38. Printing madness
and all the new additions to my studio
As my 8-month long rendezvous (read part-time job) with a Mumbai art gallery comes to an end, I find myself craving a weekly mental health cafe day. And so here I am, on the default light-wash square wooden table with my Iced Americano.
Summer, monsoon, and the Indian festive season have gone by, but the rains refuse to leave this city. Despite that, Diwali cleaning is the equivalent of spring cleaning for my family. We dust every corner, wipe the ceiling fans, vacuum the sofa, clean the windows, reset our cupboards, separate clothes between a donation pile and a rag pile, and then set up the Diwali lights. Poor Josh had to be subjected to my madness as well, but he’s such a sport. We coordinated pest control, cleaning services, and carpenters. The day before Diwali, everything was clean. Josh and I hung up the lights on the balcony and inside the house as well. Very delicately, our handmade kandil was hung up from the balcony ceiling.
The biggest undertaking, however, was resetting my studio.
Josh and I have separate home studios. His music studio is set up in the smaller bedroom in our house - with his full drum kit, guitars hanging on the walls along with the soundproofing panels, and a desk for producing music. For our first Diwali as a married couple, my dad gifted us a budget to spend on our individual careers. Josh chose to buy himself a big studio-style desk to replace the makeshift, wobbly one he had been using so far.
My studio is what was supposed to be the kitchen. We got a new kitchenette built in the living room to make space for my art studio. It has a big floor-to-ceiling window that opens into a small balcony. I’ve kept the countertop and sink so it’s convenient for pottery and painting. On the other side is my desk, pottery wheel, and some shelves for storage. In preparation for Diwali, I made a few subtractions and additions. I threw away a lot of trash that I was saving for scrapbooking and had dragged from home to home but hadn’t used in over a year. I also threw away some prototypes and oopsie products that I had been holding on. It was emotionally cleansing to finally say goodbye to these. And then for the additions:
I hung up two beautiful wall hangings with Buddhist motifs that I had bought on my trip to Darjeeling in 2014. They frame the window now.
I rehomed my sister’s old easel. She doesn’t paint anymore, and I have been itching to create bigger paintings on an easel. The easel now stands next to the pottery wheel. The wooden board needs some work and love though. It’s a project I’m undertaking.
I fixed up the lamp I bought from a local potter, and finally plugged a bulb in. It sits pretty on my desk!
And last but not least, a printer.
Part of that Diwali budget went into buying me a new printer! Ever since the day it arrived, I have printed at least one thing every day. Different papers, different envelopes, many sticker sheets and photo papers combined with various settings. I’ve even given print commands from all the various devices I own! At this point, I’ve spent at least a thousand rupees simply on all these papers, only to take videos as soon as I hit print and run to Josh to show him the results. He says he’s never seen anyone so excited about a printer. I didn’t think I’d be so excited about a printer either, but here I am! is there something that excites you tremendously but no one else seems to get?
I’m excited about doing trials of art prints myself and potentially manufacturing my own art prints. I’m excited about cutie-fying my packaging, trying new sticker designs without worrying about MOQs, and printing bookmarks myself. I’m also excited about trying new products like magnetic bookmarks and instantly being able to restock my zines. Now that my website and online shop are on the brink of going live, this is also going to be a game-changer in terms of packaging orders. I am excited by the possibilities, and not relying on big printers for every single order.
I made a little reel about the experiments I’ve done so far!
I am also excited to launch an art mail club!
For those of you who have been around for a while know that I used to run a monthly postcard club. Unfortunately, I was not able to sustain that due to the logistics of relying on external print shops. This, I hope, will change everything.
I am currently in the process of finalising the paper I want to use for the art prints, and having a trial run! I’m looking for friends and supporters based in India who would be open to making a small investment in exchange for my art goodies snailmailed to you. If you’re interested,
Once this is successful, I will do an international trial as well! You can reach out to me if that’s something you would be interested in. I can message you once I’m ready! In other news, I’m thinking of alternating my posts between newsletter-style updates like this one and personal essays that will be longer. Would you be interested in reading long-form deep-dive essays?
Love you like my Iced Americanos,
Vedi
Long-form deep-dive essays are the best 😍
Best of luck with your business/printing ideas!