Peter and I have been working on the branding and marketing for Eli Phant- our new retail adventure in Portland Maine. The design work isn’t done yet, even though we’ve been open for a month or so. It’s true that the “cobbler’s children have no shoes”– it’s hard to motivate sometimes to do work for your own projects.

But we’re working on it. Yesterday, Bitsy and I got our craft on and started printing some of the bags that we commissioned from Mary at Z Fabrics with our handy-dandy Gocco Printer. All you need to do to get one is buy something at the store! (very subtle, huh.)

Last week my project was painting the A-frame sign for outside (it’s still not done, but it’s functioning).

I printed out the design, then traced it onto the wooden sign using a fancy=pants trick I learned at RISD. First you cover the back of the design with graphite from pencil. Then, after placing the design on the surface you want to trace it to, you trace the design using a pencil or pen (or any hard, relatively sharp object). The outline will transfer to the surface. It’s kind of like homemade carbon copy paper.