We were blown away when we saw the digitized album Anna Atkins’ cyanotypes (also known as “sun prints”, made by placing on object on chemical-treated paper in the sun) that she made in the 1800s. Atkins, the first woman to make photographs, used the cyanotype process to document algaes and made some poetic, often pleasingly abstract images.…
Read MoreThe Pleasures of Making + Receiving Handmade Letters
Every time I receive a hand-written letter in the mail, I feel like I am about to open a very special gift. Given their rarity, hand-written letters ARE a gift. Uniqueness is built-in and its effect is usually WAY more than the effort it took to make it, both personally and professionally. Here’s some inspiration that makes the making fun.
Read MoreFound Magazine Page Envelopes Redux
Our friend Pamela Hovland is an extraordinary designer who helped us create the original look for Improvised Life. Our first year in business, we wrote about her clever use of ripped-out pages from magazines as her envelopes. Recently she sent us this beauty with the message “this wrapper had your name all over it“. Indeed…
Read Moremagazine pages as envelopes
Pamela Hovland, the extraordinary designer who has been so essential to the design for The Improvised Life, often uses pages from magazines as her envelopes. Periodically, she culls compelling images from magazines, cuts them out with an Exacto knife and straight edge (or just rips them out, leaving a pleasingly rough edge), and folds each…
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