paper tiger

notes from home & doe bay

2011-12-04T02:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a project I am very proud to be a part of: Notes from Home

Notes from Home in the simplest of terms is a house show series. The shows take place in living rooms in and around Seattle. The audio is multi-tracked live. Photographers are invited to come shoot the show. And a few songs of each set are recorded to video by Tyler Kalberg and Dylan Priest. Now that the site is up and running, you can listen to (and download!) that audio, you can look at the photos, and you can watch the videos. It's pretty incredible.

I was lucky to design both the logo and do the majority of the type work for the site and videos. I'm very, very happy with how it's all come out and I couldn't be more proud of Tyler, Dylan, and Zach for putting this all together.

I also helped organize show #3, with Damien Jurado, John Vanderslice, and Colin Reynolds. I sang with Jurado and Vanderslice, and one of my songs with Vanderslice made it into the video section. You can watch that here (it's the second song of three, but you should watch the whole thing):

I also mentioned a few posts back that I sang with Vanderslice at Doe Bay Fest on Orcas Island this past August. We filmed a Doe Bay Session for Northwest music blog Sound on the Sound (also shot by Tyler Kalberg), and here's the result of that:

case studies - "lies"

2011-11-06T17:43:00.001-08:00

While Paper Tiger goings-on are slow, here's a piece of news I forgot to share earlier. Local Seattle photographers Kyle Johnson, Andrew Waits, and Miles Burnett made a music video earlier this year for a local band called Case Studies. The video is shot from the point of view of the singer, Jesse, as he goes on the same date over and over again with different girls. I was fortunate enough to work with these guys as one of the girls in the video, and I share that role with a whole heap of talented ladies from Seattle (including Melodie Knight from Campfire OK, and photographers April Brimer and Aya Sato, to name just a few). And if you look closely, you might just spot a familiar sweater.

where in the world is paper tiger?

2011-10-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends. It's been a little quiet in this space as of late, I know! It's high time I provided an explanation.

Arts and crafts are a huge part of what I do, but I am an academic as well. Earlier this year, sometime in the spring, I was getting ready to finish up my master's degree in TESOL (that's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and feeling restless, I decided to apply for English teaching jobs abroad. Well, I was offered a few, and so I have relocated to Debrecen, Hungary for the 2011-2012 academic year to teach at the university. My new job takes up quite a bit of my time and energy, leaving less time for the various art projects I usually have going on.

But never fear! That does not mean that I'm not working on any projects. I still have some design things on the horizon, and I'll be doing quite a bit of knitting and crafting over the course of the year. I'm hoping to finally work on a few of the knitting patterns I've been meaning to write for months (or years). I will continue to post about arts and crafts and music happenings. And next summer, when the year is over, I'll be headed back home to Seattle.

If you have any interest in my Hungarian adventure, you can read about it and see lots (and lots) of photos right here:
greathungarianplain.wordpress.com

And in the meantime, here are a few recent happenings:

I performed at Doe Bay Fest on Orcas Island in Washington with my old friend John Vanderslice, and it was an immensely good time. I might have something to share with you in the next few weeks. Until then, this is a photo of me and John by the supremely talented Lori Paulson, taken at the festival.

On a trip down to San Francisco this summer, I made sure to swing by Vanderslice's studio Tiny Telephone to see the new B Room, Minitel. Having shot the A Room last summer, I had to shoot the B Room too! You can see all my Minitel photos here.

My first knitting project in Hungary: this is Knitted Bliss's Stockholm Scarf

I had some WA Home shirts printed for my art show in June, and there are still a few available through Luckyhorse Industries.

Check for more here soon. Promise!

inspiration: books and pdx

2011-07-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

This summer has been surprisingly full of travel, and I'm only just getting around to projects that have been on the to-do list. In the meantime, I've been totally in awe of two new projects by Portland-based illustrators/authors.

My friend Amy Martin recently relocated to Portland from Los Angeles. This coincided with the release of her new children's book, Symphony City, by McSweeney's.

Amy's illustration is hugely inspiring for me - her work is saturated with color and her graphic style is appealing and very well-suited for everything from music posters to (you guessed it) children's books. What impresses me the most about her latest project is that she also wrote the book herself, and great children's literature is deceptively difficult. If you get a chance, pick up a copy from your local bookstore (it's also available on amazon.com).

