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

We're hard at work!

With paintbrushes in hand, we're hard at work on the new studio space! We're hoping to move the press and paper cutter into our space over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we've been unpacking boxes, setting up furniture and making a few trips to Ikea. We're hoping to be fully operational by the spring.

Thank you so much for all of your support, we really appreciate it a lot!

Best,
Rosemary+Robin

we're funded! thank you so much!

Thank you to everyone who has helped us in ways big and small! Every little bit has helped tremendously! We are very grateful! 

Now the real work begins! We're getting ready to install the new equipment in our studio. We still have to have them checked out to make sure that everything is in tip top shape. Then we'll be off to the races, getting everything ready to start printing! We're hoping to get our rewards into production and shipped out some time in March or April. We've also started planning our launch party and of course the start of the Danielle DeMers residency. We're ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Thank you again, we really appreciate all of your help and support, it has meant the world to us!

Best, 
Rosemary+Robin

our Kickstarter has less than 48 hours to go!!!

It's hard to believe that we're getting ready to wrap up our Kickstarter project! Thank you to everyone who has generously contributed to our project, your support means the world to us!

With less than 48 hours to go, please help us bring it home with a bang, we may have reached our goal, but every little bit still makes such a difference.

Our equipment has arrived safe and sound, but it's really just the beginning! We still have to make sure everything is in perfect working order so that we can get into production. And we still need to finish setting up the shop. There are bound to be bumps in the road! Your generosity and support have helped us lay a pretty strong foundation for the future.

Please keep sharing our project with your friends and family and followers! Every like, share, tweet and favorite has gotten us where we are today! Let's keep this going, we're nearly there!

Best, 
Rosemary+Robin

happy new year!

As we begin to settle into our new studio and this new year, we can't help but glance backward at the year that was. 2013 was a year of change and growth and very very hard work! 

As we were packing up our old studio a few weeks ago, we came across our 2013 Ink+Smog Editions Resolutions. These 8 simple goals seemed so hard to achieve just a year ago. It's kind of amazing to realize that we've reached nearly all of them (ok, who are we kidding, sleeping more was never really going to happen, was it?). 

Well, here are our resolutions for 2014. Here's to finally unpacking all of these boxes, getting fully set up in our new space, and who knows, maybe we'll even get to sleep some more in 2014! 

We are so excited to get started on this new year. May it be full of highs and lows and everything in between. We're also incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped us get this far. We wouldn't be where we are today without an awful lot of support and love from friends and family and followers. We owe you all a great deal. Thank you so much for giving us a hand with our Kickstarter, our move, and so many other things.

And here's one last glance back at the year that was, some of our most important and memorably moments in 2013. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2014!

Best,
Rosemary+Robin