New prints now available

My new prints for 2013 are now available at my Etsy shop!

You can also see them in person through the end of January at the Early Girl Eatery in Asheville, NC, on December 1st at the Big Crafty in downtown Asheville, or on December 15th at the Crafty Feast in Columbia, SC. Happy holidays!

The Bad Sparrow - a video!

I made a little video document of The Bad Sparrow crankie. Enjoy!

This is a letterpress printed scroll, 9" high by 25' long, made into a 'crankie' -- housed in a handmade box with a cranking mechanism. Printed and handmade by Jessica C. White. Original story and illustrations also by Jessica C. White. Music is Baker's Waltz by The Mammals.

Apologies for the poor video quality. I'm much better at making physical things than digital!

You can also see this video on YouTube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKAiAgs878o.

My Gordo Adventure, Day 3

I went out for a walk around the town of Gordo last night once the sun set and it started to cool off a little outside. It only took about 10 minutes. Here's downtown, two views of the same street. I think most of these buildings are empty, even though old signs are still posted.

It's definitely a good place to get work done, with few distractions. Here's the building that houses the print shop where I'm working, down a side street off of the main street. It's one building (one big room) with two entrances. the left side is where Amos works, and the right side is where everyone else works. By the way, I just found out that Amos has officially inducted me into the Amalgamated Printers of Some Color, woohoo!

 This is Luna, the Studio Cat.

I finished printing all of the text for the books by lunchtime and moved on to working on the images, which will be printed in a combination of pressure prints and woodcuts or linocuts, and possible some more polymer plates. The images aren't totally worked out yet, so I don't plan on finishing everything while I'm here, but it's nice to get so much of it done, and to get motivated to get this project off the ground. This book has 21 poems, and will be made in an edition of 30.

I'm also making a corresponding broadside that works as both an independent print as well as a fold-out that's a part of the book. I got this far last night, but I'm not convinced that it's quite right, so there are only three that look like this. I decided to stop, sleep on it, and see where it goes today.

Octopus/Cohen print

I’ve just completed this new edition of woodcut prints with an image of an octopus paired with a line from one of Leonard Cohen’s songs, “Anthem”. This print was made for Holland Editions, a year-long print collaboration in which 12 artists from around the U.S. teamed up to create a limited edition of original prints to benefit the Holland Project, an all-ages music venue in Reno, Nevada. The prints are available through subscription, and subscriptions are $240 for an entire year - 12 prints over 12 months by 12 artists. The first print came available in October 2009, and mine is the featured print for June 2010. The print measures 11” x 16” and was printed from an original woodcut and hand-set metal type on handmade paper stained with walnut dye.

To subscribe to the Holland Editions, or if you have questions about the Holland Project, contact Megan Berner at meganberner [at] gmail.com.

Prudence and Patience

I'm slowly getting started on a new series of prints about two little girls and their adventures, called Prudence and Patience, presumably their names. Here's a test print of a plate that will be the border for most (or all) of the prints, which will be mostly wood cuts and engravings. The images will be similar to the Heavens to Betsy series, and will include captions, but I'm ready to really focus on my engraving skills, no matter how daunting.

While these girls are off having adventures, here are some peeks at the homelife of Jessica:

the start of a new moss garden and my new strawberry patch.

Information Desk

Finishing up the drawing for the final Heavens to Betsy print. So far, I've been calling it "Information Desk". This drawing will be made into a photopolymer plate, and another integral part of the print will be a pressure print.

Ladies of Letterpress at Home Ec

It's a very last-minute announcement, but for anyone in the Iowa City area for tomorrow night, stop by and check out the Ladies of Letterpress show! We're excited to be a part of the Gallery Walk and Iowa City Arts Fest this year. This show includes 9 of Iowa City's best women letterpress printers displaying prints books, and recent projects.

Thanks to Home Ec for offering their space!

New prints at Etsy

I've posted two new prints at my Etsy site, Heroes & Criminals Press.





These are also available at the White Rabbit Gallery in Iowa City, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts store in Minneapolis.

(watermark is only on the digitals, not on the actual prints)

Open House, Open House

There are two Open Houses coming up where I'll be showing work, both happening on the same night! The University of Iowa's Center for the Book will have their Open House on December 14th. 3:30-6:30pm, in North Hall. On the same date, the University's Printmaking Department will have their Open House, 6:30-9:30pm, in the "old" Art Bulding. Come and join us for books, art, food, refreshment, and good company!

On the same night, my pal and fellow printmaker Erin Maurelli is also having a reception for her MFA show, Humechanicsform, from 5:30-8pm, at the Arts Iowa City Gallery.

See you there, there, or there!

grand summer finale

Well, here it is... the final week of summer freedom before schools starts. I'm madly finishing up personal final projects before school swallows me up and free time becomes a figment of my imagination. I'm in the inking stage of Art School Chronicles Year 3, and will soon be foiling it for color. Yes! It will be in full color, and FOILED! I know, you're giddy just thinking about it. Here's a sneak peek...

