c&j graphics / the owls go

two weeks ago the production club of baltimore invited ron heddinger of c&j graphics to the admiral fell inn to give a talk about various finishing methods.



we were all amazed at what could be accomplished since we're pretty used to our letterpressing ways. we learned about holograms, foil stamping, embossing, uv coating (you can put glitter in it! and it comes in tons of colors!) and lots of other finishing services. we even got to handle some of the dies they use:



after the talk we headed to the ottobar and watched the owls go perform. our intern chris plays drums in the band so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him perform. they were so great that we decided to buy their cd! here they are being awesome:



tomorrow we will be opening our doors for a student studio tour put on by aiga baltimore. time to get everything cleaned up and ready to go!

justin's presentation / whit getting down and dirty

last tuesday, our old intern, justin, stopped by to give us a mock presentation of his recently-updated portfolio. we ordered in soup from our favorite place on the avenue, soup's on, and also enjoyed some leftover pound cake made by kat's neighbor:



(the guy in the back with glasses is our new intern chris. i still haven't gotten a good picture of him, but when i do i'll be sure to introduce him properly). when we finished chowing down, justin gave a run down of his portfolio pieces while the rest of us picked 'em apart and gave him lots of (hopefully) helpful and constructive feedback:



and totally unrelated: two cute photos of whit cleaning random press parts (first one taken in november 2008, second one taken in january 2009):

beth, our new gilah girl

please help me to welcome beth, our new part-time gal, to the gilah press + design family.



she actually began with us a few weeks ago but i never had a chance to take her picture until two nights ago when we all went out for drinks and exchanged gifts at woodberry kitchen.

it's good to have you with us, beth!

BINGE: a success

the BINGE open studio + holiday sale was a success. we had a lot of fun meeting all of the vendors that participated. kat even brought homemade meatballs and put together lots of other snacks to keep our stomachs from rumbling for the duration of the eight hour sale.

below are just a few of the vendors that took part.

gilah press + design table:



presto bingo, children's art division of spur design:



paintings by julia niederman:



erin of fitzbomb and katie of tu vida jewelry:



kimberly watson and her jewelry:



traci and her handmade/vintage stuff:



whitney checking out cory's paintings:

getting into the holiday spirit

after seeing a similar video on a friend's blog, i was inspired to make one of the gilah girls, plus one (you'll have to watch the video to find out who). bask in the crazy holiday goodness here. enjoy, and happy holidays!

(just a quick reminder that sunday is our BINGE open studio & holiday sale. read here for more information.)

BINGE: open studio & holiday sale

do a little last minute shopping, see a letterpress printing demo (3 pm) and grab a nosh! all going down in the big pink warehouse at 3506 ash street, baltimore, md 21211.

it's happening on sunday, december 14th from noon until eight. come check it out! in the meantime, take a look at the various vendors that will be selling their wares at the sale.

open house in one week

hey, everyone! we're having an open house next thursday, november 13th. it's gonna be from 6-9pm at our studio which is located at 3506 ash street. we'll be giving a letterpress demo (well, whitney probably will) while you munch on delicious snacks and drink beer and/or wine. we even have a bluegrass band booked to play throughout the night: smooth kentucky! come by if you can; it's gonna be really fun. hope to see you there!

pulp, ink and hops 2008

the date snuck up on us so quickly, but the pulp, ink and hops trade show was almost here! it was time to get off our butts and start preparing.

maggie lent a very helpful hand and finished putting together the rest of our notebook giveaways:



and like last year, we wanted to have an open house a few weeks after the show, so i designed this poster to give away to anyone who was interested in checking out the studio and seeing a letterpress demonstration:



even if you didn't get a poster, you should definitely come if you can. it's happening thursday, november 13th from 6-9pm. we even have a band booked to play, so come check it out!

anyway, this is what the plate for the poster looked like when it was inked and ready to be printed onto the chipboard:



cool, huh?

this year's pulp, ink and hops show took place at geppi's entertainment museum near the inner harbor in downtown baltimore. since we were one of the first vendors there we nabbed a prime parking spot that made loading and unloading easy as cake! we brought up all of our stuff and started piecing together the booth. it started out like this...



and eventually turned into this:



aren't the vintage comic books behind the booth a great touch? the museum houses tons of american pop culture items. if you're ever in baltimore, make it a must-visit non-art museum.

after a fabulous show where we made lots of new friends and caught up with old ones, i managed to get someone to take a photo of us at our booth. we're wearing fangs in the first one (though mine just made my mouth look all weird. i didn't do it right...):





yay, trade shows! so good talking with everyone, as usual. hope to see you at the open house!

middle eastern themed potluck

a few weeks ago we decided to have a potluck lunch since whitney just got back from pilgrimage to israel with her husband jacob:



they set up a slideshow for us to watch while we ate middle eastern themed foods in kat's studio:



i brought this really good rice and chickpeas dish, whitney made yummy falafels, our intern sheena made an amazing salad and kat made pomegranate drinks and the best baklava i've ever had (well, the only baklava i've ever had...but it was awesome).



whitney's photographs were just the icing on the cake; they were beautiful. the food was delicious and it made me realize that i could probably be vegetarian if i really wanted to (don't know how i'd get over my love for chicken, though).

d*s biz ladies meet-up: recap

the d*s biz ladies meet-up was fantastic! each of the speakers gave tons of helpful tips and advice about having a small art/design-related business. grace was kind enough to put a bunch of notes in PDF form on her website, so check those out.

at the event there were plently of snacks and sweets to eat:



grace stood on a chair to get everyone's attention:



here's kat about to give her second talk. each of the speakers gave their talk four times since there were four groups that switched around the room every 25 minutes:



and here i am with grace. i felt like a total fan girl nerd but she was a total sweetheart about it:



after the event we decided to eat out at rocket to venus where we knew our new intern sheena was working. she kindly took a picture of all of us at the table (at this point we had called our boys to come over to the restaurant to meet us):



and then cory took a picture of kat, sheena, and myself (we're just missing whitney--she was sick!):



it was a great night.