My studio is in the historic Ford Building in SE Portland. They actually made Model T Fords here back in the day. I always think I’m going to discover some ancient car part in a dark corner of this place, but it’s pretty clean after the remodel.

Let’s talk fashion! I have some wonderful neighbors in the building: Makool Loves You and Winn Perry! A shop for clever and fancy-free ladies next door to a shop for suave and savvy gentlemen… or as his business card says: Gentlemen’s Wears and Effects. Classy.

Today I will focus on MAKOOL LOVES YOU. One day for the ladies, and tomorrow for the gentlemen… mainly because I took way too many pictures and they both deserve a full post!

Makoo Loves You is owned and run by the livley Anisa Makhoul. The shop is quaint, and she uses every inch of the space to it’s full grandeur. Anisa has her very own clothing line that made me wish I had an extra job so I could buy everything. . I looked at every piece, and wanted each one more than the last! She also has lovely cups and saucers and ultra soft and sweet tees gracing wok by artist Irana Douer that I must get my hands on. It is a sweet mix of handmade work by herself and a few others, and it works so well. Anisa has a great internet presence, but this brick and mortar shop, which doubles as her working studio and open now for only 5 days, will certainly be a new Portland destination for those in search of something unique to don themselves or their home.

Bag and bird by Anisa:

She makes the coolest panties too! They are ‘recycled’ panties… No, they weren’t already worn, people! They’re made from scraps from her numerous sewing projects:

We are suckers for cool packaging:

All is displayed simply in wooden crates, and it works so well with her space. Dishtowels all the way from Glasgow feel right at home here. By Showpony:

Anisa, like myself, was also a Printmaking major in college (she hails from MCAD in Minneapolis), and you will find hints of this on some of the clothes she makes, like this sweet alphabet shirt.

How cool is this tag? Found out she gets them made by a local artist named Roberto Sand on his Etsy shop, Bullfrog Laserworks. I think I need to meet this guy - his descriptions of his work made me laugh out loud.

Cups and saucers by Irana Douer… and a really sweet pair of earrings:

Sweet sculptures of found objects by her friend Maggie Kearns, yet another creative Portlander, of Papaver Jewelry:

Oh, and… if anyone is interested…she has ONE piece left by Portland’s own Project Runway winner Leanne Marshall! Get it before I do…

The design blogging lovely that we all know and love is another year wiser today! Happy Birthday, Grace! She’s had quite a year, what with that gorgeous wedding in Savannah and all, and being wed to a dapper, “makes me laugh ALL the time” husband. Here’s to you, and to all you have done for MANY designers, artsits and crafty folk over the years (including myself). We’re raising a glass to you in the Pacific Northwest, and I’m sure others are as well, all over the globe. xo

Now, on with the show! Another fine opening I attended last Friday was at Grass Hut. I LOVE this place. And not just because they ask me to be part of a lot of their group shows, like this one, or because Scrappers’ new son has the same name as my cat ("Camper")… How can you not love a gallery and shop with this much color, everywhere?

The current show is titled "WARMHOLES". It’s a cosmic adventure, dudes and dudettes. I have to say, my favorite piece was the brilliant use of the classic ‘Boston’ and ‘ELO’ album cover spaceships, depicted in delicious battle, by Shawn Wolfe. Title: "Don’t Look Back". Priceless.

Another fave was the series by my good pal Scott Patt. This man’s work needs to be in every top Biennial known to man, people. His series of a conversation bewteen Space and Time made me laugh out loud. He lives in the Boston area, doing something with Converse, if I’m not mistaken… Just kidding. He’s the "Global Director of Visual Arts" at Converse. A mouthful? It should be. The 1HUND(RED) project was his baby (they used to have this great link to all 100 artists’ shoe designs, but I see it has left the building). Those were some fine shoes, if I do say so myself!

The entire body of work gracing the turquoise walls can be viewed here. I highly suggest perusing it all… Not as much fun as being physically at the opening, but there will always be more you can attend in the future.

At least go to Grass Hut to meet these guys below: Bwana Spoons and Scrappers (holding Camper). I don’t have any pictures of them that aren’t blurry for they rarely hold still. But that’s a good thing.

Greetings Earthlings! Sorry… couldn’t resist. I’ve seen "Star Trek" three times. Thanks again to design*sponge for letting me infiltrate their blog world with my photos and ramblings. I’ll try to be as entertaining and informative as possible. Ahem. That’s me above in a dashing helmet by Aaron Piland (one happy half of APAK). It’s quite tranquil inside… He and artists Jesse Brown, Brandi Strickland, Ryan Bubnis, Cody Hudson, Betsy Walton (more on this lovely gal later) and Emma Trithart are currently in a show at Nemo Design entitled "SUPERSTITION: Art That Stands in Awe" here in Portland, Oregon. That was one fine opening, I must say. When else do you get to drink beer and wear a handpainted helmet?