Another huge inspiration at the moment is the new project of Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and Decemberists illustrator (and wife of Colin) Carson Ellis. I have long loved Carson's work, and so it's been incredible to see what she's come up with for their new book Wildwood, the first in a series of books known as the Wildwood Chronicles. Colin is authoring the texts, and Carson is illustrating. You can preview the first four chapters via the Wildwood website now. I think I'm most excited to see all of the illustrations Carson has come up with.

on home and community

2011-03-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Many people have a lot of pride for their hometown or their home state - I grew up in North Carolina and even though I haven't lived there for several years, I still carry around a little replica of the state's silhouette on my keychain. It reminds me to think about home. But there's more than one meaning to that one word: home. There's the home you came from, and then there's the home you choose. The home you make for yourself. The friends you surround yourself with who, while they may not be your blood relatives, are like your family. Washington state is that home for me, and I've noticed that folks around here have a lot of Washington pride (myself included). Seattle is a city with a pretty sizable population of transplants; I know plenty of folks who uprooted their lives and moved out here to take a chance on Seattle. And we may not have grown up with Mariners baseball or the Kingdome or Fisher and West on the radio in the morning, but we love this city all the same.

Last fall my friends Damien and Sarah were spending some time with me after they got home from tour. I'd started making my "hello" maps, and after Damien saw one and proclaimed "that's awesome!", he said, "You should make one that's Washington State and just says 'home.'" Friends, let this be evidence of Damien's genius.

Now, remember when I was talking about the home you choose, and the friends that are you like your family? Damien and Sarah are that for me. Without going into all the boring details, they were there for me at a time when I needed them immensely, and I wanted to give them something meaningful for Christmas. I remembered Damien's Washington "home" suggestion and came up with two things: the sign and the sticker you see below:

Damien put the sticker on his guitar. My friends immediately began asking for stickers and signs of their own. I only made nine signs, but I kept making stickers, and those are available via Luckyhorse Industries. As you can see at the top of this post, the graphic from the sign is now on T-shirts - the lyrics came from a song by our friends The Head and the Heart and they recently approached me about putting it on some shirts exclusively for their two upcoming Seattle shows. I was thrilled to oblige (and happily, Luckyhorse Industries also printed the shirts).

My friend Abbey from local music blog Sound on the Sound loved the WA home stickers so much, she got the design tattooed on her arm:

I have been trying to write this post for weeks now, and failing, because this feeling of home is so much bigger than just a few friends. There's a strong feeling of community in Seattle right now, which has been much discussed and written about (check out the March issue of City Arts Magazine for some examples). I'm just grateful to be part of such an inspiring community and I can't wait to spend some time behind the merch table at the Head and the Heart's sold out Showbox gig tomorrow night, meeting people who love this community and this state just as much as we do.

on hand lettering

2011-03-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

In a world dominated by almost infinite type, the art of hand lettering has lost some of the prevalence it once held. From time to time it's possible to become disenchanted with even your most favorite typefaces (I am certainly guilty of this) - the uniformity becomes overbearing. The uniqueness of handmade lettering helps it escape that fate, but the best hand lettering doesn't look "handmade," either. When someone compliments my lettering by saying that they "love the font," I consider it a job well done. I have focused increasingly on hand lettering in my work in the past few years, and I recently got a chance to put my skills into action for some larger projects.

In December, Red Kettle Records approached me about doing some lettering for the album artwork of the then-upcoming Youth Rescue Mission album. In the end my lettering made it onto not just the front cover, but also the back, for the track titles.

Another project that came up was for my friend Sarah Jurado. Having managed her husband Damien's career for some time, Sarah announced early this year that she would also be managing the band Viva Voce and launching Lightness Management to cover her managing duties. Sarah asked me to create a logo for this new venture, and I was more than happy to oblige. The end product is a little sleeker than the Youth Rescue Mission work, but they both started off as pencil sketches on paper. There's something deeply satisfying about that process, and I'm looking forward to doing more lettering like this on future projects.

inspiration: hum creative

2011-02-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of talented design studios in Seattle, and one of my larger inspirations of late is Hum Creative. Kate Harmer has a style that is bright and clean and full of character, which translates well in both print and web. She has a serious flair for typography, and I think her work is showcased especially well when letterpress printed. Being a sucker for good typography and letterpress myself, it's no wonder she's a favorite.

Logo & business cards for Seattle photographer/creative manager Sarah Jurado

Wedding invitations for Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel

Some of my favorite projects of Kate's are her interactive ones. What Comes To Mind? "instructs viewers to make connections between the image and the letter printed over it" via a series of photos removed from context. Each photo is juxtaposed with a letter of the alphabet and a lined card for viewers to write down their associations.

Another favorite interactive project is Methods Employed, a collaborative list of methods people have suggested for creative endeavors. It's full of (as the name would suggest) methods, advice, ideas, and general thoughts on the creative process. I enjoyed reading through the list and even added a few myself!