We're also finishing the last page of the new hisWorld/herWorld, which will probably be out as soon as next week. We have a special surprise for hW/hW fans - for the first time, it's a comic! It's all making sense... we like comics, so why not make it a comic? This issue has talking mushrooms, a little story about growing up in Taipei, and a Furikake demonstration. It's the best hW/hW yet!

Some things that have been recently crossed off my to-do list: I've put up a new item at Heroes & Criminals Press, the adorable Surprise! Porcupine Fish Card. Go check it out, and surprise someone with a spikey fish. Also, just sent off is my design for a "Ladies of the Letterpress" embroidered badge. These were made for an amzing group of ladies here in Iowa City, but I'll put any left over up on Etsy for other letterpressing ladies out there who want the official badge.

the future of historical printing

If you're looking for a great way to spend your Saturday (11am-4pm), please join us in Homestead, where we run a 1930's-era Linotype, a 1910 C & P jobber press, and a few cases of handset type.  Homestead is about 15 miles west of Coralville on Highway 6, and the printing/blacksmith shop is on the main/only street at the west end of town.  Look for Henry's Village Market: we're right in front of it.


At Homestead, we're working on printing a community newsletter in addition to small jobs for the Amana Heritage Society using the historical equipment available.  We also give demonstrations of the equipment to the visitors who stop by.  It tends to be busy!

This is just one of the historical printing opportunities offered through the University of Iowa Center for the Book. We're blazing a trail for the future of historical printing.

letterpress at the IPRC

Here's a great little video of the basics of letterpress and printing from a small hand-cranked platen press, made by the wonderful people at the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon.

Foil Imaging

I've just recently attended the 17th Annual Foil Imaging Workshop, a week-long workshop here at the University of Iowa that introduces the ethereal art of foil imaging. It utilizes foil, a double-layered polymer film, to add color and texture to a print or drawing. This heat-transfer method of applying colors is used commercially for book covers (hot stamping) and greeting cards, but Virginia Myers has developed the tools necessary for artists to utilize it in their own studios, by using a hot plate and a heated roller. Most people recognize the foils that come in gold and silver metallics or brightly holographic films, but there is a lot of variety, including opaque colors, translucents, pearlescents, and even a wood-grain. Some of my favorites are the translucent foils that can be layered for richer colors with more depth. For any curious artists looking for new materials to try, I highly recommend coming to the workshop next summer! You can see some exceptional examples of foil imaging in Jason Snell's artwork at RustyScissors.com.

im/migration

Lately I've been thinking about migration and immigration. How does movement change a person, or a group? What about the constant search for 'home' - is this a real location, or is it a time and place that no longer exists for most of us?

I think this may be a seed planted in my head by the Moving Crew.

the Kitchen

I've spent most of my waking hours for the past 2 weeks in the University of Iowa Center for the Book's wonderful little Type Kitchen, where I've set type and printed non-stop (except for a few small picnic lunches by the river), culminating in the chapbook mentioned earlier. A photographer with FYI, once a printer himself, couldn't resist spending an afternoon with us - check out his photo feature here.

While you're there, take a look at this profile of one of my favorite people, Rachel Marie-Crane Williams.

Beasties!

I've started working on a new book, "Beasties of North America," and the first chaper is finally completed - "Elephants." This turned out to be a practice run before diving into the full book, which will include chapters on birds, squirrels, manatees, and raccoons. "Elephants" is complete as its own chapbook, and I like the format so much I may end up making all the chapters into their own chapbooks (instead of one whole book), and offer them each individually or as a complete set.

The book begins with a quote from Michael Russem (of Kat Ran Press), from his recent article "The Failure of Fine Printing" (published in the February 2007 issue of the Caxtonian - download it here for free). In this article, he talks about his surprise at discovering that one of his long-time collectors buys his books, but never actually reads them. Realizing that I am also one of those very people who love to admire fine press books, but very rarely read them from cover to cover, I've decided to make this book for that very purpose - to look at, not to read. So, my job in this endeavor to to make a luscious, beautifully printed and bound fine press book, but with intentionally boring text that will hopefully discourage the act of reading. Basically, I don't want the content of the text to distract the holder of the book from noticing the craft involved in the making of the book.

Did someone just feel Beatrice Warde rolling over in her grave? I think she might actully agree with me on this; in her article "Printing Should Be Invisible," published in 1932, she says that "it is mischievous to call any printed piece a work of art, especially fine art: because that would imply that its first purpose was to exist as an expression of beauty for its own sake and for the delectation of the senses. Calligraphy can almost be considered a fine art nowadays, because *its primary economic and educational purpose has been taken away*; but printing in English will not qualify as an art until the present English language no longer conveys ideas to future generations, and *until printing itself hands its usefulness to some yet unimagined successor*." (stars added are mine)

So, now that fine print's "primary and economic and educational purpose has been taken away," and we have those "yet unimagined successors" such as digital prints and blogs, can we finally call fine press art? Or even (gasp) fine art?