The online portfolio of Page Redford
I’m sure you know by now…but I sure do like unicorns!
A while back I shared some photos of a new item in my Etsy Shop… my Unicorn Tote Bags in Blue and Pink. Now they’re available in gold AND with a different color variation: Gold unicorn with white mane and White unicorn with gold mane.
This is one of my new favorite items… and definitely a favorite color-way.
Summer is in full swing and so are some new tote bags in my Etsy Shop! I’m loving these cute little unicorn bags. Each print is hand-pulled by Yours Truly. Available in pink and blue for now, but more colors are coming soon!
Front and back designs
The other day I mentioned that I picked up some new inks for my screen printing press that GLOW IN THE DARK. I was finally able to use them yesterday afternoon. I am so pleased with how they turned out…
The color really TEALS the deal for me…
I absolutely love the teal color. I was a little nervous that the inks would be difficult to clean out of my screen (they weren’t!) and that they would be too transparent like my other glow-in-the-dark ink. Fortunately, they were not too transparent on a light-colored fabric. I did try making a print on some darker-colored fabrics and it was difficult to see the design. I will need to put a layer of white ink down if I want to print on darker fabrics.
I am sure you are wondering whether or not the ink actually glows too… IT DOES! Here are some photos I snapped with my camera. Unfortunately my camera did not take the best photos in the dark, but you can totally see the glowing. The actual glow was brighter than this. Too cool!
Let it GLOW!
I think these bags turned out great! And this glow was after a very short charge under a lamp. I think they are a cool bag for kids. (Or adults!)
For good planners: These would make excellent Trick-or-Treat bags!
Of course, they are available in the Pink Toe Press Etsy Shop.
Let it GLOW, let it glow!
I always love going to brick-and-mortar locally owned art supply stores. I stopped by Hyatt’s in Clarence yesterday and picked up a few goodies. (Yes, I did this instead of watching the Super Bowl) The thing I am most excited about is the new ink for my screen printing press. It’s a teal GLOW-IN THE-DARK ink. I have a glow-in-the-dark ink that is an almost-clear overlay ink, I really like it, but it is very transparent and doesn’t work well on certain fabrics. I mostly use that ink for painting on paper, to be very honest. I was so excited to get this one because it is a beautiful teal color AND it glows in the dark. I can’t wait to use this!!!
From my time at Trader Joe’s I learned of a word that we use all the time: “Kaizen”. Depending on who you ask, “Kaizen” means to always be improving, and/or to enact “Good Change.” Kaizen is a daily process and it refers to activities that continually improve all functions and eliminate waste (especially in a business environment). We use the word all the time at Trader Joe’s to encourage people to work better and “smarter not harder.” I do try to implement good changes in Pink Toe Press too.
Doesn’t that bag look lovely?
One recent “Kaizen” was to solve a problem with my tote bags. They are great bags, I love them. I love screen printing my designs on them, and I love sewing my own bags from canvas. But I was running into a problem: What if, at a store where Pink Toe Press retails, a customer or employee puts my bags away backwards? There was no way to tell from the back where the bag is from if there just a print on the one side. How is a customer to know that it is not just a blank canvas tote bag?! I had to make a change to make my bags more appealing to customers, and to also make them more valuable for Pink Toe Press.
My solution: Create a design to print on the back of the bags that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but that showcases the Pink Toe Press logo in a big way. As I do a lot of sewing, I thought that a motif with stitching would serve me well. I chose a mostly-square design with scalloped edges and a criss-crossed quilted look. love the way the design turned out and I LOVE the way it looks on the slightly textured canvases that I use for my bags.
It’s impossible hard to find a tote bag where the back looks just as nice as the front.
This way, the tote bag looks great on the shelf and on your shoulder. Customers get to purchase the tote bag with their favorite design on the front and Pink Toe Press gets a cameo on the back. Both sides of the bag look so nice that you can show off your Pink Toe Press pride and carry the bag with the logo facing out. I do!
And, of course, the design looks great on all colors of canvas!
All newly-printed Pink Toe Press tote bags will have the Pink Toe Press logo on one side moving forward. What a great Kaizen!
I’ve been printing a lot of new tote bags lately! They are currently available for purchase in my Etsy Shop! I thought it would be interesting to share some of my process photographs with you. It is important to show the polished final product. But with something as hands-on as screen printing, I think it is important to show the process as well!
It’s important to have your inks mixed before you start printing. You can either buy ready-made ink colors or mix your own! This red-orange ink was made from a pre-mixed orange and process red. I’m using my smallest squeegee to make sure I get the right coverage and pressure with each print.
All that careful work paid off! Look at that beautiful print! Since I am only printing with one screen today, the printed bags can be hung up to dry right away. On to the next bag!