Kate's a talented illustrator too, and I fully recommend checking out her full portfolio.

inspiration: EF language programs

2011-02-16T21:50:00.001-08:00

It's not terribly often that my interests in art/design and linguistics/language teaching overlap, but here's a case where they have quite beautifully. EF language programs put together a series of videos advertising their "live the language" approach to language learning. The entire team that worked on these did a stunning job - the photography on its own is gorgeous, but it's the typography here that really won me over. Type done well says more than many other aspects of design can do. Watch their video for French below, and be sure to check out their others for Spanish, English, and Chinese.

new vinyl pieces

2011-01-26T19:42:00.001-08:00

Remember those maps I mentioned a few weeks ago? They're finally available! Take a peek below and go HERE for more info or to purchase them.

beautiful angle

2011-01-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm a longtime fan of anything letterpressed, and while I've been making posters and doing other design for years, there are a few tangible design mediums I haven't yet had a lot of experience with. Letterpress is one of those, and the other week I finally got a chance to see the process in person (and even help out a little bit!).

Beautiful Angle is a letterpress studio in Tacoma, WA run by Lance Kagey that's constantly turning out really wonderful stuff. Once a month, Lance and writer Tom Llewellyn (along with friends and collaborators) make a run of posters to put up around Tacoma. On top of the monthly Beautiful Angle posters, Lance often does posters for events in the area. I got a chance to look through the huge backlog of posters they've built up while we worked on pressing some posters for upcoming Wintergrass. I couldn't help grabbing a few photos while down there...

Some custom letters Lance designed himself.

The portion of the Wintergrass posters we were pressing that night.

Lance's gorgeous vintage letterpress.

Letterpress is an art that's tangible in a way that many things in our lives aren't anymore. In such a digital age I find it refreshing to work with my hands and it helps me really appreciate the physical result of such a time-tested craft. I'm looking forward to spending more time with this medium in the future.

Posters drying.

And here are just a few examples of the work Beautiful Angle has done:

vinyl art

2011-01-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've recently had the opportunity to work in a new medium - plastic! I've been designing pieces made with computer cut vinyl which I can either apply to acrylic or glass as self-contained art pieces, or the vinyl can be applied to other surfaces like a sticker. It's more of a commercial medium than I'm used to but it's been a lot of fun to play around with and I have some vinyl-related projects in the works. Check back for more info on that soon... for now, here are a few of the things I've been making!

"Hello" - series of U.S. maps in different colors/patterns (these will be for sale soon)

"Kjøkkenet" means "kitchen" in Norwegian.

Words are from a song by my friends The Head and the Heart.

And Alex Crick got a great shot of one of the stickers I made, which you can see here. My friend Damien stuck it straight on his guitar!

Keep an eye out for upcoming vinyl projects...I've been working on some title cards in collaboration with a video project being put together by Tyler Kalberg and Dylan Priest, and I'm really excited to see the outcome. These guys do great work: Tyler shot the gorgeous Doe Bay Sessions (and check out Dylan's portraits from the sessions as well as his Vimeo) so it's gonna be good!

god jul / godt nyttår

2010-12-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a warm and happy holiday from my native North Carolina. Normally I try to keep this blog to art/craft and inspiration related to those things, but this is a special time of year for me, and I always like to reflect on the year gone by. I have thought a lot in the past few days about the significance of this season, about tradition, about the importance of cherishing time spent with loved ones, be it friends or family or in some cases both, and simply being grateful for everything that we have. 2010 was a rough year for many folks I know, but there was a lot of good that came out of it. I am always inspired by the ability of people to take something bad and turn it around into something good - something from which to draw experience and strength, something to inspire them to make good happen. I've watched it happen over and over again this year and I am so grateful for all the good that came to me in my dark times this year.

Winter is not known for being a bright season, but this year it is filled with brightness in my eyes. I no longer live close to my family and so I cherish my time with them like I never did before. Tonight I listened to my grandmother tell stories and was overcome by the urge to record them (something which I am now planning to do) - she always wanted to write a book but perhaps we'll have to do it for her. After dinner I went for a Christmas Eve walk around my old neighborhood. The air was crisp and smelled like woodsmoke and the neighborhood was quiet and filled with lights and I found myself wondering how anyone could not like this time of year. I ran into some old family friends on my walk, took a few photos, and went on my way. As I sit by the Christmas tree, I feel content and grateful. And ready to face a new year.

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and a happy holiday and happy new year too.

inspiration: christian sorensen hansen

2010-12-06T03:28:00.000-08:00

Seattle is so alive with creativity that sometimes my heart feels fit to burst. I am beyond impressed with the musicians and artists here, and these two videos by Christian Sorensen Hansen are a perfect representation of why. Be sure to check out both of these bands as well as Christian's other work -

International Filing Systems / Christian Sorensen Hansen
Bryan John Appleby
Campfire OK

Cliffs Along The Sea from Christian Sorensen Hansen on Vimeo.

