Forgotten - Cindy Steiler

These works by artist Cindy Steiler move me. The vintage photo's and the stories they tell. I just love the chosen material, the fragility it shows, just amazing.

Artist statement:

'My favorite childhood memories center on spending time with my great-grandmother, Mary Stieler. She taught me to sew, quilt and embroider, all while sharing amazing stories about her life. What she passed to me had been passed to her along a long line of women, inspiring in me a lifelong passion for creating.
Through my work I hope to capture the essence of my relationship with my grandmother while exploring and celebrating all women and girls; our relationships, our daily lives, and our traditions. I want to use my work to preserve and continue the traditions of both craft and story in a way that honors these lineages, but is decidedly modern; that is intensely personal, but accessible to all.'

Check out her website to see other projects she worked on.

  

  

Workshop screen printing

Last week I did a two-day workshop screen printing at the Amsterdam Grafisch Atelier. My intension was to learn the process so that I can screen print my own illustrations in the future. The workflow is pretty technical - which I'm not - and requires quite some patience - which I have none. It was scary but in the end pretty awesome to do something out of my comfort zone. I'm very enthusiastic about it and will definitely try it again! 

I decided to use a few of my illustrations to get to know the technique a little better. I used several backgrounds, the green one is a painting I scanned and changed into black and white bitmap.

I made the red and blue background during the workshop; by tearing pieces of paper and exposing that onto the mesh.

picking a mesh

Preparing the mesh with a photosensitive layer.

mixing the ink

Printing!

Cleaning and stripping the mesh. 

Getting my hands and clothes dirty.

Some of the prints I made.

What Jane Housham gave away

A few weeks ago Jane Housham organized a fantastic giveaway on her blog. I joined in and was one of the lucky winners! I had won Cactus Candy and some of Jane's handmade cards. So, I send her my details and much to my surprise a rather big box was delivered to me last Thursday. When my daughter and I started unwrapping we discovered the most fantastic giveaway! Jane did not only send me the candy but gave me a ready made collection of tin boxes!! I was amazed, I was thrilled, I was overwhelmed, I was astonished and, to be frank, I was a bit embarrassed... So I mailed her to thank her and to ask if there was anything I could make her happy with. This is what she replied:

'Oh goody! I'm glad the box arrived safely. Please don't be embarrassed! The giveaway was just the cards and the weird candy. But I had those little tins and I knew you would like them more than I do. I have so much accumulated stuff and it just occurred to me that you would enjoy opening up some little packages. I honestly don't want anything in return -- seriously. It's just a case of, I don't know, 'pay it forward' -- the same way I always let people out in traffic and smile at old ladies in the street! I'm really glad you liked it.'

Isn't she the best?? A big cheer for Jane!! Thanks again Jane! I've given the tin cans a spot in my printer's tray.

some of these tin boxes are already favorites of mine.

Great card design, absolutely love them!

The card which accompanied the package. And you're absolutely right, Jane, my house is rather chaotic. I'm often embarrassed when people drop by unannounced... I'll make a few pics and turn it into a post someday soon. 

Thanks again, Ellen X

Font design sketches

Designing a typeface is an enormous amount of work, which usually starts out by hand. I worked on a typeface in art college but have never gotten past the sketching stage. I'd love to show you my sketches one day, but I'm afraid they're lost in the attic.

I've done a quick Google search for hand sketches and here are the results. If you're interested in the proces of type design start reading I love typography, where I found most of these images.

Above: Gerard Unger

Andrij Shevchenko

Kunihiko Okano

Ludwig Übele

Seb Lester

Stefan Willenstorfer

Stefan Hattenbach

Jose Mendoza y Almeida

Kris Sowersby