One of those artists that I will focus on now is Ryan Bubnis. Now, everytime I see Ryan, he has the biggest smile on his face. I mean, a world loving, "I don’t have a care in the universe", everything is beautiful, I have the best job in the world kind of smile. You are immediately lifted upon greeting him, and even moreso upon seeing his work.

See? Are you smiling? I know. It’s contagious. Ryan gleefully noted that he sold this installation to a local dance studio, and that he’ll also be adding some painting/mural work into the mix for them. Because he’s just that nice of a guy. Ryan also gets an award for "Best use of a downed tree from a friend’s farm

Ryan also has a new leather Moleskine notebook out with Engrave Your Book, run by handsome laser master, Joe Mansfield. Fabulous! I’ll see if I can squeeze in a visit to Joe’s new studio for a blogpost this week.

That’s all for now… will be filling you in on more Portland art happenings throughout the week, and whatever else I can find in my internet meanderings. Because nearly every artist has now moved to Portland. And every band. And solar companies… and I like that. If you’re headed this way, I can tell you some of the better hiking trails to go on. And where to get a doughnut that has cereal on it, and a really good beer while playing shuffleboard. In other words… I adore this town! Come and visit, and be inspired. We are. And if you’re nice, I might just pick you up from the airport.

(Fifi, one of the American Visionary Art Museum’s Kinetic Sculptures and a true Baltimore icon, all lit up for the Preakness Parade of Lights.)

It has been a pleasure to be with everyone this week. I have a whole new deeper and more profound respect for Grace and all the other editors who work this hard on a daily basis! Thank you again to Grace!

Also wanted to thank all the artists and designers who shared their stories, work and inspiration with me this week and who make Baltimore an exciting place to be.

For everyone who has never been to Baltimore, you should come, and for those of you have been, you should come again. See what we are working on, because it is always something, and be sure to swing by the American Visionary Art Museum and say hello!

Kyle VanHorn, letterpress printer extraordinaire, wonderful neighbor and good friend. I love walking in to Kyle’s apartment, seeing stacks of whatever his most recent project is neatly placed around the room, sitting down at his kitchen table, immediately being offered a cup of tea or beer (depending on the time of day) and brainstorming about projects, getting his advice on who/what/when/where or how it would be best to proceed, talking about whatever is in those neatly placed stacks and hearing about what other plans he has brewing. (Thanks Kyle!)

You know our first conversation when we met at a mutual friend’s party was about letterpress and our shared love for that art form. I know you were a Painting major in college, what drew you letterpress?

KVH: I had my first taste of letterpress in 2000 or 2001 in a class called Zine at the Maryland Institute College of Art. I think I was fascinated by these hulking, clacking, seemingly complicated machines. I loved how much technique was involved in producing the text or image. My work in school was very technique based, attempting to find a middle ground between process and content. Letterpress seemed to have that discourse built into itself between the typesetting, the locking-up of the form, and then troubleshooting the print. I loved it (though now, looking back, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing).

When I started in that shop, we only had type. There were precious few zinc cuts available. We could carve linoleum to produce an image, but that was never my style. Polymer plates were a complete unknown to me still.

Where do you look/go for inspiration?

KVH: I work for an art school now and I frequently see my best ideas being lapsed by work that the students are producing. They’re not hindered by knowing what they can’t produce, so they just try everything. That is a great way to approach work, though harder to do the older we get.

I frequently have a student approach me and say “I want to do X, Y, and Z.” and I’ll say - “You can’t, it’s impossible because… well… hm… OH WAIT, if you do this and that first… yeah, that will totally work.” So, in that respect, I get to use the classroom space as a research and development tool, and that is incredibly helpful.

I search the internet pretty constantly, I have a list of sites that produce or showcase great work, letterpress or otherwise. But then sometimes inspiration comes from the most random places - i.e. I think the idea for my business cards came from a Comcast commercial…

I love the work of Studio on Fire in Minneapolis and the new FPO blog is really great. The folks at printeresting.org also link to a lot of interesting (get it?!) and often non-standard print projects, and that is really helpful as well.

What is your favorite aspect of letterpress?

KVH: It’s easy to say the impression (meaning the physical image being pressed into the paper) or the smell of the ink, or whatever - but like a lot of the printers I know, I really love the tools and equipment. Letterpress printing, previously known simply as Printing, was a huge industry and some of the most precise, intricate, and complicated machines ever made were developed for it.

The equipment is endless fascinating to me - I think this is because so much of it was considered worthless and sent to scrap for so long, a lot of it has become much harder to find. It was all so specialized, which is probably a funny thing to say - but for example Vandercooks - they were originally designed to proof newspaper pages, almost exclusively, and they start at 1200 pounds. I feel like nothing today is a unitasker in that sense. This old equipment did one thing and did it well.

