Calligraphy ribbon with Maybelle Imasa Stukuls

I'm very excited the collaboration with calligrapher Maybelle came to life! We were inspired to collaborate together, as soon as we organized the Calligrafia workshop at our studio last spring. Some first drafts of Maybelle alphabet were ready right after the first class, but it took us a few months to complete the project in details. The black ink alphabet, in upper and lower case, became white relief silkscreen printing, over black cotton ribbon. The long time and effort to have the best printing result, was all worth the wait. Now the Calligraphy ribbon arrived from Italy and it is packaged by hand in our studio on tea dye wood spools. They are so beautiful and I'm thankful to Maybelle for working with me on this idea. Now I started to think, what can come next?

Work in progress: wood spool + calligraphy + letterpress

I'm working on a new product to launch for the holidays and it is something I had in mind for a long time. If you have been following our studio's projects for a while, you might remember the Calendarbook, with the measuring tape, designed in collaboration with Silvana Amato, under our imprint of Edizioni Almenodue. This project is the sequel of the same wood spool wrapped with paper. A few weeks ago I dreamed about the little spool, wrapped in calligraphy and I decided it was time to make it happen! I asked dear friend Susy to submit some of her beautiful calligraphy, and these are the first few steps of the design process, after many hours spent on InDesign for the overall layout, size and dimensions. Stay tuned for updates on the letterpress printing with Albertine Press, next week. I'm very excited about this new product and can't wait to move on to the next step and hopefully everything will be ready for the final assembling, soon. And last, I love taking photos with the new camera Canon EOS with a macro lens. It makes a world of different to take products shooting, but much to learn!

New Pikku ribbon

Soft pink petals Pikku ribbon! A new pattern and collaboration between Pikku Wares and our studio, we are thrilled to offer a new design to our line. Very delicate and striking at the same time, so happy about the result! The new Pikku Ribbon will launch wholesale at the upcoming NYC Gift Fair and now available in our online shop, only! More news are coming up for the Gift Fair, a brand new line of gold and silver ribbons are in the process, soon to be ready. Enjoy summer and more soon!
   

For the love of letterpress ~ giveaway

The letterpress event at the studio was a lot of fun! a real celebration of spring, in my opinion, and I loved to see the press in action and printing the lovely "Bloom where you are planted" cards by Susy. Albertine Press did a fabulous job printing some cards, head of time for our shop and bring the same plate and ink to use for the demo... and baby Emily was the queen of the party! Thank you everyone that came to share the day with us, it was a bright and sunny day we really enjoyed and I hope you did too! for all the people that missed the event and lives too far to attend, we are happy to send a set of 6 cards + envelopes for your spring mailings. Leave a comment by April 15th and a winner will be announced. Happy spring!

189 libri

Today is last day of a one week long exhibition, seminars and workshops 189 Libri, organized by Silvana Amato at the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. All our limited editions and calendarbooks by Edizioni Almenodue were on view during the exhibition, along with several other work by Silvana's students from Universita` La Sapienza di Roma and her personal research around the theme of the design and making of the book. I'm very excited our collaborative work is part of the exhibition, but missing terribly to be there and listening the seminars! Some of the images below were taken during the hand-papermaking workshop "Diventare mastro cartaio" by Fabriano and the seminar "Autoritratto allo specchio" by Guido Scarabottolo. They all must have been incredibly interesting! The photography is by Alessio Macri` and more can be seen on the 189 Libri Tumblr page. Enjoy!

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!

New cards and giveaway

The new cards for the Leaf and Straw line arrived today, following our collaboration with Moontree letterpress, with the hand-bound books and letterpress printed cards. I wanted to try a new pattern to bright the holidays season with some new color combination and I believe it worked. Fuchsia is a new color to me, but I have been using it more and more in my designs lately and it does make everything warmer and brighter. I'm asking for your opinion, love to hear what you think and a set of six cards is on your way. Leave a comment here or on FB until November 20th, winner to be announced on the 21st. Thank you Moontree Letterpress for working with me on this line once again!

Pikku Ribbons in the shop

As we announced before the NYC gift show, we designed a new product presentation for our Pikku ribbons, on a wood paddle, we really like. We launched them wholesale for the first time and now, after taking plenty of photos in the last few days, we have them available in the shop. We are excited about the new product and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Pikku Ribbons launch at NYIGF

You might have follow us since the very beginning of our collaboration, that started by combining the cotton ribbons with the Pikku wrapping paper a few years ago. Then we designed a full collection of cotton ribbons, printed in silkscreen with Pikku pattern designs. Now, after much request, we are ready to launch the same ribbons at wholesale price at the NYIGF, presented with a whole new packaging. 2 yards of cotton ribbon rolled on a wood paddle, hand-made in Vermont! We are excited about the idea of recycling and reuse the wood piece, so that it won't be thrown away. You can use it again with more ribbon and hang your collection on the wall, as an inspiring board. I believe as an object is so pretty on its own and it shows much craftsmanship in each detail. Let us know what you think, for now I'm back to work on the rest of the samples for the show!

Silvana Amato's studio in Rome

My old time friend and other half of Edizioni Almenodue recently launched her brand, new site! It is really impressive to see many years of design work, well photographed and presented behind the three doors. And for the first time, all our collaborative limited editions and Calendarbooks are organized under one title: Private Press. The photography is by Alessio Macri` and if you follow the fly you will find further information on the people that contributed to the site, as well as the studio's projects. And it was pretty fun to pose for those images, all wearing clothing by the same designer! During the visit in January, I took lots of photos of the studio with Nada` + people working there. The light was great, in Rome always is, and the studio was warm, filled with books and inspiring details. Everything felt incredibly familiar, I was certainly at home! Read Silvana's interview to learn more of her career as a book designer, amply described with technical and personal elements of years of work!