Mark deserves heaps and heaps of credit for his vision and perseverance on this museum. The museum has been going for over 20 years. 20 years!! Just think, letterpress has had a major resurgence in the past 5 years as evidenced by the number of beginning printers at the fair. He had to be one of the very few to passionately believe in preserving letterpress 20 years ago. Thank goodness he did.You just never know who you will run into at these events. Gary and I were delighted to see Kelly Kilmer (right) and her friend Kara. Normally we see Kelly when she travels to AZ to teach classes. She's a California gal--an incredibly popular collage artist & instructor who is also a prolific blogger. Check out Kelly's blog and teaching schedule--she might be in your area soon. Get your creative on and take her classes!
Out with the old--this is some of the type we took to the fair in addition to gorgeous decorative Japanese papers of course! Note, there is no photo of the wood type that we took--all of it was sold within the first 10 minutes!
In with the old! New, old dusty type that came home with us. I think that printers really just trade their stuff around and around and eventually we'll end up with the same stuff what we started with!
Here's the best part of the printer's fair for me. I got this lovely little print is from one of my favorite artist friends, Kelly Rider from grad school. She moved from the east coast to CA last year. I hadn't seen her for 5 years and a few weeks ago, I emailed her about the event thinking that she lived close by. I forget that CA is like AZ and that everything is an hour and a half away! It was so wonderful to see her, reconnect and catch up. It does your heart good to see friends that you've missed! Now, we just have to think of way to get her to come for a papermaking/letterpressing/bookbinding weekend at The Paper Studio!
Danger Will Robinson! I almost fainted on Friday when we arrived and I saw all the presses and other stuff for sale! I had to make myself focus on setting up--mostly I just wanted to wander around and drool over everything.
I met Marjorie at the event, I recognized her name from APA. She was delightful and had really cool cuts for sale. I'm kicking myself for not getting some of the type she was selling...
This is their letterpress teaching studio. Lots of type, but I had so little time to look since I was supposed to be setting up our booth.
This is their portable printing museum. The first time I met Mark Barbour, the founder and director of the museum, was about 4 years ago when they came to AZ on their printers tour for the schools. My pal Colin worked them right out of grad school and they stopped by The Paper Studio. I was completely amazed the first time I saw this museum on wheels and and it still intrigues me today. Such a wonderful live history program for kids!
The Museum did a great job of demos throughout the day.
And this.
And this.
I think you get the picture! Although the above photo is The Badlands which is a little more interesting. I can see how the fires are spreading in LA. Everything was sooooooooooo dry--it is frightening. Let's all hope for relief for them SOON!
My scan of the card is not doing it justice. It is printed on a lovely pale blue handmade paper with the ornament in a summer green ink and the lettering in deep blue ink. While we love photo polymer plates, we've been trying to use stuff we have in the studio. Kinda like cooking with stuff in your cupboard! Gary was surprised when he saw the cards tonight and really liked the way the they turned out unlike the last time I surprised him by painting the outside door lime green. (sometimes you have to get those crazy ideas out before you can get a better color--the door is now a lovely grey-green)
Also, take a peek at Chandler's website and blog--
I almost fainted when I saw my book Metamorphose, on the postcard! Actually, I was really confused since I thought I was opening the water bill. The airport and the water department have the same city emblem on the envelope. Nice surprise--way better than the water bill!
I highly recommend you go and see the exhibition. We know a lot of the artists in the show and their work is amazing! This is exhibition especially near and dear to my heart because it was maybe 13-14 years ago I had just finished my first bookbinding class when I was flying out of Sky Harbor Airport and saw an ASU bookarts exhibition while I was waiting for my plane. I was totally fascinated with the work. I called ASU when I got back because I knew after seeing the work that I wanted to make artist books. 
Gary Martelli, the museum person who curated the show just sent over photos of the installation. Now I've gotta get over there to see the show!
We can easily seat 30-36 people for classes in our main classroom.
Note on the tables and chairs. Loading this amount of very heavy tables and 40 chairs during July and 110 degree weather was no picnic. I was absolutely drenched on both ends the loading at the pick up and unloading at the studio. I had to rent a humongous truck from Home Depot just to haul everything. One thing about papermaking and letterpress--you build up muscles because everything is heavy!! Next time we renovate, it will be in the WINTER!
Star has been creating art locally for many years. She dabbles in many different art mediums from photography to handmade paper art. Star hand makes delicate and ornate paper art pendants that are absolutely amazing!! She creates highly detailed miniature scenes with owls, flowers and cupcakes, among other whimsical designs. Making greeting cards for all occasions is also one of her passions. Each creation has hand drawn and cut designs. An array of different textured papers and punches are used. 
I love this old cut of this gal singer. I'm sure she's singing with joy that we are back!
