When Black Friday Comes...

The store and all of Fourth Street is teeming with humanity today, the day with so many names -- The Official Start of Holiday Shopping, Buy Nothing Day, Buy Everything Day, and Black Friday (both because the of the maddening hordes of shoppers and because this is the day that many stores go "into the black," beginning to make profit for the first time all year).

It's on the busy busy days like this that it's easy to forget that life exists outside our little world. But just a few days ago a nice woman came in and dropped off the postcard pictured above. She's helping to organize a crafts fair for the Pastures Preschool in Bodega, California, on December 4, and she made the fair's announcement card using crepe paper and Dresden from Castle in the Air, photocopying her work onto cardstock. It's always such a treat to see what people make from our materials. Have fun at the fair!

Sandcastles, anyone?

We had a hot weekend down on Fourth Street, the sun finally showing its face after weeks of typical foggy Berkeley summer weather. When the sun came out again today, one of the store mannequins decided it was so warm that she wanted to take a trip to the beach. So, using crepe paper, Dresden trim, and some spun cotton "buttons," John McRae helped her into some brand new beachwear. (He's such a gentleman!)

Up In the Air

If you come in from the cool wind on Fourth Street today, you'll see that even more kites have found their way into our magical breeze at Castle in the Air. John McRae put together a handful of diamond shaped frames and encouraged all of us at the shop to use Italian papers and Dresden trim to make our own kites.

Once I could look down again, I noticed a tiny kite that's been flying off our greeting card rack season after season -- the one in Diva Pyari's Linea Carta alphabet card series. Diva draws, calligraphs, and prints all the cards herself on Fabriano paper using her Gocco press (a tabletop Japanese screen-printing kit). Let them fly!

Drowning in Dresden

Castle in the Air's move into our new offices and "staging" areas is complete, and we're diving in on a number of new projects. One task that we saved until we got our feet back on the ground is the expansion of our Dresden trim offerings in the Online Shoppe. We've begun bagging and filing enough Dresden that, once we're done, we might just double our selection online. Keep an eye on the Dresden Trim section of the Online Shoppe throughout the summer to see the new styles.

Fantastic Castles!

Among the first pieces of Dresden trim we ever carried at Castle in the Air was this incredible three-dimensional castle. It's about ten inches tall and has doors and shutters that open and a balcony and sign-post that extend out an inch or so. It comes in silver or gold, and for the first time in history... black! I had it made especially for the shop and apparently it had never been done before. I use the silver one as a backdrop for the store's display of the first Dromedary Press title, Castle in the Air, and we've all been fantasizing about using one of the black castles in a spooky Halloween craft project. The castle is one of the many Dresden pieces back in stock in our store, and one of many, many pieces that we'll be adding to the Online Shoppe this summer.

Queen for a Day!

Our glittering hoard of Dresden delights keeps growing at Castle in the Air. This week we're putting out dozens of new styles of Dresden trim, including several new paper crowns. Now anyone can be king or queen for a day! The one pictured here comes with a convenient elastic band so that you can go about all your regal activities with ease -- it's not very majestic to fuss with one's crown!

In a World of Their Own

On Tuesday, eight ingenious and industrious students created their own miniature worlds in John McRae's "Wardian 'Glazed Glass' Garden" class. Using transparent sheets of mica, Dresden trim, turned wood, papier-mache boxes, and tiny flora and fauna, they constructed perfect little landscapes under ornate domes.

John says he loved the creativity that each student brought to her or his garden. One finished hers with a mica base so that she could view her scene from any angle. Another student brought a string of lilliputian lights and her landscape looked inhabited by fireflies or will o' the wisps. Pure magic!