Hello.
A blog from Pioneer House of Letterpress and Vintage in Knoxville, TN
We have ventured out and done some shows again this year and hope to do a bunch more in 2024. We did a pop up with our pals from Santa Fe - Thunderbird Hats and Chimayo Jackets in Round Top Texas at the fall show and what fun! We set up in the 550 Market Dancehall with Old Colorado Vintage. Wanted to show off a lot of the photos from that week. Thanks Texas!
It’s been a while folks - The Pioneer House survived a pandemic and stayed closed to the public for a full year - doing online sales and having visitors by appointment got us thru. I have had a shop & studio on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville for 25 years and during this strange time I made the decision to move to a smaller studio. The printshop has moved to its new space and a massive clear out of hand printed paper and letterpress equipment is underway.
When I started Yee-Haw Industries I scoured the eastern US for equipment. There were not any women I could find that did this type of art, but many wonderful letterpress elders helped me along the way. I have made mention of them over the years but this big change has them all in my thoughts.
A writer was doing an article on Yee-Haw for PRINT Magazine and mentioned a man in her town was a letterpress collector, his name was Lloyd Morgan - of the Morgan Press. Along with his brother and father they collected old wood type when it was becoming obsolete to convert to film for a typositor so graphic designers could order headlines for pasteup mechanicals - he told me they traveled to cities along the rivers which was how the printing equipment was moved because of the weight. His tales of wood type being burned for firewood and animals chewing the type led me to his oxbow in NY state. He was an outdoorsman and creative sort and the majority of the Morgan collection is now housed in the Smithsonian. The sorts and jumbled treasures that weren’t on that tractor trailer to DC stayed in the barn until I moved it all to Tennessee, porcupine turds and all. Chromatic 2 and 3 color typefaces, wanted poster cowboy fonts, super condensed gothic were added to the arsenal. My visit was in the winter and he busted a hole in the pond ice so we could carry water into the cabin to flush the toilet. Thanks to Lloyd and so many others along my path.
Letterpress Cover/Cover story, Print Magazine, 1999, Yee-Haw Industries
Wow people, We are in Vogue!!! Pioneer House, Julie Belcher and Philip Rupp were honored and surprised to have been hand picked by Vogue Magazine to be one of their Vogue World 100 creative influencers of 2019. There are 100 individuals from around the world and here is a link to the entire Vogue Wold 100 and to the Pioneer House interview directly. This happened so quickly - they told us in January and the 2019 list came out on February 5. Check out all of the ingenious visionaries from around the world. What a wonderful group to be associated with and to know that each of us has a beautiful original spirit that can capture a tiny sliver of imagination and be an inspiration to others to let their light shine. Thanks to Emily Farra and Hilary Justin.
Click to see the profile on Julie Belcher and Philip Rupp of Pioneer House
Vogue World 2019 individuals that include Philip Rupp and Julie Belcher
We have had a busy winter folks, finally getting a minute to give you some updates on Pioneer House endeavors.
UPDATE The New Orleans Store closed during the pandemic. The Knoxville store is OPEN. There is a brand new retail store in New Orleans, opened December, 2018, ANCHOR & ARROW Dry Goods. It is a fantastic vintage clothing shop in the Bywater and also features monthly art shows and wonderful music events. You will find great western wear, designer vintage, Mardi Gras finery, lingerie, sports collectibles, kids stuff and musical instruments. All that plus unique accessories, tons of handmade jewelry, hats, footwear and much much more. Flip through some photos above and please pop over and give a like on Facebook, Tell your friends in Louisiana about the wonderful new shop, open 7 days a week.
Our annual shopping and nature trip to southern Arizona was a short one this year but we packed in a bunch of good stuff and finally got to see Organ Pipe National Monument. Flip through a slideshow of our trip above. We were shopping for vintage and handmade turquoise pieces for the Knoxville store - Rings, rings, rings, belt buckles, bolo ties, bracelets, necklaces and earrings plus gemstones and silver to make jewelry with sister Sharon Belcher McRorie. We got in a good visit with Miss Penelope and our art pal Jimmy Descant and his new studio, even got to go to an art opening of some of Jimmy’s WESTERN FUTURISM. See his work in this spring at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival first weekend in May. Click to see his amazing new work.
