Beth Emmott

Type Crimes

Beth — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:29:36 +0000

Been awhile. The holidays and then start of school. But things are settling down—a bit.

I teach a class in typography and whenever I cover a subject I see examples of it and its abuse everywhere. I’ve been covering the use of quotation marks, apostrophes and prime or hatch marks.

(Prime marks are straight up and down and are used with numbers to indicate inches or feet. Quotes and apostrophes are curved or slanted, depending on the font. )

They are used incorrectly so often that people have begun to accept them when they would not accept a straight up and down comma. (Hopefully!)

It was my Mom’s birthday and we took her out to dinner. The food and service was very good but the typography was all over the place. The other samples are within a few blocks of her condo. So, Type Geek had to document them. (click image for larger view)

Exterior sign for Aldo’s

Two more exterior signs—same restaurant

Logos on plates and menus

Two signs—two apostrophe treatments—same place.

What’s this?

Free Loom

Beth — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:11:13 +0000

Several years ago a friend was moving and had an old loom in her attic that she did not want. She gave it to me and I set it up in my attic to see what it was and how much of it was there. From what I can tell it is the main frame and beater of an old PA Barn loom. Someone had begun to update it with new treadles etc but never finished.

PA Barn Loom-click image for larger view

I would like to find it a home, perhaps an historical society etc that could restore it and use it in demonstrations. All I ask is that you pick it up and take it away. It is on the third floor in Philadelphia, PA. I have no idea of its provenance and neither did my friend.
If interested, contact me at: beth@emmott.com

Working from home

Beth — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:43:50 +0000

I have moved the office and my work out of our large studio and I love it. I’m good at setting schedules for my self and can get a lot of work done. I might miss people being around all the time but I do teach two days a week at Philadelphia University so quiet space to work in is great!
I have two rooms on the first floor with a separate entrance, big windows, and space for our office, my computers and drawing table etc. (Yes, I do use a drawing table.) There is even a working fireplace for chilly days. Below is a picture of one side of the first room—the office to the left and my spinning equipment in the back. What took me so long to figure this out?

Pumpkin Drawings

Beth — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:02:48 +0000

Downloaded Sketchbook Pro on my iPad and decided to make one pumpkin drawing a day for the month of October.
They are posted at Pumpkin Drawings
(click images for a larger view.)

Changes. . .

Beth — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:21:45 +0000

Making some changes on this site.
Have added a portfolio page, rewrote the about page and changed the name from “Gardens, my non digital world” to “Beth Emmott, image maker”.
Still some changes to come.
Check the changes out.

Jane’s Carousel

Beth — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:57:38 +0000

My friend Jane, one of my garden gals, has been working on restoring a carousel for 20-30 years. She and her husband, David, gave it to the city of New York as well as a pavilion built for it in Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo where they live and last Thursday it was dedicated with the inaugural ride!

It was a wonderful event, a bit rainy but that did not dampen anyone’s excitement. I’ve seen the ponies from time to time as they were being worked on and have ridden on the almost finished carousel in its temporary home but this was different.

Name in cement and in her new home!

Sitting joyously in its clear pavilion (designed by French Architect, Jean Nouvel), jutting out into the East River it is spectacular. From the stainless steel lettering laid in the concrete proclaiming that this is “Jane’s Carousel made in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company” to the ribbon for the cutting ceremony every detail was complete. Guests were even given a special horseshoe as a souvenir! (Vincent Farelli would have loved this!)

Ribbon for cutting ceremony!

If all this wasn’t enough, when night falls and the doors are closed, large concealed curtains descend from the edge of the ceiling and shadows of the rotating ponies are projected from within. Magic!

Spectacular view and at night!

Some online links for this are:
Official Site
First Ride
At Night

Mini Vacation 2011

Beth — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:59:45 +0000

After Connecticut we drove to Maine where we stayed with Margie and Joe in their wonderful home where guest rooms are private apartments, the food and conversation are wonderful and their garden is perfect for both human folk and VERY large doggie folk.

Bob visited with Joe at work and photographed along the coast while Margie and I headed north to meet Sally and Pam at the Maine Botanical Gardens for this years Garden Hoax. Words don’t do justice. It was misty (as all our garden events seem to be) giving the garden an ethereal feeling. We’ve been to lots of terrific gardens but this was different. It was a Maine Botanical garden. Where elsewhere beautiful flowers are planted to create vistas and swathes of color and texture, here the texture is of Maine. It is a garden in a forest.

Pam and I are in the rain in this pic Margie took
and House in the children’s garden with a cat fence!

Back to Margie and Joe’s for a bowl of home made chowder (what else) and the next day Bob and I headed north to Waldoboro where we stayed at the Blue Skye Inn, visited Pam and David, and ate Ginger Ice Cream in Thomaston (my mother has always raved of the Ginger Ice cream she ate in Thomaston, ME as a child in the 1920′s).

Alpaca

Bought alpaca from an Alpaca farm to card with some wool I have for spinning—this winter’s stress reducing project! and then home driving in one of this summer’s wild rain extravaganzas.

Short and sweet and lots of fun!

Been a while . . .

Beth — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:02:54 +0000

It’s been a while all right. My class ended. I didn’t get to go to the last class as Frank called a meeting that evening of all the graphic design instructors and I figured I’d better go to that. Last year I didn’t go to one because I was in Ireland and I wish I’d been able to, so. . .
The Sunday after that we left for a quick end of summer (my summer) vacation to Maine. We stopped first at my brother Senter’s in Connecticut. First thing I see is a bunch of fungi growing from a stump in his yard—I’ve been on the fungus train too long!

More fungi!

We had a great two days sitting on their porch over looking the pond and eating lobster at Abbott’s!

View from the log house!

Eating lobster with Senter and Bitty!

Print Class: Last Class

Beth — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:51:56 +0000

It’s been a week since my last post. There was no class last week and that worked out as I had planned to go to Maine with the Garden Gals and visit the Main Botanical Gardens at that time. That’s a post for another day, but needless to say I didn’t get any print making done while I was there. I did pick up my work from Thurs before I left and here are two scans: one of one printed by hand at home and one on press at school. Still a bit rough but improving.

Two Tone Green, printed on press and Tan, printed by hand.

When I got home from Maine I reworked my design to include the whole image, scanned it and placed it into Illustrator where I redrew it to get clean lines and to delineate where I was to cut and not. I was able to transfer it to my larger block and begin cutting.

Working on my last print for this class.

Didn’t get it cut in time for class but I went anyway to show where I was and to get some feedback. This was my last class. I will finish it and try printing it by hand but now I am at a point where I want to drop back and hone my skills (I do like the design). I purchased some better paper on the way home and have down loaded David Bull‘s e-book on Japanese woodblock printing, Your First Print. So, the adventure continues!

Print Class: Review

Beth — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:58:50 +0000

Thurs. I printed my new test block. At home I hand printed it using a single brown I mixed and then in class I printed it on the press to see the difference. In class I also experimented with different colors on the same block. Half was a warm light green mixed with a bit of copper and the other half was a darker cool green. On some of the prints I tried making different areas of the block different colors.

Mixed ink showing warms and cools.

Later in class we had a review of our work at this stage. Work was spread out on the table, artist statements were read and progress was discussed. Now we have a week off and then two more sessions of class. One will have a speaker plus some work time and then the final critique.