Dreidel, Dreidel from Christian Sorensen Hansen on Vimeo.

november

2010-11-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

More coming soon, and I have another sweater to write about, but in the meantime, here's a few glimpses of November.

on garment construction and colorwork

2010-09-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

(Alki Beach, West Seattle)

The autumnal equinox was tonight, and as all knitters know, that means knitting season is officially open. For most of us, this means we crack down and get to work on knitting gifts for our friends and family the upcoming holidays, and if we're lucky, we'll knit one or two things for ourselves in the process. I have been daydreaming about knitting myself a Scandinavian-inspired sweater for ages now, stranded colorwork and all, so with fall rapidly approaching (and Christmas-gift-knitting around the corner), I finally decided to sit down and make myself the Scandinavian sweater I've been wanting to for years. Enter Skydottir:

I knit this sweater without a pattern, which is a first for me, and so the bulk of this post is going to contain notes on how I decided to do what I did and what I learned about garment construction and designing knitwear. If that doesn't sound remotely interesting, feel free to skip the writing and just look at the pictures!

Going in, I had an idea in my head of what I wanted, but I couldn't find the right pattern. I knew I wanted a pullover with a seamless yoke construction - no steeking, no seaming, but with a yoke worked in stranded colorwork. I scoured ravelry, I checked out books and websites, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. I am notoriously stubborn, so I decided to combine my Scandinavian sweater project with the challenge of working up a wearable garment without using a pattern. Not only would I end up with the sweater I had envisioned, but it would be a valuable learning experience in the process. Feeding two birds with one seed, right?

Prior to Skydottir, I had knit two pullovers (one raglan knit flat and seamed, one bottom-up seamless yoke knit in the round), and one cropped cardigan. I knew I wanted to go with the seamless yoke construction, as the stranded yoke is the showcase of this sweater, so I took the basic principles used in that pullover pattern (which happened to be Kate Davies's Owls) and applied them to this project, which uses a different needle size and a different yarn weight. These techniques were:

- bottom-up construction, knitting first body, then sleeves, then joining all three to knit the yoke up to the neckband
- decreases and increases for waist shaping on the body

I also knew I wanted to do a 1x1 twisted rib at the waistband, neckband and cuffs of the sweater, because I think it's a really clean looking ribbing. So I started with the waistband, casting on for my twisted rib. And here's where I learned my first lesson, which is: SWATCH. Okay, I know, this should be a big duh. We all know the importance of swatching. But still, I thought I could get by just estimating, and somehow, I decided 80 stitches sounded right. Skydottir was worked on American size 9 needles with worsted weight yarn - I quickly discovered that 80 stitches was not going to make it around my waist. I frogged the one or two rows I had on the needles and got ready to start over. And yet I still did not swatch. On try #2 I overcompensated and cast on far too many stitches - at least 160, but I don't remember for sure. I worked up 15 rounds of twisted rib and an inch or two of stockinette before I realized my sweater was huge. I was frustrated, but I sat down and measured my gauge on my too-huge try #2 and used that to calculate how many stitches I really should be casting on by measuring my hips, subtracting two inches for negative ease, and multiplying my stitches per inch by that number. I frogged try #2, cast on for try #3, and the third time was a charm. It was smooth sailing after that.

While Owls uses a rather unique pattern of decreases and increases along the back of the sweater for the waist shaping, I opted to do my decreases and increases along the sides instead, visible here:

I had no trouble with the placement of the shaping - I spaced my decreases about an inch apart, gave about an inch and a half between the last decrease and the first increase, and went back to the one-inch spacing between each increase. I decreased four times and increased only two, knitting straight up to the underarm on the body. I wanted to keep it simple so I didn't do any short rows to dip the yoke or anything like that - the body stayed put until the sleeves were ready to be joined. The sleeves were also knit in the round, with fairly regular increases until they reached my upper arm.

And then came the yoke! I had never knit a yoke with colorwork before, so I spent some time studying the stranded yoke charts of a few other sweaters to get an idea of where and how often to place the decreases. As far as I can tell, the key is to knit a round of one color before you work a decrease round, and when you decrease, you should use the same color as the round before. I worked up a chart for myself, borrowing motifs from both traditional Norwegian and Icelandic knitting.

Getting the bind off right took three tries as well - I kept binding off too tightly. Desperate to finish my sweater, I ended up trying Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off from knitty. It did the job (the sweater fit over my head) but it's not the prettiest bind off I've ever seen, so I'm in search of a cleaner-looking stretchy bind off for next time.

