havenpoolsandpatios - Blog

Announcing! July Floral Workshop

2013-02-18T20:41:00-06:00

Join havenpoolsandpatios havenpoolsandpatios and Virginia's The Moss and Rose for a Floral & Letterpress Workshop July 13, 6-8:30 pm, $35 at the door Room for 15 participants (if we have more, we will open a second workshop!) havenpoolsandpatios havenpoolsandpatios 520 East Sixth Street, Des Moines, IA 50312 Learn how to make floral table accents and flower crowns for your summer parties. Print an 8x10 personalized flower letterpress printand a set of flower notecards. RSVP: [email protected]

Trunk Show: Textiles & Treasures, Feb. 2nd!

2013-01-27T12:49:00-06:00

A great event coming up Feb. 2nd at the beautiful home of Mary Mouw. Please stop by if you get a chance for letterpress Valentines, cards, custom stationery, prints and oh so much more!

Locally Grown Clothing Co. + The PC Press

2012-11-07T12:34:52-06:00

Hi friends, wanted to catch you up on a fun partnership. I've been printing and creating new products for the The Locally Grown Clothing Co. I've created new notecards and coasters you can see them here: http://locallygrownclothing.com/shop/category/accessories/ also they will be featured in People Magazine's Holiday gift guide on newsstands soon (look for George Strait on the cover). [caption id="attachment_1972" align="alignnone" width="242"] Locally Grown Chickens[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1973" align="alignnone" width="213"] Locally Grown Rooster Coasters[/caption]

Hello America, Hello Poland

2012-11-01T15:52:46-05:00

Hello friends, today I thought I'd show you one of my artist books… WITAJ POLSKA! Hello Poland! WITAJ AMERICA! Hello America! My current book arts work has involved working in a “designer as reporter” approach, developing my own graphic commentary and response to current events. I continue to be interested in exploring the relationship between representation of information and increasing the expressive quality of text and image in current events. I continue to explore book arts work that seeks to answer the questions such as, what happens to the fleeting news information in a more permanent form? How does the sequence of content and imagery influence the messaging? How does the structure and form of the book inform or enhance the information? This book, WITAJ POLSKA! Hello Poland! WITAJ AMERICA! Hello America! seeks to become an important individual exploration as I continue to discover my personal approach towards a visual language, as well as contributing to contemporary societal dialog. This book seeks to interplay between personal narratives and historical events through the use of the collage form. The first side of the do-si-do combines subject matter, which consists of mainly historical events and contexts, linear and non-linear memories that have occurred in my grandmother’s past. The text was taken through extensive interviewing. The second section of the do-si-do connects to my own life and more recent national and international events. The project grew out of a trip I took to Poland with my eighty-six year old Grandmother to explore her Polish ancestry. The book details the story of their immigration to America and her life over the decades. The book unites our lives and as well as areas where we depart and have our differences. The original one-of-a-kind book contains handmade collages. The edition contains scans of the collages with letterpressed text printed on Japanese paper and affixed to the collages. The goal was to give the sensibility of a collage through the use of the letterpress text. The gradual change in typography shows the differences between our generations. [caption id="attachment_1967" align="alignnone" width="220"] cover[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1966" align="alignnone" width="220"] Interior page[/caption]

Happy Friday + Happy Fall!

2012-09-28T11:29:35-05:00

Hello friends how are you? As always, the week just flew on by…kicked out a few digital design jobs and filled orders this week. I'm looking forward to a full and fun weekend, how about you? Tonight hoping to just hang on the screened-in porch and catching up with my man (he was gone all week traveling!) Saturday is the Homecoming game at U of Iowa against the Golden Gophs of UMinn. This will be my first football game of the season…Iowa City and George's here we come! (we go to George's Buffet– I know, hilarious name for a bar, they have fantastic cheeseburgers, wonderful/classic patrons and hopefully we will all be having celebratory beers post game!) GO HAWKS! Sunday I will be down at the East Village Bazaar (this week and Oct. 7th will be my last for the season) so please come on by and say hi, Noon to 4 pm. TAKE NOTE: I'll also be at the Farmer's Market, Oct. 6th this will by my last of the Downtown Farmer's Market. Finally Sunday night we'll join my parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kiddos for dinner. Can't wait for the weekend, here are some photos of the week… [caption id="attachment_1954" align="alignnone" width="540"] Some recent "Iowa" prints, the "American Farmer" is from a fellow printer Rick Von Holt– it is for sure harvest season around here![/caption]

