Erinzam News

I’ve been working on a selection of earth-friendly goodies lately. In order to reduce my large collection of paper, linen thread and book cover scraps left over from other projects, I created a new group of “Recycle Bin Books”. Each one is completely different. They make me think of little patchwork quilts. A few are currently available for sale on Etsy, with more to be posted throughout May.

Another attempt at recycling studio scraps culminated in a series of mini collages. I had several screen printed tags left over from a previous project and thought long and hard about how to recycle them without actually dumping them in the recycle bin. This project turned out to be extremely healthy for me, as I wasn’t concerned about how they turned out. I just went for it and had a great time cutting, gluing, drawing and writing little phrases. Of course, some of them turned out terrible, but others I like quite a bit. A selection of the better ones are posted online here.

Please feel free to post links to some of the eco-friendly projects that you are working on lately! I’m always interesed in new ideas and love to see what others are creating.

I’m multitasking! This time, several of the projects that I recently completed involved the wonderful Print Gocco. Once you start a print gocco project, it’s hard to stop making more and more!

Project number one is a new business card. Ben and I are both setting up a booth with our goods at a local festival in May (this is our first booth experience and we’re super excited!). Thanks to tax season, we have very few funds to dedicate to this venture, so we’re getting creative. For a new business card, I used sheets of acid free chip board. We already had stacks of these that we use to ship with our prints to keep them stiff. I decided to create a design that related to my books and drawings… like part of a page pulled from a sketchbook. I combined scans of my own handwriting and sketches with the font Cyclone (I promise I had no idea I was once again using a Hoefler & Frere-Jones font when I selected it!). I left space on the back to write in extra notes and information. My favorite part is the graphite color, which is a mix of black and silver inks. I like the little bird walking on the page line like a tightrope, too. The fun parts are done now! I do still have stacks of them to cut down to size, which isn’t quite so fun.

Projects number two and three are mini tag books. I really liked the vintage inventory tags that I previously used to make into little books, but my supply ran out. I decided to design my own, made to be filled out with information directly related to the content of the book. The little squirrel book was an idea that I just couldn’t resist. Ideas and sketches are the little nuts that you squirrel away into this book.

I must admit, this is the very first time that I have ever used one of my own books that I made! I have always used sketchbooks and journals that I received as gifts, etc. Sounds kind of weird, I know. I’ve been carrying around one of the little inventory books and so far I really like it. Right now I’m thinking of using one for the car to log gas and maintenance, one for recording my purchases, and of course one for sketches and ideas!

Both of these are currently available in my Etsy shop.

At the start of the year, a fellow Etsy artist requested a custom weekly planner/sketchbook for 2008. I struggled to begin until I chanced upon some great inspiration by designer and artist Amanda Hawkins. She created her very own organizer and planner pages, which are available for download from here. Amanda’s fantastic approach to her own planner helped me to finally overcome my artist’s block and inspired me to create something exciting. Forget DayMinder!

I designed a weekly calendar page, complete with a system for stamping in the dates and the phases of the moon. I printed these pages onto a substantial drawing paper and interspersed various sketch papers and envelopes between each week. My hope is for each week to present a surprise and inspiration to the owner. The cover is machine embroidered canvas covering book board. The snap closure allows for expansion as items are added to the envelopes throughout the year.

I like how this project turned out so much that I almost considered creating one for myself. After remembering how much time it took, I changed my mind. I think I’ll stick to my current system/mess of little pieces of paper and sticky notes for now.

I have several posts in the que, none of which are completed yet. So, I thought I’d share some of Ben’s downloads with you in the meantime. This one is fun: Gift Box Icons for OSX complete with a snow scene desktop. Also, here is his latest holiday illustration as an iPhone wallpaper, created for the Thunder Chunky Xmas Project. Enjoy!

After loads of planning, designing and cutting, I finally have an edition of 100 rocket clocks ready to find new homes via Etsy. I created this design several years ago as part of a class assignment at Fort Hays State University and recently decided to refine and redesign a few parts. I will post more about the entire process soon. Until then, here are a few images to give you a glimpse of the paper goodness.

Instant lettering had its heydey before I began design school. In a way, I think that I missed out. Although kerning type with a computer is about 1000 times easier than with rub-off lettering, there is something extremely satisfying about using the stuff. Thankfully, there are piles of it just waiting to be found and used. I have used rub-off lettering in my paintings for several years, but just recently became interested in introducing it into bookbinding projects. I particularly like how it lends itself to treating typography as images, rather than just symbols or characters to be read and understood.

The folks at Coudal Partners have been posting some fantastic stuff as part of their Swap Meat. Both Ben Schlitter and I did our best to represent Hays, KS with the projects that we sent in. Ben’s GEO + INFO postcards made it to the Swap Meat page as did my calendar tags. I ended up creating a new edition of 50 calendars specifically for the occasion. I might also mention that Ben has a great website dedicated to his geography + information project that’s worth checking out.

This project began several years ago, when I was enrolled in Graphic Design 2 at Fort Hays State University. I always tried to do my assignments as far ahead of time as possible, but being extremely picky about the concept and design never left me much, if any, extra time before critiques. This began as one of those “work on something for two weeks and get a much better idea the night before it is due” kind of projects. I ruminated over the meaning of a calendar for two weeks and realized that it’s just a way to put a tag on time. That thought provided me with a unique format.

I recently revisited this old project to redesign it. I drew inspiration from antique tags used to label industrial materials. This provided me with the idea of filling in the dates with a pencil, so that the tags can be reused from year to year. In my research, I also discovered a wealth of patterns and typefaces from this time period that lent themselves well to the project.

For the first edition, I created 60 sets of calendars. I purchased the tags from a local office supply store and used a Print Gocco (a handy dandy screen printing tool) to print them as well as the packaging. I sold most of these via Etsy at the beginning of the year. I am currently printing a second edition of 50 for Coudal Partners Swap Meat, with a few changes here and there to differentiate from the first edition.