Happy Little Dishes

I was at the D.I. a few weeks ago (the main thrift store here in Utah), looking for something else, of course, but came across a great find at the bargain price of $2.00 total. These four little bowls make me so happy! I know, three pictures of four bowls is a little excessive, but I can't help myself. I LOVE them! I've decided to keep the goodies for my inspiration wall/note board in them.

• #1 contains white chalk (yes, it's invisible at the moment)
• #2 contains my happy little magnets
• #3 contains push pins
• and #4 contains graphite shavings from my drafting pencil (no, not for the wall)

They now live lined up along the wall in the middle of my desk. The perfect color and the perfect size. Quite useful and visually pleasing at the same time. They look great stacked inside each other too. Sigh. Why do I find such small and simple things so wonderful?

Letterpress Project 1

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am taking a letterpress class this semester. I love it. It's a lot of work, and very time consuming, but it's great none the less. So, today I want to share my first project. Being the first, there were quite a few guidelines/restrictions we had to follow. First, the paper size and type was determined for us. It was a very thin sheet, not leaving room for much impression, and the size had to be 4x5. We could only use black ink, and only text. The text had to be set by had and original. We were to choose an object that has some significance to us, and then write 50 words, describing it. See if you can figure out what my object was.

The text reads:

Six surfaces form the solid shape; faces the same size, 12 edges the same length. The colors call, asking to be grouped. I twist and I turn, hearing the familiar friction of plastic on plastic as each small square moves to become one with the other 8 of its color, creating solid faces. Once such a mystery, now so simple to solve.

Now, for those of you who don't know what it means to handset type, let me paint the picture. Each little letter is a piece of type. The type is stored in a case, which is basically a divided drawer.You guessed it. You have to line up the little pieces, add spacing between words, and leading between lines. Takes some time, but gives you some appreciation for what people used to do back in the day. When there's a letter that's worn down, you have to replace it. If you run out of e's, you have to run it on the press twice, once for the first half, and once for the second. The particular typeface I chose, Twentieth Century, has a lot of smashed type, so I spent a lot of time replacing the little letters with tweezers. And I mean little. The first part is 6 point, and the bottom two lines are 8 point. If you want to see how small that is, type something in 6 point, print it out, and imagine cutting out each individual letter and that letter sitting on a piece of lead that's .918" tall. Tiny.

Books.

I know, it's been a while. I was doing so well...for about a week. But here I am again. Lots has been going on with school and at home and such. So much to do! I'm working on quite a few different projects, some for school, some for family and friends, and then also on getting my studio/working area up and running. I'll post about all of those, but for now, I'd like to introduce you all to something that is completely awesome.

Amazon has wish lists you can make public. I love it! I think everyone should log into Amazon and create a public wish list of all the great books they want so that when someone is completely lost when it comes to getting you a gift for, say, Christmas or your birthday, they can all go there and get you something you really do want. Yay! All you have to do is search for the person's name, and voila, there's the list. If you have a common name, it helps to add a few details. There's another Leah with my last name in CT. I'm not alone.

Ok. So, just when you thought that's all there is to it and that's as good as it gets, don't worry, it gets better. You can "get a wish list button" which will somehow or another let you add things you want from other websites too, not just Amazon. I'm not sure how it works, but they explain it here. I haven't done that yet, but I think it would make life easier for people! Anyway, if you're interested to see what books I'm currently salivating over, view my wish list. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, just go to amazon.com and see if you can figure it out. Don't be scared. It's easy. I'll even give you a hint: click on "gifts and wish lists" at the top and then type my name in on the right. As easy as that. I think I'll go add more books now.