Happy Halloween!

Check out this sweet owl costume I made for my cousin Rachel of Hyde Creative!

Front. (and mask)

Back.

She was attending a West Michigan AIGA costume party. Doesn't she look awesome?

Cathedral Window II

Finished!

At first it was little annoying and slow going, but once I got the hang of it, I was making up excuses for why it was ok that I was just sitting on the couch sewing a tiny quilt square and watching project runway on hulu.  Now that it's done I'm contemplating a full quilt...  bet you couldn't have guessed that one! 

(anyone have a extra bolt of off white cotton sitting around that they want to donate to the cause?)

Look at all that hand stitching!

I stitched though to the back, making the wonderful quilted pattern.

Due to the folding and layering process, light shines through beautifully,  just like a cathedral window!

Typeforce 2 Book

The Typeforce 2 book is here, and it's beautiful, thanks guys!


In February my folded paper alphabet was in the "showcase of emerging typographic all-stars" at Co-Prosperity Sphere, along with lots incredible work from some very talented type lovers.  And now it has been officially documented in this beautiful catalogue which was pre-released at the Unisource paper show last night.

Super fun!

Misery & Happiness

This book is a summers worth of reminiscing about four years in Trinity Christian College's art department.  It's the life and true confessions of an art major.  It's an exercise in hand lettering, printing, and book binding.  Mostly it's just 50 pages worth of inside jokes and a giant thank you to five awesome art professors who made Trinity a great place to be!

Inspired by Misery for Everybody, a hilarious account of childhood. You should check it out.



The book is set up with happiness on one cover and misery on the other so that it can be read from either direction.

center spread, which some of you may recognize...!

A sampling of some of the pages that don't require too much explanation.

people who think art is fun

when people use thumbtacks in critique

living in a barn for 20 years

stories that start with "I shouldn't be telling you this, but..."

a 1992 toyota previa with 250,000 miles

art department potlucks

Abby and I gave these to Bakker, Ellen, Josh, Dayton and Rowley yesterday when we were out at Trinity for Ken Steinbach's closing lecture/reception.  They loved them!

Thanks for 4 great years!

Girl Party!

As many of you know, my sister got married yesterday.  I'm a little biased, but I'm pretty sure it was the most wonderful wedding I've ever seen!  It consumed pretty much all of my making time this summer, and it totally paid off. Everything was perfect.  I don't have have pictures yet (sorry!), but I'll get some soon.

In the meantime, here's some bachelorette party fun!  Much classier than Party City's options, in my opinion.


I made Claire a tulle veil and giant bachelorette button/pin/award, which she actually wore in public, along with the awesome sequin dress that I brought for her to wear. And the giant gold jewelry. The rest of us had matching (and much smaller) buttons.  All the pink and orange paper I used came from this awesome vintage wrapping paper.

Brownie recipe courtesy of Joy the Bakker

All us lovely ladies in Fells Point, Baltimore.

It was a fun night!

Cathedral Window Process

I have a lot of travel coming up in the next month and half and so, and I always need a little project to work on for long hours in cars.  I've been wanting to try the cathedral window quilt for quite a while, so I got some pieces ready for my trip to Baltimore about a week and half ago.  There is a fantastic tutorial at the Hyena In Petticoats blog.

It's perfect for me, all hand stitched, I can use my pretty vintage fabric scraps, it incorporates some origami folding, you stitch the squares together as you go, and it's not backed, so I can stitch squares together until i'm bored, and then it'll be done!  I'm thinking my first attempt will end in pillow size.

Here are a few process photos, it's great fun!

Website Updates!

I spent the last few days working hard to get my website up to date and doing a little rearranging.  There are a few more projects that will be coming in the near future, but it's looking good!  I also added my senior show artist statement to the Alphabet (Geometric) project for those of you who are interested in reading what I learned in my 4 years of undergrad!

www.emilyvanhoff.com