things are better with a parrott

Summer Wedding on Lake Tahoe

Happy Fall!  I love this time of year.  These invitations were a new take on some previous invitations.  I find I often do not take photographs of designs I have already done, because I feel like I am repeating content, however, with different color combinations & additional pieces, the suites end up looking quite different.  This couple had a small wedding at a private home on Lake Tahoe this past summer.  With gerber daisies as the main flower at the wedding, they became the main feature for the wedding invitation in a vibrant yellow ink contrasted with chocolate brown & olive green.  The suite was simple with just an invitation, RSVP postcard, & a map.  Since the wedding location was a bit removed the map was necessary.  I created a custom illustration of the main roads leading to the location with some simple written directions.  A little bunch of gerber daisies marked the wedding spot!  These invitations were gocco screenprinted on smooth, white 100 lb. stock with matching envelopes. 

As the seasons transition, I am in quite the transition mode myself.  The wedding season has slowed up a bit {with the exception of a few winter weddings & early 2009 weddings} so I have been busy working on my Holiday shop including a limited edition letterpress 2010 calendar.  Yay!  It will be my third calendar.  This year the calender will be printed on 100% cotton paper in 8 different colors.  It will be 5 x 7" with the option of no hole {for framing} or a hole with lovely Italian cotton ribbon from Carta, Inc.  The holiday shop will also include a few letterpress card designs, coasters, postcards, & gift tags, some of which can already be found in my shop!  The goal is to have my calendar in my shop by Wednesday, October 7.  If not, then by October 14 {we are headed to LA in between those dates!}.  If you would like to be notified when my calendar is my shop, you may email me at sarah{at}parrottdesignstudio.com. 

Well...how did I get from a summer wedding to winter holidays?  See you later this week with August's Press & Post.

Craftland Grand Opening Par-tay!

Hello!  Exciting news - I was accepted to Craftland for a third year!  Craftland is no longer just an annual holiday show, but a year-round gallery & retail space in downcity Providence.  The grand opening party is tonight from 5 - 9pm.  To catch a glimpse of the new shop check out my book-binding friend, Kristin's blog here & here.  If you are in or around Providence you should stop by.  I hear there is a pinata, Narragansett, & a cheese log {would it be a Craftland even without one?}.  See you at the sparkley banner!

p.s. A year from today...Rich & I will be getting married!!

A Wedding Under the Cosmos

Hi there!  I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  We went up to Brimfield on Sunday, & we left tired & disppointed.  It was the last day of the last show of 2009, so that may be the reason.  We are going to give it another try in May 2010. 

Before the weekend I sent off another beautiful invitation suite to a couple in Tennessee who are getting married at the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C.  The club began as a society that embraced the sciences & the arts & is located in a Beaux Arts mansion.  While inspired by the ornate architecture of the building & its rooms, we decided to focus on the word "Cosmos" & shoot straight into the galaxies!  Shelley & her fiance, Willie, were looking for a real "deep space" feel to their invitations, so I used hundreds of stars in various shapes & forms to surround the words of the invitations.  I continued the star motif throughout the suite on the RSVP, the bottom of the accommodations card, as well as the paper band which held the pieces together.  The invitations were gocco screen printed on shimmery quartz paper {which is quite hard to see in the photos, but it is lovely!} in deep, inky plue & vibrant magenta.  The paper band, RSVP envelope, & main envelope were all printed with shimmery silver ink.  I also designed a stamp with a star similar to the one on the paper band for Shelley to order through Zazzle, tying the whole suite together.!  I think their wedding will be quite the affiar!

I have a great week planned with some large letterpress orders & my first floral design class this evening!  Today is also the day I met Rich four years ago!  A year from this Friday, September 18 we will be getting married.  Exciting things abound!  I will be back later this week.  Until then...

P.S.  Even though my Brimfield treasures were lacking, an acquisition I made yesterday more than made up for it! 

Set Sail Wedding Invitations

Happy Weekend!  Sometimes a week just slips right by, especially when I am trying to get projects out the door.  As a follow up to my last post, here is the final product!  John, the groom, was a friend from college {go PC!}.  He & Kelly were both on the sailing team & still love to sail so it was only natural their wedding would be inspired by the sea.  They are getting married at the chapel on PC's campus followed by a reception at the Conanicut Yacht Club. 

