A little bit of Green (in the Chicago River)

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, which is March 17th, but will be celebrated tomorrow in Downtown Chicago with the annual dyeing green of the Chicago River and a parade, I thought I would post a snapshot from a few years ago (of the River, not the parade). Unfortunately my photo does not really do the color justice. Imagine if you see it in real life as more of a neon green — a freaky bright green.

Here's a link to a cool time lapse YouTube video on the dyeing of the river. And this link gives a little bit of background history on the tradition.

I'll be thinking of the green river as I head out of downtown to take a look at a letterpress and letterpress goodies. Woo Hoo!

colored pencils are swell

I like to do color studies with colored pencils if I plan on doing a painting. For printing I like to do my color studies with markers which I will talk about in a future post. There really is not too much to say about colored pencils. I think the Prismacolor brand are very good and they are pretty good at blending. I sometimes have a difficult time sharpening them so I waste more of the pencil than I would like. For a cheaper alternative I also really like Crayolas colored pencils. I have used those for years and recently I just purchased the kind that you swivel the lead up like a mechanical pencil but those leads are much harder so I would use them for flatter (less blending) applications. But they can travel without a sharpener.

Love my Cindy Tomczyk painting!

This painting is by my very talented friend Cindy Tomczyk and it is titled "Spending Her Time." I love this little painting so much and it makes me very happy to look at every day! I love every sinlge little detail. She is very talented and an amazing painter and artist. You can purchase a print of this painting from Cindy here. Cindy also sells stationery products under the name Paper Parasol and they are gorgeous!

If you are in Chicago this weekend Cindy will be at the Bucktown Bazaar, November 29 : 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. + November 30 : 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. This is at the Holstein Park Fieldhouse.

some yummy local food & produce!

Here's a just discovered happy thing. I just read about Chicago's Downtown Farmstand from a local Daily Candy email and I almost immediately ran out (in the rain) to get some veggies that I could turn into a dinner. My fridge is perpetually under stocked. At any rate Chicago's Downtown Farmstand carries produce grown within 250 miles of the city and to my extreme happiness they carry a few local favorites including Frontera chips and salsa, the Old Town Spice House's spices (seriosuly, if you are in Chicago or ever visit this is a must stop!). And even better there were pies, quiches, soups and full meals from First Slice! I love First Slice! They have a pie cafe at the Lill Street Art Center which is where I take silkscreen classes. There is nothing better than art and good food (ok maybe some wine too).

Back to Chicago's Downtown Farmstand — for dinner we purchased a bacon and onion quiche and a vegetable chowder soup all by First Slice. They were wonderful! Best quiche I have had in a long time and it was the best veggie anything soup I have ever had. Yummy!

Chicago's Downtown Farmstand is only supposed to be open until December. Go support them and maybe we can convince them to stay open all year long. I will be back for more goodies and produce!

happy thing :: the Wacom Tablet

Slowly but surely I'll manage to finish my list of twenty things that make me happy. I hope it does not take until 2009.

My Wacom tablet makes my life easier while working on the computer. It saves my wrist from a future of carpal tunnel plus it makes it easier to draw. There is a learning curve but if you get one I encourage you to take a deep breath and jump in!

That is a picture of my current Wacom which only retails for about $99 and comes with a mouse. This is the basic model and I purchased it because cost was an issue. It works great for me and it is small enough that I can slide it into my laptop bag or take it with me to an on-site freelance gig. Eventually I would like a higher priced model but honestly this one works great and I love it. Here's a link to my process post where I mention my Wacom.

happy thing SIX: pantone formula guide

My Pantone formula guide is invaluable for selecting and mixing colors for printing! It also helps me with any graphic design projects I may be working on. They are a little pricey and I do need to purchase another one that lets me see the CMYK formula next to the Pantone color. The guides are essentially to help make sure your colors come out predictably. Of course since I hand mix my own inks and I letterpress print instead of offset print my colors will be slightly different from the books but they are still great guides and I usually start with a Pantone when mixing my inks and then customize from there. If you have a pantone book make sure you keep it stored in a dark place. Pantone suggests you purchase a new one each year but if you keep it stored away from sunlight you can usually extend it's life.

happy thing FIVE: My Circle Templates

I have already waxed poetic about my circle templates in my process post. These little things are really the key to a lot of my hand drawn illustrations. Most of my drawings are based on circles, especially my newer obsession of mandalas.

remember the 20 happy things?