All in all, I'm extremely proud of Skydottir. There are a few things I would fix if I tried it again - I was aiming for a more fitted sweater than I ended up with, and the colorwork is a little wonky in places because the gauge requires a looser tension than I'm accustomed to - but the sweater is wearable, pretty, and just the sort of sweater I was hoping for. Yarn and needle details:

Main color: Berroco Vintage, worsted weight, colorway Tide Pool (5185)
Contrasting color: Berroco Ultra Alpaca, worsted weight, colorway Moonshadow (6209)
#9 needles (5.5mm), 24" and 32"

Oh, and the name Skydottir comes from my new favorite cookies, made in my favorite neighborhood in Seattle.

tiny telephone

2010-09-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

I took a road trip down to California in July and while I was there, I stopped by my friend John Vanderslice's analog recording studio Tiny Telephone in San Francisco. Some of my favorite records have been made there so I was thrilled to finally see the studio - and after a recent remodel too, with some gorgeous work done by Claire Mack.

I took a bunch of photos of the studio while I was there, and I'll post a few of them below. You can see the rest over at the Tiny Telephone tumblr page.

inspiration: chris mcveigh

2010-08-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a proper "inspiration" post for awhile, but I came across Chris McVeigh's work yesterday and had to share. He's a graphic designer and a photographer and shoots a lot of different things (there's a lot of Legos and action figures on his photostream), but my favorites of his have to be the little Lego worlds he creates as well as the shots of chipmunks with Star Wars action figures. If I had to describe his work, I'd probably say it's ridiculous in a good way.

"A Balanced Breakfast"

"I've Got a Bad Feeling About This"

"Business is Slow"

urban craft uprising, day 2

2010-07-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Day two of UCU was just as fun as the first - and today I had my wallet with me. I went with my friend Jess and James at 11am this time, when the fair opens, and much to my surprise, we were close enough to the front of the line to get swag bags! The goodies inside were totally rad, too. The combined contents of mine and James' bags:

1. Handmade vegan soaps, Estrella Soaps
2. Bottlecap pin from Tami Potts
3. Handmade glass bead, Hammer and Torch
4. Selected buttons, Creation Station
5. Gorgeous forest green ribbon from Midori Ribbon
6. Little sheep (!) pouch, Maluhia Designs
7. Needlework scissors from Pacific Fabrics & Crafts
8. Fabric buttons from Laura Bucci
9. Mega-super-adorable blue gingham buttons from Midori Ribbon
There was also a headband from Texture but I forgot to throw it in the photo (whoops!).

Pretty incredible freebies, to be honest. UCU does it right. And as for my purchased goods...

I'd say I did okay! In the back is a gorgeous print from favorite Jill Bliss. Also pictured: an adorable card from Sycamore Street Press ("Great job on that thing you did, really super!"), some iron-on patches and a wooden button from R and L, and a DAVID BOWIE NECKLACE! from Fable & Fury.

And as I mentioned, I collect a big stack of business cards as I go along, and you can see a few of the favorite vendors I've written about tucked in there:

And speaking of favorite vendors, here's a few more additions to the list I started yesterday:

Locket 2 You
locket2you.com
These lockets were both adorable and amazing, and the folks are super nice. They're based in Portland and they rotate their designs seasonally, so there's always rad new designs on the way.

MuchoDesign
muchodesign.etsy.com
These guys had some stellar embroidered artwork and really, really gorgeous jewelry. If I remember correctly, much of the embroidered work was made with reclaimed textiles, which is really awesome. Also: embroidered Spock?! What's not to love?

Princess of Patterns
princessofpatterns.com
Sarah's got a huge selection of gorgeous vintage knitting patterns available. Being a fan of both knitting and vintage clothing, I was swooning over her patterns just a wee bit...

Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress
bisonbookbinding.com
These guys had some gorgeous cards but my favorite were the ones pictured above - letterpress notecards with recipes on the front!

And for good measure, here's a few more photos...

Brad slings Estrella Soap

Jess peruses Attic Journals

Gorgeous yarns from Yarnia

Adorable laser-cut wooden plant labels from RandL

Pretty little notebooks at the Jill Bliss booth

urban craft uprising, day 1

2010-07-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

One of the largest craft fairs that happens here in Seattle, Urban Craft Uprising, is going on this weekend at Seattle Center. I got to go for the first time last December (they do a winter show and a summer show), and for anyone who has an affinity for the cute and the handmade, it is the ultimate collection of Stuff You Want to Buy. There are some mega-talented people selling stuff this weekend, and it feels great to be able to meet all the wonderful folks making rad stuff in the northwest.