John & Kelly had a few elements they wanted to include in the stationery suite including a sailboat, doves, a compass rose, & a knot.  For the invitation I created a custom illustration of a sailboat along with two doves flying by.  I created a compass rose & used that on both the RSVP postcard & the two-sided direction card.  As the reception was in a different location {& about 45 minutes away} we decided to include a separate reception card.  I think it is my favorite piece!  I love that they wanted to add "flip flops optional!" which is so appropriate for a fun & casual wedding reception on the beach.  The pieces were held together by a paper band featuring a nautical knot.  Each piece was letterpress printed in blue ink, with the exception of the invitation which was printed in both blue & turquoise, on smooth, 110lb recycled stock.  We used turquoise envelopes & paper bands to add more color to the suite instead of printing each piece in two colors {another cost-saving technique!}.  I love how simple, clean, & beautiful these invitations came out.  The letterpress printing really adds another dimension to them as well.  I wish you could feel the nautical knot.  So lovely!

Enjoy your weekend!  We are off to volunteer at the Audubon Society this afternoon & then...Brimfield!!

Meet my Golding Letterpress

Hello!  I hope you had a fun, long weekend.  While I did get some relaxation in with a little camping trip, I spent a lot of the weekend printing.  The wedding invitations I am printing are for friends.  They were interested in seeing the letterpress process so I took a few photos & decided to share them with you! 

I mix of all of my inks by hand using the Pantone Matching System {PMS}.  This specific blue is PMS7459 which actually corresponds with Paper Source's Lake. 

My press is non-electric & human-powered by spinning the flywheel on the left.  This means letterpress in my studio takes a little time.  It also means my left arm is noticeably larger than my right! 

I spin the flywheel while turning the inking plate {the now blue disc under the three rollers in this photo} until all of the ink is evenly distributed on the rollers & plate.  My press is from 1898, so as you may imagine a few pieces are missing, but nothing that hinders the printing process or outcome, however I need to do many things manually, such as turning the inking plate. 

I use magnesium dies for all of my printing.  Once my ink is ready, I place my die & furniture into the chase.  The chase is a metal frame & the furniture are wood blocks of various widths & lengths that fill the chase for lock up.  Above the die you will see a quoin, which is turned with a key to tighten everything in place in the chase.  Hmm...make sense?  Take a look at the next photo.

Here I am placing the chase into my press.  As you will see the chase does not lie flat, therefore everything needs to be locked in place or it is going to move when the rollers ink it up. 

Locked & ready to go. 

Here you can see the rollers have gone over the die, inking the surface. 

Once the paper to be printed is lined up with the die, it is held in place with gauge pins on tympan, which is hard paper, inserted on the platen.   Here the blank piece of paper is ready for the ink. 

Letterpress as we know it today is highly sought-after due to the impression made on the paper.  This impression can be controlled by adjusting the packing {extra pieces of paper} behind the piece of paper to be printed or by adjusting the platen.  I like the impression to be noticeable to the eye & by touch, but I do not like it when the impression is so deep the paper cracks or when the impression is really noticeable on the backside of the paper.  Occasionally only a kiss, when the die just touches the paper & little to no impression is made, is acceptable, especially with double-sided jobs.

Voilà!  The first color of the first invitation is complete.  109 left to go!  Then time for the second color.  I will have photos of the complete wedding suite to share with you later this week.  I hope you enjoyed this little letterpress "tour."  Until then...

A New York Fête

Hello!  Happy Friday!  I was without the internet for most of the day & I have been waiting to post these invitations.  As some of you may have guessed, I had the great honor of printing the lettering of the ever-talented Betsy Dunlap.  I tell you, I get quite a thrill out of printing hand-drawn artwork & hand lettering!  But let us start from the beginning of this design process.

Rae, the super creative Art Historian & bride, initially contacted me to do her save the dates {okay, so that is the only pic I took of them, but they kind of looked like these}.  Once those were complete she sent me a folder full of wonderful & inspiring photos including arrangements by Saipua, work of her favorite artists, & one image entitled "calligraphy."  I took one look & knew it was Betsy's lettering.  After viewing Rae's images I could see she was going for a very organic, flowing look, & I knew she had to work with Betsy.  And she did!  

The invitations were a true collaborative effort for all three of us.  Betsy did the lettering for Rae & her fiance, Noah's, names along with their return address, the RSVP address, & the words "RSVP", & "Directions."  Once that was complete I set the remainder of the type for the invitation, RSVP, & directions.  Before printing I hand-lined the back of the invitations & direction cards with some wonderful paper Rae sourced.  This surprise element brought color & pattern to the entire suite.  The invitation was letterpress printed on super thick 220 lb. cotton Lettra paper in Pearl.  The RSVP & direction card were screen printed on coordinating 110 lb. paper.  The envelopes were coordinating lettra paper & I had a rubber stamp made of their return address so Rae could do those herself.  Betsy hand-lettered each of the envelopes & Rae was so kind as to have Betsy do one for me! 

