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It's that time of year again: football is back! And fall is just around the corner meaning that it's time to evaluate my sweatshirt collection, get some leaf peeping on the calendar, and enjoy the perfect September weather. As if September wasn't awesome enough, it's also National Guacamole Day tomorrow!

Here at the office we welcomed September with a tortilla chip taste test. Each of us have tried and true favorites we love to pair with salsa, hummus, and of course guacamole! My favorite guacamole recipe, courtesy of Alton Brown, boasts wonderful flavor (thank you, cumin!) and quite the kick (use a whole jalapeno for extra spice!). I whipped up a batch and we put it to the test against a range of chips.

Among the offerings we had the usual suspects, some more exotic offerings as well as blue, flax sprinkled mystery chip randomly chosen from the snack aisle at Target. After much (blind) snacking and deliberating we each cast three votes for our favorites.

Here are the results: La Niña was the winner which maybe shouldn't be a surprise, considering that it's the most authentic tortilla chip and complimented the guacamole perfectly! But then Tostitos Hint of Lime and Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues were the other favorites, proving that we love flavor and spice! 

 

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Erin is one of our newest crew members but it feels as though she’s been laughing alongside us for so much longer. She not only helps Sarah keep on top of wholesale orders (and latest news about Stranger Things) but also, and more importantly, shares an affinity for children’s books, Newsies, and Christmastime. Outside of Smudge Ink, Erin is a marvelous illustrator and maker of Chubbikins. She kindly agreed to share a little bit more about herself and her creative work, including a peek inside her sketchbook …

(image: Erin!)

When did you know you would be an illustrator?

My mom always says that I started drawing the first time I picked up a crayon, so she at least knew pretty early on that I would be an illustrator! It took me a little longer. I always liked to draw and create art in a variety of mediums, but for some reason it took me until sophomore year at college to figure it out. I went in undecided because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and when it came time to pick a major it seemed so obvious that I should choose illustration!

(image: squirrel with balloons illustration by Erin)

Who or what has been the biggest influence on your work?

I'd have to say that my mom has been a major influence on me and my work. She is an illustrator herself, so I grew up in a very artistic household. My sister and I were lucky enough to have parents who always encouraged to us be creative.

(image: stuffed Chubbikins)

You also hand sew chubbikins. What is the story behind these creatures?

After I graduated from the Pratt Institute, I was at a bit of a loss as to what I should do with myself. One day I was feeling crafty, and designed a very simple stuffed animal. I went to a nearby fabric store and loaded up on fabric, embroidery thread, and polyester fiberfill stuffing. After a few very rough first attempts, I figured out a method that worked and started selling them on Etsy. The name "Chubbikin" was inspired by my cat Russell, who, as the name implies, is a bit of a chubster.

(image: frilled lizard illustration by Erin)

What are your favorite media for illustrating? What about them particularly appeals to you?

It depends on the project! I most often work in pen and ink, which is the method I use when designing greeting cards. I tend to go a little cross-hatching crazy, but it allows me to get a lot of fine detail work in that way. I also enjoy using watercolors when I'm feeling painterly and Copic markers and colored pencils when making paper dolls.

(image: page of Erin’s sketchbook)

Do you keep a sketchbook of ideas and drawings? Can we see a page from it?

I keep a very basic notebook that I use to jot down ideas and quick sketches. I think people are surprised when they see my thumbnails because they are so simple (and blobby) compared to my final work. They're really just for me to figure out the composition, and then I go straight in to the drawing.

If you could have lunch with any anyone (living or historical), who would it be?

Jim Henson and Frank Oz! I grew up watching the Muppets and other Jim Henson shows/movies. I think it would be so fun and inspiring to chat with them about how they got started and get a peek in to their creative minds. I would of course ask them to bring along some sketches and a few puppets, including Fozzie so that I can realize my lifelong dream of giving him a hug.

(image: SciFi Hero paper doll illustration by Erin)

Which illustrator or artists have inspired you the most?

There are so many! Children's book illustrators influenced me a lot growing up, and I have a very long list of favorites that I will not subject you to! I love Edward Gorey. His wonderful pen and ink drawings are comical and unsettling at the same time. My sister and I would receive books of paper dolls for every birthday and Christmas, and the best ones were always done by Tom Tierney. We own almost every single book he made! Whether I knew it at the time or not, seeing the way he drew people helped me with my figure drawing.

Thanks, Erin! If you’re eyeing one of Erin’s illustrations or would like to adopt a Chubbekin of your own, check out her Etsy shop! You can also follow her here and here!

