Tasmanian Treasures

hello everyone some of you might know that for the past couple of weeks i have been making Tasmanian treasuries on etsy and posting them on Face book.
I have now decided that this will become a regular /permanent thing, it may even expand to include Australia wide but for now I would like to help promote my fellow Tasmania Artist and makers who sell on etsy. I have also decided that is would be great to also post my latest finds here on my blog so if you are an etsy seller from Tasmania that would like to get a bit of free advertising leave me a message with you etsy shop detail and i will go take a look.
I hope you enjoy my newest finds
Narelle

'Tasmanian teasures No.4' by rubyvictoria

My Tasmanian picks I hope you enjoy looking at the works of Tasmania's clever crafters and Artist

Sweet Spring Picnic dress thevintageseam... $160.00	1950's Caravan/Trailer E... tanyalove $7.50
Art Necklace Windmill 147LiverpoolSt... $25.00	Arm Warmers Fingerless Glove... vowsalee1 $22.50
Autumn leaf linocut gift tag... rubyvictoria $10.00	ooak painting of girl in he... ladyfroufrou $51.00
Paper Pear MareeLouiseHea... $35.00	Pied Cormorant Ring Travelinglight $165.00
Vintage brown and camel wool... HeartFeltByNin... $50.00	FREE SHIPPING: Wonderful Flo... anelementofsty... $15.00
The Cheeky Puffin PDF Patter... ThePaperShed $3.99	Ladies' Vintage Fabric N... marsupialmouse $20.00
Hand knit Hat - Slouchy Cabl... shazzasknits $45.00	Chocolate Corduroy Garden Sk... owletshop $32.00
wooden fruit platter /servin... madeintassie $130.00	Carnelian necklace with wist... Mamayali $80.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Two sleeps to go

Yes that's right only 2 more sleeps until we will be back in Launceston for the Apron design Market at the seaport , yes I know the picture says 5 days but
I can assure you that it is indeed only 2 more sleep till all the stall holder will once again meet up again to offer you the best of handmade items and local produce

I hope to see you there
Narelle

A huge sigh of relief

As of this week this building with the

Muir's signwriting on it is going to be my studio space .

rubyvictoria letterpress & printmaking studio by the sea

Yes that is right I have after almost 2 years of searching I have finally found a studio space and it has turned out to be the studio of my dreams right near the sea with a beautiful sea breeze and jetties to sit on and ponder new creative ideas.
A place work and a place to have all of my printing gear at the ready anytime I feel a creative pang hit me.

So Excited my studio space is situated in the top of the building with a water view over looking the Derwent river and the slip yard , there is also apparently a boat builder and a glass blower in the same building but I haven't met them as yet but I am looking forward to it.

Look at all that beautiful natural light

so anyway here is a photo of the studio space inside, all empty and clean and ready for me to fill it with work tables, drying racks paper map draws, cases of type, a type caster (Ludlow) and all the rest of my printing stuff that has been choking up our living space for the past couple of years at home

I can almost hear the house and my family let out a collective sigh of relief all at once :)

This is just a small portion of the caos that is our home

This weeks printing

Well some of it anyway

Autumn leaf gift tags

I have been playing this week with mixing colours while on the press by just dabbing different coloured ink all over the inking plate and rolling the rollers over it to give you a lovely variegated colour.
I am pretty happy with how they have turned out, they have a very warm Autumn feel to them.

Japanese maple leaves greeting card

Seed packets drying

I have also been printing some more seed packets for a lovely Cafe
in South Australia called
La Terre

Mixing it up for the Apron Design Market

I adore mixing new colours especially when they remind me of my favorite season, I spend most of last night pouring over my Pantone colour formulas and mixing beautifully smelly ink
and getting thinks set up for the days printing today.


Not long now until the Apron Design Market next week at the Seaport in Launceston,
so I'd best get my printing apron on and get cracking.

Hope to see you all there
Narelle x

A very exciting Announcement !

I am very excited to announce that I am now officially the Arts contributor for

Fluid Magazine

an Independent fashion and design magazine based in Brisbane.

My job involves searching Australia and world for amazing independent designers of any kind be it art ,fashion , home wares you name it, to be feature on my regular page in Fluid,
sounds like fun hu !
The great thing is I have been given open slather to create features on anything I think is great and is related to the overall feel of the magazines on that particular month.

If you would like to find out more about Fluid please follow the link to the web page

http://fluidbrisbane.com/about/

Narelle x

Celebrating Autumn

I love Autumn!
it is my favorite season of the year here in Tasmania unlike many other states in Australia we have the good fortune of still getting four seasons a year, most people that live in Tassie attest that we get 4 seasons in one day, which isn't too far from the truth !
Any way to celebrate the coming of my favorite time of the year I have decided to design some autumn inspired designs to print I haven't decided on colours maybe you could give me some suggestion that would be great? :)

I will hopefully I will have these ready for the upcoming Apron Design Market to be held in Launceston on the 2nd and 3rd of April at the Seaport .