I loved working on this wedding invitation suite as it was quite decadent, but there were a few creative ways we minimized paper & costs.  I believe many couples feel letterpress is out of reach & while sometimes it is, there are ways to still have it by only letterpress printing the invitation.  It is the main piece of the suite & the piece most guests are likely to keep.  Printing in only one color helps keep the cost down as well.  I recommend adding color by lining the back of the invitation, the inside of the envelope, or having a colored envelope.  The RSVP & direction card were screen printed in one color which is less expensive than letterpress.  The RSVP was also a postcard, cutting out the extra cost & paper of the envelope.  Instead of me printing the return address on the main envelope, I had a rubber stamp made for Rae & she stamped away!  

Well, can you tell 1.  I am excited about these; 2.  I hope I can letterpress more like these; 3.  Would you like me to print you some like these?; 4.  Why yes, I would love to; & 5.  Yay, weekend! 

Catch you next week!

Rustic Vineyard Wedding Invitations

Hello!  I do say I have been very fortunate to work on some seriously lovely designs as of late.  The bride, Heidi, is a wind power analyst {awesome!} & her fiance is a helicopter pilot.  They wanted a design evocative of a rustic vineyard in the Blue Ridge Mountains during Autumn.  The wedding is taking place outdoors where they would be surrounded by the bright yellows, oranges, & reds of the changing leaves.  We decided instead of going for the obvious vineyard theme {grapes} or Autumn colors {yellow, orange, & red}, we would go for rustic florals in a cool, mono-toned palette of deep navy blue.  Being eco-friendly was important for the couple so the invitations were gocco screenprinted on 100% cotton Lettra paper in Pearl & the envelopes were 100% recycled brown kraft paper.  I love the little floral detail of the return address on the envelope!  The RSVPs were a double-sided postcard.  The front of the RSVP came out beautifully with the full floral design.  I am happy Heidi liked using the little motifs for the meal choices.  It adds a bit of whimsy to the elegant design. 

I will be back before the weekend with one more wedding invitation.  I am so, SO excited to share it with you!

Palm Tree Rehearsal Dinner Invitation

Happy first of September!  Let's talk about palm trees, shall we?  Marisa, the bride, was a fan of Miss Bruschetta's rehearsal dinner invitations so I began the design from there.  Marisa was inspired by vintage postcards of palm trees on the beach, so I used a vintage palm tree image on the invitation.  Her colors are orange, yellow, & green, but we decided to use just orange & green on creamy Lettra paper in pearl.  The invitations are square & were gocco printed. 

I really love that couples are interested in sending invitations for their rehearsal dinners, & not just as an after-thought.  Rehearsal dinners are often an integral part of what is now becoming the "wedding weekend."  Carrying your theme throughout all of paper pieces for your wedding keeps the look of your wedding cohesive & consistent {did I ever mention my background is in marketing...?}.  Until tomorrow...

Saturday Stamps

 
My little collection of vintage bird stamps from various countries.

Vintage Ski Poster Coaster Invitations

Hey it's Friday!  This was a busy, but great week.  Despite having a mid-week birthday celebration I printed four wedding invitation suites, two of which were letterpress.  These invitations are off to the happy couple in Canada.  They are getting married at a ski resort this Autumn & wanted something casual & fun for their invitation.  They love vintage travel posters {me too!} especially this one designed by Gruppe Gut for the Cortina Ski Resort in Italy.  I created a new custom illustration to better reflect the silhouettes of the couple, made their gloves into hands, & gave them shoes instead of ski boots {since the wedding is in Autumn & there will be no snow}.  I loved the bride's idea behind having a chairlift on her invitation.  She believes it represents her & her fiance as they embark on a new journey in life together.  Very sweet.  These invitations were letterpress printed in two colors on coasters.  The front side featured the illustration in navy ink with a bold orange border which also features their names & wedding date.  On the backside is the text inviting people to the wedding.  They chose not to have an RSVP & asked people to email them instead.  Each coaster will be tucked inside a square envelope with their return address printed on the back flap. 

This invitation gets me excited for snowboarding...sort of.  I love Autumn! Once my birthday has come & gone I am always okay for the weather to start getting a bit cooler & for the leaves to start changing!  Enjoy your weekend!  Any plans?  I think we will take the canoe out for a bit, do a little baking, & visit with my parents. Until Monday...

p.s. My birthday surprise from Rich was tickets to Tuesday's Red Sox game.  Yay!