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Zoárd's been a little quiet on the blog but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy doing what he does best—making prints, paintings, posters, and zines (check out his work here)! He was recently part of a local zine, art, and comics festival, and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to tell us more about the world of zines and feature some other talented artists. Read on for Zoárd's recap of the event ...

(image: bought and traded at the New Zineland Zine Fest)

Last week I had the pleasure of slingin’ zines and trading printer advice with fellow artists and local publishers and freaks at the New Zineland, a zine and independent publisher’s fair, over in the theater of the Central Square YMCA. This party was thrown by local community organizers, Seek and Find, bringing together scores of comic book artists, activist publications, self- published literature and poetry, art books, photography books, handmade books, and more. Seek and Find, run by Caitlin, organizes two main semi-regular events including the JP Flea Market and now New Zineland Zine Fest.

Zines in some form have existed for hundreds of years, technically speaking! By the time the Heidelberg “high speed printing machine” letterpress machines (which we utilize here at Smudge Ink) were gaining popularity in the 1930s, there were already many ways to get your message out to the public. However, the speed with these machines could help you propagate information (or unpopular opinions) was at an all-time high! The internet was beginning taking shape ... sort of.

The zine as we know it was brought to fruition with the serendipitous timing of advances in printing technology and the rise of punk rock and hardcore music culture of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Homemade, hand stapled and folded fanzines ranging topics from music scene coverage, record reviews, social theory, travel journals, cookbooks, and of course comics were shaping how these counter-cultures communicated internally but also globally. Thirty plus years out, zine’s today can be an expression of just about anything. There are no rules so long as you Do It Yourself.

(image: Jimmy of Wing Club Press)

This year’s zinefest had a little bit of everything but I was particularly drawn to the all the Risograph Digital Duplicator representation in the house! Jimmy of Wing Club Press had some amazing new prints hot off the presses. Wing Club is a risograph and silkscreen studio out of Portland, ME. He also told me all about the upcoming New England Art Book Fair which will bring together over 45 vendors from across the NE.

Risograph prints are created by Risograph machines which are fully automated, high-speed printing machines similar to a Xerox. What printmakers and book dorks love about the Riso is the quality of the prints it produces; there’s something spellbinding about how the machine throws down its individual layers of color ink. The final result looks a lot like if a serigraph print (or silkscreen print) and a photocopy made a beautiful child. It’s a pretty amazing tool to make some really pretty zines, and Jimmy has a couple named Smudge and Smudge 2, wouldentchaknowit.

(image: Mikey of Garbage Press demos Risograph)

I also met Mikey from Garbage Press based out of Connecticut. He self publishes rad comics and books and prints. He also lugged his TR1510 Risograph over to give us a printing demo. In this image he has the machine opened up and pulled out the printing drum on which is a screen (seen in blue) which is used to print on part of a two-color image.

(image: Sophie Page and Jia Sung of Plum Illustration)

I was also drawn to the art zines at Sophie Page and Jia Sung’s table. Together as Plum Illustration they drove out from New York to hang out. Their zines are of really awesome illustrations of poetry and stories that inspired them. I was impressed by their very imaginative and poignant work!

(image: Jerel Dye)

Jerel Dye had some really cool comics but also some amazing original work that were part abstraction and part sci-fi landscape studies. Also, he’s a super nice dude.

(image: me!)

I was tabling this event as well. I recently finished up a new silkscreen book and photocopy zine entitled Cold Shape and Hideg Alak, respectively. I explore themes similar to previous books and printing projects of mine like communication and our common ancestry and how our histories are reinterpreted. I like to put zines out in pairs, one’s title being the Hungarian translation of the other. By doing that I feel I make a direct connection to my own ancestry by using a simple form of communication. I think books are an amazing vehicle to show your art. There is something very intimate about viewing art that you are holding in your hands, and it is a surprisingly different experience then the walking into an all-too-often-stuffy gallery with white walls telling you to “do not touch.” 

All in all, the zine fair was a great success. I made a couple bucks, sure, but these events are all about meeting the artists and talking to them about their work. I took home a great haul of zines, postcards, prints, stickers etc. Next up, I’ll be tabling at the Northampton Print & Book Fair on October 2nd which is part of a larger city-wide printmaking festival called Print Works 2016 including Big Ink and Print Fair North hosted by Zea Mays Printmaking. It should be a pretty amazing day! See you guys there.