Fall is Here & Midwest Printer's Fair

2012-09-24T11:19:20-05:00

Hello friends! I have been absent in my posting due to the fact that I had travel to California, classes resumed (teaching Graphic Design History this semester) and I've been busy printing and designing for clients. This past weekend though I was able to take a little break from it all and went to Mt. Pleasant Iowa where my brother and his wife and their three fantastic kids live and had a loooooooong overdue visit plus the annual Midwest Printer's Fair was going on in town as well. Got to see their newest addition a 15-Ton press, you'll see it below in the photo, just incred! I picked up a fun tabletop 5x8 Excelsior press and can't wait to get the new rollers on it and an extra chase for one of my larger presses. This little tabletop will just be a little press I can take around for demos and workshops. I was also able to pick up a few things for Drake University for the upcoming Introduction to Letterpress Printing J-Term course I'll be teaching. After a rugged loss by The Iowa Hawkeyes we shut off the t.v. for a little fall fun at the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast on slides, little fun houses, a water pump race for plastic ducklings, a corn seed jump area and of course we picked some pumpkins. Here are some photos from the day… [caption id="attachment_1940" align="alignnone" width="540"] A print from the MPF and photos of the day[/caption] [gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="1"]

POSTED, Printmaking Center of New Jersey

2012-08-13T07:22:44-05:00

Hello friends! It has been a little while. We were on vacation in Colorado in Rocky Mountain National Park for some family R&R…We had lovely weather and the girls did wonderfully on hikes. I'll post some photos once I get through all the photo downloads! Anyway, I don't know if you know about this side of ThePCPress, but I frequently enter exhibitions. I'm trying to remember my first exhibition and it might have been a Grad School/Art School show of map-making. Last fall I had a solo show and workshop at Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and a fun summer show about bicycles. Most recently I was juried into some shows for the fall. This is the first installment of a blog post about new exhibitions… My work was juried into: "POSTED" (below is some info about the show) On July 4, 1776, a handwritten document was delivered to John Dunlop's print shop in Philadelphia. Approximately twenty-four hours later, 200 letterpress printed copies of this document, The Declaration of Independence, were ready to distribute to the thirteen colonies. In 1776, letterpress printing was the most immediate way to spread important news. Since 1776, many artists have continued to use letterpress printing to respond to situations around them in serial print form, without delay. Letterpress printing allows for unusual access to the publishing: once an idea for book or broadside is conceived and paper in acquired, production can begin immediately, and a printed response to an event can be distributed that day (not unlike what happened in 1776). From the protests for democracy in Egypt and Syria, to the Occupy movement; from the tsunami in Japan; to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; and the battle for reproductive and gay rights, we live in a time of constant “event”. Because of the increasing saturation of media via the internet, we know about events happening on the other side of the world almost instantaneously. How have artists used letterpress printing to respond to events that have affected them? “Posted” is a juried exhibit of letterpress printed work, which was created in direct response to the myriad of events happening around the world. EXHIBITION DATES: August 18 – October 13, 2012 This show is right up my alley since I spent much of my thesis work depicting news events through collage and flash media. Here are a few pieces that were selected: [caption id="attachment_1907" align="alignnone" width="540"] Tattered Liberty, after an article written by mark steyn on the passing of the new healthcare laws…[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1908" align="alignnone" width="540"] Artist Book, "Two Five Hundred in Fifteen" (two massive 500 year floods in Iowa within 15 years)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1909" align="alignnone" width="540"] Artist Book, "Hello America, Hello Poland"[/caption]

Cheers!

2012-07-26T13:25:31-05:00

Hot off the Press: Letterpress Coasters!

2012-07-23T16:53:38-05:00

Hello friends.!I have had a few whirlwind weeks of quick turn-around time design and printing for the wedding season. All fun and I'll show photos of those after they go out in the mail (don't want to ruin any of the bride and groom surprises!) Anyway I've been wanting to do some coasters for awhile now and I finally got around to putting some on the press…one was a custom job and then some of my own, of course many more designs will be coming out in the following months but figured these were a few to get the ball rolling! We were able to "test" them out the other night with some wonderful friends while attending beer tastings at the Peace Tree Brewery Tap Room, they worked great! A few seem to lend themselves nicely for tailgating season…Which ones would you use? [gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="1" include="1877, 1876, 1875, 1874"]

Happy Fourth of July!

