Just when I was pretty might resigned to the idea that the move from Los Angeles back to the Bay Area (and correlating temporary displacement of my press and studio space) meant that there was NO WAY that I could handle making a 2015 calendar, up comes a sudden rush of inspiration and within two days, I've drawn, carved and started designing a run of fifty linoleum block and letterpress one pagers...by the skin of my teeth.
We were going for a hike, my husband and I, a steep march straight up a sun-beaten mountainside in the Hayward hills, with a pewter sky overhead. On the descent half an hour later, through pungent tunnels of bay laurel, we emerged to the piercing sound of hawks hidden somewhere in the sycamores and oaks. I noted that I'd never seen a hawk's nest before, although I was lucky enough some years back to see the nest of a Great Horned Owl and its inhabitants. To this, Sam replied, "there are hawks that are nesting over by our house." I had not known this. Returning home, I did some research on birds of the San Francisco East Bay and became enraptured by the raptors, as they say. Twenty-four hours later, I had a good solid drawing on the linoleum and some ideas for calendar design. Four hours after that, I had carved the whole thing, and this morning I pulled the first hand test prints on the living room table.
My usual rule is to have the calendar printed and up on my Etsy store by November 1st at the latest, and with more moving in my very near future its likely that I won't get on the press for at least another week or so, but here goes...With any luck, my Etsy store (still "on vacation" as a casualty from our move in May) will be up and running again soon, with new calendars and a restock of the rest of the backstock inventory.
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