Merry Christmas from Sycamore Hollow!

I've taken an extended break from all things Sycamore Hollow-related and will really be back after the holidays with some, relatively-speaking, big news. In the meantime, here is this year's original holiday card, which can be custom-printed in cobalt, green, black or aqua. Or printed in red, which is what I've chosen for my own personal self. I also decided to print it on newspaper in an effort of one-upmanship in awareness of the costs of over-consumption, both of cash and of environmental resources. Not sure if the US Post office mail sorters will rip the newspaper cards to shreds, but I guess I'll find out.

What's New?

I've been putting my little gocco (rhymes with loco) printer to work lately. For those of you unfamiliar with gocco, it's basically a tabletop screenprinter. It's great for creating original designs, all produced by hand of course, but in a relatively more streamlined way. Each design can be created multiple times using the same screen, but a screen does have a life - usually 50 or so printings. In that sense, each design is a limited edition. There are people out in gocco-land who create unbelievably complex designs with their printers - it is really fascinating once you check into what's out there. My images are more straightforward: here are a few designs I sell in the shop as hand-screened postcards and notecards. If your interest in them moves beyond just looking and into purchasing them, you can check them out at the online store here.


Whale - looking a little like a wood-block print.

Whale in aqua - a little bit more modern.


My nod to Motif No.1 - how much more amusing would it be to see the birds attacking all of us who endlessly photograph this fake fishing shack? Didn't quite have the nerve for that.

Creative Customers

One of the benefits of having the store is meeting all the creative people who come in with strong ideas of their own. Of course I get plenty of "what do I do with this?" queries (especially when looking over my admittedly more bizarre pieces), but just as often customers don't need me around to give them inspiration. Take the wall hanging shown below, for example. A customer purchased some of this paper from Midori (a sort of Americanized version of the traditional Yuzen paper I also sell) and created this bird silhouette as an overlay. I thought this was a great idea and was happy for the store to play a small part in her project. Actually, I just stood behind the counter and sold her some paper, so my part was very very small indeed.

Craftytime, Part II

I have stacks of old books that I've been using for collage projects. For those of you who think it's a desecration to dismantle old books, I would posit that I am actually aiding in a sort of reincarnation for a book that was destined only for a landfill. What could be less dignified for a book than to slowly deteriorate amidst piles of diapers and banana peels? Instead the book lives on, hopefully in your very own home, in the form of, in the case of my current project anyway, little paper hearts cut from its pages. Awwwww. That's pretty sweet.


Tiny little Heart Boxes - perfect for candy or momentos or...

Book Box, with a nice little surprise inside (see below).

Look at us! A vintage cake-topper couple, with vintage wedding bells, preserved at the moment of perfect happiness for all eternity.

"Christmastime is Here..."

...as quoted in the immortal lyrics of "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Charlie Brown needs to get with the program - someone needs to let him know that Holidaytime - and not just Christmas - is here. Yes indeed. Holidaytime is here, and I have the anxiety to prove it. I accomplished my two modest goals for the holiday season in the store: 1) Create my tower of boxes, to be crowned by a peacock (simulated peacock, for all you animal lovers out there), and 2) Change the playlist on my iPod to more accurately reflect the season (sorry, Ray Charles. Save your bad-luck, good-timing ways for next summer). I'm not sure which was more difficult: decoupaging dozens and dozens of boxes by hand or reprogramming the iPod.

So check out the tower of boxes - they are pretty awesome - and priced to sell as a gift in themselves or to fill with something amazing you purchased or created (Small: $12, Large: $18). I also am featuring a new line of cards and calendars designed by a very talented graphic artist that are quite holiday-ish (some are even Christmas-ish) without being scarily so. Those of you, such as myself, who fear purchasing and sending Christmas cards, agonizing over what will accurately represent you and/or your family (will it make me look stupid? Sentimental? Overly commercial? Overly Christian? Not Christian enough? Fat?) will be pleased with what Sycamore Hollow has to offer.

That's all for now folks.

p.s. Dear Media: You can stop informing us that the world is coming to an end, and that, by purchasing something (especially something not on sale) we are at best, stupid, and at worst, bad, bad people.

Labor Day Blowout Sale!!! This Weekend Only!!!

