saturday morning vintage

new shop sneak peek - packaging.

If you've never placed an order with Saturday Morning Vintage, you might not know that I try to make each order feel like a little gift when it arrives in your mail box.  I wrap all items in kraft tissue paper and tie the package with black and white baker's twine.  I like the simplicity and will continue wrapping orders from my new shop like this.

 

Extra papers get tucked under the black and white twine.  Sometimes I simply grab a few flashcards, but like to fill little glassine bags with a variety of papers when I have the time. 

 

 

To celebrate the opening of the new shop, I filled some glassine bags with vintage maps, blank and airmail labels, old stamps, ledger and office papers, and a few tickets.  Looking forward to adding these to future orders.

 

 

A thank you note attached with some washi tape finishes off the package.  It's a package I'd be happy to receive, and hope it brightens up a customer's day when it shows up in their mailbox!

new shop sneak peek - matchbox labels.

One of the new products I'm most excited to introduce to the shop are these vintage matchbox labels.  These labels used to adorn the top of matchboxes and are little pieces of artwork with cute graphics and interesting typography.  Most are of the labels are from the 1950's / 1960's / 1970's and from Czechoslovakia and other design powerhouses.  With so many different designs out there, these guys are perfect to collect the way you would postage stamps.  If you would prefer to put them to good use, they would be perfect additions to small Project Life inserts or add interest to simple gift tags. 

Cute, right?

new shop sneak peek - paper by color.

I found an old metal cabinet with 30 small drawers at an antique fair last summer while in the Bay Area visiting my parents.  It was obviously too large to go home with me as my carry on, so it stayed with my parents until I drove home for Christmas.  I was so excited to get it home because I knew it would be perfect to organize my paper collection.

I spent the past month or so gathering vintage tins and old boxes in a rainbow of colors.  Then I sorted much of my paper collection by color.  And now I have a row of drawers dedicated to paper in each color and couldn't be happier.

 

new shop sneak peek - labels.

You may have noticed things are a little quiet in the shop lately, but that's about to change.  After a few good years on Etsy I'm getting ready to open a shop of my own!  Starting Friday, March 1 you'll be able to find ephemera of all sorts at www.SaturdayAMVintage.com.  Leading up to Friday I'll be sharing a few bits and pieces of the new shop, starting with new product labels today. 

When I first started working on the new shop I knew I wanted to design some labels to pull together all of the different products and give customers a quick glimpse of what was inside.  Here's what I came up with.

inteview - Katharine Watson.

 

 

 

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your shop.

I create linoleum prints based on traditional textile designs and folk arts from around the world, as well as motifs and patterns found in nature. All of my work is done with hand-carved linoleum blocks.

Briefly describe the art of block printing.

Block printing is done with a printing block which can be made of wood, linoleum, rubber, any surface that can be carved into. The reverse image is carved into the block, and you carve away the negative space to create the design. The block is then inked and pressed onto the surface to make the print.

When did you start block printing? How did you get into this art?

I studied printmaking in college and loved block printing; I loved the simplicity of the process and the bold designs you can create with the blocks. It stood out to me from the other forms of printmaking because of how bright and bold the prints could be. I then traveled to India and studied block printing there, and combined the techniques I learned in both places to find my style.

How long does it take to go from an initial design sketch to a carved block?

I sketch out designs all the time, so sometimes a design will just sit for months before I am ready to start carving it. It depends on the size and complexity of the design, some take just a few hours and some can take weeks depending on the detail you are putting in.

Where do you do the majority of your work? Any pictures to share?

I work from my studio at my house, where I have all my supplies and my printing press.

Where do you seek inspiration for creating new designs and new products? How do you get yourself out of a dreaded creativity rut?

I love to look through old textile and pattern books, or through photos I have taken while traveling. I don't really get in creativity ruts, if I'm feeling unexcited by a project it usually means I need to change it and try again. Plus, there's always the business side of things to take care of, so I will usually just switch gears and come back to it later. I think the best way to get out of a rut is just to try something new.

The time and talent that goes into Katharine's prints is incredible.  Please take a minute and visit Katharine's shop and blog.  I'm partial to her monogram cards! 

interview - Eleven Trees.

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your shop.

Hello! I’m Kristen Whitley of Eleven Trees Artistry. I’m an artist from St. Cloud, Minnesota, working toward (and almost finished with!) my Master’s Degree in Creative Arts Therapy. Eleven Trees is the quirky love child of my scattered creative energy and my appreciation for old and aged things.

The shop currently specializes in what I’ve coined “Anthology Photo Frames,” which are gorgeous vintage hardcover books transformed into (totally readable!) picture frames. Each book is carefully chosen, freshened up, and transformed with the intent of beautifully and uniquely displaying life’s most precious memories. I use quality plexiglass and brass hardware to protect photos and keep them in place, and the book frames can be hung on a wall or set on a surface.

How did you come up with the creative idea to turn vintage books into picture frames?  Have you always collected old books?

With an appreciation for the past, I have always been a collector of lovely old things that catch my eye- vintage typewriters, a pocket watch, old cameras, tintypes, a photo album...

I began collecting a few vintage art books in high school, but it all started with 10 Reader’s Digests I found at a local thrift store. It was my intention to find a way to use them as wedding décor, simply because the patterns were such perfect rich colors. I ended up using them to stack candle favors at the wedding, and they found their way in various places around our house after that, because they were just so beautiful.  I began brainstorming a new way to display them for their intrinsic beauty, and had a light bulb moment.  After some experimentation, I started collecting vintage books and making book frames like mad.  

Where are your favorite places to search for books?  Any specific qualities you look for in a book that makes it a good candidate to be a picture frame?

I think my favorite places to shop are thrift stores, because there’s so much life connected to the books there. Often times, the books have come straight from many years on the previous owner’s bookshelf, and sometimes they have notes, personal inscriptions, dried leaves, post cards, bookmarks, and other beautiful bits of life inside. One of my favorite parts of the process is coming home with a new stack of old books and going through them all.

The best books for frames are those that have been well taken care of, and it is particularly important to have a strong binding. I generally look for books with the fabric covers, because they’re easiest to cut into and have the aesthetic texture I’m looking for. It’s always an exciting find if the book is a fantastic color, has a great title, or has a charming graphic or font on the cover.

Of all the books you’ve turned into picture frames, do you have a favorite?

There are so many favorites! I’ve loved, oh, about 500 books in the past year, but 3 of them stick out in my mind. “How to Sail,” “Time of Our Lives,” and “Bird,” which all sold soon after I opened my Etsy shop. They’re each so beautiful in their own ways, but as an artist and wanna-be designer, the colors, text, and graphics just stop my heart! All 3 were also great pieces of literature.

It’s truly a pleasure to rescue and give a new life to these oft-abandoned and forgotten pieces of the past. I adore each piece in my book collection: the wear, the smell, the texture, the materials, the fonts, the illustrations, the craftsmanship, the history, the timelessness…it's all beautiful. I’m hooked!

Where do you store your book stash and do most of your creating?

Right now, Eleven Trees operates entirely out of my living room. Thankfully, it’s spacious enough; and for now it works much better than my home art studio, which is a poorly lit and crowded upstairs dungeon. My books are stored in a few different bookshelves, and I work off of a nifty craft cart that holds my tools and supplies and also functions as a workspace. I have big dreams for a fantastic home studio space when we move someday!

Thanks for this opportunity to share my passion with you, and I hope to see you around the shop soon. The new year marks growth and transformation at Eleven Trees, and there are literally hundreds of beauties ready to go out the door, so keep your eyes open!

Please be sure to read more about Eleven Trees and pick up a book of your own:

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