcase. I'm mailing some of the last copies of the limited edition this week and I would like to start a giveaway with the winner to be announced on January 31st. Just leave a comment on the calendar below.
The self-promotional Calendarbook is an Edizioni Almenodue collaboration, every year with a new artist. For 2011 the illustrations are by British Claudia Boldt of Cloud Cuckoo studio, on a accordion book measuring 8 x 27 inches. It's a progressive calendar, that also lists the sequence of the 365 days. I so discovered that my birthday is on the 207th day of the year. This brilliant idea was by my collaborator Silvana Amato. The font we used is still unpublished, by type designer Alessandro Colizzi. Called Neon, is a pleasure to see it printed, even though we only had capitals and numbers to work with. The accordion book is tie together with waxed linen thread in beautiful teal color to match the illustrations. The image of the London bus, we repeated on the card, is one of my favorite. Let me know what you think!

February first

As a new month starts, I have some news for the Calendar book giveaway. Yesterday, my daughter wrote on paper and cut all the names left from the comments, my son randomly picked one of the name from the muslin bag and my youngest son just watch that everything was ok. Yes, I have three small children that sometimes appear on the blog!
I choose a very low tech method that involved my children a bit in my world, as they are always wondering what I am doing in front the computer for such a long time. Thank you to everyone that participated in the giveaway and left many lovely comments about the calendar. I also loved to see it across the ocean in one of Camilla's photo. The winner is Snap and Tumble, who just had a great letterpress class recently. Our workshop was unfurtunally cancelled this weekend and we need to reschedule a better date in February. Soon to be announced. Thank you again everyone and have a great beginning of the week!

The Calendarbook 2010 and giveaway

Last week I finished to send out the self-promotional CalendarBook 2010. So happy, this year, I made it by the middle of January! I took some pictures and only a few copies are now available in the shop with free shipping. The Calendar is a limited edition of 250 copies, designed and hand-made in collaboration with Silvana Amato, under our imprint of Edizioni Almenodue.
The long, beautiful landscape is an illustration by Guido Scarabottolo. The calendar is offset printed in Rome on Fedrigoni Old Mill cover paper and includes:2 gold map tacks, 1 meter hemp thread and 6 wooden clothespins, all protected in a muslin, cotton bag. You will wrap the thread around the map tacks and secure it with a knot. Position the map tacks in the desired place and use the clothespins to hang the 12 months, divided into 6 cards. Every card is printed on both sides, 4 x 6 inches size.
We were lucky and honored to work with wonderful Guido Scarabottolo and his oniric imagination, as well as being inspired by Diva Pyari's Wall Display Kit, given as a present during the past NSS. We wanted to design a calendar that creates a perpetual landscape, all year long!
Let me know with a comment what you think of our collaboration by January 31st and I will be happy to send a copy of the CalendarBook as a giveaway. It will be my pleasure to read your opinion and good luck!





Last image from Scarabottolo's site. Also read more about him at this link.

Working on the Calendarbook 2010

Parts and pieces of a work in progress laid on my table, for the annual self-promotional Calendar Book. This year the package of the printed months arrived from Rome in good timing, compare to other years where the calendar was really ready by valentine's day, instead of of the beginning of the new year. This is just a preview, some of you might receive a copy in the mail and I will be ready soon to list a few copies for sale and a giveaway. More news to come......

Belated calendarbook 2009

Only yesterday I sent my last copy of the self-promotional piece for Edizioni Almenodue, the Calendarbook 2009, to clients and friends. I brought them in my suitcase from Italy and every year I'm terribly late to send them out or to even have some for sale. If someone is interested, a few copies are now available in my shop for possible amateurs and collectors.
The calendar is a portfolio made of one single, long piece of paper, where it has been scored and folded, to hold the six pages of the calendar. The illustration is by Julia Binfiled, a British illustrator now living in Milan, Italy. Designed and assembled by Edizioni Almenodue and offset printed in Rome, by Stefania Paradiso, on Fedrigoni Merida Paper. The typesetting is in Elido, designed by Sibylle Hagmann, donated for the edition.
I used the long, beautiful illustration by Julia Binfield, in my wishes for the new year, visible in part on this posting.
This is our number 10th calendarbook, we designed and hand-made in the last ten years. I guess it celebrates some kind of anniversary with our long lasting friendship and collaboration!

Calendar book 2008

Even thought it might sound too late to talk about calendar books in the end of January, only today I was finally be able to take some pictures and post about our annual collaborative work.
Silvana Amato and I have been collaborating on the self promotional calendar since 1998. And probably this is the way that our Edizioni Almenodue started, without having an official name until much later.
Every year we work together with a different artist that contributes to the calendar and receive a number of printed and bound copies of the piece, in trade of their work. He can be an illustrator, as many time it happens, but we have also collaborated for the same project with type designers, papermakers, bookbinders and calligraphers, many times without personally meeting them. As for our limited edition books, this project, also based on a book structure, takes endless numbers of emails, postal packages of materials from Boston to Rome, and back, and an incredible amount of energy and time. Though, it's a way of collaborating with new artists every year and create something each time unique. An adventure all worth it to take!
We designed the calendar book 2008 with illustrator Susy Pilgrim Waters, whom I have only met for the first time, a year ago, with this project in mind. We decided to reproduce 12 large and beautiful paintings she made on thick, wood board. I have also used some of the images on the top banner of this blog. A pleasure is to see the paintings in person, located in a restaurant called Pomodoro, in Brookline, MA. And a real treasure is the friendship that developed by working together.
In case some are interested in the calendar for the remaining 11 months of 2008,
I have posted on Etsy a few copies for sale. Printed on Fedrigoni paper, is hand-bound with a ring of white embroidered ribbon, with red numbers 8!