The theme for May 4, 2012 is Cinco de Mayo Eve!  Come downtown and visit our businesses to get a head start on Cinco de Mayo.  We will all be decked out in a Cinco de Mayo motif and serving special beverages and treats.

Drop in to see the unique products and services that we offer!  We will have a surprise or two for you as well.

Join these eclectic shops, studios, restaurants and residences for activities and shopping as they are all staying open until 8:00 PM on First Fridays.

Look for the First Friday Shop Poster in front of participating shops!

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As usual, I was working “By Chance or By Appointment” hours today and got a phone call from someone that REALLY wanted Pixel Point to be open! Not a problem- I swung the car over to the studio to meet Ryan who had his nose pressed against the shop window and eager to get inside.

Ryan busied himself feasting on all the functional artwork in the gallery.  He wanted to know about every object and particularly where it was made and who made it. He started a pile on the work table that grew to considerable size.

My curiosity finally got the best of me and I asked,” So, Ryan who are the lucky people getting these gifts and what is the occasion?”

Ryan responded, “Well, I am making a business trip to China next week.  I want to have a gift for each one of my hosts.  After spending time in several gift shops, I realized that almost every object I selected had a Made In China label prominently affixed. It seemed kinda’ foolish to be buying gifts in Anderson that were made in China to be lugged half way around the world to return them to my hosts living in China.”

Sigh!

I approved of Ryan’s careful selection of handcrafted items all made in North America by artisans whose “hands are in the earth.”

• Wooden vases hand turned from the round support poles once used in North Carolina tobacco curing sheds
• Beeswax lanterns formed by hand dipping a mold into beeswax with embedded wild flowers grown on the artisan’s farm in North Carolina
• Wooden kitchen utensils  hand formed from lumber from the families’ ancestral wood lot in West Virginia
• Herbal soap made with healing herbs grown on the artisan’s farm in North Carolina
• Notecards illustrated from the drawings found in a very special line of limited edition books made on Vancouver Island, BC
• Petite Journals utilizing California Fruit Crate art bound the old fashioned way in South Carolina

You may not be traveling to China but if you are in need of special gifts that are functional with unique form, wrestled from the earth by caring souls then Pixel Point in Anderson, South Carolina is your source!

The theme for April 6, 2012 is No Foolin’.  Come downtown and visit our businesses to get a head start in getting into the spirit of an early spring.  We will all be decked out in a April Fools motif and serving special beverages and treats.  You are sure to find a special treat as well as special gifts.

Drop in to see the unique products and services that we offer!  We will have a surprise or two for you as well.

Join these eclectic shops, studios, restaurants and residences for activities and shopping as they are all staying open until 8:00 PM on First Fridays. Look for the First Friday Shop Poster in front of participating shops!

 Make Downtown Anderson your destination on First Friday – April 6th and we bet that you will have a good time ~ and that’s NO Foolin’!

Pixel Point
Gallery 313
Moontoucht
Kitchen Emporium
Davis Downtown Market
eyeZinga!
The Big Tease
Art & Frame at Bay 3

The theme for March 2nd, 2012 is Shamrocks and Smiling Eyes.  Come downtown and visit our shops to get a head start in getting into the St. Patricks Day Spirit.  We will all be decked out in St. Patricks Day motif and serving special beverages and treats.  You are sure to find a special treat as well as special gifts.

Drop in to see the unique products and services that we offer!  We will have a surprise or two for you as well.

Join these eclectic shops for activities and shopping as they are all staying open until 8:00 PM on First Fridays. Look for the First Friday Shop Poster in front of participating shops!

Make Downtown Anderson your destination on First Friday – March 2nd and we bet that you will have a good time ~ and that’s No Blarney!

T

Giving Thanks becomes part of your Fall decor as the folk art by Neeley Spotts conjures up all kinds of Thanksgiving Day memories and the carefully selected bookcloth is in harvest colors.

Giving Thanks becomes part of your Thanksgiving Day tradition as folks love to read about what they were doing on those milestone days in their life’s journey.

The 5 inch X 7 inch journals are handbound at the bindery at Pixel Point in Anderson, South Carolina using the techniques described on the bookbinding information page. The covers are Italian bookcloth with an inlaid title graphic.  The bookblock is printed on TreeFree paper made from sugarcane and hand stitched with linen thread.

Please click on the gallery images to see more information about the pages in the Giving Thanks journal.

Giving Thanks 50 years of Thanksgiving Days.$35

The featured journal was created to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of a special couple. The guests of honor prefer an organic look so the book was crafted with papers from the earth. The cover is a dark sepia book cloth from Italy. The cover is a faded blue lokta paper from Nepal. The endpaper is a golden lokta fiber that has a fern pattern “sun etched” into it. The book block uses an alternative fiber from Costa Rica that is made from sugar cane left in the fields after the harvest.

A small wedding day picture is inlaid into the cover.

This journal includes a sentiment from the givers as well a carefully selected poem. The remainder of the journal contains pages for friends and family to enter their special memories and thoughts – so much more than just a signature in a guest book!

The journal is 96 pages -5/8 X 5 X 7 inches and constructed using the techniques described on our bookbinding information page.

Contact Pixel Point to arrange for your custom journal to celebrate the anniversary of a special couple!

Here are the prompts that make each entry unique:

Name

Signature

How did you meet the couple?

What is a favorite memory of the couple?

What have you learned from the couple?

