ABC's...

 

I am heading out this weekend to a beautiful cottage accessible only by boat and I am beyond excited for the break. I will be sitting on a dock this evening enjoying a hot chocolate with great friends in the great Canadian outdoors. I. Can't. Wait...

 

This is a much needed time out for me but I will be back next week refreshed so I can continue to pile up the ABC's prints.

 

Wishing you an amazing and restful weekend! 

Happy anniversary and Suite 404 prints...

I completely forgot the first anniversary of this little blog and I have to admit I am pretty mad about it...
Last year, on August 28th, I wrote my first post. I was hopeful and eager to get going with my little shop dreams and quite frankly I had a completely unrealistic idea of exactly how much work this adventure would require. It seems that for me that's how it always works though. A dream pops into my head and I start putting things in motion to make that dream a reality and I think it's going to happen easily and with reasonable amount of effort...for instance, merely because I though it up makes it easily attainable right? Not so much...this is also why I don't have a six pack...yet...but a girl can dream...and should...

While in the past year I didn't accomplish what I set out to do exactly, I learned so much. I learned that it takes insane amounts of time, dedication, discipline and focus. I learned that equipment will malfunction and every step in the process has to work just right or else you have to start from scratch. I learned that balancing a full time job, photography and the dream to open up a shop might be too much...but I shrugged my shoulders and carried on anyway. I learned that support is crucial (thank heavens for an understanding husband). I learned how to manage time better and that I can't and won't give up...

So, full steam ahead. I am close...so close!
The prints above are part of the first "collection" and I'm nervous sharing them because I hope people will enjoy them as much as I do. There's a nice pile of these building up right next to the alphabets piles, ready for listing...just waiting...

As I write this I am curious about what the following year will bring. I know for sure there will be some additions in equipment to our little studio, the first of which I am picking up in about a week or so (more on that later). I know for sure that the shop will be opened finally...but most importantly I know that want to keep working away at this all day every day...and right now that is all I need to know.

So, thank you for reading along and supporting me with your kind comments this past year...you all mean so much to me. Cheers to many many more anniversaries...even if I forget them...

Photos and art by me, Kinga Subject

Hello swan...

It has been a long time since I posted about postcards but this one is by far my favourite. I have many; some dating back to the early 1900's, but for some reason this is the only one I would like reprinted and stretched as a large canvas. There is something so intriguing about it; maybe it's that beautiful greenish blue or the contrast between the black of the shadows on the water and the white swans. This one is also a blank card, so I always have the option of sending it out...in any case, it is perfect and nostalgic and I love it so I thought I would share...

 

 Hope you're having a good week so far...

A workshop at Silverplate Press...

On Sunday morning I piled a mountain of paper into my car and eagerly headed off to Toronto for a letterpress workshop at Silverplate Press. When I heard that she was going to teach workshops, I literally pole-vaulted myself at the chance to learn from my amazing friend Amanda who literally literally has the largest Vandercook proof press in all of Toronto... in her living room! Lit-er-a-lly!

I think it takes an amazing kind of person to teach what they know and to share their passion in a selfless way to help someone else grow or become inspired. Amanda is that kind of person! Completely willing to share the joy that this press, this monumental piece of history, brings to her life! She just glows talking about all things letterpress and Vandercook and I came away from the experience completely lifted and inspired...maybe I should have titled this post "How Kinga got her Groove Back"...

I took the workshop with another letterpress printer, Tanya from Snap + Tumble  which was also a treat because she is a very experienced letterpress printer herself and teaches workshops on tabletop presses. She came up with and set the above alphabet poster and with Amanda's gentle guidance we printed away into the afternoon.

Amanda, I can't tell you how awesome and much needed this day was...I am completely inspired to put my own little press to work and eager to collect some bigger pieces of equipment (and type) for my studio. Thanks so much for sharing your love for letterpress and for sharing your Vandercook...I WILL be taking this workshop again!
I am working on some business cards for a good friend that I will be printing on my press in the very near future so this workshop came at the right time....I am so ridiculously inspired...it's ridiculous! Thank You!

For info on the workshop visit Silverplate Press.
To take a tabletop press workshop visit Snap + Tumble

You wanna fly...

This is my truth today. If there's something you want to do, you have to make room, you have to get out of your own way and just do it...

Don't these photos make you want to book a flight?

Photos by me...in the air somewhere over Detroit...

Pep-talk...

Hello friends...orange ya glad it's wednesday? Yes...I went there. Today I guess cheesy does it and let me tell you....it ain't easy being cheesy! Apparently this is the point I've reached this summer with all the craziness going on; I'm borrowing punch lines from knock-knock jokes to fill empty spaces. This I guess is the point one reaches when her Inspiration takes a hike with her other good friends Creative Thinking and Ability to Form a Coherent Sentence. With those three gone I find that I have been left with blank space; the inability to give answers to simple questions like "Want sugar in your coffee?" and an overwhelming urge to respond to EVERYTHING with "Whatever floats your canoe".

 I didn't intend this post to go this way, because lately I have been sounding like a broken record and you must be getting tired of me...but then I thought I'd share anyway because sometimes it makes me feel good to know that someone else is also going through a similar creative block. So if you and I are in the same canoe let's paddle this thing together...

I guess the first step to overcoming this is ...MOVE ON! So, this is the last of my whining about a lack of inspiration...but isn't that the way it always goes...you start to feel less than inspired and then you start telling yourself a story about how uninspired you feel and then your head is filled with a mental movie about the end of your creative life and you find yourself telling the mail-man about how ridiculously uninspired you are... STOP IT!. Pick up a pencil, a camera, a freakin' rolling pin and get to work....