"Wicked Plants" is in a bookstore near you!

So, it’s finally out. The book I've been tirelessly working on this last year is now available! The hardcover book titled, “Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities,” written by Amy Stewart and published by Algonquin Books, contains 40 of my slightly menacing botanical illustrations and is now at local bookstores (and online).
The book turned out better than I had imagined. The acid-green cover is compelling and sickly to say the least, the writing is amusing and informative and the illustrations seem to suit the subject and style of the book. Accompanying the release of the book will be a show at the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery in NY and another at Eureka Books in CA that will feature hand-tinted versions of the illustrations. In July I will also be hosting an etching workshop at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. With the release of the book I decided to produce a limited edition set of the prints as a portfolio. The “Wicked Plants Portfolio” will contain all 40 of the hand-pulled prints (plus two hand-tinted prints) and will be contained in a clamshell box made by Claudia Cohen. The portfolio will contain letter-pressed introductions by Amy Stewart and myself and will be printed by Rollin Milroy of Heavenly Monkey Press in Vancouver.

The other big bit of news is that after being offered an amazing fellowship I will be attending the University of Madison, Wisconsin for graduate work in printmaking in the fall. The decision to go was easy but the thought of leaving Vermont for three years has been hard. Helen and I have decided to do what we can to keep Twin Vixen Press alive and I will return to Vermont during breaks and summers to spend some time in the studio and help teach classes. (Thank you to all that signed up for our annual subscription this year – this will help keep the press alive through the next year. Your prints will be arriving shortly!)

Vermont is absolutely gorgeous right now. In the past week the landscape turned from various shades of brown to every imaginable color of green. I’ll be ready to test the swimming holes and biking in a week or two.

Thank you to everyone for all your help and support in these various projects that I have taken on in the last year. I have learned so, so much and I really thank all of you that have helped me along the way in some way or another.

Be well and happy spring!

Briony


Where to buy the Book:

Of course you can buy the book from Amazon.com but if you can, please support our local booksellers! Here’s a list of a few in Washington and a few in Brattleboro, Vermont that will be carrying the book. Barnes & Noble and Borders will also carry the book.

Washington:
Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers, 1st ave. Seattle, WA
Moonraker Bookstore: 1st St, Langley • 360-221-6962
Bookbay: Main St, Freeland
The Elliott Book Bay Company: South Main Street, Seattle

Vermont:
The Book Cellar: Main St, Brattleboro, VT
Everyone’s Books: Elliot St, Brattleboro, VT



Upcoming Shows for the Vixens:

May:

Eureka Books, Eureka CA
May 2nd – May 31st
A show of Briony's hand-tinted Wicked Plants

Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, NY
May 31st – September 6th
Briony's big debut in NYC! The opening at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden will be on the 31st of May. There will also be a joint book signing with Amy Stewart and Briony on this day.

June & July:

Lucia Douglas Gallery, Bellingham, WA
June 13th – July 25th
Helen and Briony will have a few pieces at the Lucia Douglas Gallery Print Invitational this year.

Studio Place Arts, Barre, VT
June 16th – July 25th
Work by Helen O’Donnell and Briony will be on exhibit at this awesome historic Vermont building in Barre, VT. Please come join the Twin Vixens for the reception on the 16th of June.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Etching Workshop
July 25th
There will also be a joint book signing with Amy Stewart and myself on the 25th of July.


July & August:

The Froggwell Gardens Forgery Show
Froggwell Gardens, Freeland, WA
July 31st – Aug 2nd
Briony will make an attempt to forge a great print master...shh

Party Time!

Hey everyone!

It's PARTY TIME!

Twin Vixen Press is turning 1
and
Helen and Briony are turning 27!


Please come help us celebrate our first (and very successful) year!!!

April 10th starting at 6:00pm
at the Whetstone Studios.

We'll have live music!
Wooden Dinosaur with special guests
food and drinks and
tons of framed and unframed prints for sale.


Directions:

From Main St. in Brattleboro: Turn onto Elliott St. and drive until you reach a 5-way intersection. Take a Right onto Williams St. The Whetstone Studios will be a large teal-colored building on your left, #28.

From HWY 91: Take Exit 2 into Brattleboro. Take a left onto Western Ave. Take a Right onto Union St. At the bottom of Union St. at the 5-way intersection take a hard right onto Williams St. The Whetstone Studios will be a large teal-colored building on your left, #28.

For questions call either Briony at 802-236-7697 or Helen O'Donnell at 802-282-8722 or shoot us an email twinvixenpress@gmail.com.

Visit Helen's awesome new website: www.helenodonnell.com

It's Helen's Birthday today! Happy Birthday, Helen!!!

HAPPY SPRING!

Helen O'Donnell
Color of Winter
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Happy Spring! I am posting some of my new prints and paintings that I have been dutifully working on this winter. I have also been spending lots of time setting up a website, which will be up and running in a couple of weeks.

Twin Vixen Press is doing well. We are continuing Wednesday night Open Studio indefinitely and have a Beginning ETCHING WORKSHOP coming up the weekend of April 18th and 19th.

