The more than 300 photographs that combine to make this stunning stop-motion video from januarypress are mesmerizing. They depict the production of printing a book on a Vandercook press and detail the binding of the books. I've always been a letterpress junkie (you can read about my incredible experience printing with my friend, Sarah, at the Pacific Northwest College of Art last spring) and watching this video made me fall in love with the process even more. I was also enamored with the process of binding the books, especially the sewing portion. Enjoy! [via NOTCOT]

I've been a fan of Firecracker Press ever since I was introduced to them at the 2006 Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, they "use computer design software to conceive ideas but still carve woodblocks and print by hand to produce event posters, business cards, party invitations, advertising and more." Pictured above are four of their posters that can be displayed as posters or cut out and worn as masks. Perfect for Halloween and beyond.

This summer, Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club and I had a little Yudu screen printing playdate. She's taken off with printing, and this week, she's featuring some of the screen adventures on which she has embarked. One of my favorite things she's done is screen print directly on vinyl records and has turned them in to things like cuff bracelets and wall clocks. I love her story behind where she came up with the design for the clock face. Read her blog to find out more.

Stencil101 Decor: How to stencil a wall pattern with Ed Roth of Stencil1 from Ed Roth on Vimeo.

Little Paper Planes is an online community of artists that was once dedicated mostly to the sale of art prints and letterpress. The shop has recently branched out into accessories and clothing. Each piece captures the same beautiful, modern, and well crafted Little Paper Planes aesthetic.

Grain Edit features a nice interview with Melissa and JW Buchanan of The Little Friends Printmaking. It's a great look into how the couple met, set up shop and work together every day. One of my favorite parts of the interview is an example of the process the pair goes through when designing a poster. They also discuss the importance of research when starting a project. Says Melissa:

Research is so important. You can't operate in a vacuum. And that extra time you put into researching something pays off tenfold in nuance and smart little details that people remember.

It's these nuances and smart details that help give such depth and great character to their work. Enjoy!

Based in Portland, Oregon, Egg Press print shop has been designing and hand-printing gorgeousness since 1999. For 10 years, they've been cranking out quality on their vintage presses. To commemorate their anniversary, they made this neat video that gives a mesmerizing view into their workshop. (Pictured above are their Wild Things and Botanicals card collections.)

As we all know, gelatin has a unique property of being at once delightful to some and repulsive to others. I land somewhere in the middle, I like to play with it but please don't make me eat it. Years and years ago I took a multimedia class and one of our guest speakers did a presentation on printing from a gelatin plate. I tucked it away in the back of my mind and thought it would be a cool thing to try both for myself and with children. Professional artists use all the fancy tricks of the trade. Here's a way to do it in your own home using what you may have on hand.

Instructables user bopp has made an excellent primer on linoleum block printing, even covering lots of artists using the medium, which is great for inspiration. He goes over tools, technique, cleanup, and lots of pictures!

More:

• Linoleum Printing with Kids
• Linoleum Print Tutorial
• Flashback: 101 Linocuts

The best part about trying a new project is learning a new skill. One of my favorite articles in each issue of CRAFT is the 101. The 101 articles are specifically geared to open the doors to a whole new craft through teaching the ins and outs, coupled with a specific project. There is something wonderfully tangible about coming up with a design, transferring it to linoleum, inking it up, and rolling yourself a print. Back in CRAFT Volume 02, Donna Barger shared her linocut expertise with us in beautifully clear step-by-step, from making your design and transferring it to the linoleum:

To carving the design out from the linoleum:

To rolling your ink and pulling your print. She includes helpful tips and tricks on tools and technique throughout. Here is the project shared with you in our Digital Edition. Make sure to swing on by the Maker Shed to pick up a back issue of Volume 02, if you don't have one already!

I often struggle with ideas for good handmade baby gifts, so I think I'm going to have to steal this idea of a "Year of Screen Printed Shirts" from my my pal, Sarah, of Sewer-Sewist. She made the shirts as a gift set for Susan Beal's daughter, Pearl, who will get to wear the shirts as she grows throughout the next year. I love the idea of a handmade gift that keeps giving all year long. Fantastic!

I really could have used one of these after my knee surgery, except it would have had to play video of what the doctor found inside my knee! This would make a great screen printing project if you know someone with a broken arm, or if you're adept at one-armed screen printing. Perhaps these accident-explanatory slings will be an option at hospitals in the future. I'd like to see the "shark attack" or "you should see the other guy" editions; those were my two most common fallback stories while on crutches. Via Inspire me, now! (Thanks, Matt!)

