New Work for SALE at Valley Artisans' Co-op!!!

New work in Valley Artisans' Gallery!!!

Yesterday morning I was finally able to update my display section at Valley Artisans' Co-op Gallery in Deep River! My display now contains a great supply of hand letterpress printed holiday cards, small hand-bound blank journals, letterpress bookmarks, small calligraphy broadsides and large calligraphy broadsides.

Customers have been requesting for months that I make some "mini" calligraphic broadsides and I have added 7 new ones to my stock.  I had great fun working in the studio over the past month completing hand illuminations with these inspirational quotations.

Each of the pieces contains a hand coloured illuminated initial, painted with gouache and gold infused ink. The quotations are written with Petrarch, the calligraphy alphabet created by my teacher and friend, the late Father Edward Michael Catich. You can learn more about Father and his work at The Art Legacy League website.  I have also reproduced these small broadsides on a large assortment of blank greeting cards. These will be in the Valley Artisans Co-op Gallery this week. The cards carry the Ducks in a Row Press imprint on the
back.

Copyright 2013 Nancy Trottier, all rights reserved.

I have also been working diligently on finishing the binding of my letterpress artist's book edition, An Abecedarium for the Makers of Artist's Books. (This link shows the proof copy of the book and the finished copy, with slipcase.) I sold one copy of the edition at the Artisans@the Archives show in Ottawa this past weekend, have two more going to different collectors in the states, and one for sale in the gallery here in Deep River.  I have also been asked to donate a copy to the National Archives in Ottawa. This is a very interesting possibility for me and I plan to follow-up on this request in the new year. It has been gratifying to me that this wee book has be so well received when people hold it in their hands!

Wood relief cuts printed on hand made paper.

Printing holiday cards this year with wood relief cuts has also spurred my interest in learning more about wood engraving. I have a complete set of tools for this work, but have never spent much time learning how to use them.

Ted Johnston, a woodcut artisan I have met through The Ottawa Letterpress Gang, has offered to give me some tips in January. Ted has a show of his work up now at The Ottawa Folklore Centre Gallery, 1111 Bank Street. Ted Johnson’s prints have been exhibited locally in various group and solo exhibitions and are being added to private collections in Ottawa and elsewhere. His work has been featured on the CTV program Regional Contact and in publications such as Ottawa West magazine, the Orleans Star, the AOE Calendar of Events, and the FSCA magazine. If you have a chance to stop by the gallery in Ottawa when the show runs, through 7 January, I think you will really enjoy seeing his work.

The first real snow of the year has fallen overnight, blanketing the rooftops and sidewalks with a heavy wet snow.  The air is crisp and the smell of Christmas baking mingled with the rich aroma of wood burning in our family room stove will soon fill our home as I prepare cookies for St. Barnabas Anglican Church's Holly Tea this Saturday. My soul looks back to past holidays here, when my daughters were able to join us to celebrate the Christmas season, and mourns that they will not be with us this year.

I love the changes in the seasons. The natural cycle of life, from fall through winter sleep, fascinates me. As I receive the day, and finish writing here to begin my morning prayers, I am struck by the shear joy that pulses in my heart from working in my studio all day, every day. Creating works that have, for the past two years, only lived in my mind's eye, makes my heart soar like a hawk. 

And as my heart soars this morning, I know that all will be well, and all will be well, and with the grace and wisdom of our mother God, all will be well.