The Friendship Project with Erin Fong
Erin is a San Francisco Bay Area based letterpress printer and bookbinder with a strong interest in color and connection.
Erin's largest and ongoing body of work is The Friendship Project that started back in 2018 as a way to examine her struggles with friendship and adult connection. Erin has gathered hundreds of pieces of advice from friends and strangers alike about how to make and keep friends. This served as the basis for a letterpress series where each poster features the participant’s advice paired with their favourite colour.
Each poster is printed by hand on a 1960s Vandercook Proofing Press featuring a manipulated coloured background with hand-set woodtype text on top. The series is most impactful when displayed together in an ever-evolving rainbow gradient that continues to grow with each new response collected.
Find out more about Erin here or follow along on instagram @erinlovesfun
Help us create Friendship Project at Make & Mend this year by submitting your thoughts and feelings about friendship in the form below!
Dried Flower Embroidery
An exhibition by Olga Prinku
Olga Prinku is an artist, maker and creator of the craft of flowers on tulle embroidery. Olga's first book, Dried Flower Embroidery: An introduction to the art of flowers on tulle, will be published by Quadrille in September 2021.
Olga was born in Moldova and now lives in North Yorkshire. She studied graphic design and came up with the concept of flowers-on-tulle embroidery in 2016, inspired by her hobby of wreath-making.
Olga's works have been displayed at the Stitch Festival and the Aga Khan Centre Gallery in London, and she has worked with brands such as Swarovski and Anthropologie. She describes her work as "using nature as my thread".
Olga will exhibit a series of artworks at the festival and will be with us on the day to share more about her unique creations.
Read more about Olga and see more of her beautiful work here!
