Both printed and hand made Stationery are areas I like to explore.
Isn’t it a lovely feeling to open the postbox and see a hand-written letter? In these days of digital overload, take a moment to pen a letter. The process of writing without a backspace key; limitations are inherently human and a good thing.
Generally printing stationery I use Japanese paper. Both card stock and envelopes are sourced from a boutique store in Omotesando (Tokyo).
I have made cards on a variety of presses, but have a preference for using a Peerless Platen Press. Some day I may have the opportunity to run The Windmill (Heidleberg).
As part of the Creative Ireland funded Skills Transfer program in the National Print Museum, we were asked to design a card. The theme was what crafts meant to you.
Crafts help me to relax, pause and take stock, but I also enjoy technology, so wanted to weave the two together if possible. I realised that crafting is playful and it makes me stop. Inspired by the buttons on the VCR as a child, I came up with the concept of ‘Play and Pause‘ and was lucky enough to have it chosen by CI as one of the two to be printed. In this instance the card was set, coloured and printed by Mary Plunkett.
A few more samples of some of my work follow.
Often owing to ease, I will make stationery at home by hand. Less tools, less clean-up and a nice way to relax on a rainy day!
An Post – Send love
At the start of the pandemic in Spring 2020 the Irish postal operator An Post launched the Send Love campaign. Two blank A6 postcards were sent to each household with domestic postage paid. While collecting a parcel from the post office there was a stack of such postcards and the staff member encouraged me to take some.
On a day off from work one afternoon, I was idle and restless and somehow I decided to repurpose the cards. Inspired by an elderly Japanese lady who tears paper up and makes beautiful collages I took out my stock of old magazines and got tearing/cutting/sticking.
Whiling away time in a unstructured manner like this has become one of my life’s joys. The result is unknown, not premeditated, invariably it has ‘faults’, but in truth it doesn’t matter. Here they are:
