Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Freshly Blended

Today, for Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx, I interviewed Nicole Lecht from Freshlyblended Press (and of the Freshlyblended Blog). Mr. Indie Fixx gifted me some Freshlyblended Press goodies for Christmas and I participated in the 3rd Annual Ornament Swap, so I thought it was finally time that I feature Nicole and her lovely work. 😉

Please enjoy my interview!

*** P.S. My heater is finally fixed, so I am back at work.  I apologize if I owe you an email, order, snail mail, twitter, etc. I’m working on getting caught up with everything.

1. What’s the name of your business, what do create and sell and how did you get your start?

I am the owner and designer of Freshlyblended Press and blogger of the Freshlyblended Blog. Freshlyblended Press is a handmade :: modern home studio where I create eco-friendly paper goods and books.

After taking a bookbinding class in college, I became obsessed with paper, texture, pattern and form. I then moved away from my initial passion which was illustration, to explore then more structural ways of building books and making them eco-friendly…. thus creating Freshlyblended! Fb has allowed me to open up my creative passion to things that I never knew I would be capable of accomplishing and has enlightened me to a greater understanding of what’s being created around me.

2. What does indie mean to you? You can give a literal definition, choose to be a little esoteric or a combination of both.

Indie to me means being a maker of things handmade, it means to have free reign of your creative abilities. It is taking age old techniques and bringing it into the modern age in a non-commercial environment….at least this is how I view it.

3. What are your inspirations?

Because I live in a smaller city, the Internet has been my main source of inspiration which I share daily on my Freshlyblended Blog. I don’t think I would be where I am today without it really…it truly is an endless outlet of communication and inspiration!

Aside from the internet, I am very much an outdoors person and gain much of my inspiration from nature, organic forms.

4. What three things can’t you live without?

My cat, my husband (he keeps me grounded), my parents.

5. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?

I’m all over the place when it comes to reading blogs, but my regulars are bloesem, book by it’s cover, kirin notebook, design sponge, and oh joy. I don’t have too much time to read many books or magazines, but when I do I like to go through martha stewart living, domino, craft mag, real simple, you know the basics! Recently, I’ve been doing a lot more online shopping, since becoming pregnant, and I’ve been on Etsy a lot and it makes me feel good when I buy handmade and support my fellow crafters.

6. What’s new? Any products or projects you’d like to share?

Well, I just finished up a print series called the Land Birds which consists of two 8×10″ letterpress prints and two more 6×8″ gocco prints. I’ve also been working on a special collaboration of hard bound blank journals with Lara Cameron that we will soon launch this winter. Other then that, I’m just basking in my pregnancy and taking the time to think about what my next project will be.

7. What are you reading, watching and listening to?

As I said before I wish I had the time to sit down with a book, however I am an avid coffee table book collector. Call me crazy, but there is just something about the presence of a big chunky colorful coffee table book just waiting for you you to page through. When it comes to TV, I am  addicted to project runway, heros, ugly betty, and most shows on discovery, TLC and HGTV. My music is just as eclectic, if not more, I listen to anything from classical to techno depending on my mood.