lose myself in Leeuwen

I recently walked through the Web to find the illustration of Denise Van Leeuwen and became enchanted with her portraits.... Her spare use of color and charcoal line combine to tell intruiging stories - or rather, tint the air with a story about to be told. learn more about the artist here.

ode to postal service

Stunning images of security envelope patterns from around the world.... a stream started by josephking on flickr with contributions from pattern-lovers everywhere. how mesmerizing... quiet works of art shuttled in our everyday correspondences revealed here for proper study.

Supermarket Sale to Celebrate Obama

Shimmy on over to Supermarket to snag Loop note sets on SALE !

All drawing and painting styles are 15% off this week.

Psyched about our 44th? Send a note to commemorate the O-ccasion !

Happy Trails

Katie Pickard of Paper Trails in Rocky River, Ohio, introduces her stationery boutique and talks about how easy it is to find recycled alternatives when paper shopping.

[ click image to watch video ]

Katie is passionate about great paper + her store reflects her thoughtfulness and savvy eye for unique, original design; she says she only chooses paper products that satisfy the question, " Is this item charismatic enough to be viewed as a work of art?”.

Philadelphia finds me fitful after a restorative trip to Vermont. The threads of my spirit are woven through with pine needles which slip out of my hair and from the folds of my clothing now that I am back in urban climes; sometimes they soften into tears, reminding me of my first home. I will always be a country girl at heart, awash in solitary moments spent watching the landscape as if it were cinema.

The last photograph is the view from the living room couch in my parents' house, the first greeting for my sleepy eyes upon waking each morning. Soon to follow would be a hot cup of coffee from my Dad. Sometimes I lie in bed in the city with my eyes closed, retracing the way it felt to rise from sleep and see the rustling trees, alive with possibility, like a curtain wooshing open to reveal the passion play.

Can I tell you how excited I am for the holidays?! I can. not. wait. to disembark from the Ethan Allen tomorrow evening into my families' arms - if I can find them in the 2 feet of snow blanketing the mighty Green Mountain State... Hello?! Parents? Brother? Arms?!!! My husband Craig and I decided to Amtrak-it to my northern home instead of slushing through the highway havok; all we ask for are two seats relatively close together and a tidy spot for our baggage. [ fingers crossed ! ]. My brother is home for his first Christmas from college, and my mom is hosting dinner Christmas Day. Perhaps I can entreat my dad to make us latkes, the infamous fried potatoe pancake, for the fourth night of Hanukkah... I love my mixed traditions, but let's look at the facts, folks. Exhibit A, above : a glorious panetonne in a box worthy of stylish posterity. And Exhibit B, below : a mishmash of oily starchiness.... Ah, holidays !!!

Craig has just offered up a new tradition : Let's bring the inflatable mattress to Killlington ! Instead of skiing down the mountain, we can recline down the mountain... ! And maybe we can bring fleecey blankets and I can smoke a pipe and you can read a book and and and ....

My only comment, once again is : Ah, holidays !

Eco Emporium

It is my great pleasure to share with you these images from the incredible EcoEmporium in Atlanta, Georgia. The sweet and stylish Carol Held and her husband, Bruce launched this 3200 sq.ft. lifestyle store in October, which they describe as 'A place where there is a sense of community, balance, and serenity.' The glittering lighting and warm, muted palette is such a soothing background to the lush collection of eco products. As they note on their website, prices range from $5 to $6000; so while lucky residents of the Atlanta area are stopping by for organic food events, creative classes and children's events, they can discover fabulous furnishing, linens, baby gear, paper goods and other unique, recycled, fairly traded, sustainable, and non-toxic goodies.

Congratulations, Carol and Bruce !

www.theecoemporium.com

Located at the intersection of Howell Mill Road and Marietta Street in the BricksWorks commercial center.

Store Hours : Tuesday - Friday 1o:30am - 6:30pm Saturday 10am - 4pm

just my type

The corner desk I work from is growing increasingly cold as the winter winds wrap the drafty brick walls on both sides. I have a constant supply of warm beverages to bolster my spirits as I check off items on my to-do list... genma-cha roasted green tea, yogi peach detox tea, strong french press coffee with lots of cream and the occasional cocoa to name a few of my overtime companions .... So when I saw this fine coaster from ACD on Supermarket, I thought we'd be fast friends. ACD is an undergrad in NYC whose products 'bring interest to otherwise ordinary objects'. ACD's coaster, rendered in Baskerville semibold and produced from mature bamboo stock in Canada, is also available at veer.com.

Great Green Gifts from Inhabitat

Unlike most of the riotious public, I actually tried not to shop during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness... If you're like me, than the posting of Inhabitat's Green Gift Guide comes at a perfect time. Brew a cuppa something tasty [ cocoa, coffee, tea, nips included or not .... ] and peruse the wonderful selections in a variety of well-organized sections. If I may suggest, the Gifts Under $50 have a great note card set you might recognize... ; )

Eye-catchers and other click-worthy gifts include :

you're so fedorable !