Hi Friends & Neighbors,
I primarily post imagery on my various Instagram pages but wanted to write a note about my new mixed media pieces. I first experimented with encaustic beeswax painting in 2006 at Penland School of Crafts - I was teaching a letterpress workshop but was able to sneak into Tremain Smith's encaustic class a few times & put hot melted wax on various surfaces. (I was also able to collaborate with the bookmaking students for added fun!) For the past few years encaustic with mixed media has been a great way to use my mountain of letterpress printed papers in a new way. Along with collage I have been embedding drawings on paper - incising directly into the wax painting with oil paint - and transferring drawings and imagery onto the waxy surface. All 3 are wonderful techniques and combined make unique layering for encaustic. Here are some pix of work in progress...
I have been sketching landscapes of places I have traveled this year for some letterpress prints and encaustic paintings. Experimenting with textures, large dots, halftone vs Ben Day dots, vintage wood engraved lines enlarged and large linocuts can create wonderful fills or backgrounds. A great history about printing methods and explanation of halftone & Ben Day dots - thought you might enjoy... https://legionofandy.com/2015/06/19/ben-day-dots-part-3/
I just met with some of my Knoxville Girls and we are planning our All Things Southern art show. Don't miss it - Save the Date November 3, 2017! Julie Belcher, Peggy Hambright, Cara Pfennigwerth, Amanda Humphreys and Laura Baisden are the Knoxville Girls! The beans are soakin' - for y'all who aren't Southern - you gotta soak 'em before you cook 'em.I am obviously not a blogger - no time, but I just met with some of my Knoxville Girls and we are planning our All Things Southern art show. Don't miss it - Save the Date November 3, 2017! Julie Belcher, Peggy Hambright, Cara Pfennigwerth, Amanda Humphreys and Laura Baisden are the Knoxville Girls! The beans are soakin' - for y'all who aren't Southern - you gotta soak 'em before you cook 'em.
Have you ever been to Round Top, Texas? I remember days of going to Hillsville, Virginia with Mom & the siblings, once carrying a giant birdcage, across fields of treasures at the oldest Flea Market east of the Mississippi, going on now & every Labor Day weekend. Can't wait to go west of the Mississippi this time - showing, selling and picking the 35 mile long antique corridor that starts next week. Pioneer House is showing our handmade letterpress paper goods and vintage honky tonk western wares & boots.
What do you collect? I love wearable art and my favorite palette right now is turquoise and coral - a special piece of jewelry or a vintage chain stitch embroidered suit are fun to search for but primarily I have collected letterpress equipment for close to 2 decades, a heavy obsession.
Handmade letterpress products from my studio have been in over 1000 Etsy Treasuries but can you believe I have never put together an online collection myself - a wishlist of sorts. Well I finally made one & it was so enjoyable - to seek out perfect pieces that could go together - especially if money is no object.
Hope you like the fun & fantastic items in my online Etsy collection of 16 other Etsy shops, here it is, check it out.
Let's play dress up with a twist. Have some fun - cowgirl cuties & hombres in ombre, Handmade textiles, custom leather, artisan turquoise, ric rack and ruffles - get out and listen to some live music in your best hillbilly vintage.
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Hello Friends & Neighbors,
I am on a grand adventure & want to give you a sneak peek of some of my treasures. If you are just meeting me - Hi I am Julie.
A cold day at the top end of SABINO CANYON, Arizona, photo by Darrell Cecil
A haystack of hats, photo experiments, vortexes, my altered vintage African textiles, wearable buffalo nickels are just a few of the goodies being added to the collection. If you want to see more photos please follow my InstaGram - SquirrelsGoneWild