I swung by today for a quick peek at who was selling, and I'm headed back tomorrow to make a few purchases. One of the great things about having all these amazing artists in one place is that you can start a collection of business cards as you make your rounds, stash them in a box, and then pull them back out when a friend has a birthday coming up or the holidays are coming or you just want to buy something nice for someone (or for yourself). As a designer, it's always really fun to see what folks do with their cards, too. I thought I'd share a few of my vendors this time around, starting with...

Jill Bliss!
jillbliss.com
I've actually been a huge fan of Jill's stuff for years now, so it was pretty thrilling to see a whole booth full of gorgeous Jill Bliss artwork, and to get to meet her too! She tends to illustrate plants and animals and natural things in some not-so-natural pastel shades which makes for a combination that is both striking and delicately pretty.

Sycamore Street Press
sycamorestreetpress.com
I discovered these guys at the last UCU in December and I am such a huge fan of their letterpress notecards and prints. I was really happy to see them selling again this time around. Eva's business card is totally gorgeous, too - letterpress (of course) on a nice thick cardstock. It's a great card in that it totally represents what these guys are all about (which a good business card should do, truly). Somehow these guys are both chic and cheeky and it totally works.

Blue Diamond Stamp Company
bluediamonstamps.com
I love stamps, but somehow I'd never come across these guys. The coolest thing about Blue Diamond is that they sell acrylic stamps - the actual stamp is a clear polymer that sticks to an acrylic block. You only need one block for all your polymer stamps, so you save a ton of space on storage. Plus, the acrylic block is totally clear, so you can see exactly where your image is going!

I'll write about a few more vendors tomorrow, as well as share a few images from the event. If you're in Seattle, it's going on from 11-5 at Seattle Center!

2010-06-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo by my friend and wonderful photographer, Laura Musselman, from one of the few instances I get up in front of people and sing. My dear friend John Vanderslice came up to the northwest to play a few shows a few weeks ago and we sang "Nikki oh Nikki" to a quiet crowd at the end of the night. It is something I have wanted to do for years and it's easily one of my favorite memories of Seattle so far. Thank you to Laura for the gorgeous image!

I snapped a few shots of JV before the show. The second of these features the inimitable John Roderick of the Long Winters, who joined us after "Nikki" for "Pale Horse."

upcoming: illustrating saint bartlett

2010-06-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am midway through a painting project that I have been working on in conjunction with the release of Damien Jurado's Saint Bartlett - illustrations based on the song lyrics, one piece per song. I'm still working away, but I thought I'd share a peek at the paintings I've done so far.

photo assisting for kyle johnson / the portland mercury

2010-06-11T07:39:00.001-07:00

Last month fellow Seattleite (and rad photographer) Kyle Johnson shot the spring fashion shoot for the Portland Mercury, and I went down to Portland with him to photo assist. I always love a trip to Portland, and I'm a huge fan of Kyle's photos, so I figured it would be a fun time and a good experience. I wanted to share a few images from that day because even though we pulled it off in the end, it was a little bit more of an adventure than any of us were expecting. We started off the day like this:

"Unnamed Rd." Consider this foreshadowing. Twenty minutes later, we found ourselves in this:

That's snow on the ground. In May. Now, this was up on a mountain, but we quickly realized we weren't going to do a spring fashion photoshoot up here in the snow. The theme of the shoot was "open season" which meant the feel was supposed to be woodsy/hunting and there were going to be models holding guns as props. So we made the best of it and the one thing we did do up on that snowy mountaintop was shoot up the Portland Mercury sign you see in the photo at the top of this post (or, more precisely, Jay did all the shooting). The only shooting I did was photos.

Aside from the water droplets on my lens, those photos make it really hard to tell that there was still snow coming down from the sky. At any rate, we went back down the mountain and ended up shooting (photos) down by the river. You can check out the whole spread with Kyle's photos here (scroll down and click on "slideshow"). Until the next adventure, I've got these photos to remember it by.

damien jurado / saint bartlett

2010-06-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

Damien Jurado's new album, Saint Bartlett, came out May 25th, and on May 29th he played an album release show here in Seattle at the Triple Door. I made this poster for it. The whole thing, from start to finish, was a made-by-hand process. I am going to attempt to document that process here, for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing - if you're not, you can just check out the images.

I have always made a great deal of my artwork on the computer, and this poster (along with one I made last fall as well as a large-scale painting project) is part of an attempt to unplug and get back to a more tangible process of making things. And it was a process!

