Young Wild & Three: Toddlers birthday party

                                           
Summer quickly turned into fall and suddenly a lot of party planning begins. Among the obvious, there was Maya’s third birthday to plan for too. I decided to do my own take on “Young Wild & Three”. I just love that fierce little slogan and couldn’t resist.

Italian Paper Choices to Devour

Paper choice - we’ve heard of and absolutely love Neenah, French and Mohawk and not to mention their amazing creative marketing teams behind their collateral products, but Italian paper is pretty fine too. Even if it can lack in assertiveness or edgy on-line appeal, they make up for in innovation and bare bones history and culture.
Italian paper innovation, print techniques and graphic design is a feast, buon appetito!

FABRIANO’S TAKE ON
LA CUCINA ITALIANA - REPRINT OF THEIR FIRST ED.
VIA FABRIANO BOUTIQUE

Letterpress Planner and Methods

Paper, thinking and writing come hand in hand in planners, notebooks, calendars, journals...  I wrote in an earlier post of the newest wave, the bullet journal, bringing note taking all together. It’s a creative and tidy method to put all your projects, to do lists, sketches, calendar of events into one place rather than having sheets of paper, numerous notebooks or even bookmarked links all over the place. What’s is more, you have more control over what goes into it.

i.e. ABOVE ALL, ME
CUSTOMIZED LETTERPRESS COVER - PLANNER

Letterpress Chalkboard :: Beer On A Curve

My recent explorations in chalkboard paper for a client has been satisfying. On an earlier post I wrote about making your own chalkboard paper rather than downloading a digital file. At first I started off with hand lettering and a paper wire bound construction for the drink menu, but with the client we thought it wouldn’t survive the wear and tear. Back to the drawing board...

MY VANDERCOOK MAKES BEER ON A CURVE

Papê :: A Pre-Cool Stationery Shop and Lab

We spent Sunday afternoon in Genova to visit friends Nora and Marco - aka Manolab. Nora has just ventured into opening Papê, a boutique stationery shop in Genova. It’s no ordinary card shop and showcases some fun & unique graphic design pieces as well as screen printed t-shirts and children's art books. I picked up the one and only children’s book illustrated by Saul Bass...

NORA & MARCO

PAPER FLOWER BOUQUET TO SEND VIA POST

Reminder Note & Letterpress Gift Idea :: Be Happy

A thoughtful reminder note and gift idea for your home, “Be Happy” during the holiday season and throughout the year! Happy Maker Station Market was created with the intention to highlight craft, design and their makers. We’ve opened up an online shop which we’ll be adding products to.

Pirouette Press has been collaborating with Paola Paoletti on limited textile print designs which are now on etsy. Letterpress printing on cloth isn’t easy, but we were pleasantly surprised at how well it worked for us on felt. This was also one of the first print jobs on the Vandercook!

LETTERPRESS FELT PILLOW | HANDPRINTED & HANDMADE IN ITALY

Happy Maker Station :: Secret to Happiness Revealed

Along with a host of original Italian craft, art and design, Happy Maker Station introduced a couple of dedicated products at the second annual event this year. Pirouette Press along with graphic designer Paola Paoletti created fleece wood type letterpress “Be Happy” pillows and printed cotton shopping bags. 

Here’s a mini diy: Vintage Milk Bottle Packaging
Use re-purposed tomato sauce bottles. Spray paint the lids, use cotton tape (or other decorative tape) and sticker (in our case, we used the HMS logo) to create a vintage type seal.

The bottles could be fun to re-use again in other imaginative ways. The pillows included a secret to happiness tag which read, “ La felicita sta in una bollincina - Happiness is in a bubble" (roughly translated) and bubble wrap overlay. Who doesn’t love the simple funny pleasures of popping bubble wrap?

A parallel prints on cloth laboratory was also conducted. The public could bring in a t-shirt or similar cloth for us to print on. Some of the stylists brought cloth to be eventually turned into their own creations. I can’t wait to see them!

A re-cap of Happy Maker Station 2014 / Italian creatives works here
photo credits: Lisa Di Sabato, Maker at HMS 2014

Happy Maker Station: A Maker’s Market, Takes a Second Look

Asleep at the wheel, not quite. Happy Maker Station takes a second look with a host of new creatives. I’m really excited to be collaborating with such talented people, and perhaps more than that, I love the chance at offering the public an alternative experience (true to my Austin, Texas spirit) in the bucolic north of Italy.

There’s textile, fine art, print & ecological design to be found. In addition, I’ve tried to introduce more home decor, demonstration and workshops.  Small brands and plenty of heart go into the products and making of the event. Local shops even lent a hand and allowed makers to give an anteprima (pre-show) in their shop windows. 

top left to right: Caterinette laboratorio/bottega, Korai - textile, Cobo lighting, Marcoantonio sculptor, Rama illustrator, ElimondHandMade eco design

24-25 maggio Mondovì, Italia

Publicity Foto Credit: Matteo Barberis

Creative Direction: Pirouette Press

Happy Maker Station II: Meet & Greet

Happy Maker Station II had a face to face (love off-screen time) meet & greet this week. There are new and interesting work by creatives to add to the event this year. Here we are KALATA’S co-working space.

Happy Maker Station Part II è un mercato creativo di prodotti con la targhetta “made in Italy”, materializzati dall'arricchimento delle idee dei creativi a Km 0 e 100% di passione. Questa è un'esperienza intima tra pubblico e maker, con creativi di varie tipologie, dalla stampa tradizionale al design, dalla moda all’arte. Nuovamente saremo nel centro storico di  Mondovì Piazza - un’accogliente location da valorizzare con l’aiuto di tutti, dove ognuno è protagonista.