Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ring A Ding

Well, there it is...

The ring has a 1/2 ctw asscher-cut center stone with side baguettes, set in white gold (without rhodium coating to maintain a more vintage-gunmetal look to the ring). One more cool thing? The diamonds are manmade.
A few words on that:
I really have no business being preachy. I own (vintage) fur, eat meat, and frequently leave yoga early so I could check my bids on Ebay. But if I'm permitted one socially-conscious vanity, I'm against the diamond trade. Even if regulations have been recently imposed on it, the history of the market is abhorrent and I didn't want to be part of that history. NRM is even more passionately anti-diamond mining, thus it surprised me that this is a diamond ring.

Originally I had wanted a pearl ring, which I spent a lot of time dropping outrageously unsubtle hints about ("Wait, you were serious about that??" he said, after the fact, "That wasn't some phase??"), because I thought NRM would never go for a diamond. But he circumvented DeBeers because these diamonds are cultured, meaning grown in a lab, by a company called Apollo. They are also called "synthetic" diamonds, which makes them sound fake, but they are chemically identical to regular diamonds--they are real. So this a tiny point of political consciousness on our part, and while we'd never begrudge anyone who goes with traditional natural gemstones, we did want to encourage knowledge and awareness about this option and support the industry. PS: NRM had them model the ring after a Harry Winston design, only the original had an emerald-cut center stone and this one is an asscher cut.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Last NY Red Bulls Game


Giants Stadium is cinematic when it's mostly empty in a torrential downpour.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Cat's Envelopes (sample round)

I'm doing the envelopes for lovely Cat & Dan's upcoming nuptials (in France!), so I sent them a few samples. This is the outer envelope with simple Copperplate, done on a diagonal. (Although it has no real relationship to the script, I love the Yosemite National Park commemorative stamp.)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Thank You Card: La Dolce Vita

This is a thank-you post card I made a few years ago on letterpress. It was actually pretty labor-intensive: whenever you want to change colors on the press, you have to clean the press, mix the new color (and by the way, pantone inks on the mixing palette look nothing like how they will eventually print--you have to pay close attention to ratios), re-ink the press, and re-register everything (this is also why when you get custom letterpress, the price increases exponentially from one- to two-color to three-color process). I have a stack of "dummy" versions of this card due solely to registration issues. Nevertheless, I love the work of letterpress and so enjoyed making this one. The backside is blank.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Remembering "Domino"

Oh how I miss you so. Who else puts a dog on the cover of a shelter magazine?
Alas, they left a real hole in the world of shelter magazines, which essentially fall into two categories: decorating for people who don't have to do laundry or vacuum or wash dishes and thereby can have $300,000 white angora carpeting and $50,000 worth of china on open carrera marble shelves (Architectural Digest), or it is for people who are very handy with drill-bits and easybake frosting (Country Living). Since Domino's departure, there isn't anything that speaks to people who want a nice home but still have that place be home, and provides approachable inspiration on how to improve one's decor that doesn't involve millions of dollars. Or glitter.
The sad part about Domino's case is that the magazine had a loyal following with healthy subscription rates. It closed because of low advertising revenue. Now, I understand that's a reality of the publishing world, but it's crummy for the consumer.

And there still isn't. I gotta say, I was overjoyed to see that former Domino editors started Lonny, an online shelter "magazine" (Check it out, they've done an amazing job: http://www.lonnymag.com/), but it's just not the same. What can I say? I'm eternally a paper-in-my hands girl. Once the economy turns around, please bring it back?

Saturday, July 25, 2009

JJ's Table Numbers

My friend JJ asked me to make the table numbers for her wedding--such an honor. Each one is made from a 9x12 cardstock, folded in half, and stands vertically, like a greeting card.

I did illustrations on the outside that referenced things about the couple (their hobbies, hometown, colleges, etc) and on the inside, we came up with prompts for the guests such as "advice for the bride and groom" or "places the bride and groom should travel to in their lifetime."



The best thing about the project is that materials-wise, it's relatively inexpensive. We bought two pads of 9x12 bristol online for about $4 bucks each and I used 3 pens for the drawings: a thin pentel unisco micro-tip, a thin-felt tip for the first layer of the numbers, and then a sharpie to darken the numbers. The total was less than $20.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Moving Card

A very simple card I made ages ago on my old, uncleaned Remington typewriter (hence the gritty typeface). It reads "interlopers welcome" on a yellow A4 card and my new address was on the back.