I hope you can come along and enjoy the market and the surrounding restaurants and cafes as well as get in a little bit of retail therapy and meeting some of the local Artists, makers and growers that will be selling wares at the market

stall holders:
Gandeliers
Emily Snadden
Anna Jayne Designs
Cocoon
Coronea grove
Axiom
Ashbolt
Richard Ellis Furniture designs
Photobat
Cherish by Bek Burrows
Dick &Dora
Magoolie Designs
Natural garlic
Stoney Rise Vineyard
The little one said
Ruby Victoria letterpress & printmaking
My Paper Doll
Clever zebra Designs
Anita Dineen Designs

If you would like to find out more about the market and these wonderful stall holder please follow the link to the Apron design market web site

http://www.theaprondesignmarket.com/

Peppermint magazine & Blue caravan

Ruby Victoria Letterpress & Printmaking will have vines gift tags featured in the fabulous Peppermint magazine this month in conjunction with Blue caravan ethical Design online shop.

If you would like to take a look at Blue caravan please follow the link to my shop and then on to all the other shops that sell the most beautiful of wares

Ruby Victoria on Blue caravan

Craft is the new black on Edge Radio

Tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm I will be having a little talk to Angelica on her radio show
on Edge Radio called Craft is the new black.



I am very excited about being asked to go in and have talk Angelica about
Ruby Victoria letterpress & printmaking the work I do .

It is a relaxed and easy going 1 hour show that endeavors to encourage people to think and talk about craft, and to also inform about what is going on in the art in the local community and who the practitioners are and what they do.

Edge Radio is a community radio station. They have a great website - http://www.edgeradio.org.au/
which includes live streaming - so people all over the world can tune in !


I think it is going to be great fun but I am afraid I am going to come off as a bit of an old dags to the young folk at the Uni where the station is broadcast from, when they ask me what my favorite music is lol
Anyway do tune in and have a bit of a listen I will try to make it entertaining :)
Narelle x

What is letterpress

I was reading yesterday on a forum where a linocut printer had raised the issue about letterpress printers misusing of tags on etsy listings and saying that it may be misleading to some people that are apparently not in the know about letterpress printing and what actually constitutes a letterpress print.

If something is printed using a letterpress machine of some sort, does that not make it letterpress printed ?

Above: My Adana letterpress table top machine

I just find it amusing that people think that something can only be letterpress if it has a stupid amount of impression on your type and paper, yes it is something that differentiates letterpress from other sort of printing but it isn't the only thing.

I am a letterpress printer and carved my own blocks for printing out of lino and print them using my letterpress table top machine, I personally think that this is closer to the original letterpress blocks once used hundreds of years ago, than the computer generated photo polymer plates most people are using and calling letterpress, just because a print doesn't have deep impression doesn't make it any less a letterpress print.

When I was doing my apprenticeship as a commercial printer running large windmill presses it was considered very bad workmanship to have any impression shown on a piece of paper that you had printed. it took great skill, knowledge and patience to prints something without any impression showing on a page, that would be evenly printed and be a legible piece of printing .

Above : bookplates a mix of linocut block and handset lead letterpress type

There have been carved blocks used in this type of print right from the invention of printing and the printing press, I don't see anywhere that it is said there were photo polymer plate making machines in use in the 15th century but there is loads of info on handcarved block for printing as this was all they had.
That being said I don't have a problem with the use of modern technology regarding design and printing I think it is wonderful, I just choose to go down a more traditional route in my work.


Above: A mix of lino blocks and photo polymer plates.


I just don't agree with people saying that what I create is less than what other people are making and calling letterpress, when they don't have any idea how much

Linocut block ready for printing & engraving tool

time,work and care goes into carving out my designs, setting handset type and printing one impression at a time.

That being said whenever I list something on etsy I always state that it is and original linocut block that has been printed on a letterpress machine so that people can decide if they want to purchase a print or not.

I guess it all comes down to personal preference and what you consider to be letterpress but I don't have any problems with calling work I have printed on my letterpress machine a piece of letterpress work


Linocut printed greeting card, printed on my Adana letterpress machine.

yes I agree that some of the tagging people use can be misleading but I don't know if they are trying to be misleading or if they personally don't really know the difference between traditional letterpress and something that is designed on a computer and is made into a plate, but then I guess most people don't care as long as it looks good and it had the deep impression that they now assume is how it should be.
Deep impression is a relatively new thing to be accepted and I guess people have been re-educated to think that if there isn't a heap of impression then it can't be letterpress.


letterpress debossed notecards

I have lots of people at markets running their fingers across my work and looking puzzled when they don't feel it, this can be very disheartening for me because it is like they are not even considering whether they actually like the image but want to buy a piece of dented paper bit funny really I think !

Original linocut, letterpress printed om my Adana table top press.

but hey each to their own and people will buy what the like regardless. :)

Narelle x

letterpress Birth Announcement notecards

As usual it is pretty hard to keep ruby out of product shots,
here she is again with a job I have just done for a lovely couple in Mt Nelson.
Notecards to send out to friends and family to announce the arrival of their new baby.

People seem to really like the debossed look, type without ink and just impression, I have to admit this works very well on the cotton rag paper I use for all of my stationery as it is soft velvety and thick and beautiful to write on.


Classic, Clean & Simple.