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THE GOOD. I love thinking back on all of the good things that happen each month! It's a reminder that we're accomplishing quite a lot, which can be really hard to notice in the day-to-day craziness of a small business. This month Julie has been keeping everything moving in the press room while soaking in as much as possible before Margaret’s departure (more about this below). We finished reorganizing inventory on the new shelves! Our summer fulfillment assistant pre-packaged so many holiday cards that we can barely see over the stacks (unless you use a tall ladder in order to take a photo). And Clayton is doing such great design work right now (plus we're ahead of schedule!!!); we cannot wait to share it all with you later this year!

THE BAD. More like the sad, I suppose. To start, Ryan ended his summer internship. He helped us with so many projects, including blog posts like this and this. Then right after that, we threw a farewell party for Emily, our longtime print shop manager and lover of teeny things! She enjoyed a mini cake as we reminisced about her eight years with Smudge and talked excitedly about all of the great things she'll be doing in the coming months. Last week, we sent Margaret off with a road trip care package complete with a copy of the Sister Act 2 soundtrack. She's en route to Nevada right this moment! And finally, we said bye-bye to Henry, our Beyoncé-loving and superstar packaging assistant (yes, he boxed all of those cards and more). He's starting his senior year of high school today!

It was fairly sad and we most definitely ate our feelings (coconut cake, mini three layer cake, strawberry rhubarb pie, and coffee ice cream to be exact), but we're so grateful to these fine folks for being a part of the family and taking great care to make sure we're all set up for life without them.

THE (NOT SO) UGLY. Does anyone else talk about Stranger Things every day? We're obsessed. We being everyone but Sabrina and Clayton. Get with the program, guys. Staff record so far is watching the entire season in one sitting (ahem, Julie).

 

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It was about five years ago—geesh, has it really been that long?—when I ran my first marathon with Team in Training in Nashville, Tennessee. For those of you who aren't familiar, Team In Training is a branch of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) efforts to raise awareness and funds for blood cancer research and treatment for patients. It's a great cause, and I had an unforgettable experience both training and running thanks to all of the support from friends, family, and acquaintances. 

So I've signed up for Team In Training (TNT) again but this time to run the Chicago marathon. As part of my fundraising effort this year, I really want to reach a broader audience and decided to create something (other than that warm fuzzy do good feeling) as a way to raise funds. I thought back to my original Team In Training endeavor and immediately was inspired by my obsession with Hatch Show Print, a historic letterpress shop I had visited during that same trip to Nashville. Of course, a letterpress print poster! Funny how things always come full circle.

So about the poster: It's an 11"x17" poster letterpress printed here at Smudge Ink on a 300 gsm piece of paper that fits nicely in any store-bought 11" x 17" frame. No custom framing required! The design, though modern and abstract, alludes to the bottom of a running shoe and inconspicuously features the LLS blood drop emblem; pretty much the two tenets of what Team In Training stands for really. And as a selling point, it's abstract enough to go with most home decor! I would like to think that it's a poster that would make both Hatch Show Print and Massimo Vignelli proud (not to mention LLS, of course).

So here's the deal! I'm asking for a minimum of $15 donation in exchange for a poster ($20 if shipping is required). My fundraising goal is $2,400. As members of the team, we have all put down the first $100 of our fundraising goal. So I still have $2,300 more to go! But fundraising doesn't have to stop there; the more the better in this scenario. That's where spreading the word and making a donation comes in.

Go to my fundraising page and make a donation electronically and share the link and this blog post with others! The donation goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

If you make a donation and I know you, there's no need for shipping; I can deliver it or find a way to mail in bulk to family and friends in a consolidated geographical location where disbursal can easily ensue. If I don't know you, please leave a comment or send an email (through my fundraising page) with your name and a mailing address. Or if you're in the Boston area, come on down to Charlestown and pick up your poster at Smudge Ink!

ALSO, starting September 6, posters can be found at Marathon Sports (Brookline), Black Ink (Cambridge) and hopefully soon at Forge Baking Company, Loyal Supply Company, and Brooklyn Boulders (all in Somerville).

One more ALSO, should there be any paper companies, paper stores, paper blogs, or paper enthusiasts reading this and want to really go big and sponsor me, I'll put your company name on my jersey! 

In sum, donate to this cause to help stomp out blood cancer. Stay tuned for updates on a follow up blog post, post October 9th when fundraising and marathon running have both culminated to hopefully an uplifting end!

P.S. to Emily and Margaret, you will be happy to know that I have been taking care of good 'ole Cookie (vandercook printer) while you gals have been out of the print room.

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