Fortunately I don't have the personality of a car salesman (although I do have the lungs), but, like a car salesman, this Labor Day weekend only I would be willing to offer 0% financing on, say, a sheet of Japanese paper. I have sympathy for the customer who appreciates beauty but cannot afford to choose between a sheet of expensive paper and a few trips to Starbucks, all in the same week. Shop at Sycamore Hollow and we'll work something out. Ah...it seems like only a few posts ago that I was talking about Memorial Day, and now look where we are - Labor Day! I should be sad, as Rockport is a seasonal town, and goes from streets filled with naked (or nearly so) bodies on their way to the beach, to streets so empty small clothed children could play entire innings of baseball without having to pause for traffic. But then I would call the truant officer because those same children should be in school. And they definitely shouldn't be playing in the street. I don't actually mind Rockport's quiet season(s), because they provide a nice contrast to the rest of the year, and the town itself is just as beautiful and amazing as ever. Have a great weekend, don't labor (get it?) too hard, and join me for my next post: the Website Saga, part III: Will I Ever Get Photos Uploaded?

Still working...

It's 9:30 p.m. and I'm still here at the shop, trying to upload photos onto the website. My broadband service has decided to take a break from its busy, busy workload and has reduced online access to a trickle. A sad reality of doing business online is that you have to do business online. "Oh yes! I'll e-mail that photo to you!" I cheerily say to any interested party standing before my counter on a sunny retail afternoon. "Not sure which color you'd like? No problem. I'll e-mail 20 photos to you depicting your options and you can peruse them from the comfort of your own home!" I'm a genius, I tell myself. Until I find a moment to send the photos at the bleary-eyed (for me anyway) hour of 9 p.m. and my computer freezes. Control, alt, delete. Reboot, resend, re-freeze. And so the cycle of life continues... On to happier subjects: those Japanese papers just keep giving and giving! I decoupaged (yuck - not a good word when used as a verb.) a bunch of shadowboxes, then painted the frames white, and hung the whole group in the entryway to the store. One of these days I'll post the dimensions of the shadowboxes for your viewing pleasure, along with your options of paper with which to cover them, just as soon as my computer and I are friends again. Well, friendship might be asking too much. Just as soon as we are on speaking terms.

e-commerce? e-likely!

I am chipping away at gaining the technical wherewithall necessary to build a happening e-commerce site. In the meantime, the dozens and dozens of you clamouring for one-of-a-kind pieces from Sycamore Hollow will have to be satisfied with looking at pictures and e-mailing me with your order. Actually, this option isn't really possible because I don't have very many photos loaded onto the site. But all that is about to change. As of this week, I am currently taking photos and entering the upload netherworld. I really don't like this part of the business, but it seems that one can no longer fill a retail space with interesting things and expect people to rush in and fill their arms with purchases. They prefer to fill a shopping cart online. I am trying to catch up to the 21st century - I just bought an ipod nano - can't deal with the big version (1,000 songs? What person over 18 has the time to load this device with 1,000 songs? My apologies to you if you are just such a person). Anyway, the store is now filled with the crisp, bell-like sound of my baby ipod, instead of the crackle of that dinosaur, the CD player (may they fill landfills in peace). Well, enough about me; let's talk about the store. I've been covering scallop-edged boxes in the wonderful, amazing Japanese paper I carry. I get a glimpse of what it must be like to be happy each time I look at them. I also came into a pair of beautiful hand-cut glass vintage lamps this week - they, too, provide moments of joy. Until next week...

It's Cookin' Here at the Hollow...

If you have to suffer anyway from the intense and unexpected June heat, Rockport is a great place to be. Walk to the beach, roast for a little bit, then de-roast inside a very pleasant air-conditioned Sycamore Hollow. Central air is a new experience for me, as for the last several years I have only had a window unit puttering along, and unless you were standing directly in front of it (and believe me, customers were waiting in line to do just that on hot summer days), it was pretty useless.

The latest and most delightful addition to the store - besides cool air - is our selection of screenprinted Japanese papers. Lover-ly. Most of the papers we carry are made in Japan in the traditional method, and a few are made in the U.S. using 100% recycled cotton paper. Great for gift-wrapping (if you're feeling extravagant), book-making, covering boxes, etc. etc. Go crazy with Japanese paper - this month's creative tip from Sycamore Hollow.