Before I say goodbye I wanted to share a peek of the wooden puzzles I illustrated for Kid O that will be available in July. The owner of the store, Lisa Mahar, is coming out with a whole line of educational and beautifully designed wooden puzzles and blocks for children. I helped with the nature themed puzzles and above and below you can see a few of the results. This project was a real learning experience for me because not only did we have to discuss what would be best for children and how to keep things accurate and true to nature but we also had to think about the production aspects. Most of the puzzles are gorgeously silkscreened so a fairly limited palette was necessary. We also wanted to use the absence of color, the wood underneath, to our benefit- as another color. I think with the giraffe puzzle, this was a real success. (the light tan is actually the wood underneath). I have only just seen the final puzzles when meeting with Lisa to discuss plans for next season’s line, and I was blown away by the quality and perfection she achieved. Check out this interview she did with I.D. magazine about the new line. These will be available in July from her store Kid O among other places. The jigsaw ones are actually somewhat challenging even for me!

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I had such a great time this week! Thank you so much Grace for having me and thank you all for such great positive commentary! It was so fun to read. Coming up next week as you know are all the great shows at Javits in nyc- ICFF, Stationery Show and Surtex. I won’t be doing a booth at Surtex this year again but I will be hanging around Hello! Lucky’s booth at the stationery show to promote my new line of letterpress cards and giftwrap– so come by and say hi. Otherwise you can keep up with me by subscribing to my newsletter, by checking out my site, Also’s site or my daily book blog. Hasta la pasta - have a super weekend!
(above and below are two of my newer patterns- the cuckoo clocks one is now on notebooks for Urban Outfitters and the bottom is inspired by Ernst Haeckel)