We also are having our ANNIVERSARY PARTY (and Birthday Party) on APRIL 10th, starting at 6 pm. Our friends Mike Roberts and Katie Trautz of WOODEN DINOSAUR will be performing that night in our studio. Drinks, food, and etchings will also be highlighted!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our Annual Print Subscription, we really appreciate all the support! The offer is still available to anyone who would like some great prints at an affordable price. Click here to read about it.

Spring is officially here, though you wouldn't know it with the cold weather the past couple of days, but there is hope and lots of bare ground. We hope that Spring is treating everyone well and we look forward to hearing from you!

Helen O'Donnell
Noah's View
Etching with Aquatint
5 1/2" x 5 /1/2"

Helen O'Donnell
The Red and Black
2 plate color etching with Aquatint
5 1/2 " x 5 1/2"

Helen O'Donnell
The Sea
Etching, Aquatint, Dry point, Roulette
5" x 4"

Helen O'Donnell
Four White Pines
3 plate Color Etching with Aquatint
12" x 14"

Twin Vixen Press Annual Subscription

Do yo have an itch for some low-priced hand-printed etchings by Helen and Briony? Here's your chance!

Last year Twin Vixen Press put together the Aquatint Box Project, a subscription-like project that helped us raise enough money to purchase a rosin dust box for the studio. The project was a success - we now have our lovely aquatint box installed in the corner of our studio - and we decided to offer a similar opportunity to raise money to keep our studio alive and well. Our next big project is putting together a ventilation system for the studio space. We also have our eye on some new blankets for the press and a shop vac! Lastly, in our current financial times, this is a really affordable way to support the arts and artists like Briony and Helen!

2009 Twin Vixen Press Annual Subscription details:
Prints: 4” x 6” images on 8” x 10” Rives BFK paper
Price: $60 for regular edition, $100 for special edition, hand-colored prints
Edition: 60 regular edition prints, 10 special edition prints

If you would like to participate in this year's subscription please email us at twinvixenpress@gmail.com and we'll sign you up. The prints are expected to go out at the end of May. Last year we sold out quicker than we thought so email us as soon as possible if you would like a set.

Prints of last years subscription will be posted soon!

February Etching Workshop

We've been enjoying teaching our etching workshops so much that we're going to do it yet again this February. For all those who couldn't make the last class, please sign up for this one, it is a lot of fun! This time we will be using our new Aquatint Box and teach the authentic aquatint etching process.

Beginning Etching Workshop
$160 (includes material fee)

Saturday, February 7th and Sunday, February 8th 10 am – 3 pm

In this class, students will learn the various techniques of etching on copper, including Hardground etching and Aquatint (with our new Aquatint Box)! Students will also try various printing techniques. This class is open to all levels, including experienced printmakers. Please sign up, it will be tons of fun!

Botanical Sute 2008

Plants illustrated: Trout Lily, Jewel Weed, Fiddlehead Fern, Milkweed and Roundleaf Sundew

Portfolio, Title Page, Hand-tinted Prints, and Colophon

This December Briony released her third, annual Botanical Suite. Every year Briony creates a collection of 5 botanical images, package them in a nice portfolio and gather them with a letter-pressed title page and colophon. This year the images focus on plants that are native to Vermont. The suite can either remain as a whole, in the portfolio, or be divided, the images framed and hung individually. As in previous years, there will only be 20 copies of the suite available.

2008 Botanical Suite Details: The suite will consist of 5 hand-colored etchings on white Magnani Pescia paper. The images will be a little larger this year, 4” x 4” images on sheets of 8” x 10” paper. Each suite will come in a lightweight portfolio with a letterpress printed title page and Colophon (printed by Rollin Milroy of Heavenly Monkey Press). The price is $300 per suite. The suite will be a limited edition of 20. I still have a few left so contact me if you are interested!


Please e-mail Briony at twinvixenpress@gmail.com or call Briony's cell: 802-236-7697

Edition: 20 per etching
Etchings hand-colored with watercolor
4” x 4” prints on 8” x 10” paper.
Price: $300 per suite

Open Studio Class

After our last Beginning Etching class we decided that it would be great to have one evening a week where we would open our studio up to our students. The idea is that the Open Studio Class allows printmakers to use the studio and facilites as well as have fellow printmakers around to converse with. This is what we came up with:

The Open Studio Class will be an opportunity for printmakers to work independently on their own work with full access to the press and equipment of the print studio. Each student will be required to take an introductory class at Twin Vixen Press or attend a one-hour introduction to the Twin Vixen Press studio. During the class, Briony and Helen will be available for questions and technical support in the studio. The class may choose to do group critiques and discussions on individual work.

The Open Studio Class will meet for 15 weeks from December 3rd to the last week in March (taking 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Years). We will meet Wednesday nights from 6 to 9 pm. Students have a choice of purchasing a 10-class card or a 5-class card (or both). There will be a drop in fee option as well. If we have to cancel a class for any reason (weather, vacation etc.) we will offer make up classes.

10 Class Card:
$250.00

5 Class Card:
$150.00

Drop in Fee:
$35.00