Crafty Bastards Vendor Q&A with Reba Rar Rar
This interview continues a series of Q&A’s featuring vendors who participated in the 2007 Crafty Bastards fair. Last year, we didn’t get to post all of the Q&As before the festival was upon us, so here they are now!
If ever you find yourself at a loss for the right words, Reba Rar Rar just might have a letterpress print that says it just perfectly. Reba Rar Rar’s colorful stock of prints and posters can be everything from adorable, punk, wistful, bitchy, charming to full of sass. Reba Rar Rar is actually the pseudonym for Rebecca Ann Rakstad, who lives in Chicago and is currently working to get her masters degree at Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts.
We caught up with Reba Rar Rar and listened intently as she explained how the letterpress came to be an indispensable part of her creative career. Psst! She hand places each letter that is used to make her prints! That’s what I call TLC.
1. How long have you been making things?
I was born into crafting. My mom was always sewing and making crafts, she was a girl scout leader and a home economics teacher. rar rar press was born sometime in the winter of 2004 during my letterpress class at Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts. I came back to Chicago for graduate school with the idea that I’d like letterpress. It turned out to be my true love, I knew that it was what I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.
2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
Making MC Hammer pants during 7th grade home ec.
3. Why do you make things?
I love letterpress cuz it allows me to mass produce, and by making postcards my work is very accessible. I’d much rather make a postcard for two bucks for someone to stick on their fridge or put in a cheap frame than make a painting or something that would be unaffordable. I love it that my work makes people laugh. Adding a little unexpected humor to someone’s life makes me so happy.
4. What sort of things do you make?
I mainly make letterpress printed postcards, I’ve made a little over a hundred different ones so far and have a list of twenty more I want to make. I’ve started making record covers (so far I’ve done two for bluesanct… www.bluesanct.com) and posters for some of my friend’s shows. I make zines (distance makes the heart grow fonder and distracted by the stars), artists’ books (my latest is a board book about moustaches) and blank books. I am also working on my masters thesis project… http://firesidebowlproject.blogspot.com/. I’ve been printing posters of memories from shows that happened at the legendary Fireside Bowl in Chicago.
5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
I have a funny story… I did a fair in Indiana and a crazy looking woman came up to my table and said “The devil is in these cards!” Best response ever!
6. Inspirations?
My friends, pop culture, hip hop music, other letterpress artists, especially yee haw press.
7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
a. woodtype - to actually told each individual letter that goes into my work is such an amazing feeling.
b. a letterpress - I prefer Vandercooks
c. paper - I love French paper cuz it is a family owned, mid western, enviro friendly company.
d. paper cutters - I like guillotines the best, they can go through a huge stack of paper in no time.
e. teflon bone folder and all the book tools in my pencil case.
8. Describe your work area.
I work all over the place, mostly at Columbia because they have such an amazing type collection and a guillotine paper cutter. I have a very messy studio at home where I mainly work on books and sewing projects. Letterpress is such a heavy hobby, I don’t plan on owning my own press until I’m pretty set on living somewhere for the rest of my life.
pictures…
9. Family? Pets? Plants?
I hangout all the time with my 7 month old niece and 4 year old nephew. My baby is a grey Tabby named Oscar, she really likes to cuddle and spoon and I’m about to get a black kitten that was born over the weekend. I plan on calling it Cooper (black) after the typeface.
10. Favorite color or pattern?
Any bright/bold color. I love good color combos. Green and blue, purple and grey, brown and light blue, orange paired with any color.
11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
I participated in Crafty Bastards last fall (2007). I had a great time, it was probably the busiest fair I have ever been to! I was trapped in the corner of my tent the whole day. I met some really great people and even ran into some old friends. I can’t wait for the next fair!
12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
Where do I start, I’m an indy craftaholic. I always find great stuff on etsy, day-lab and cut + paste on-line. I love orangyporangy skirts, jill blissen, maryink, the phantom limb, art goodies, owly shadow puppets, boy girl party, I could go on and on. I also have a bad addiction to buying other printmakers’ work. I especially am in love with the work of rovenko, Ray Fenwick, little friends of printmaking, yee-haw industries, to name a few.
13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
How to make a book! I’ve even gone to the extreme and have completely made a book; handmade paper, letterpress printed text and image and then bound it all up. Did I mention it looked like a piece of cake in the end?
