we're having a party!

We haven't unpacked all of our boxes or built out all of our new space yet, but we're ready to celebrate our new studio and our new equipment! We're having a party! A launch party! An urban garden party in Downtown L.A. with handmade cocktails and snacks and music to be more precise! 

The invitation to our new studio launch party open house, to RSVP just click on the image above.

We're having a lot of fun getting ready for this party. We've had some great help from friends and family and can't wait to celebrate with all of the people who have helped us get where we are!

L-R: assembling our goodie bags, pretty paper straws and mini cupcake liners for the party!

We decided to make paper decorations for the party, it just seemed like the right fit! Some of our friends came over and helped us make a skyline out of white butcher block paper that we painted with watered down acrylic paint. We painted each strip of paper and then adhered them to the wall with double-sided tape. It's been really fun having this up on the wall, we'll probably keep it around after the party until we're ready to finish building the space out.

The hand-painted butcher block paper skyline we made with the help of some of our friends.

One of the other paper decoration projects we've embarked on, is making crepe paper flowers. These were definitely a little more challenging! We made a few poppies that were made with single petals, but mostly we concentrated on the multiple sheet way of making flowers. We found a great tutorial on Pinterest where you stack multiple sheets of crepe paper, fold the stack into an accordion, tie it in the middle and trim the edges. Then you carefully unfold the individual sheets. We're really pleased with the end result.

The crepe paper flowers we made, we'll also be using fresh flowers from the LA Flower Market in DTLA.

We've also been very lucky to work with a few of our favorite companies and local organizations who have graciously donated goodies or information packets for our goodie bags. We're only offering a limited number, so get here early to snag one!

L-R:a sneak peek at a treat from our goodie bags, the terra cotta cupcake towers we made from plant containers, the goodies Neenah paper graciously donated for our goodie bags. 

We have a bunch of other fun projects in the works. If you're interested in taking a look at what we've been thinking about for decorations, take a look at our Party Plans board on Pinterest or stay tuned on Instagram or Facebook where we'll be posting pictures over the next few weeks as we get ready for the big day!

We're really excited to open our doors and welcome everyone into our new space and show off our new equipment. Hope to see you there!

Best,
Rosemary+Robin

first big steps

Robin setting up the rollers.

We took some first big steps this weekend. After taking some time to learn how our new press works, we took the plunge on Sunday and pulled our first prints!

L-R: our workspace, locking up the letterpress heart in order to print.

It might not look like much, but it's taken us a little over two years to get to this heart, our first print on the Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.

L-R: Our bottleneck press in our living room in Koreatown, in our booth at Artisanal LA in November of 2013.

We started working together on a line of paper goods, just over two years ago. In that time, we started by printing with our fingers, moved on to printing with a spoon and a baren, then built our bottle jack press. We relaunched as Ink+Smog Editions a year ago in March. We only dreamed at that point, of having a dedicated print shop and mechanized press. 

L-R: our very first print on the Heidelberg Windmill, Rosemary holding our first print and bursting into happy tears.

A lot of work and time and effort has gone into that little heart. So much so, that moments after we first realized that we'd successfully made our first print, Rosemary was so happy, she burst into tears. The future seems so bright right now, and we couldn't have gotten here, without all of the love and support we've gotten from our friends, our family and our followers. We are so appreciative. And we can't wait to work our fingers to the bone. Thank you.

Best,

Rosemary+Robin

new stockist: The Library Store at the Central Library in DTLA

Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library

We're so happy to announce another Los Angeles stockist! The Library Store at Central Library is now carrying a selection of Ink+Smog Editions urban paper goods along with a well-curated assortment of books, writings supplies and curios. If you've never been to the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library, it is certainly worth a trip! Although we became members almost as soon as we moved to LA a few years ago, we've become library regulars since we moved our studio to downtown.

The Library Store at Central Library

The Central Library is such an amazing resource and is so incredibly welcoming to all. We've had a great time exploring their vast collection and really enjoy borrowing books as well as pouring over their reference section. One of our favorite things to do on a warm LA day, is to spend the afternoon wandering through their various art installations and enjoying the stupendous art and architecture of the building itself.