More:

Plush Knee

Instructables user BuildMakeCraftBake has a how-to up on this interesting technique for transferring plant pigments to paper by hammering them. She writes:

The vibrant colors of leaves and flowers are easy to preserve by pounding them to release their natural dyes onto paper. I learned this fun and simple technique from my college roommate, Sarah, but it's been around a lot longer -- I hear that Cherokee women pounded flowers to decorate fabric. With not much more than a hammer and some leaves, you can make beautiful botanical cards or prints and enjoy spring greenery year-round. Who knew that venting your frustrations could have such aesthetically pleasing results?

Fellow type nerds will have fun browsing this online Wood Type Museum from Unicorn Graphics. The cuts and ornaments are especially fun!

Cool Hunting Video got up close and personal with the three men who run Grafica Fidalga, a printing press in São Paulo, Brazil. They use a machine from 1929 using hand-cut wooden letters. The way the machine works is mesmerizing.

More:

A Visit with Hello Lucky - CRAFT Video Podcast

Sara writes:

Last week we bought my son a 'first words' book. It had some common words like 'car' and 'ball'- but the car didn't look like ours and the neon orange soccer ball didn't look like any we owned. So I thought it might be nice to create a first words book exclusively for him, using objects that were more familiar to him and focusing on words that he was either already trying to grasp (ball, momma) or words that would be helpful to me (milk, water).

Handmade Detroit did this awesome video review of the Yudu screen printing machine. It has a hefty pricetag, but this video review has even me convinced that it it might be worth it. Via Core77.

I love the sleek style of this men's sewing kit from designer, Elizabeth Dilk.

This sewing kit was created when posed with the problem of creating a sewing kit for men. I decided to package a small, 3.5"x3.5" cube with just the essentials and directions to replace a button, mend a tear, and hem pants.

And her Kit to Thwart Writers Block is absolutely brilliant!

The Kit to Thwart Writers Block was created after being asked to find something I hate, change it and make it better, and then advertise it. Because I hate getting writers block, I researched the many ways to solve it, and created a packaged kit. I advertised it by silkscreening depressing doodles on napkins that look like they could have been drawn by someone in the throes of writers block. Folded on the other side of the napkin is the logo of the kit. Napkins were dispersed at coffee shops, and other locations where one might go to try and avoid writers block.

Chrisjob at Curbly shares instructions in a video podcast for making your own hand-printed fleece scarves. They only cost about $2 to make and are great holiday presents.

I've been wanting to try out potato printing for a while now--hadn't done it since I was a kid--and I also needed some new kitchen curtains, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and stamp up some new window coverings. This is an extremely quick and easy project you can whip up in an hour or so. Best of all, the curtains are made by stitching tea towels together, so there are no hems to sew and you can hang them using curtain clips. Here's how I made mine.

Tater-Stamped Kitchen Curtains

Materials:
• A potato or three
• Kitchen knife
• X-Acto craft knife
• Felt-tip marker
• Fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint, matte finish)
• Tea towels (I used the super-cheap and simple-looking Tekla towels from IKEA.)
• Thread

1. Start by figuring out how many tea towels it will take to cover your window and sew them together at the edges. I didn't want my window completely covered, so I used two towels sewn together along one long edge.




2. Cut about 1/3 of your potato off (with the potato laying lengthwise) and pat the cut surface off with paper towels. Use a marker to draw a shape on the cut surface. I chose to do a leaf. Simple, graphic shapes are best.


3. Using a small knife (such as a paring knife), cut away at the outside edges of your design, slicing about 1/2" down.


4. Clean up your design by carving closer to the marked edge with the X-acto knife. If the potato starts to feel slippery, just keep dabbing with on paper towels to remove excess moisture.




5. Lay out your curtain on top of some newspaper. Dab the surface of your potato stamp with fabric paint. I used a foam brush to do so, and found that this produced a crisper print than dipping the stamp directly into the paint.


6. Make some test prints on scrap paper. When you feel you're getting the hang of how hard you need to press to get the look you like, try it out on your curtain. I chose to run the leaf pattern along one edge of the curtain.


7. If you'd like to switch colors, simply dab your potato stamp on scrap paper and/or paper towels until the surface is clean and apply a new color. You can keep doing this until your potato gets mushy, if you like.


8. After stamping pink and green leaves, I hacked away at my potato stamp and made a slightly smaller leaf and added some blue leaves to the design as well. If your potato is in good enough shape, feel free to keep carving into it--otherwise just switch to a new potato and start from scratch.


9. Allow the paint to dry according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add curtain clips to the top, then hang and admire.

I had so much fun experimenting with potato printing, and am excited to apply the same technique to other items around my house like tote bags and teeshirts. I also can't wait to try it with all the kidlets in my life!

MBear from Craftster has been experimenting with using styrofoam food packaging to carve cool linoleum-style blocks for printmaking. The results are fantastic!

Jen points us to this interesting tutorial from Charles G. Morgan on the Lee Valley & veritas Web site. I love the idea that using simple supplies like tin foil and plexi glass can result in such a beautiful print.