Any favorite or exciting projects you have been working on lately (I know you are always working on something!)?

KVH: I am always working on something - you know me too well.

I often find myself working on commercial printing projects for others. I really enjoy printing for other people, whether it is business cards, art projects, or wedding invitations. If it’s not a client halfway across the country asking for print work, I might be found on the press printing for a friend in trade.

As for personal work, I am quite proud of the alphabets I produced this past winter. I wanted something that was equally at home in a child’s nursery as it is on the office wall. We have a huge press at the school that I was able to run uncut sheets of Arches, 22″x30″ through. There are some videos of that print run kicking around if you look, and a number of the alphabets are still available on Etsy.

More recently decided to make a papercraft Vandercook. Vandercooks are one of the more sought after letterpress printing presses out there. They are relatively easy to use, capable of producing large prints, and fast. They are also massive, hulking machines, roughly the size of a refrigerator laying on its side, over 1000 lbs, and fetching pretty high prices. In the spirit of sharing, I thought it might be fun for people to start their press collection with a free press that they could put on their desk. It is conveniently also Vandercook’s 100th birthday this year, so that made it a nice homage. A downloadable file of that press will be available on my website soon.

I know you went to college here in Baltimore at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and have stayed on to work and teach there. How do you feel about Baltimore? What about the art community?

KVH: I really love Baltimore (of course, as I say this, I am writing from New York City). Baltimore is a great city for so many reasons. Its a big city (at least compared to where I grew up) and there is a really strong sense of community there. Its easy to make connections and before long you feel like you know everyone (Smalltimore!). I may not be selling it that well, but I like it there. It’s close to DC, Philly, and NYC, but more affordable than all of them. There is a strong arts community, great museums, a number of independently run gallery spaces and art spaces, theaters… then there’s MICA, which is constantly adding something new to the arts community.

I have watched you slowly begin to amass a collection of type and presses. What are your plans for all this?

KVH: I have the wonderful fortune of managing and maintaining the 15,000 sq. ft. print shop at MICA. It’s huge, and the shop offers nearly every aspect of fine-art printing from etching to lithography, screenprinting to papermaking, and of course, letterpress. I know I won’t be managing the shop forever, but I have no plans to give up on printing.

I have recently managed to acquire 2 presses (bringing my total to 4), and almost 2 cabinets worth of wood type. Currently my collection is spread out between two print shops (3 presses), my kitchen (the 4th press), and my bedroom (all my type).

I want to open a print shop. I’ve seen the desire and demand for printmaking explode first hand over the past 5 and 10 years. The DIY movement is huge, and people have come to really value the hand-crafted object.

Bruce and Nolen began thinking about Post Typography, (a design studio and graphic design/illustration/conceptual lettering/musical collaboration) as undergraduates and few years later quit their desk jobs to work together full time—graphic designers by day, post-punk rock musicians by night or vice versa. Bruce and Nolen enjoy blurring lines and turning heads, but always in a smart and subtle post-typographical sort of way. Their work can be seen in the The New York Times or on a Baltimore telephone pole, both which give them pleasure. The Post Typography studio happens to be about three blocks from my house and so I popped in last week to talk to Bruce, share some watermelon and get an update on what these two crazy cats have been up to.

While I was writing my masters’ thesis for school, Bruce and Nolen were hard at work on their own epic project: Lettering & Type (part of Princeton Architectural Press’s Design Briefs series). Bruce and I would often commiserate about our various writings and projects with barely an end in sight. Luckily, their sweat and tears are beginning to pay off and the book is due out this fall.

While May is a strange time to be thinking about calendars, I couldn’t resist including these. Here are a variety of images from 2009 and a preview of the 2010 calendar, also coming out in the fall through teNeues Publishing.

Post Typography has a very democratic style and while much of their work is political, social and/or environmental in nature, they also have several projects that consist of large collaborations. These include their Public Print Lab (an interactive, public-authored art installation) the logo for Splice Today, (a quirky web magazine offering a fresh artsy/newsy perspective) which are all drawn and uploaded by users of the site and most recently their current Double Dagger posters, which are drawn by friends and fans alike.

These two never seem to rest and there are a lot of ways to catch up with them in the next couple of months. If you don’t want wait for their calendars or book in the fall, you can check them out as Double Dagger (they make up two-thirds of the band) on their upcoming tour. Or if you happen to be in Austin, TX during the HOW conference you can see the Alphabet Show that they curated and that has been touring since 2005. (You guys seriously amaze me, thank you Bruce and Nolen!)

