It's almost Christmas!

L A Times Surprise

I clicked on an email blast from the Los Angeles Times tonight and lo and behold, there was gift wrap I designed years ago! How exciting!

Scenes from the Pop Up Shop

I had a wonderful day today at the Pottery Barn Pop Up Shop. It was a great location and I was surrounded by lovely Pottery Barn holiday items. It was a rainy day so lots of people were out and about the Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks, CA. I was set up on a buffet that I would have loved to take home if it had fit in my trunk.

New Reusable Snack Bags

I have a little obsession with pouches of all kinds and even have a small collection. I made these reusable snack bags because they come in so handy for all kinds of things. 

I'm not really a sew-er but I got out my trusty machine, looked up some patterns on the web, and went to work. These are lined with a food grade plastic, made from a heavy weight natural cotton and close with velcro (I have to practice putting in zippers!). I printed them from my hand cut linoleum blocks. They're not only great for snacks both wet and dry but are also handy for organizing all the little things in your bag,

I've just posted 2 of them in my Etsy shop and they'll be available for sale on Sunday at the Pottery Barn Pop Up shop.

Hello Sunshine Snack Bag

Perfect for makeup!

Pop Up Shop

I'm very excited because next Sunday - October 30 - I'll be doing a pop up shop at Pottery Barn (one of my favorite stores!) in The Oaks Mall, Thousand Oaks, CA. I'll be selling lots of my goods, including some new items for the holiday. See you there!

Pop up Shop at Pottery Barn, October 30

Hot Off the Press!

I finished my 2017 calendar just in time for the LA Printer's Fair last weekend. All of the images are from my hand cut linoleum blocks. This year's images include a a cowboy boot full of flowers, a set of Russian matryoshka and a bear in a turtleneck sweater.

Even though I carefully sketch and plan, things change as I start carving the lino blocks. One of my sketches started out as a dala horse and ended up as a unicorn, featured on the month of January. The bear started out in a scarf and was re-carved in a sweater. The calendar is letterpress printed in a limited edition of 30. It's for sale in my Etsy shop here.

2017 Calendar

January thru April

May thru August

September thru December

The linoleum block and printed page for January

New Collages

I've been in a collaging mood so here are two new Japanese inspired collages.

The first one is made from a vintage photo of a Geisha layered on a page from a vintage Japanese book, combined with handmade paper and an engraving of a moth.

Geisha and Moth

The second one is also layered on a page from a vintage Japanese book. In addition, I used  hand made papers, some old labels, and a tea pot letterpressed from my own illustration.

Japanese Tea

New On Vida

I did a new collage using vintage documents and some decorative papers. It's done on canvas and is in black, gold, and shades of brown and white. The design is called "Fragments".

Collage on canvas

I scanned the college and used the art for some new items on Vida. One is a scarf and one is a sleeveless top. The art wasn't really big enough for the top so I also used a vintage Italian document. You can purchase them here.

New Scarf

New top - the back is solid black

New in the Shop

Lavender sachets, new in the shop. These hand sewn sachets were printed from my linoleum blocks and are filled with organic lavender from a farm in San Diego county.

Daisy and Mod Bird

Bunny and florals

Birdie and Floral Arch

Flea Market Sunday

This morning I went to the Long Beach Antique Market in Long Beach, CA. It's the third Sunday of every month. So much to see, so little room in my house for more treasures.... I brought my camera though and took a few pictures of things that caught my fancy.

Two Vintage Cats

Nifty 1950's Tuppercraft "Pin Kaddy" for Diaper Pins

Bird Embroidery

Vintage Bottles Nicely Displayed

More Vintage Bottles With Cool Labels

Mexican  Pottery Animals

Remember these?

Clay Lion

Jumbo Faux Clocks

Indian Textile "Toran" Valance

Patchwork Show Santa Ana

Today was Patchwork's Spring Show in Santa Ana, California. Here are a few shots of my booth set up and some of the new shibori dyed items I had for sale. (I share a booth so this is my half)

We had a corner spot!

A view down the table.

New shibori dyed zip cosmetic bags.

New shibori dyed silk scarves for sale

New Tiny Press

I purchased this mini printing press, a Baltimore 11, on Ebay back in 2014 for a song (not really a song since I can't carry a tune, but a very good price). It was affordable because it was missing an ink plate and rollers. It took me 2 years to find the parts.

First, rollers were purchased at the LA printer's fair from Ramco Roller. The owner, Adrian Ramos, kindly took a set off one of his presses because it was a perfect match. The ink disc was a harder fix because it had to be made from scratch and I had nothing to go by but the model number. Everyone at the Printer's Fair said "talk to Dave" meaning the wonderful Dave Churchman. I contacted Dave in Indiana and even though he had just gotten out of the hospital, he jumped on my project. He had an Amish machinist make me a disc and after a few stem adjustments (FYI, a Baltimore 11 does not use the same ink disc as a Sigwalt 11!), a perfect fit. My little press is all set and ready to go.

My regular press is a Kelsey tabletop and this one as about 1/3 the size. So cute!

The Baltimore 11 press was made from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Mine has it's original black and gold paint. You can read a little history at briarpress.org here.

Shibori Fun

I decided to try my hand at Shibori - a Japanese method of fabric dyeing that involves pleating and binding the fabric to create the design. Mine is very basic but was a lot of fun to do and fairly easy.  I had some cotton scarf blanks to play with and looked up some methods online. (Sorry I can't give a source but I researched weeks ago and looked at a variety of instructional websites and then winged it).  After folding and pleating the fabric in a variety of ways, I kept everything in place using rubber bands, string and binder clips (the black metal ones from the office supply store). I used RIT dye and followed the directions. Since I didn't want to risk dyeing our sink or washing machine, I bought a large pot at the Goodwill and did it on the stove top. This worked really well and there was no mess. After I washed out the dye, everything looked really solid blue and I was a little worried about my technique. After cutting the string and releasing the binder clips I was amazed at the patterns that emerged. I call it a success!

My first attempt at shibori!

Each pattern comes out differently.

My only regret is that I didn't leave the plastic gloves on until after I had cut the strings and hung everything to dry. My finger tips are a bit blue!

Exciting New Project!

I've been working on a new project that I'm very excited about.  I've been wanting to print some scarves for awhile but have been having trouble finding an affordable way to do it. Out of the blue, I was invited to submit some designs to a newish (launched November 2015) website called shopvida.com which makes a variety of scarves and tops from artists' designs. The site features all kinds of designers - photographers, painters, printers, etc - and manufactures their designs as custom, print-on-demand products. The company is based in San Francisco and manufactures mainly in Southeast Asia. A portion of the proceeds go towards a literacy program for the makers.

You can check out the site here (http://shopvida.com), or my page here (http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/victoria-cole). I've just ordered some product which I will show as soon as I receive it. Below are a few of my first designs offered for sale.

Mid Century Mosaic Scarf

Mod Dots Scarf

In the City Scarf

In the City Top

Winter Leaves Top

Polish Illustration - Adam Kilian

I love folk art and illustration and have recently become interested in vintage Polish art.  I saw images from this book online awhile ago and it suddenly came up for sale on Ebay so I snatched it up. The book was published in 1965 in Warsaw and I believe it is a play (the text is all in Polish...) It was illustrated by Ukrainian-born artist Adam Kilian. For some history about Adam Kilian, check out this website culture.pl. You can see more of Kilian's illustration on another website, Fishink (and Fishink has lots of other great stuff on it too!).

Here are most of the illustrations from the book  although not necessarily in order.