The Lodwrick M. Cook Rotunda on the second floor was completed in 1932. Their color values were purposely restrained to harmonize with the many-colored mosaic-like dome decorations by Julian E. Garnsey.

On our last two visits, we really enjoyed their exhibits Songs in the Key of L.A., an exploration of their collection of Southern California sheet music, and No Further West: The Story of Los Angeles Union Station that marks the station's 75th anniversary. Both shows are really well done.

L-R: Robin looking at the sheet music from Songs in the Key of L.A., posing in front of a floor to ceiling vinyl panel, one of our favorite sheet music booklets in the exhibit.

The Union Station exhibit in particular was fascinating. It was amazing to see what that part of the city looked like around the time that the station was constructed. We spent a great deal of time looking at the many photos and detailed architectural drawings. But by far, our favorite part, was the Southern Pacific Industry map of Los Angeles that showed the many train routes that criss-crossed downtown. We were able to find our studio building on the map, and to see what sorts of businesses populated our neighborhood. The show will be up in the Getty Gallery at the Central Library until August 10th.

L-R: Los Angeles Conservancy Kid's Guide to Union Station with the guide, our studio neighborhood located on the Southern Pacific map, re-issued Union Station postcards from the show.

Stay tuned, we'll be announcing a few other new stockists very soon! As well as some news regarding our Kickstarter rewards and our launch party!

Best,

Rosemary+Robin

new stockist: Los Angeles County Store in Silver Lake

Opening Night! Los Angeles County Store's launch party last night.

We're really happy to share our latest stockist with you! Los Angeles County Store in Silver Lake specializes in fine goods crafted in the county of Los Angeles. They carry a lovely selection of house ware, jewelry and fun gifts.

Our urban paper goods on display at Los Angeles County Store in Silver Lake.

We had a great time at their launch party last night seeing all the great local makers featured, including our friends from Post Studio and  Iron Curtain Press. MaryAnne has done a great job setting up a delightful space and we look forward to visiting often!

L-R: Stacy Michelson's handprinted wares, our postcards and Post Studio's trays on display.

Los Angeles County Store is located at 4333 Sunset Boulevard at Fountain in Silver Lake.

Take a look at our full list of stockists to see if a store near you is carrying our paper goods!

sorry for the radio silence!

It's hard to believe that April is already half over and May is almost on it's way! We've been very busy setting the agenda for what is left of the year, slowly getting the new studio up and running around with some lovely guests from out of town!

L-R: Our new addition wish list for this year, lilacs at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, sketching new card ideas.

It's always nice to sit down and talk about the designs we want to introduce next. It's especially fun to start sketching some of those ideas out! We've been working on some of these ideas for over a year, just waiting for everything to fall into place. It's been so hard to keep some of our new ideas under wraps, we're really really excited about some of the cards coming up!

L-R: a very full drying rack, getting some wholesale orders ready to ship, a corner of our studio in the sun.

Along with our regular Etsy orders, we've also had some wholesale orders keeping us busy lately as well as keeping our drying rack pretty full. We can't wait to announce some new stockists very soon! It's been challenging trying to meet these deadlines before we've transitioned to the new press. It's so tantalizing to think about how much less time it would take! But alas, there's just a little more work to do before we can plunge headlong into the future!

L-R: Wildflowering LA Site #38, Site #44, Site #38 again.

Rosemary's mother Nancy is also visiting from Montreal and we're having a great time running around Los Angeles doing the things you only get around to doing when you have guests visiting from out of town! The two of them headed off to the deLaB (design East of La Brea) tour of two of the Wildflowering LA sites as part of their Making LA Series. If you haven't checked out Fritz Haeg's project commissioned by LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) in collaboration with the Theodore Payne Foundation that sowed 50 participating yards across Los Angeles with native wildflower seeds, you should! If you head over to their website, they offer a map for self-guided tours of all of their sites. Hurry though, before the weather turned too hot and the flowers start to go to seed!

