printing by hand

I think book week may be jinxed. Already on day two I fell off the book wagon. I have excuses, but excuses are boring. So here we go!

First of all, I stand corrected: "Zakka" means "household goods." Which goes to show that I should never write about a book when I'm in one location and the book is in another. Pardon me. And my thanks to the kind person who commented and then disappeared. You were correct; where did you go?


So have you seen this book yet? And are you familiar with Lena Corwin's work? She was writing for Bluelines, the now-defunct blog of the (also defunct) Blueprint magazine. And she's a blogger in her own right, too.

Well, Lena is a very talented textile artist and illustrator and the author of this recently published book. I haven't seen any other books like this before; in fact, the last good printmaking book I read was a college textbook (which was considerably less attractive and didn't have the great projects included, either). Lena's book covers stamping, stenciling, and screen printing, and the projects themselves are contemporary and inspiring. While some of the projects involve printing on paper, walls, and furniture, quite a few of them use fabric. Which, of course, makes me so happy.


Lena's work has a wonderful and unique style. The projects are varied, and they're presented beautifully. And envelope at the back of the book includes patterns for all of the designs (and there are a lot of them!), but you could easily make your own designs using Lena's techniques, if you're so inclined.

As an added bonus, my dear friend Brooke designed the book itself. Everything Brooke touches turns out perfectly (in my personal opinion--after all, Brooke does the visuals for Oliver + S, so I'm not biased in any way), and this book is no exception. The styling and photography are outstanding, and the page layouts are really clean and attractive.


See what I mean?


I dug out the dog fabric for this shot. This is vintage fabric purchased from Brooklyn General a while ago. Love dachshunds. Love dachshunds printed on fabric. Must print my own dachshunds on fabric one of these days. Can't wait to try Lena's techniques for it.

By chance, I ended up with two copies of this book. Actually, I purchased one while on vacation because I couldn't wait until I got home to read it, it's that good. So I have one to give away. Leave a comment of any sort, and The Great Dr. S and I will do a drawing in a few days. Just for fun. And because we like you.

Here's to book week. May it and the stock market settle down soon.