January | 2016 | Kenspeckle Letterpress

Archive for January, 2016

It’s only been eight months

Posted January 23, 2016 by Marian

Eight months since I posted here! I used to lament about the extent to which Facebook had eaten some of my favorite blogs, and I think that’s what has happened here as well. Not that we’re anyone’s favorite but we do a new print, or Janelle falls off a ladder and I post about it on Facebook instead of here. So here is a catch-up post for people who don’t (and believe me, I admire you!) do FB.

2015’s Trapper’s Daughter was the big new print of the spring. Kind of a sequential follow-up to Close Reach, this one is called The Trapper’s Daughter and the Driftwood Fire.

Another new print from last year was this one: Spirits Raised. The original was created for a beer, naturally, Superior Trail IPA. It’s a kind of updated Melancholy Occurrence!

And a hit from the spring and summer was this one: Four Cedars – Brule River. Who doesn’t love a red canoe in the shade of some big old cedars?

This year’s heron for the Blue Heron Trading Company (downstairs from our studio) was one that we pulled out of our collective rear ends, but it turned out well. It’s an old paper cut of a heron that Rick did ages ago when he was into paper-cutting. I scanned it in and colored it digitally. We call it Jane’s Heron, for Jane Jenkins, owner of the store.

This piece was done as a fundraiser for the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory.

And this one was done as a tribute piece for Thom Storm, one of the presiding spirits (lots of spirits this year) behind the Chester Bowl ski area and its programs for kids. He retired this year.

Here’s a print, called Middle Watch, which I think is one of the most beautiful things Rick has done in a while. We’ve only brought it out in our studio store and on the web, but it got great responses during the holiday season and I’m hoping that Mr. Sparkle feels encouraged by that.

Meanwhile, back in September, our assistant, Janelle, fell off a ladder while scraping paint at her house and broke her kneecap. Turns out that a broken kneecap is one of the more difficult breaks to recover from, and she was on crutches for 12 weeks after surgery. We brought on an intern, Reggie Asplund, who works at Northern Waters Smokehaus, and has a press in his basement. He acted as her legs for a while, and helped around the shop. We’re encouraging him to start his own letterpress business and learn what he can from us. At this point Janelle is back at the press, and even better, she married her sweetheart, Ellen Turner, at the end of December!

As for me, I’m experimenting with a new series of dot prints. Here is the latest one, called Acclimating to a Higher Frequency, which I just finished this week. I don’t have it up here on the website yet, but should within a day or two.

Here’s another one, called 432 Echo

And right now, while things are quiet, we’re working on some new letterpress pieces and Rick just finished a lovely little wood engraving that we’ll bring out in the spring. I know there’s a new Trapper’s Daughter in the works and who knows what else we’ll come up with during this wonderful “hunker down” season.

We are as ever so appreciative of our wonderful DeWitt-Seitz community here in Canal Park. What a great village to work in every day. Hope to see you this summer. Tall Ships return this year in August!

Archive for January, 2016

A year in the life …

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