This poster began as an idea: embroidery by hand only, with no aid from computers or machines in any way (with the sole exception of scanning the actual piece of fabric to reproduce it). I haven't done any embroidery since I was in elementary school, probably, so it required some preparation and planning. I skipped over to Stitches to purchase fabric, embroidery thread, and the incredibly crucial heat-transfer pencil (this was necessary for making a pattern). I sketched the whole thing up in regular pencil, first. Everything was drawn by hand, including the lettering. Then I flipped over my sketch and traced the lettering on the back of the paper with the heat transfer pencil. This gave me a heat-transferable sketch of the poster - backwards - enabling me to iron it directly onto the fabric so I knew where to place my stitches.

Labor-intensive as that sounds, the next step was definitely the longest part. Embroidering the band names was a long process, aided by the fact that the band names were none too short. I embroidered at home, at the Jurados', in the passenger seat of friends' cars, and on the way down to Portland for a shoot with Kyle Johnson (that post will come at a later date). I took to carrying my embroidery hoop around in my purse for whenever I had a free moment. To give you a point of reference, just one letter of Damien's name would take me anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to complete, depending on the size and complexity. Luckily, I am incredibly satisfied by this kind of time-consuming handicraft; there's something about the near-tedium that I can really get into.

Once I finished the lettering, the trees were smooth sailing to the finish. We scanned it once, but I am a perfectionist and was not satisfied with the quality, so I ironed it out and re-scanned it. The original sits now atop my dresser, but prints are also available for $5 via Luckyhorse Industries, here. There will definitely be more unplugged tangible artwork in the near future...

(Last two photos by the incredibly talented Sarah Jurado)

preorder saint bartlett

2010-04-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have a few upcoming art projects related to the release of Damien Jurado's new album, Saint Bartlett, so I am thrilled to pass on the news that it is now available for pre-order via the Secretly Canadian website.

All pre-orders will receive an instant mp3 download of the whole record, which is pretty rad. As for those art projects, there will be more news soon...

saintbartlett.com
secretlycanadian.com

new journal

2010-03-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

I ended up taking a big break from bookmaking in 2009, rather by accident, so I'm hoping to make many new ones in the coming year. Here's my first book in a long time:

As always, it's blank with 50 pages, bound and painted by hand. I've been folding paper and sewing pages for weeks, so there are more on the way!

inspiration: julianna swaney

2010-03-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Majorly swooning over these illustrations from Julianna Swaney:

new illo: spores

2010-03-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

I've been doing my best to wear out Múm's album Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know since September but I haven't gotten tired of it yet. It is so, so good! This one's inspired by a song called "Blow Your Nose."

vashon

2010-02-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a photo day with the amazing Sarah Jurado. We boarded a ferry with cameras in hand and escaped the city for a few hours on Vashon Island. It was a much-needed break from reality.

baked potato frites

2010-02-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

I've had food on the brain a lot, lately. Here's one of my easy favorites for your Sunday afternoon:

Baked Potato Frites

You will need:
- potatoes (I use russet, but these can easily be done with red potatoes, sweet potatoes, or any other variety, really)
- olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450°F
2. Wash and slice potatoes into fry-sized pieces
3. Place unbaked frites on a cookie sheet. Douse with enough olive oil that the frites are coated. I like to arrange them in rows so that they're easy to flip later on.
4. Place the cookie sheet in the oven for approximately 12-15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and flip the frites. (If you're having trouble with the frites sticking to the cookie sheet, try popping them in the oven for a few more minutes first).
6. Put the frites back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
7. Remove frites from oven, transfer them to a plate, and sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste.
8. Savor and/or devour accordingly.

freitag

2010-01-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

Drawn yesterday; getting in touch with my German heritage by doodling:

inspiration: not moving to portland

2010-01-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

I love this video by Branson Veal for Give Seattle - the song is "Not moving to Portland" by my favorite toothless Seattleite, John Roderick of The Long Winters.

projects

2010-01-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

Lately...

Left: Hexacomb by Katie Himmelberg
Right: Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves by Jill Toporkiewicz

and upcoming...

I cannot seem to keep my hands off my knitting needles lately, so I am knitting knitting knitting and will hopefully have some more things to share & sell in the coming weeks. Luckily, I have generous friends who know yarn makes a great Christmas gift so I have plenty of yarn waiting to turn into finished objects. I am getting back into pattern-writing and I have lots of ideas bouncing around in my head...

jacques dutronc

2010-01-03T01:35:00.001-08:00

Jacques Dutronc was the most awkward dancer ever. And it's really, really amazing. I love it.

new illo

2009-12-20T15:51:00.001-08:00

"Skogen"

inspiration: erika long

2009-12-13T10:41:00.004-08:00

I am currently loving this little yoyo flower hair pin made by Erika Long of Heartfelt Seattle. Simple and sweet, it works well by itself or you can pin it to a hat for a cute embellishment!

