I’m about to burst at the seams with pride and happiness to share the first ever OMHG collaborative HANDMADE product! In May of this year Tif of Stubborn Press & Co. suggested we team up to create a letterpress calendar for 2014 and we’ve been working together in the OMHG forums ever since. During that time we’ve parented children, birthed a baby (go KIM!), overcome illness and struggle, worked on our businesses/jobs/lives & grown stronger as a community and as entrepreneurs through sharing all these experiences. At the heart of this calendar is the theme of community and each of our diverse submissions represents what that word means to us.
To order your copies of our community calendar CLICK HERE!
Our contributors are:
January – Dorkys Ramos | February – Darice Pauselius | March – Tiffany Smith | April – Jenelle Montilone | May – Kimberly Kling | June – Sara DiMantova | July – Karen Jansen | August – Sam Osborne | September – Lix Hewett | October – Emily Poe-Crawford | November – Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn | December – Jessika Hepburn
To kick off the pre-sale launch of our calendar we are sharing a selection of the calendar art and a few of the beautiful stories that inspired them:
NOVEMBER: Shauna Panczyszyn
My year started out with a bit of a shock and suddenly my world was turned upside down. I jumped into freelance illustration and was lucky enough to have the universe on my side and started my business in a new town with few friends. Through positive thought and a lot of good karma, things have been fairly smooth as I have ventured into the world of full time freelance this year and everything seemed to fall into place. This is why I chose the phrase ‘There is so much to be thankful for’, because I truly do have a lot in my life I am thankful for. I have a wonderful support system in my family and friends, wonderful agents to help me in my work, and strength I didn’t know I had until I had to use it.
JANUARY: Dorkys Ramos, Porcupine Hugs
This past January I found myself still dealing with the emotional rollercoaster brought on by my breast cancer diagnosis the month before. I started 2013 with tests, surgeries, and radiation all while diving into my newly created stationery business to keep from slipping into a depression. It was during that month – and while surrounded by friends and family for my 31st birthday – that I realized just how much love I have around me to help me get through even the roughest trials. ‘Together we’ll weather whatever’ comes from the belief that with others by our side, we’ll find ways to turn scary moments into hopeful ones and be strong enough to take on whatever may come.
FEBRUARY: Darice Pauselius, Pauselius
Community reminds us that we are not alone. We only need to scan the shore for a reminder of support…of friendship…of understanding. Community invites us to venture out into the waves: to laugh, learn, and grow together. All it takes is a little trust and a whole lotta love! Because, as John Donne said, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
OCTOBER: Emily Poe-Crawford, Em Dash Paper Co.
I started my hand lettering business from nothing. Literally. I was about to finish graduate school with a Master’s degree in English, but the thought of teaching or working in an office under harsh fluorescent lights filled me with panic; all I really wanted to do was create. So I began, with a calligraphy pen, a jar of ink, and a sheet of brown kraft cardstock. And what ultimately flourished from that humble beginning is all thanks to an incredible community of friends and fellow makers who believed in what I was doing, bought my early work, promoted me on their blogs, and encouraged me daily. The Mitch Albom quote I lettered for this calendar spoke to me for this very reason: I make my living creating things that give me purpose and meaning, and that just wouldn’t be possible at all without my amazing community.
MAY: Kimberly Kling, Joyful Roots
So much can come from a simple hello. For me, saying hi to an amazing group of people at OMHG opened the floodgates to an incredible community. They took me in and treated me as their own from the very beginning. A simple greeting blossomed into deep and lasting friendships, a huge support system, and a much needed sense of belonging. My design was inspired by this deep-rooted community that has helped me and my business blossom in more ways than I could have imagined and the simple hello that started it all.
JUNE: Sara DiMantova, Sara Does
Last year I made the jump to self-employment and started taking my creative business aspirations seriously for the first time. It would have been impossible for me to successfully abandon the cubicle farm and embark on my tiny boat of dreams without the support of my community – communities! Local and not-so-local, it’s amazing to see how supportive our community is when we embark on risky life and work journeys, or [especially!] when things go absolutely terribly. This is the idea behind my design, that as a community we shine brighter with, and for, each other.
AUGUST: Sam Osborne
My design is all about celebrating differences and coming together as a community. Each of the circles is unique and beautiful but together they create the most fantastic pattern, just like us. Individually we’re beautiful, together we’re stronger.
Click here to view all of the calendar pages & order your pre-sale copies of our calendar. Check back next week to read the rest of our contributor stories + get a project update!
This is a community created and funded project- to make sure it is sustainable for everyone we are going to press once we have pre-sold enough calendars to cover Tif’s materials & time. We need to sell 85 calendars by November 27th to go to print* & then Tif will order the plates + paper and we’ll start printing. All profits from calendar sales after expenses will be divided equally between all our contributors. We’ll be sharing more art + stories this week and then bringing our community along for this collaboration with updates on delivery dates as we get closer to printing and shipping! Pre-sale calendars are offered at flat rate shipping in Canada ($7.50) & the USA ($5.00) only, once we sell out our first 85 and go to print shipping will be offered internationally.
To order your calendars and be part of this project click here!
*Knock-on-wood but just like a Kickstarter, if for some reason we don’t make our pre-sale quota, we’ll refund everyone their purchase & make a new plan for printing our goodness!*
[…] to see the pretty letterpress goodness in person and hang it proudly in my office. Head over to OMHG to see contributions from the other artists, letterpress master, and order your very […]