Create What You Need
Earlier this year, I was one of the featured artists for Drew Steinbrecher’s first Collage Makers Summit. My lesson involved using stencils on a gelli plate to get the look of letterpress printing without a press. It turns out that there aren’t really great options for letter stencils and I think students struggled to find any they like. This got me thinking, and I reached out to Mary Beth Shaw, the owner of StencilGirl Products, about designing a line of abstracted typography stencils. She said to send her a proposal of what I was thinking.
Here’s the thing- I’m just making everything up as I go along. I don’t have design or business training. A proposal? Okay… So I submitted a presentation on Canva using scans of letterpress printed designs I’d made during my 100-Day Project. I didn’t hear anything, didn’t follow up, and moved on. A few months later, MaryBeth contacted me on Instagram about the project. Lesson learned- follow up on things! By this time, I had more prints available, so I updated my original presentation and quickly got feedback on the designs.
I realized I could work digitally by scanning a print of a single letter, uploading it into the presentation, and then using a fancy technique (copy and paste) to create a design. This was probably the most rudimentary technique ever used, but it worked.
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Fast forward a bit and a package arrived with four sample stencils for my approval. I had to create sample prints and art with these designs to prepare for the official release day.
The stencils started selling and it’s been thrilling seeing my students use them during class and in to have them tagged in Instagram posts. This past week, I even got to have breakfast with MaryBeth Shaw and her husband, John, as they were traveling in Rhode Island.
I admit that I often wait for opportunities, but this time I reached out and made one for myself. I should do that more often.