When I met Mary Mashburn of Typecast Press it felt immediately like reuniting with an old friend. After we began talking and kept getting off topic and knowing all of these people and places in common, besides sharing a healthy love and respect for letterpress and a small obsession for good paper—we just kept saying to each other, “How have we not met before now?” She showed me around her wonderful studio space (which has me prepared to sign up to be her assistant) and told me the story about how she found herself as a letterpress printer. She was working as a journalist and wrote a story about letterpress. The topic stayed with her and inspired her and her husband to take a letterpress course at the Center for Book Arts in New York. After that class she spent some time on e-bay checking out old presses and equipment and one night after a couple gin-and-tonics, Mary had bought her first press on e-bay sight unseen. With that she was hooked and she has slowly been acquiring more presses and type ever since! Thank you so much for showing us around your space, Mary!

Visit Mary at Typecast Press and don’t forget her partner in printing crime (and husband) Steve’s blog .

In the words of Mary: we really wanted our studio to reflect not just the craft of letterpress but also PLACE — Baltimore’s a real printers’ town, and also a great place for artists to live and work. I think people here really enjoy supporting each other’s passions and crazy ideas — the sharing and collaboration are really striking. I bought my first press — a Vandercook No. 3 — on ebay at just past midnight — Shop Boy and I were drinking gin and tonics and egging each other on: “Just $20 more and it might be ours!!!) and then we woke up the next morning and realized that our Victorian rowhouse was not really the place to put a 2,500-pound press… So I called my friend Chris Hartlove , thinking mainly of the concrete floors in his studio, and he offered up part of his space. He shoots photos for our web site; we print business cards and camera coasters for him. The space is in the old Noxema building in Hampden — the original offices and factory for Noxema — and our main space is the executive office suite, complete with Dr. Bunting’s old executive washroom.

Part of the reason I was really drawn to letterpress printing was the paper these great old presses can handle — no more white-coated-paper-only design projects! We love printing on cotton paper and chunky handmade paper and printmaking paper and really thick coverboard — it’s fun figuring out which paper works best for which job. So Shop Boy — my husband Steve St. Angelo — used our paper flat files to build a new work table — very big deal for a journalist whose top skill is definitely not DIY carpentry… His blog about it: http://gwbgt.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/rube-goldberg-that-is/

On top of the new work table: A shout-out to Baltimore’s past letterpress history: a Baltimorean No. 11 press (made in Baltimore and JUST big enough to handle a calling card!) and a box of lead “sorts” and a type catalog from the Baltimore Type company. I really love that we’re preserving the craft of letterpress in a real printing town. (Ottmar Mergenthaler lived around the corner from our house in Bolton Hill –his contribution of the Linotype machine made possible an extraordinary leap from hand-setting type to fast, production typesetting — like getting a computer at the turn of the century!).

We really love having people tour the studio and wanted to make sure we had a place for a chat and a glass of wine! I love having long-time printers visit, too — they’ve taught us a lot and have amazing stories, almost always involving smoking, drinking, practical jokes and gasoline used as a press cleaner.

Our neighbors found this old stationery store piece at our favorite resale shop, the Turnover Shop . We put our little tags and address labels in it.

A vase from Art Market at MICA. We love to have work by local artists throughout the shop: prints by Katherine Fahey and , Jordan Faye Block , a pen and ink by Jess Pegorsch , a doodle by Andy Snair we rescued, lightbox art by Aaron Prager, handmade books by BethAnne Hoffmann , work by Maryland Institute College of Art students like John Chae from Art Market … and more. It makes us feel happy and grounded. I just taught an introduction to letterpress class at MICA and I can’t wait to hang the broadside project the students did: “Crush: Love Letters to a Vandercook” in honor of the Vandercook proof press’ 100th birthday.

Greg Houston’s menacingly fun John Waters

A proof pulled when students in my class at MICA were learning to hand-set type sits atop an old fan belt rack we use for aprons. The rack came from Housewerks , a fantastic architectural salvage place in Baltimore.

Our 8X12 Chandler & Price platen, our second press, rescued from the basement of a Timonium ranch house! [right] A beautiful old book press plus local Baltimore wild life — I read somewhere that rats and mice don’t live in the same space, so we use him to keep any mice at bay.

We do have a bad habit of being space hogs — presses just take up so much room! — so we moved our automatic presses into a space in the same building occupied by Andy Snair , an amazing illustrator and children’s book author. I think the looming metal hunks kind of scared him out of the space — but we’re still friends and collaborators: He did a sumi ink illustration of one of our presses that we use as our mark and we’re working on some projects for retail together.

A save the date card, printed on yummy duplex Crane. [right] Some of our wood type collection set up on the Vandercook No. 3, our first press.

A great wedding assignment: a zombie woodland wedding!

We used some of our favorite old illustration cuts and wood type for this…