Best Made Axe Co.

I might be a lot slow to all this is Best Made, such as their awesome repurposed maps, but I love their axes! Created by Peter Buchanan-Smith, a graphic designer by trade, and his friend Graeme Cameron, they also strive to make other simply made, but beautifully designed products, and also carry striking photos by Adrian Gaut, and their OSHA approved First Aid Kit.

I seriously would get one of their axes and frame it to hang on the wall!

(images from Best Made)

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Chakra Pennywhistle

I love, love, when people repurpose materials in unique, but smart ways. And Chakra Pennywhistle has done just that.

Their new line of Moneybag Wallets takes vintage money bags as the material, and repurposed them as wallets with a billfold with 2 credit card sections. And the age and condition of these bags only adds to the character, pretty cool.

(images from Chakra Pennywhistle)

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Coolest Boys Wallpaper

I was reading decor8/Holly Becker's post today on PaperBoy Wallpaper out of the UK, and I just want to kiss her for that post! I LOVE LOVE LOVE their shadow puppet wallpaper. I don't even have a little boy, but think it would be so fun and refreshing to have on a wall.

Thanks for the find Holly!

ps - you can currently purchase their wallpapers from Not on the High Street.

(image from Not on the High Street)

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Paper Pastries

I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret, the designer of Paper Pastries, at Renegade in Los Angeles this year. She has a really cute line of products made with stamps designed by her.

I'm a great fan of her Communication - Signed, Sealed, Delivered Stationery Set, as well as her labels and bookplates. Can't wait to see more of her work!

(images from Paper Pastries)

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Handmade Wallpapers

I wanted to do another roundup of handmade wallpapers, for your visual enjoyment.

Utilizing various techniques (screenprinting, hand blocking, painting), these wallpapers are art themselves.

Nama Rococo (Hand painted and hand screened wallpaper):

Random Geometry

Chateau 66

Alan The Gallant (thru Gallant Tales):

Topo Choco (Limited Edition Wallpaper)

Topo Azul (Limited Edition Wallpaper)

Grow House Grow by Katie Deedy (via Shelteriffic):

Aleister Crowley in Felt Leaf

Christopher in Thistle

Studio Printworks (specializing in handprinted wallpapers):

Trellis

Les Papilllions

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Treatzone Update

Back in April I had done a post on Treatzone's art show, Familiar Dreams.

In the post, I had mentioned how I coveted their lightboxes, and have now come to discover that they have them for sale on their etsy site. Yea!!!!! I love the middle one, aka "The Conductor".

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Renegade Craft Fair - Los Angeles

Whew! I'm still pooped from Renegade last weekend!

It was great to meet so many people who's work I've seen everywhere, and also to put a face to the name.

Here's a few of the fun folks I saw:

Paper Pastries

Erin Dollar

Sycamore Street Press

Dee and Lala

And of course, there were many many more! If you ever get a chance, you must visit a Renegade event, if only to see some of this great work in person. And of course, to support handmade work.

I should have some of my new products that debuted at Renegade up in the shop soon......

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Postalco

Sorry for the wee bit of an absence.....unfortunately the day job comes a calling.

But to get right back into gear, I wanted to tell you about the ever so cool Postalco.

Originally hailing from Brooklyn, Postalco is a now Japan-based, lifestyle accessories brand - bags, wallets, and of course their ever so cool papergoods.

Best known for the spiral bound notebooks, with flat cotton pressed covers, these notebooks are slowly becoming easier to find (At the Cooper-Hewitt and Auto shops in NY, as well Tortoise in Los Angeles), but are well worth the work of tracking them down.

One of their coolest, most recent projects, is their designs for Opening Ceremony, which is are based on Japanese Temple Geometry. This limited line is only available at Opening Ceremony stores and the Postalco shop in Japan, but are fortunately available online on OC's website.

Here's some of Postalco's great designs (leather and paper!):

And their work for Opening Ceremony:

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Treatzone

I've been following the work that was going into Treatzone' s art show, Familiar Dreams.

What intrigued me was being able to see some work beyond the printmaking work they are known for.  And I must say, I'm really liking their photo light boxes, and wink wink, nudge nudge, I hope they'll add some of them to t

heir Etsy shop!

(image from Treatzone.com)

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All Things Laser Cut

Since I enjoyed digging up items for all things walnut, I wanted to look further into other materials and methods that Etsy sellers have been working with, and decided to look at all things laser cut:

First off, we have The Brass Menagerie's golden feather necklace ($40).
A very simple and elegant looking piece. Made of brass (though I'm unsure what the chain is made of), I'd love to see it in other metals as well.



Broken Toy Shop has a novel laser cut postcard for sale - the Pop.Dot Postcard ($8).
The plywood postcard is full of perforated small dots, that you can punch out to make your own message or design. Sample patterns and tracing sheets are included as well.


Megan Auman has some great, laser cut, powder coated steel storage bins ($180).
While they are a big pricey, she has other nice laser cut pieces, such as jewelry, as well.


Infrared Studio has a simple anchor piece ($30) in silver which is striking as well - especially since so many designers seem to lean towards laser cut acrylic.

We'll be looking for more laser cut work out there - especially in the paper and furniture/design realm, so check back soon for more discoveries.

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Athenaeum Press

I've said it before, but I love type - old type, letterpress type, advertising type. When I stumble across others that have found ways to share their love of type, it can be very inspiring.
Athenaeum Press, which is run by Peder Singleton has her own collection of Urban Typography, embracing in a way that Douglas Wilson does (he has a link to his urban typography photos on flickr), but taking it one step further......Taking photos of typography, they have been manipulated so that letterpress prints could be reproduced from the images. A really lovely to preserve some of these artworks and signs that are slowly being demolished.

The prints can be bought here.
(PS There's also a great intro to letterpress on their site, complete with an interactive press that you can click on)

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Set Editions

I love, love, love Set Editions foil stamped, chipboard postcards.

I hoard them just to hang on the wall. Their design is so simple, striking and clean.

Most people who have seen their products are familiar with their Cardstock set - a box of 40 cards to cover you for any occasion (way better than any set of cards you could find at any old card shop).

Since I've only seen a few of their items in stores, a little look see on the website showed all that is currently available, including their letterpressed cards, such as the Morse Code one above and gift tags as well. Definitely worth checking out.

(All images from Set Editions)

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Another Great Letterpress Calendar

Pedlar's website had been updated for the holidays with some great gift ideas, where I discovered the lovely letterpress calendar by Harrington & Squires.

This handmade calendar is printed in black and red ink, and features perforated days, that can be torn off as used. A wooden clothes pin clips onto the calendar to mark the day.
All comes packaged in a nice, graphic package. A clean design and unique calendar indeed!

(images from Harrington & Squires)

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