Our marketing department was only recently notified that, at least in the UK, people celebrate National Sausage Week at the beginning of November. Thanks to Apryl at Blue Daisy Glass, we now know what we’re missing. In the US, we traditionally laud hot dogs for the entire month of July and eat accordingly, but that leaves out a whole world of encased meats. Let’s all raise a sausage/pickle and toast to a great week!

Here at Slow Industries, we’re scrambling (but not that quickly or efficiently) to finish a few projects before beginning the new and intense project of having a baby. Since there are currently no photos available of the projects that are being completed, we thought you might enjoy this photo sent to us by our friends Paul and Lisa over at Driving Inertia. As good a name for a baby as a book store? You tell us.

Have you celebrated Chicago Artists’ Month yet? If not, here’s another opportunity – and a delicious one at that. Enjoy good prints and good eats at the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative on Saturday, October 15th, from 5-8pm. Ink in the City features work by members of the Chicago Printers Guild as well as cookies from Hilary’s Cookies (and all the participating printmakers). How can you go wrong with prints and dessert? Slow Industries will definitely be there, literally eating cookies and as represented by two prints from the Creep collection. Come and join in the fun!

Sure, the fun of summer in Chicago is just about done, but there’s plenty to enjoy during the month of October before the coldest winter ever starts up in earnest. At the very least, you have the Halloween candy fix and Chicago Artists Month to look forward to. The upcoming Friends of Transit Print Invitational focuses on all things transportational and travel-related, and runs from  October 1 — 30, 2011, with an opening reception Friday, October 7th, from 6–8:30pm at I Am Logan Square’s new gallery space. Check out Slow Industries’ urban aphorisms postcards, as well as work from our printmaking colleagues at Monkey Rope Press, Moongirl Productions and Rar Rar Press.

As you can see from this photo, even though letterpress printing can be cruel, whimsical and painstaking, the results are well worth the effort and bring smiles to the faces of everyone who has survived the process. This past weekend, our education outreach coordinator finished teaching a two week “Broadsides for Poets” workshop at the Evanston Print & Paper Shop. Three industrious and talented participants picked great poetry for their broadsides and really made the most of the class.

Everyone formatted their text digitally, then added imagery appropriate to their poems. The broadsides were printed on French papers using polymer plates and Vandercook proof presses.

Christopher’s broadside featuring Shakespeare’s 17th sonnet.

Becky’s Billy Collins broadside, featuring a diagram of an eclipse and a flock of geese.

Oliver, having finished printing his three-color broadside, cleans up the press.

Here’s Oliver’s trimmed, final broadside juxtaposing his own work with that of the poet Rumi.

Beautiful work from everyone! Here at Slow Industries, we look forward to seeing what the next group of workshop participants come up with. It’s always a pleasure.

Here’s our very appealing Renegade set up. The stroller that we set just outside the tent, complete with that delicious-looking half-eaten donut, really drew in the big crowds. We were sharing the booth space, as you can see, with the always awesome Starshaped Press.

Our biggest sellers were the Public Anemone No.1 and Ice Cream or Darkness and Chaos prints. Clearly, shoppers were feeling punny and hungry. As usual though, only a few brave souls purchased our anti-motivational poster, Hang in There. Customers and browsers consistently find that poster hilarious, yet they rarely take one home. Our marketing department has suggested that we print it in jewel tones or neon pinks rather than silver on grey to see if that tips the balance in favor of some purchases.

And finally, here’s one of the many adorable families who visited our booth. We do have pretty good looking customers – an often overlooked metric by which to judge the success of any craft fair experience. Thanks to everyone who stopped by this weekend!

Come and visit Slow Industries at the Renegade Craft Fair this coming weekend! We’re at booth 252 (we think..) and will be around from 11-7 on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to our fine wares, you can buy just about anything handmade at this gargantuan event. There might even be ponies, but no promises.

Isn’t it so true that some things can only be combated (or cured) by a healthy serving of ice cream? Slow Industries’ newest print features a quote from famed runner Don Kardong, who clearly views the consumption of ice cream as a moral imperative.

When prints utilize the studio’s wood typefaces, it makes more sense to arrange the layout in real space and time, rather than digitally. Here, we even had the benefit of a previously printed version of the ice cream cone to help us out.

We were dreaming so intently about finishing printing in time to get home and actually eat ice cream, we forgot to take very many process shots. Here, at least, you can see “ICE CREAM” in all its golden glory. We printed the gold last, so shortly after this photo, we did indeed have some Ben & Jerry’s. Yum!

On a recent non-printing related vacation, we came across this Neenah Paper mill in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. After a day spent on a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (augmented by the purchase of some novelty beach towels and fighter jet lapel pins), it was a real pleasure to see one of the places where some of our printing paper is born. Michigan is also home to the wonderful French Paper Company, which runs on hydroelectric power and produces a veritable rainbow of colored papers in picturesque Niles, Michigan. The old (and more inspiring) state tourism slogan says it all: “Yes! Michigan.”

This past weekend, Slow Industries’ Education Outreach Coordinator, Sarah Vogel, taught a two color linocut class at the ever popular Evanston Print & Paper shop. And what a class it was! Six industrious workshop participants carved and printed like crazy to finish six pretty amazing prints. Read on for more pictures and stats!

Everyone in the class quickly decided to print with very classic Chicago colors – light, bright blue and a bright red – and then ended up with a third, maroon color where their two blocks overlapped.

There were only two minor linocut carving injuries. Bandaids were applied, and everyone soldiered on.

Above, the block for printing all of the blue portions of the owl. Because the class was so fast-paced, there wasn’t much time for prints to dry between runs. That’s why you can see some of the red (which we printed first) transferred onto this block.

Everyone made fabulous use of linoleum’s textural possibilities, particularly in the negative spaces. Here, the red texture overlapping with the tree trunk makes for a slightly spookier, more atmospheric tableau.

A lovely dragonfly! It was particularly impressive that everyone finished carving their two blocks, not to mention two print runs, all within about five hours. Some people even had time for a lunch break.

Another red block.

Its matching blue block, turning a little purple.

Look at that registration! Spot on. Everyone did a great job making sure the images on their two blocks were aligned as carefully as possible, which prevented any tears from being shed during the actual printing process. A rousing success, if we say so ourselves. All the participants deserve a round of applause, and maybe an ice pack or two for their cramped fingers and sore wrists.