This journal is for a graduate heading off to Elon University in North Carolina.  The spine is Italian bookcloth.  The cover is lokta fiber from Nepal. The adornment is an etched copper plate with the school’s acorn and oak leaf, academic, logo.  The plate has been heat fired to create a coordinating patina.  The endpapers are a kozo fiber paper from Thailand with raintree leaf embedments also matching the schools’ colors.

This journal has a sentiment from the givers as well as some appropriate quotes.  The balance of the journal is lined with a faint watermark on each page of the same design etched into the cover.

The journal is 144 pages – 3/4 X 5 X 7 inches and constructed using the techniques described on our bookbinding information page.

Contact Pixel Point to arrange for your custom journal for the graduate to chronicle the next big journey in their lives!

Here is some sample text to show how easy it is to customize your journal with a sentiment.

June, 2011

Jane,

You are starting on a great adventure in your life’s journey!  You are off to a new place and will meet new people and get to enjoy new experiences.

As with any trip, you will reflect on your past, embrace the present, and anticipate the future.

We hope that you will use this journal to capture your thoughts, your hopes and your dreams as you engage Elon University and all that it will offer you!

Uncle Jack and Aunt Jill

As a result of our collaboration, this very pretty journal came into existence.

The cover paper is repurposed wallpaper from an out-of-date sample book from Sherwin-Williams. The color complements the colors in the print and also has a very nice texture. The spine is Italian bookcloth in a shade of green that compliments the colors in the print.

The print is actually a reproduction of a vintage postcard of the Statue of Liberty.  The original print was done by the Illinois Vintage Postcard Company and the reproduction is part of the Cavallini Vintage New York Postcard series packaged in an attractive tin box.

The book block is made from alternative fiber paper. The paper is made form fiber waste from the sugar cane harvests in Costa Rica.

You can read about our bookbinding techniques on the Bookbinding Page of our WEBsite.

Pixel Point will be glad to work with you on YOUR special project.  Please get in touch with us!

This Journal uses a ribbon motif in the knot.  Besides the cover, the design is also used on the title page and is “ghost printed” on each of the entry pages.

This journal has a very tailored look as the copper adornment is complimented with a black Italian bookcloth and a rich, leather finished lokta fiber paper from Nepal. Other journals in the edition feature different Celtic Knot patterns and different color spine and lokta fiber cover paper.

The book block is made from alternative fiber paper. The paper is made from fiber waste from the sugar cane harvests in Costa Rica.

You can read about our bookbinding techniques on the Bookbinding Page of our WEBsite.

If you like special edition journals, please consider Pixel Point when it comes time to make your purchase!

The South Carolina state flag reminds us of its role in the American Revolution.  The flag also reflects elements of the state’s Civil War heritage drawing from a design that was formulated for a national banner when the state seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Components of the current state flag were first seen in 1765 on a banner carried by South Carolina protesters of the Stamp Act. The banner that the protesters hoisted displayed three white crescents on a blue background. Ten years later, in 1775, Colonel William Moultrie was asked by the South Carolina Revolutionary Council of Safety to design a banner for the use of South Carolina troops. Colonel Moultrie chose a simple design that displayed the crescent (new moon) on a blue field. The new flag was the same blue as that of the soldiers’ uniforms, and the silver crescent echoed the symbol that the soldiers wore on the front of their caps.

Almost 100 years later, South Carolina seceded from the Union it had fought to create. A new banner was needed to fly above the newly formed nation. Many designs were reviewed, but the General Assembly settled on one, simple change to Moultrie’s Revolutionary War design. A Palmetto tree was added and centered on the blue field. The Palmetto, the state tree of South Carolina , played a key role in Colonel Moultrie’s defense of Sullivan’s Island against an attack by British warships in June, 1776. Cannonballs fired at the fort from the British ships could not destroy the walls of the fort which were built of Palmetto logs. Instead, the cannonballs simply sank into the soft, tough Palmetto wood.

The flag that flies over the state of South Carolina today is of the same design that flew over independent South Carolina during the Civil War. [thanks to netstate, llc for information on the SC flag.]

In 1989, Nancy Basket began experimenting with the “notorious” kudzu vine after moving to the Carolinas to be close to the Cherokee Reservation. Nancy shares her Native American heritage through her art and by the retelling of ancient legends. She says of her work,” I feel the Old Ones guiding my fingers and I am proud to be making something beautiful.” A contemporary basket maker and fiber artist, Nancy takes her name from the work she does and from her Cherokee grandmother, Margaret Basket. Nancy is an artist-in-education in basketry, papermaking, and storytelling in the Carolinas.

Native to the Orient, kudzu vine grows 12 inches daily. Asians use every part of the plant. Kudzu roots, weighing up to 400 pounds, are ground into powder and used as a thickener in cooking. Vines are processed and exported as grass-cloth wallpaper and are woven into expensive clothing, once used as gifts for emperors. Leaves have been used for hundreds of years in medicinal teas and a wide variety of foods. The purple flowers smell like grape bubble gum and are used in jelly-making. In the 1920’s, kudzu was imported to the southern U.S. as a ground cover for erosion control. Today, because of its prodigious, unchecked growth, it is considered a menace.

Nancy hopes to change folks’ opinions about kudzu from that of a maligned and laughed at weed into that of a new and inexhaustible source of tree-free paper.

Journals  with this design will soon be for sale at our Etsy Store, our Journal Store and always at Pixel Point in downtown Anderson, South Carolina.