As soon as she gets her etsy shop up-and-running, I'll be sure to post a link!

inspiration: sannah kvist

2009-11-20T12:22:00.001-08:00

Inspiration today: a really lovely photograph by one of my favorite photographers, Sannah Kvist.

new show poster

2009-11-10T21:26:00.002-08:00

Upcoming event for Seattle folks:

TELEKINESIS and THE LONELY FOREST
with THE GLOBES

Friday 11/27/2009
Showbox at the Market

This was a ton of fun to make and the show should be a ton of fun, too.

recent projects

2009-10-15T15:35:00.002-07:00

Unfinished illo: "Bergen"

Four-color stranded wristwarmers, pattern by DROPS design

new knitting pattern

2009-09-10T18:16:00.004-07:00

Paper Tiger is branching out - into the world of knitting patterns! My new pattern for a cute cowl with cables and eyelets is now available. It's free!

Download the PDF - Cables & Eyelets Cowl

ikea's branding

2009-09-09T15:13:00.004-07:00

Bad movie, Ikea: Ikea Fans Fume over Verdana
It's a small change, but it makes a big difference...

new composite

2009-08-15T14:20:00.002-07:00

"In the Woods"

morr & merge

2009-08-08T21:00:00.004-07:00

A bit of music news today: Telekinesis, who I directed a video for, have just released their record in Europe and the UK on Morr Music! Very exciting, and you can get it on CD or vinyl here. The vinyl is super pretty.

Also, the wonderful Merge Records just threw their 20th birthday bash (music festival XX Merge) a few weeks ago, and I was lucky enough to be there for it. I wrote about it for the Merge blog, which you can read here.

inspiration: jane mount

2009-08-06T14:12:00.005-07:00

Inspiration today: Jane Mount's newest "Ideal Bookshelf" print, from 20x200. More info here. This one's her favorite children's books.

bioluminescence

2009-08-01T12:12:00.002-07:00

New illo:

"Fireflies"

photo update

2009-07-15T07:03:00.005-07:00

I've uploaded new photos to four of the galleries: travel, music, people, and products.

inspiration: vincent moon & amiina

2009-07-02T09:12:00.002-07:00

Inspiration today: the super-dreamy and painfully beautiful Icelandic quartet Amiina shot by Vincent Moon for his concerts à emporter series.

amiina play Hilli, video by Vincent Moon from amiina on Vimeo.

colors & numbers

2009-06-11T14:12:00.006-07:00

Hungarian's got a reputation for being one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. For pretty good reason. I made these when I couldn't keep my colors and numbers straight...

(click on them to make them bigger)

inspiration: faber & faber

2009-06-10T11:06:00.003-07:00

I'm feeling totally inspired by these divine illustrated book covers for the Faber 80th Poetry Series.

via Design*Sponge

new illo: diane de poitiers

2009-05-27T14:06:00.003-07:00

"Diane de Poitiers"
(you can read about her here)

dreaming of lopi sweaters

2009-05-14T13:20:00.004-07:00

"Stúlka"

inspiration: melanie linder

2009-05-10T08:41:00.005-07:00

This morning I came across Melanie Linder's beautiful illustrations:

dreaming of iceland

2009-05-06T21:40:00.004-07:00

"Vetur"

"Lopi"

j'aime l'amour à trois

2009-04-29T19:50:00.008-07:00

Sometimes, you've just got to put down the arts & crafts, and sing and dance instead.

Pictured above: Paper Tiger singing une chanson d'amour avec Stereo Total at Cat's Cradle earlier this month. Grand merci à Rachel Demy pour ce photo !

Also, new art is imminent! Just not ready yet...

dreaming of tokyo

2009-03-04T15:46:00.004-08:00

Exciting news today at Paper Tiger HQ! Some of you reading may remember a music video I made last summer with Telekinesis for a song called "Tokyo". Well, I have re-cut the video to the album version of the track, and I am happy to say that today it makes its internet debut!

You can watch it here on Pitchfork, or on my film page. The song is off of Telekinesis!, due April 7th on Merge Records.

new illo, photos revamped

2009-02-28T13:39:00.004-08:00

Hello! Two orders of business today:

1: The photo section of this site was in dire need of updates, and I have just finished a complete and total overhaul. If you click on that little link to the left that says "photo" you will find quite a few new photos and a new category system for easy browsing. Some of the categories are a little large (*cough travel cough*) but I tried to streamline as much as possible to avoid unnecessary viewer bombardment by photos.

2: I've uploaded a new illustration, as well, now viewable in the illo gallery.

new composite

2009-02-15T17:48:00.007-08:00

I added a new piece to the composite gallery, called "Holdtölte".