Last Chance: Buy Mom a Gift at the MassArt Spring Sale

Make mom happy and help raise money for student aid.

You did it again: Mother's Day is Sunday and you still haven't gotten her anything. There's precious little time left, so you need to get in gear.  If you're looking for a thoughtful, original gift, try the MassArt Spring Sale, open all this week. You can buy a hand-crafted gift or work of art from MassArt's students and alumni. The lion's share of money raised goes directly to the student sellers, and a portion goes toward student aid. Take the E Line to Longwood to get to the sale, happening in the Tower Building lobby 10 a.m.-7 p.m. every day this week. And what better place to give that gift to her than during a Lilac Sunday picnic at the Arboretum? About this column Hundreds of events are posted on JP Patch each week, but how often …

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Homegrown

Q&A: Potter Jeremy Ogusky — "I Don’t Aspire To Be a Struggling Artist"

JP's Jeremy Ogusky, whose work can already be seen at City Feed and Tres Gatos, works on getting his pottery in the hands of other local businesses.

When it comes to Jeremy Ogusky’s art, function is implicit. While he stops short at calling himself an artist—explaining there’s a fine line between a craftsman and artist—his ceramics are something to behold. Earthy, undulating colors and surprising details are intrinsic to these functional vessels: compost containers, fermenting crocks, espresso cups. Ogusky recently sat down at City Feed—where his custom-made mugs emblazoned with store’s namesake are for sale—to talk about his journey from a career in public health to full-time potter; urban homesteading; and the intersection of localism and consumerism.   Tell me about your work. More than an artist, I see myself as a craftsperson. I know sometimes it’s a fine line but the stuff that I…

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Adventures in Letterpress, Part 3: A Living Dinosaur

In the world of fast, fast, and digital everything, Michael Babcock is keeping the superior quality of old world printing alive.

interrobang letterpress operates out of an inconspicuous house in the Stonybrook neighborhood of JP. You won't hear these presses running. They're designed to print practically forever, and they raise only the slightest clatter with machinery that is reminiscent of steamboats, locomotives and the industrial beauty of the Victorian era. The interrobang is a punctuation mark indicating a combined sense of question and incredulity. Created in 1962, it is an elegant and precise solution for expressing one of modern life's most common sentiments and frequently used phrases, "what the f..." It is literally the combination of the question mark and the exclamation point. It is rarely used, although stymied writers who aren't familiar with the mark…

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Michael

3:05 pm on Friday, October 14, 2011

So the D-man worked the dead bank? D is for Dis'?   more ›

Adventures in Letterpressing Part 2: A History

Michael Babcock of interrobang letterpress gives Patch a lesson on the history of the letterpress.

Editor's note: This is part two in a series about interrobang letterpress. Find the first part here. For centuries, letterpress was king. According to Michael Babcock, owner of interrobang letterpress in JP, it was popularized by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-1400s and was the dominant form of printing until the mid-1900s.  Today, a mere half century later, it is almost non-existent except when being practiced as an art, a passion, or a consuming interest. Its physical parts—lead and steel type, steel presses, beds, platens, gears and wheels—were assembled into accomplished engineered workings that ultimately came to fill large industrial buildings and small wooden ones in every city, town and hamlet throughout the entire industrialized …

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Letterpress Business Remains Stronghold in JP

Michael Babcock, owner of Jamaica Plain-located interrobang letterpress, recently took Patch on a tour of his letterpress business.

Ubiquitous for over 500 years, letterpress has now become the quixotic work of printing idealists.  And while it comes with a certain "cool factor" of physical artifact, it's become economically difficult to maintain. People aren't buying it anymore, so it doesn't pay like it once did. But there remains a holdout for letterpress in Jamaica Plain—interrobang letterpress, owned by Michael Babcock.  Interrobang letterpress has been around since Babcock founded it in 1992, finding a niche in printing CD liners, though that business is starting to dry up. He prints invitations, awards, business cards, letterheads, envelopes, posters, chapbooks and anything else that people want printed, each of which is endangered in its own right; email, …

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Michael

11:47 am on Thursday, October 20, 2011

Thanks Cora, and yes, Ann, look me up. I'm home everyday working, but may not be soon as I'm looking for full time work again. I've gotten no inquiries since this series of articles ran. what a disappointment. Something unique in Jamaica Plain, and no interest.   more ›

Jamaica Plain's Jessica Burko Heads Crafts Collective

"Boston Handmade" participates in what Burko calls a "renaissance in crafting."

In her South End studio, Jamaica Plain resident Jessica Burko applied a layer of wax to a paper quilt that she was in the process of making.  As she painted the assembled images of a bluebird, a Victorian house, and cut-out sewing patterns, she explained what she described as a “renaissance in crafting." "At the same time that there’s been a surge in technology,” she noted, “people find it very satisfying to make things by hand.” Burko is the coordinator and executive director of Boston Handmade, a non-profit arts organization of fine artists and crafters.  Although Burko founded the group in 2007, she modestly stated that it “belongs to everyone.  All members have ownership. We provide support, sharing, networking, promotion, and …

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Great Escape

A Crafty Way to Get Away

Head to Colorwheel Collection in Roslindale to showcase your crafty side.

Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot easier and a bit more fun. If you consider yourself a crafty person or have an interest in becoming one, but no skills as yet to speak of, consider checking out the events at Colorwheel Collection in Roslindale. This week, Colorwheel Collection will be hosting a meetup of Crafty Ladies tonight, , March 3, for a "Crop Night."  For the uninitiated, that means a night of scrapbooking, card-making, and crafts made with paper. Seasoned scrapbookers will be in good company and for those just interested in how to get started or what types of projects they can create through scrapbooking, this event is a great …

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