South Pasadena is turning 125 years old and the town will be celebrating all day long with activities during the day and the Art Crawl at night featuring local artists. Come to De Milo’s studio 5-9pm and letterpress a Happy Birthday card on marble paper using vintage wood type. Ambitious printers have the option of personalizing their cards by setting a name of their choice in lead type.

Took a break from printing this morning to visit Barb Skoog’s studio. It’s so freeing to be in another artist’s environment where I can shed all perfectionism and sink into a different medium. Steve (writer, bird-watcher, and banjo-player) had come to do the same. I watched the two of them for awhile. Marbled a couple sheets. Then, on a whim, plunged my hand into the pool of paint. So refreshing. Now back to the press!

Recently I had the pleasure of printing wine labels for Gypsy Canyon Winery’s latest harvest. Deborah Hall’s relationship with her grapes is rooted in a hundred year old untamed vineyard discovered on her property in Santa Rita Hills near Santa Barbara, CA. After many hours combing through archives in the Santa Barbara library she’s resurrected a piece of wine making history. Deborah’s artistic attention to packaging detail is exquisite—hand blown glass bottles, handmade paper labels, and sealed with beeswax from their own Gypsy Canyon hives. But Gypsy Canyon is more than a pretty face. I took a bottle to Easter Dinner and it was by far the favorite among many on the table.