Friday, April 30, 2010

New Hires

It's bloggy blog time, Read-y Readers!

What today? you wonder. As do we, dear friend. As do we.

Well, I suppose the natural thing to do is to introduce you to our new employees. Mind you, most of these have not passed the 3-month trial period, the Great Perlustration, as Harriet calls it. Although I think that word is more for papers than people. (Harriet loves a long word.)

We put all our employees through a battery of tests, and if they do satisfactorily, they are permanently hired. Some of you who run businesses of your own will understand this.

Here they are in order of hire date.

First Rudy:

He was actually hired before our policy of the 3-month trial. I can't really imagining him passing the tests now. This isn't fair to our new employees who have to, but Rudy has a broken foot, and we can't really kick him out. He announces when someone new has entered the building.

Then Martha:
She's actually been with us for years. A quiet worker. She's in charge of opening the mail.

Next Birdy. Birdy is a new hire, and I'm not certain she'll get tenured. She's a frightened kind of thing and has trouble staying on task.


Martin, below, is our most promising new hire and has won employee of the month both in January and again in March.

Martin is a hard worker, and his only flaw so far revealed is a tendency to talk too much. Of course this doesn't bother Harriet who can barely hear anyhow, but it does annoy me occasionally. Martin does mainly technical, computer work.


Bandit, above, was hired on the same day as Martin. He isn't overly bright, but he is likable. He is Hector's assistant.

Big Jim, above, is not actually a new hire. He is just shacking up in the studio for a couple of weeks. We do that from time to time for good friends. But be assured, Dear Reader, that these visitors do not interfere with the highly productive work of our team.

And finally, Muggers, our wind-up dog. He's not an employee; he's a toy! Did you think we'd hire someone without a proper head? We wind him up every once in a while for a good laugh.


So there you have it Interested Reader. The full staff at Harriet and Mickey, Ink.

As always, you are welcome to come visit us,
And meet the New Hires.
Your friends,
And Responsible Employers,
Harriet and Mickey

Friday, April 23, 2010

Chaise Completed!

Good afternoon Cherished Reader,

Well, you will be relieved to know that the chaise is finished! Printing on fabric is all well and good, but I'm not sure that it saves any time. I believe I could have hand-painted both the shower curtain and the chaise in the same amount of time it took me to print them. What with the washing and ironing, then washing and ironing again. That is enough to fully exhaust a dog like me who has great difficulty simply getting the ironing board out of the closet.


Here is the completed chaise:


Compare to uncompleted chaise
.

Harriet says it's firmer with the cover on it, and also enjoys the woodsy feel.

The studio is nearly in tip top shape, nearly ready to resume full production. Just a few more things...

Well. Here's wishing you a delightful weekend,
Your printmaking dog,
and loyal blogger,
Mickey
(with Harriet)

Friday, April 16, 2010

Delays and Polish Illustration

Well, the chaise screenprinting is not complete. That is, there have been some delays. Dear Reader, you can expect to see a completed chaise next week. Dog's Honor.

What do you want to talk about today? Delays? How about an interesting illustration book that I found in the library the other day? It's filled with Polish book illustrations. Here are some of my favorites:

[Click on images to make them bigger.]

This pictures a robber getting away. Zbigniew, himself, looks a little sneaky, doesn't he? Harriet used to date a Zbigniew, and she says he was also sneaky.

Here is my favorite:
A lovely village scene.
This book called Polish Book Illustrations, was published in 1964. That means Krystyna is now 82 years old.

I also like this train picture. I really like to ride on trains and don't get to often, what with things here keeping me so busy.

This one shows an expectant father and son going to a cyrk, whatever that is. I don't think Eryk here ever goes to cyrks.


And finally here is Bohdan Butenko, overseeing his nice pictures. You can see me and Harriet riding on his plane back in Harriet's more adventurous days.



Don't the Polish illustrators dress nicely? Hector thinks we should institute a new dress code in the studio, but as we all know well, he's not in charge.

That is all for now, Dear Reader. Please join us next week,
And please think of us often,
Your friends,
advisors,
and animals,
Harriet and Mickey

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The New Math

Good afternoon Reader,

Perhaps you are acquainted with The New Math? It's a new way of doing math. Harriet, apparently, is very against it, being so expertly expert in her multiplication tables. But I am all for more freedom in my calculations. It's kind of like glasnost, but for math.

Annie just finished a new math trilogy, which clarifies the subject. Here it is:


But what does it all mean, you ask.

Well, my good friend, think about it.
Here it is broken down. Start first with the division:



Then calculate the difference between the house and the boy,


Add the two things together and you should come up with this:


If you didn't come up with this answer, then you were wrong.

More on this and other subjects next week.
Your tutor
and friend,
Mickey

Friday, April 2, 2010

Shower Curtains

Hello Readers!

I was away last week so I didn't write to you. This week I am back, and so I will write to you.

Well, the hand-printed shower curtain is finished and is Somewhat Disappointing. Annie didn't iron the prints long enough (you must iron them to set the ink), and much of the ink came out in the wash. Here is the shower curtain with two of the three final stamps done, pre-washing:


And here it is with all three stamps after being washed.


Perhaps we can get Our Roommate with the Sewing Machine to make us another plain curtain to try on. In any event, we were not entirely pleased with the color scheme, so it could be good to have another go at it.

We did, however, make some prints on paper of the "H Monster" print, based on a drawing by the elder weasel. These look terrific:




In better news, Annie is preparing to print our studio chaise with a pattern from by Lena Corwin, who wrote the great printmaking book that has inspired these projects, Printing by Hand. We got a screen made by the kind folks at RC Silkscreening in South Boston. It's beautiful in an of itself.

More on that next week.

Until then, rest assured,
that we wish you
a very Happy Easter,
or at least,
some very good chocolate,
your friends,
Harriet and Mickey