I LOVE this hat from Terry Graziano, and not only because it has the perfect name... Well, maybe it has a lot to do with the name, but still - look how cute and adaptable it is ! As soon as I get over my fear of hat-hair, this is the first purchase I'll make. Visit Terry's store on etsy and check out the other great styles, like the Moxie, Gemini, Confidante + Capricious - or amble through her blog.

loop happenings !

With the holidays quickly approaching, we are happy to offer two great new promotions! The first is a December sale-- 15% off note card sets for mixed Paintings, mixed Line, mixed Drawings, Doodlespark Explore, and Holiday. Our second promotion offers a free surprise set with purchase of any three note card sets!

Loop is also happy to be one of 15 artists participating in Scoutie Girl's Indie Goodness Giveaway! Not only does every entry get you one step closer to winning fabulous handmade items, but she is also donating 5 cents to the winner's charity of choice for each entry. Visit her blog to learn how you can enter and see all of the great products!

papercuts that feel great

The stellar images above were created by artist Nikki McClure. Based in Olympia, Washington, Nikki carves these vibrant graphics from a single sheet of paper using only an Exact-o knife. Once I learned about their genesis, my appreciation for their detail only delighted me further - what an amazing undertaking...

A friend of mine sent me a note card with the 'Return' papercut last year and it has been on my desk ever since [ thanks, Jean ! ].... The series above is sold as a set of 6 posters, each 14" x 18", for only $24.95 at buyolympia.com.

Cinders Gallery wrote the bio on her website :

"Her work depicts the virtues of hard labor and patience, which is inherent in her process as well as in the images themselves: weathered hands washing dishes, people sweeping, mothers caring for their babies, and farmers working the land. But there is also a large element of celebration, of taking the time to roll around in the grass and get wet from the early morning dew. The need for all of us to lay down on the ground, grab hold of the earth, look at the stars and dream. She magnifies the importance of simple things, like the change of seasons, slowing down the world for a moment so we can actually taste it. "

Shelly Steffee

While New York's Meatpacking District assembles glitterati designers like Louboutin, McQueen + McCartney, one of its more down-to-earth shining stars is the very talented Shelly Steffee. I can hardly describe her work better than she does on her glimmering site... in fact, the Flash greeting sums it up quite nicely, as illustrated above... Steffee's appreciation of line, balanced with hue and keen proportion come alive in corporal form in her timeless fashion collection. Born, raised + studied in Philadelphia [ yay, philly ladies ! ], Steffee's boutique at 34 Gansevoort Street has been a design destination since 2001.

Loop is honored to be part of her studio store's diverse repertoire, which includes J Schatz Egg Banks, Cromono slippers, Siebensachen Mozart Musical Boxes, Melissa Plastic Dreams footwear, and Marcus Huemer, along with her own eponymous Home and Jewelry lines [ shown below ].

Learn more about Shelly's philosophy in this video interview :
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1137708129

When I think of woodblock prints, my mind instantly floods with the canonical image of Hokusai's wave, shown above. [ The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, from Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, 1823 - 1829 ].

Lately, however, I've been reading up about traditional printing techniques and came across some other artists and prints that are extraordinary - and some that are almost contemporary... The print below is from Takeji Asano [ 1900 - 1999 - what a lifetime !!! ]. Moonlight at Wakanoura, Wakayama, was created in 1953, but not likely printed until the 1960's or '70's. I love the way the lights are portrayed here - the cutout shape the moonlight forms in the sky and the directional beacons the lanterns etch from the water.

[ courtesey hanga gallery, www.hanga.com, $250.00 for 10" x 15" oban print ]

[ courtesey hanga gallery, http://www.hanga.com/ , $850.00 for 9.5" x 10" shikishiban print ]

Kawase Hasui, Himeji Castle, 1930, from limited edition of 200 printed by Kato

ich ein Berliner

While I am very disheartened to learn that Moleskine notebooks are Made In China . . .[ always have been !!! ], I have to admit I am thrilled by what's happening to them in Germany at the moment. Dropboxes have been set up on various street corners in Berlin to receive creative notebook essays on the German city submitted by a range of creative people. This program, Detour, launched its annual exhibits in London in 2006, followed by New York '07 and Paris '08.

As the mission statement describes, entrants are invited "to invent an itinerary for an expedition, a map of a tour, a daily adventure, the discovery of something to look forward to, the beginning of a trip, the signs of well known or unknown visionary places, the exploration or the conquest of a region never visited before, as well as something in the city constantly seen and beloved. "

The chosen books from Berlin will be showed in Istanbul in the spring of 2009. Exhibitions are staged so that attendees may don white gloves and turn the pages of each notebook on display.

I highly recommend watching a few of the videos of artists turning the pages of their books. From the London archives I enjoyed this from Birgit Brenner :

The inked New York from London Illustrator Chris Dent is fantastic :

Stefano Faravelli's watercolor journey is worth taking :

Proceeds from Detour support letter27, a non-profit that supports literacy, education + access to information in parts of the world most in need. Some of their projects in Africa include WikiAfrica and WikiAfrica Art. Send a literary e-card while you're learning more about their amazing work, like this one from South African writer, editor + poet, Karen Press.