Buckman school Art Show and Sell

Portlanders, don't miss this opportunity to browse and buy great wares from local artists while supporting the arts in elementary education. The annual Art Show & Sell is a fundraiser for Buckman Elemenary School, Portland's only Arts magnet program. Visit us March 6 & 7, 2009 at 320 SE 16th Ave. in Portland. It's a neighborhood tradition! http://www.buckmanelementary.org/artsale/

Decisons, Decisions

Yesterday I made the momentous decision not to attend the 2009 National Stationery Show in New York. It was a hard decision to make. I have only ever just barely broken even on the show, but it has always felt like a necessary part of maintaining a presence in the stationery trade. It is just so far to travel from the west coast, and accommodations in New York are so expensive. All of my friends, who are extraordinary people with ordinary jobs, live out in the boroughs in tiny little apartments, and anyway, I'm too old to be sleeping on their floors. Yes, it is great to see my east coast reps. It is great to see the faces of all of those east coast buyers, but that's just the problem. It's all so east coast, and I am so far away from that, and a lot of those east coast accounts have been really, really, sluggishly slow to pay their accounts. The ones that are still in business, I mean.

SO, I am now of course terrified that the bottom will drop out of my business because I have dropped out of the show. I guess only time will tell. I have decided instead to go to the American Craft Retailer Exposition in Las Vegas, May 31 through June 2. It's just a heck of a lot cheaper to exhibit there, and to travel, and everything else. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Holiday Events

It's been a busy November! Wordstock was tons of fun, and it was also great to attend the annual conference of the Publishers Association of the West here in Portland. I saw so many people from the past (you know who you are!), I kept falling into a time warp and forgetting where I was.

There is a lot to look forward to still in December. The first couple weeks will be crazy with craft fairs and open houses. If you're in Portland, be sure to visit me at one of these great events:

Portland Prints! First Thursday at City Hall
Thursday, December 4th from 5-7PM
1221 SW 4th, Portland
Join us at City Hall for a celebration and showcase of Portland printers. Artwork will be on display for the month of December, but if you want to shop, you'll have to come on Thursday evening.

Troy Artist's Studios Open House
Friday, December 5th from 5-9PM
Saturday, December 6th from 11AM-6PM
222 SE 10th Avenue, Portland
Visit over 20 local artist studios in one stop at this annual event. Oh, and don't forget to visit Letterary Press while you are here!

Oregon Historical Society's 41st Annual Holiday Cheer:
A Celebration of Oregon Authors and Artists
Sunday, December 7th from Noon–5PM
1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland
Visit with dozens of Portland authors and artists. Letterary Press will be hawking cards (as always) and providing a letterpress demonstration on our little tabletop Kelsey.

Winter Hadmade Bazaar @ p:ear
Sunday, December 14th from Noon-5PM
338 NW 6th Avenue, Portland
A Portland DIY tradition. Don't miss it!

New catalogs are here!

I just love the irony of my wholesale catalog. It's an offset-printed catalog of letterpress goods. Of course, if I tried to print the catalog on one of my platen presses with accurate (or close to accurate) color and registration, it would take the rest of my life. So... offest it is! If you're on the mailing list, you can expect to get one any day now. At 16 pages, it's four pages heavier than last year. Be sure to check out the new line of coil-bound journals. I'm really excited about these, and of course all the new quotation cards, in which witty women figure more prominently than they did last year.

Recycling Day

I don't take out the recycling very often. It may seem like a small thing, but it's an Odyssian journey. It means maneuvering a 30-gallon plastic garbage can full of paper onto a handtruck and rolling it clear to the other end of the building where the freight elevator is, where I fumble around with keys for a while before getting it loaded. Then, because there an no riders allowed on the freight elevator, I walk up the smelly back stairway (hunting for light switches, fumbling again for keys) and meet the freight elevator on the loading dock. From there, it's a two block walk, outside in the freezing rain, to the main entrance of the building, where the recycling containers are, and where, if I'm lucky, the recycling containers aren't already stuffed full.

So it's something I only do every couple months or so, which is probably good. It forces me to be very stingy about what I recycle. Forces me to reuse as much as I possibly can. Or so I tell myself, but who am I kidding? All it really enforces is a slovenly mess. There comes a point at which even I can't stand the squalor, can't keep wading through the paper scraps, and I take the recycling out. Today was one of those days. It's a good feeling. I ought to do it more often. And I probably won't.

It's one of those chores that it's hard to find time for. What I need is a printer's devil. Someone to put away the furniture, and oil the presses, and sweep the floors, and take out the recycling. Wouldn't that be nice?