Posted on June 3, 2016 by sproutspress

Save the date, the Paper Fair is just around the corner!

Join myself and a curated selection of other paper vendors for the second Paper Fair!! Last year was fantastic, this year is going to be even better!! There will be illustrators, card designers, snail mail enthusiasts and local stationers vending their wares! Not to mention that the whole thing takes place in the beautiful and historic First Post Office!

What: Paper Fair!
When: Thursday June 16, 2016 6pm – 9pm
Where: Toronto’s First Post Office, 260 Adelaide Street East, Toronto

For more info and to see this years vendors, go here.

Studio Sunday (on a Monday): Mobile Ink Factory

Posted on May 30, 2016 by sproutspress

Today I’m going to talk about yesterday in the studio. Actually, I’m going to talk about yesterday outside of the studio, creating in a different space, in a different way.

This past weekend was doors open here in Toronto, it’s an opportunity to get a glimpse into buildings (or spaces/ideas) not normally open to the public. I had the chance to participate in just one tour. Opting for an ‘open air’ tour rather than a ‘doors open’ tour, I checked out the Mobile Ink Factory that was setup only for the weekend!

If you’ve been following along for a while, you know my interest in using and testing natural dyes on paper, like my Indigo post. So when this ink-making tour/event came up, you know that I was pretty eager!!It ran along the west Toronto Railpath, and was led by the folks at The Toronto Ink Company and DeRail. An informative walk taught us about the natural and man-made materials that can be used in ink-making along the railpath. That’s right, this wasn’t just an ink-making tour (which in itself is pretty awesome), it was a tour detailing materials found exclusively on the West railpath that can be made into ink!!
After the walk, everyone emptied their bags of collected finds (there are rules to foraging responsibly on the railpath, I’ll list them below). Then we sorted them, mixing and matching with everyone else’s finds, into possible ink recipes.
In the end, I made a beautifully deep and intense black ink. It’s made from the charcoal dust of burned virginia creeper, mixed with water and gum arabic. Of course, the folks from Japanese Paper Place were there to help guide ink testing on paper. Because who does paper better than JPP?? This was my kind of day!!

Three rules of thumb for foraging (as per the Mobile Ink Factory handout):

Harvest from the second patch (don’t pick the only instance of something).
Harvest only the top third (don’t pull the whole plant, let it keep growing).
Leave the space better (pick up trash along the way).

Thanks to all the folks who worked so hard to make this happen, we all had a great time!

Calligraphy Class

Posted on February 9, 2015 by sproutspress

Day 125/365

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a calligraphy class at The Paper Place on Queen St. West here in Toronto. It was an Intro to Calligraphy class, so we started with pencil and worked through to a straight nib holder and finally onto the oblique holder. Back in January I posted about practicing my calligraphy with a fountain pen. That was a more traditional hand, the Chancery Italic hand. This workshop focused more on contemporary calligraphy and the finding our own hand. We learned the basics on how to properly use the tools and achieve the bold/thin lines. Instructor Lisa of Post Calligraphy was encouraging and inspirational, and so full of talent! It was a great collection of ladies; all creative in our own ways and eager to learn and cheer each other on. Big Thanks to Ashley of Quaintrelle.ca for organizing, to check out her blog post about the class, go here.