Letterpress Gorgeousness

With 2011 nearly upon us (or you may already be toasting the new year depending on where you're reading this) it seems like a good time to tell you about a gorgeous calendar. I'm normally a great one for dithering about spending a lot of money on any item I can get more cheaply, but this year I happily paid close to £30 for a little desk calendar. What, I can hear you all asking - you can get them from the supermarket for a fiver come February?! I know, but let me explain. I have something of an obsession with letterpress stationery that began a year or two ago; and when early in 2010 I spotted a beautiful little calendar produced by the Minneapolis-based Studio on Fire I just couldn't get it out of my head. After the usual shilly-shallying I ordered one and when it arrived a few weeks later I knew I'd made the right choice: small, perfectly formed, and most importantly gorgeous - I loved it.

So a couple of weeks ago, when it came time to think about a new calendar, I did the usual thing of researching other letterpress options online but it didn't take long for me to put in an order for Studio on Fire's new offering. Where last year's calendar was predominantly orange, red and a kind of eau de nil green, this year's is in more subdued shades of copper and grey. Normally I'm a sucker for anything brightly coloured but actually my current grey obsession shows no signs of abating so the new one suits me just fine. As with last year's calendar the 2011 edition features work from six different designers all tied in with the same colour scheme. It's basically fab.

It's only a little calendar, perfect for a desk-top, but I keep mine on my kitchen work-surface as that's where I get to look at it the most. And if that wasn't enough letterpress joy for one December, Coffee Boy bought me a one-day letterpress workshop as my Christmas present. I'm so excited I almost don't want to book my place - it's just so much fun looking forward to it! So if you're looking for a small but beautiful desk/work-top calendar, I'd be amazed if you can find anything more adorable than the Studio on Fire one. And if you've got any late Christmas presents owing to a lover of beautifully-designed things, get yourself over to the Studio on Fire shop right now; but don't be surprised if you end up wanting to keep anything you order for yourself once it arrives.

All images Studio on Fire