collaboration

Mother's Day is a big deal around here and we are celebrating with TWO special promotions.

**The first is for our Portland friends. Mother's Day means pretty cards and flowers which gave us the idea to team up with our friends at Anna Mara Flowers to offer a special Mother's Day treat! Between now and Mother's Day you'll receive a free Egg Press card to go with any Mother's Day purchase from Anna Mara.

Advance notice for arrangements is always encouraged (you can order in person or over the phone) but the shop will be stocked with lovely plants and flowers for 11th hour shoppers as well.

Anna Mara Flowers
2181 NW Nicolai St Portland, OR 97210
503.785.4986

**The second event is open to anyone. Visit us on Facebook and tell us what your Mom gave you that you're most grateful for. Our favorite entry will receive a gift certificate for a set of personalized stationery for their Mom. The contest runs through May 1st. In the case of an overseas winner a gift certificate will be sent as a PDF via email.

While letterpress will always be our first love, we enjoy mixing it up with other creative endeavors including screen printing. We recently had the opportunity to work on a fun project for our friends over at IDL Worldwide. Their in-house designers created a series of 10 unique prints to celebrate the music of local band Samsel and the Skirt who recently released their first EP. We created these hand pulled one-of-a-kind prints, with all proceeds going to Portland's Independent Print Resource Center.

Have we mentioned our talented staff? Turns out that Emily and Tess have knitting in common and both have mad skills at the craft. Earlier this year they teamed up to make something very special for baby Aster. They took on a colorwork pattern (skill level: advanced!!!) and each committed to a section of the sweater. The finished product was presented this week to much fanfare. Here's what Aster & Rosa + team Knit had to say…

Rosa: I think it’s the most adorable thing in her closet and so special because it was made just for Aster by her friends at Egg Press. I love the tiny heart pattern because it’s just a little bit sweet and it adds variety to her wardrobe of stripes and solids. Aster says “uh oh oh” because that’s what she says, but I think that means she loves it!

Emily: The pattern is adapted from Sally (All those knitters out there can see it on Ravelry here). The pattern is for a baby cardigan, but we adapted it into a vest to make it quicker to knit – also vests are so versatile! We each knitted one side of it, and then Tess seamed it and added buttons to the shoulder to make it easier to put it on and take it off. The knitting did take us quite awhile, so we were both happy we decided to knit it in a 1 year old size! The yarn was Cascade Heritage sock yarn (made in the pacific northwest!). We chose a sock yarn because it is superwash – meaning that Mama can throw it in the washer and doesn’t need to worry about it shrinking.

We've always been fond of old-school craft kits picked up at estate sales and unearthed in grandma's closet. And we've long been inspired by designers like Marilyn Neuhart, whose flat printed dolls are heros in the world of soft goods. As a labor of love, we started offering our screenprinted stitch kit animals in 2007. This year we added finger puppets to the mix. Now both are sold exclusively at one of our favorite go-to kid spots: the Land of Nod. Hoorah! We couldn't be prouder.

The official scoop:
Crafting fun from Egg Press and The Land of Nod!

We are excited to announce the release of four animal themed stitch kits designed and printed by Egg Press exclusively for The Land of Nod. Make a puppet for each finger with animals dressed up for the holidays on one hand and animals dressed for play on the other, or make a monkey and raccoon to curl up with.

Each kit includes screen printed canvas panels to cut out and create four animal finger puppets or one animal pillow. These are easy for people 6 years and older to put together, but the finished projects are fun for all ages. These Egg Press stitch kits are only available from our friends at The Land of Nod. Find more information on all four kits here.

Some of our favorite things have come out of collaboration with our favorite people. This new embroidery kit is no exception! We worked closely with Purl Soho to develop this kit for the 'follow the recipe' types and the 'make it up as you along' embroiderers alike. Emily Baier, our in-house embroidery expert (and embroidery kit designer herself!) is ready to get started. We can see the wheels turning when she talks about it. What stitches and colors will she use? What form will the final piece take? We are on the edges of our seats. Stay tuned to find out!

The kit is available at purlsoho.com as an entire kit or a packet of transfers.

What a day! We walked in this morning to the launch of Schoolhouse Electric and Supply Co.’s new website plus a feature about it (along with our collaboration!) on Design Sponge. We’ll be honest, working with Schoolhouse is THE BEST – we have so much fun with their team and it’s very convenient to be in the same building. We are over-the-moon excited to see the products we worked on in the context of the entire line and continue to be amazed at their level of commitment to producing things in the USA. Some of our collaboration favorites are pictured above, and our shopping list of other favorites is below – call it our Christmas wish list if you will...

4 x City wall hook, grey (we already bought 4 yellow)
12 x Kaweco fountain pen (one for each of us in the studio)
Brahms Mount herringbone throw (we can share)
Adam Arnold denim apron (enough to go around)
Schoolhouse canvas organizer (large please!)
...and for the “lounge”...
Mullberry Tripod floor lamp
Beckman Sofa Slipcover - Belvedere Print
...and if Santa really can make miracles happen:
yardage of any Egg Press / Schoolhouse textile print

We’re anxiously awaiting the shipment of these plates to the West Elm store here in Northwest Portland. Rumor has it the shipment will be in near the end of the month. For the time being they can be ordered through the West Elm catalog and online at westelm.com. We are assured they will be in all stores by the end of October. And while we are on the subject of West Elm, you should know that we’ve recently been addicted to their blog, FRONT & MAIN. We specifically love the HOME RUN section, though we can also be found scrolling through the inspiration – such eye candy!