L-R: Everyone's favorite letterpress ice cream cards, Eastside Handmade display ideas, our bottle jack press.

We've also been getting ready for the spring edition of Eastside Handmade in Highland Park on Saturday April 19th from 11am-4pm. It's kind of crazy that we officially launched Ink+Smog Editions at this show a year ago, it seems like yesterday! This will probably be one of the last chances to get your hands on stock printed on our handmade bottle jack press! We'll be transitioning over to the new equipment very soon and as a result, we'll be offering some discounts on our holiday collection as well as bringing back some old favorites like our letterpress ice cream cone cards.

So hopefully we'll see you this weekend!

Best,
Rosemary+Robin

and they're in!!!

The printing end of our studio space with the press and paper cutter installed.

After many weeks months of preparation and a lot of planning, we finally moved our new machinery into our new studio space this week! As many of you may know, the new machines arrived before our new studio was ready to receive them. So they've been in storage in our building since their arrival. It's been such a tease to have the press and paper cutter almost within our reach but unable to use them!

L-R: Our press guy getting the Windmill ready to move into our space, our press guy and the machinery movers getting ready to move the paper cutter into it's new home in our studio space.

It took our press guy and two machinery movers almost all day to unpack, partially disassemble and then reassemble our Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress and Chandler&Price Craftsman paper cutter. We were happy to provide donuts and coffee but other than that, we pretty much stood back and watched with bated breath as they worked away.

L-R: Moving the paper cutter along the hallway into our space, the press crosses the threshold into our studio.

Luckily both machines were in really good shape and everything went really smoothly. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but so so so excited and relieved to finally have everything in place and ready to go. We still have a little work to do, mainly we need to get an electrician in to do a little work, but we're nearly there! 

L-R: The paper cutter in its corner next to the composing table, the press on the other side of the composing table next to the window.

We're so ready to jump in now and get to work! Take a look at the video we took of the press when we first plugged it in this week, the rollers went in a few seconds later. It finally feels like things are moving along now, we should be up and running in no time now!

We hope that everyone is having a happy start to March,  for us it's brought our machines and some much-needed rain in the southland. Here's to more progress and hopefully more rain! 

Best,

Rosemary+Robin

february in a nutshell

Sitting down to write this post today, we realized just how crazy things have been lately! Have we really not written a post since the end of January? Is February really over already? Where did the time go???

Some of the detritus from our many February projects!

Oh, right! We've gotten a lot done during this shortest month of the year. It's been a bit of a whirlwind actually! If you've been following us on Instagram, you'll have seen our February full of building and organizing with a little exploring and visiting mixed in for good measure.

L-R: Rosemary sanding the counter between coats, Robin sanding the shelves, Rosemary coating the work table.

We worked on a fun little Made in LA Valentine collaboration with our friends at Le Renard. It entailed recarving our I Heart LA lino blocks which we'd been putting off for a while.

Our Love LA+You valentine collaboration with Le Renard.

The electrician came and ran the lines for the press and paper cutter (both of which we'll be moving into the space very soon!). We also built-out the studio kitchenette and made a beautiful plywood and sawhorse work table.

L-R: our newly built-out kitchenette, electrical lines ready for the press and paper cutter, our new work table in use.

While all of this was going on, we also had a few guests come to town, including Rosemary's sister Anne from Dot and Lil and her boyfriend. We had a great time visiting the Long Beach flea market, running around the city, going to the Korean spa for a much needed break and taking a small hike in Elysian Park, not to mention some great meals out.

L-R: Long Beach flea, DTLA from Elysian Park, Rosemary and Anne on a hike in Elysian Park.

We're working on some really great projects for March, as well as really looking forward to getting down to business and starting to work with our new equipment! It's taken us a little longer than expected to get set up, but we're looking forward to being fully operational very soon! 

We hope you've had a productive February too, and are looking forward to a busy spring ahead!

Best,

Rosemary+Robin