Nice Pear

I had some time to kill today and suddenly found myself in the heavenly shop that is Itoya. It's in the heart of Ginza and a mecca for anyone who loves any kind of paper product or anything to use with paper. It is spread out over 7 floors and sells anything from traditional washi paper, stationary, to pens etc. I picked up some beautiful cards by Eleanor who is a designer/illustrator who creates stunning graphic posters and cards as well as designing your website if you so desire. You can check out her website here for more fab finds.

Snail's Pace

There are some beautiful cards around at the moment and I picked these two up the other day. What I love abut them is the fact that they use old fashioned printing techniques and each one is hand done, so that there is a sense of individuality to them.They both use a technique called letterpress. This was a technique invented in the mid 15th century where a raised surface of the reversed design is inked and then pressed onto a sheet of paper to obtain a positive image. What I love is that you can see the imprint of the block on the paper, and I love the fact that each image is unique as the paint sits slightly differently on each imprint.
By the second half of the 20th century, the letterpress was not used as much, but it has recently been revived and the relief printing can now be produced from digitally rendered art. These two images attracted me because of their Asian influences as well as the beautiful colour. You can see more like this at Archivist. For a more modern twist, check out these beautiful cards at Modern Optic. It is run by Leslie, a designer who creates cards featuring architecture and design in beautiful colours. As Leslie says "I take pride in modern designs, bright colours and deep impressions".......