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A glorious day in Shirakawago, an old village designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We stayed at one of the old Gassho-zukuri" farmhouse and explored the small village all day. I snuck in 1/2 hour sketch sessions here and there... so happy!

A beautiful day at Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. Flowers in bloom everywhere. A group of ladies in blue uniforms picking weeds at the moss garden. So picturesque that I had to sketch these lovely ladies working quietly...

Today we visited Mr. Iwano Ichibei, a paper maker who was awarded the rank of Intangible Cultural Property, the highest honor in Japan for the arts. He lives in the quiet hamlet of Echizen, a village that has been making paper for over 1200 years. Frank and brisk, Mr. Iwano showed us his paper-making, the process that his ancestors developed over the centuries. Now 83 years old and ninth generation paper-maker with this name, he is working with his son. His motto that he learned from his father: "Never cut corners". Gathering courage I showed him my work and hesitantly asked him if he could make paper for me. He looked and nodded. So I think I'll be working with him in a near future!!!

Day 1 of my Japan trip. Guided by my stepson, Sosha Smith, we're exploring the Tohoku region that was devastated by the 2011 tsunami. Here are the view of the Matsushima Bay today and the image of my blockprint. Six years ago, I carved and printed 1500 blockprints (sold out) of this incredible bay with 260 islands. Our 100% donation was used to aid with the recovery effort in Tohoku region. (Thankfully these small picturesque islands protected the area of Matsushima from the tsunami disasters). Today the rebuilding efforts continue slowly, from building new roads and creating higher embankments against a future tsunami, to remaking the small coastal communities that had lost too many lives. Heartbreakingly beautiful and sad . . . beyond words.

Here is our Sosha, who first came to the Tohoku tsunami area with his sister Tamara, immediately after the disaster. Here he's showing us the lower beach area where once there was a thriving fishing community before the 15-meter tsunami engulfed it. Now it's just dirt, half-built roads, and a bunch of construction trucks there. Since the initial recovery efforts, Sosha has continued to travel to the area from his Tokyo home and to help with the reconstruction efforts. Now living in Minamisanriku in Tohoku-region, he has been working closely with the communities in the region and is actively operating a Nature-Education program called Earth Camp. http://www.ceco.jp/ec/ I have to admit I'm a very proud step-mom of these amazing individuals! 

“This is the personal printing press that belonged to Elbert Hubbard,” explained Curt Maranto, as he toured me through the printing room at Roycroft Campus in the village of East Aurora, half-an-hour outside of Buffalo, New York.  The old iron-hand press stood there, covered in dust. It seemed ready to be cleaned and oiled, to be put to a good use once again. Curt is a member of the Roycroft Campus Corporation (http://www.roycroftcampuscorp.com) that has been instrumental in bringing back the Roycroft campus to its original glory. 

And Copper Shop is filled with quality handcrafted items and gifts. The Shop carries our letterpress note cards and block prints also.  If you’re in the area, please stop by and browse their excellent selection of our prints. (As a matter of fact, the shop still has one matted and one framed “When Poppies Bloom” print. This print has been sold out on our website.)

East Aurora is only half-hour from Buffalo, New York. If you’re ever in the area — whether you’re sightseeing Niagara Falls or touring through another Arts & Crafts gem in the area, Darwin E. Martin House by Frank Lloyd Wright (which by the way is undergoing a 60-million-dollars restoration and is absolutely stunning!) — I highly recommend a nice visit to the Roycroft Campus and enjoy an overnight stay or a delightful lunch at the historic Inn. 

I recently came across a TED Talk by Lkshmi Pratury on the lost art of letter writing. She speaks of the connection she was able to keep with her father through old letters after he passed away. It is a wonderfully captivating video and I fully recommend watching it. 

The hand written letter offers a tactile connection between sender and receiver which is lost when the message is sent digitally via email or text. In a hand written letter, the intention and care is evident in the curve of a letter looped across the page. Set to the task of sifting through old emails in our inboxes, how long would we last before being fed up with boredom? Confronted with a box of old letters however, we become lost in the ink on the pages, able to sink into them for hours. 

It may not be the fastest or most efficient form of communication, but a letter is not something that can be lost into the depths of your inbox or in the next software update. It is a way to show the care and intention from one person to another.

It is this tactile connection from sender to receiver that we wish to share with our customers. We lovingly design and print our notecards so that they enhance your everyday life, to make the mundane special and spectacular. So I urge you to write more letters. To find a friend or loved one that lives across the country or even across the street and write them a letter and show them that you care. 

While I admit that the irony of this article being posted on a digital blog is blatantly obvious to me, I would like to note that its ideas originated from ink and paper, lovingly written by hand in my looping, un-spell checked writing. 

Today marks the beginning steps of restoration on our 20th Century Reliance Iron Hand Press. Those of you who have visited the shop may have seen the disassembled press in the corner. It’s been our wish to get the press back into working order for quite a while and now we’re finally beginning the process! 

Day one began with a consultation with the wonderful Carl Montford who has restored a number of iron hand presses in the past and will be our guide to making sure we get the press back together in one piece. 

The good news from Carl? We have successfully moved the press twice without losing any of the original parts, and the frame is still in good, sturdy condition. 

The bad news from Carl? There’s a lot of rust on the frame of the press that will need to be removed and to do so, we'll need lots of elbow grease. 

A quick run down of the process ahead:
Step one will be to move the press away from the wall to its final resting place so it is easier to clean. Then comes the de-rusting process. A long and very dirty task, this will probably take up most of our time. Next the press gets a fresh coat of paint and and some sparkly gold leaf on the lettering up top. Restoration of the wooden fixtures of the press comes next. Then finally it’s on to assembly day. 

Thanks to the generosity of the Spadeworks Tacoma Creative Enterprise Tier Three Grant, we are able to dedicate our time and energy into the restoration of this piece of history. 

Press Specs:
Press Type: 20th Century Reliance Iron Hand Press
Model: 1A
Serial No.: 1275
Patented: 1895 by W.M. A. Field Co., Chicago, Illinois 
Weight: 1,300 lbs.
Footprint: H: 5.5” x L: 4” x W: 2.5”

(The Wonderful Carl Montford, our restoration guide.) 

(Carl pointing out to us the excessive rusting on the top of the frame while holding the prized bag of smaller excess parts)

(One day all this rust will be replaced with new paint and a shiny gold leaf on the lettering.)