When it’s time to change a color you need to wash the screen out COMPLETELY and let it dry. There is a chance that some of the ink from the first color would pass through with the new ink color if you are not careful, and that will muddle your colors or, even worse: dry in your screen. Between colors (multitasking while waiting for the screen to finish drying) I heat-pressed the first set of bags so that the colors be permanently on the bag and will not run if the bag gets wet!
Some of my new tote bags are made from brilliant colors of cotton canvas. Black looks best on them, so I changed ink colors to black.
More colors of tote bags coming soon. I am in the process of MAKING MY OWN TOTE BAGS out of 100% cotton canvas made in the USA to ensure the quality and colors are up to my high standards! New colors include yellow, natural canvas, and avocado.
All of these amazing tote bags are available in my Etsy Shop!
Happy “Dia De Los Muertos”, Everyone!
Today we celebrate the “Day of the Dead” with a new tote bag from Pink Toe Press! This bag was designed by Yours Truly and was hand-printed in Burbank, CA. This new bag design is currently available at Rocket Fizz Burbank and in my Etsy shop! This bag is a great tote bag for Day of the Dead, of course, but the design is great for using all year round! Bring a bag to market for your groceries or fill it with books for class. The bag itself measures 13 inches by 13 inches and is made from durable cotton canvas, so you can tote just about anything in this great Calavera Tote Bag!
Boo!
Just in time for October, this new tote bag is great for the upcoming season!!!
Made from an original illustration, this design is printed on cotton canvas tote bags. Can you guess the design? That’s right! It’s a Calavera from Dia De Los Muertos, or a Mexican Sugar Skull from “Day of the Dead”. I hand-drew the design and processed it in to a silk screen. More photos to come, and perhaps more colors too?
Wouldn’t it be great if you never forgot your reusable bags when you went shopping at the grocery store? Tired of being taken over by plastic bags in your pantry? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a friendly reminder to be more “Green” and to not forget your bags? Well, I’ve got the answer for you…
Introducing the “Take Me With You” Tote Bag! A great cotton canvas tote bag that reminds you ever-so-nicely to, well, not forget it! Bring this bag with you everywhere you go for groceries, library trips, or just for everyday toting of things! The fun lettering makes it a great bag for every day use too! Put it in your car or hang it on your door so that you’ll never forget to bring a bag with you when you go shopping!
Available in various colors in my Etsy Shop!
I’ve had a lot of people ask me where I get my inspiration from. That is a hard question to answer for many artists and, many times, one illustration can be inspired by many different sources. I know some people who make work about their own experiences, others who are inspired by the programs and movies they watch, the foods they eat, and the list goes on and on. Many of my pieces are inspired by my love of animals and nature, history, food, and, well, my list goes on and on too! Today I thought I’d share my inspiration for my Retro Rocket Dog and Cat Prints.
When I was in college, my senior thesis project was inspired by vintage postage stamps and match boxes. I did a lot of research and made a series of prints featuring extremeophiles (animals and insects that can live in extremely hostile environments). My favorite extremeophile, the Waterbear, is able to survive in space! They are able to go in to a state of extreme hibernation and are able to be revived back to life by a drop of water. No kidding!
The famous Waterbear!
In researching other space-traveling animals, I found inspiration in Laika the Soviet Space Dog. She was the first animal to orbit the earth on November 3, 1957. She sadly died due to overheating of the spacecraft, but her story lives on in stamps, sculptures, books and more!
I love the idea of making a print inspired by a real animal who helped advance our knowledge of space travel and its effects on living things. I also love the design of old space crafts, so that was a no-brainer for me to design a print inspired by those. I’ve been hand-drawing retro-rockets on bags at my other job for over 3 years, making a screen print is the logical next-step!
Candy Bags make everyone smile, young and old! Every purchase comes in a hand-drawn rocket bag!
Retro-future rocket stamps!
Sputnik 2 was eye-catching, but I wanted something more flashy, so I gave my “Puppy Stardust” a different rocket inspired by retro-future illustrations of the late 50’s and 60’s. There were many designs I liked that were memorialized in stamps and postage, but my favorite rockets are the old Tin Toys that I’ve always coveted. Hoping that kids would like my design, I drew inspiration from those toys: their simple shapes and bright colors.
An assortment of retro Tin Toys.
And now you know where I got the hair-brained idea to make a Rocket Dog and Rocket Cat. I don’t know of any cats who orbited space, but as a Cat Mom of two silly cats, I thought it would be unfair to leave them out. The “Rocket Cat” design is inspired by my cat Ferdinand who, I think would make a fine AstroCat.
Page Redford 