2012-07-04T10:27:56-05:00

[caption id="attachment_1857" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Page of Ladies Typographic Union Letterpress 2012 Calendar by havenpoolsandpatios[/caption] Happy Fourth of July! This is a page from the Ladies Typographic Union Calendar (housed out of The University of Iowa Center for the Book) I had the month of July! Enjoy…

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="1" include="1858"]

Bits + Bobs, from Okoboji to NYC and all that is in-between

2012-06-08T09:26:25-05:00

Hello friends. I promised to show you a few more photos from NYC. I have to be honest, I didn't get out of my booth too much, every time I did someone came into the booth to chat so I really only took photos of the booths right near me. And I am still adjusting to way it all works at NSS. I thought most folks would be friendly, and I think they are, there is just so much "competition" that I think everyone treats each other with a little skepticism, as well as, not sure if you are an intense shop owner/artist/designer or just a nice person to chat up. I was kind of amazed sometimes that more people didn't just stop in to talk. One funny occurrence that happened to Andy as he was walking around visiting various booths (yeah, I know, I should have sent the camera with him!) a person in a booth stopped to talk and he had mentioned that I had a booth of letterpress cards and person snarkly asked if "it was my dream to have letterpress cards." Andy was so taken aback that he didn't even have an answer. Too bad I hadn't been there because I would have answered, "No, I already have my dream– a great husband, lovely daughters, fun friends and family, a career I enjoy and a great little life in Iowa– letterpress is just part of it!" I guess I can understand people being nervous and worked up a bit, it is a looonnngg week of set up, talking, selling and more talking. Well anyway as with most shows, the majority of folks we met were so fantastic and creative and I'm sure there were tons more that we would have loved to talked with… Some of the booths right near me were: Monica Garrett (and the help of her new hubby Jason) of Paper Cut Industries Long Beach, CA http://papercutindustries.com/ Rosemary Rae Designs from San Diego, CA (and the help of Conrad Firestein) they were just funny, kind and overall so fun. http://rosemaryraedesign.com/ Allison and Jessica (some being midwest transplants to L.A.) from The Social Type http://thesocialtype.com/ Finally we were also near Liz Glasgow of The White Cabinet you have to read such a cool story about how the cards and prints came about: http://www.thewhitecabinet.com/ or here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/hilda-glasgow-vintage_n_1197116.html?ref=marlo-thomas I was lucky to be placed by such kind, talented and fun artists/designers, hope you like checking out their work! Sorry for the horrible camera phone images! This weekend we are headed to the family cottage in Okoboji for much needed R&R…first time this season! What are you up to this weekend?

More NSS: Belgians, Booths, History + Mermaids!

2012-05-30T09:15:37-05:00

Howdy friends, yesterday I was knocked down with some type of flu bug, but I'm back and getting caught up. I thought I'd share a little more NYC with you. On saturday after we were all set up (the booth) we hit the city for the afternoon. A co-worker of Andy's out of the Manhattan office is a docent at the Natural History Museum so we headed there after finalizing the booth, for a tour of the museum. We were a tiny bit early so we did what we thought everyone who visits NY should do: eat a hot dog and walk in Central Park– both were fantastic! Then headed into the Natural History Museum, it was a really great tour and I kept thinking how much Charlotte would have loved touring it. After the Museum we met with old & wonderful friends Jody and Keri. They live upstate NY and own/work/do it all on an organic farm called Roxbury Farms. It was so delightful to catch up after not seeing them for over a decade, we just picked right back up where we had left off, don't you just love friends like that? Jody suggested the B. Cafe a Belgian cafe on the Upper West Side (a new favorite spot!) and wouldn't you know it but we sat next door to the Mermaid Inn a great seafood restaurant designed by famed graphic designer and letterer Louise Fili www.louisefili.com/ (so I had to nerd-out and tell the gang about her). We then enjoyed a little dessert and coffee at a sidewalk coffee/cafe. Then we of course had to say goodbye to our friends since they had a bit of a drive back home and Andy and I enjoyed walking around the Upper West Side. Whew what a saturday huh?– and this was all before the Stationery Show started! Okay, I promise tomorrow I'll show more photos of booths and recap the show a bit…

valentines are coming soon!

2011-12-28T13:59:39-06:00

1,000 More Greetings

2011-08-18T19:08:36-05:00

havenpoolsandpatios letterpress cards have recently been featured here! 1,000 More Greetings: Creative Correspondence for All Occasions (1000 Series) by Aesthetic Movement.

Old School recipe cards

2010-04-30T20:17:00-05:00

I was able to design and print these for a fun client…

one was for the sweets and one was for big time cooking.

Ben + Amy's wedding invite- final prints

2010-04-29T16:48:00-05:00

Here is the final print of the wedding suite

Ben + Amy's wedding invite

2010-04-24T15:27:00-05:00

Working away on a new wedding invitation. This time I actually stopped to take photos in-progress. Here you can see the gold-ish/mustard run. The second run was a darker gray (final photos coming soon).

I'll also be posting some fun new recipe cards I just finished for a client…