Stationary: Owl Print

A set of ten two-color prints on scrap paper (the scraps from the paper I used to make this) I turned into simple stationary earlier this semester. The print is a smaller scan and copy of the stencil screenprint I made last year.



I started making the envelopes at Pantheacon this year, absentmindedly folding them in different angles until I reached a design I liked. It was important to me that you be able to see the owl when the envelope is opened, like how you can see the owl before opening the card. I also wanted to keep with the kind of strange folds that didn't meet each other that the card had going on.


To seal the sides of the envelope and make it functional, I decided not to glue or tape it, and sewed it instead. The paper is very soft and tactile, and it felt appropriate. Also, as you all know, I like nothing more than stitching things that aren't supposed to be stitched.

Stationary: Long Day

This was the first set of stationary I ever made to sell at Pantheacon, about a year and a half ago. I cut a linoleum print of a witch with a cigarette and a martini, made 20 prints, put together 20 different cards with scraps of found patterened paper, and then designed 20 envelopes for them.



You can see here how the envelope opens; it's pretty cool, you don't need tape or anything. The five pictured at the top are all of these I have left.

Stationary: Fat Man

I make a lot of cards and envelopes and things out of recycled materials. One of my favorite materials is old calenders, because they're big, glossy prints on stiff paper and make the most wonderful envelopes.


The cards to match these envelopes are collaged from images I found in this book from the 70's, apparently trying to illustrate the role of the perfect husband. It was a small gag-feminist paperback, and while confusing and potentially offensive, I really loved the photographs. I've been selling this set of stationary at school art fairs and Pantheacon.

Peep Show Envelope

I made this envelope in 2005. I had a crush on some boy and wanted to send him a letter, but in the process of creating the envelope I fell more it love with it and less in love with him. (A familiar story.) I was obsessed with envelopes in general, mainly creating them out of found paper and materials, and this was one of my very first sewing with paper experiments. There are so many things going on here, like suspension:

And, as a solution to not wanting the suspending thread to travel across the surface of the paper and instead remain on the unseen side, beading:


I wanted a hint of this structure to be visible with the envelope closed, so I mirrored the suspended disk in the circle cut out on the flap, and finished the edges with a blanket stitch:


You can see here as well the functional edging of the flap itself. I took black carpet thread and braided a strand somewhere between two and three feet, stitched the middle segment to the envelope with an even blanket stitch, and left substantial length on either end that may be wrapped and tied around the envelope in a number of different fastening methods.


As a final step, and probably because I don't know when to stop when I ought to, I carried the delicacy and curves of the aesthetic into the inner, penned design:


And then decided that this was one envelope there was no letter for, and didn't send it.

Pantheacon, Insignificance

This was me last weekend, running Anne's booth three days in a row. Pantheacon is a Pagan convention that my family has been attending since its inception. Naturally I felt it was important to support mainstream music (The Strokes) while selling music no one ever listens to (most of what's in front of me).


I was also attempting to sell cards, buttons, envelopes, and portraits which, through being so utterly brilliant, blindsided most potential customers into utterly ignoring them.




I handmade all cards buttons envelopes etc myself and was continuing to make buttons all weekend. Most of them were made of cloth from old t-shirts. The cheap ones I stamped with potato stamps I cut, and the sewn ones I embroidered and embelleshed before turning into buttons. For the cards I cut a linoleum print of a witch smoking and drinking (in honor of all my lovely role models in the Pagan community) and then tore cards of my own design (when you tear - as opposed to cut - the edges of paper forms it gives them a nice fine quality). I made the envelopes out of old calendars.

I also made all the signs. They're also torn paper, held together with armature wire. The letters are stamped on from two kits I purchased last winter at Paxton Gate. I used the same stamps on my Christmas presents this year, as seen below.


And, because I know you don't care, here are some pictures of my dorm room walls and what is on them.




My dorm room contains a kitchenette which I don't actually stand on all that often. All paintings in this picture are mine.


Here is one last closeup of some of the buttons I made at Pantheacon, being worn by their owners, my father and sister.