I've swerved a bit off course with the new studio and some of the updates but remember the 20 things that make me happy? Well tomorrow we are going to get back to it! For today here's a little refresher.

I'm going to post 20 things that make me happy and I was inspired by a regular feature in Domino magazine. I am trying to alternate between art/business happy things and my personal happy things. I think I have only done four so far so we have a ways to go. The last one was coffee which honestly crosses both categories. A lot of my things will probably cross both categories because honestly even if I did not have a business I think I would still need a corner rounder! I am an artist so I do have a lot of art supplies and without a business I would still be drowning in art supplies. I just wanted to point out things that make things a little easier and that I use frequently during the course of my business. Plus I wanted to talk about bags, jewelry and make-up!

So follow this link for a recap of the happy things posts!

four: mmmm... COFFEE!!!

Well, most coffee makes me happy! But this is my favorite coffee — Intelligentsia's Quetzal Breakfast Blend. Intelligentsia is a local Chicago roaster and coffee shop. Lots of local restaurants serve their coffee and you can purchase the coffee in most local grocery stores. I'm not sure how they are distributed nationally but if you are in Chicago and want to try a local company please give them a try.

And if you are a tea drinker i recommend stopping into an Argo Tea if you are in Chicago. Sitting in Argo Tea sipping yummy tea concoctions with my friends makes me very happy!

three: Printing Ink

Oops I am getting a little behind in my list here! So something that may seem kind of strange that makes me happy is the smell of printing ink. The other thing that makes me happy about ink is mixing up colors but it is the smell that gets me. My favorite part of being a graphic designer is always going on press checks and I love the way press shops smell. I did not realize I needed to start spending some time doing the actual printing. I would not want to run a gigantic fully motorized Heidelberg but I will keep on Letterpressing (it's time to make that a verb isn't it?)! I'm printing holiday cards tomorrow!

two: Baggage

Today one of the things that make me happy personally are handbags or purses, but really almost any bag will do! I have to stop myself from continually purchasing new grocery shopping bags (and I think I noticed that Trader Joe's has a new one). Currently my favorite brand of handbags are Tano. The hobo bag pictured above was my very first Tano which I bought on my first trip to NYC. And yes it is in my favorite color — Turquoise! A fantastic website to purchase Tano bags from is www.musthavebag.com. My new fall purse is another hobo and it's purple! I need to spray it with some protective spray before I bust it out for fall. The purse below is the Tano I used all summer long. I really like how casual and a little retro it is.



Tano is my current obsession but I was previously very obsessed with 1154 Lill and I still use my Lill bags quite a bit. I am always switching around bags! I also like to make my own bags. I just purchased a new Amy Butler patter (the Birdie Sling) and even bought fabric for it but sadly I haven't had time to make it yet. Someday soon hopefully.

one: Corner Rounder

I spend a lot of time rounding corners and here is my corner rounder — Model 50B by Lassco. It makes me happy because rounded corners make me happy and they give that little extra something something to shimmer studio stationery. Spending hours rounding corners has to be love.

Intro: 10 things that make me happy

I love the magazine Domino. On the final page of each issue they feature a different person who lists 10 things that make them happy right now. I thought I would follow the format and kick-off a theme for the month of September only I'm going to do it with a slight twist. I'm actually going to go through about 20 things that make me happy — 10 things that make me and Shimmer Studio happy professionally and 10 things that make me happy personally. They will appear throughout September in no particular order. After the initial happy fest maybe I can post one thing a week — after all lots of things make me happy. Here's a little teaser of what I have in mind.


Two things that make me happy are (1) my sterling silver Lotus earrings by Satya and (2) purple ink pens (currently my favorites are the Pentel RSVP and they can be a little hard to find). I don't think you can have enough purple ink pens. When I find them I buy about three boxes at a time. I hope they don't discontinue these. If you go looking for these on the internet make sure you check the ink color. Sometimes the barrel color will be purple but the ink will be black or blue.