Welcome back! First of all, I want to thank everyone who wished me happy birthday and supported my print fundraiser. I was so thrilled to send $775 to both Queer & Trans Wealth AND the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. It was my first time sharing something I had made widely, and you all made it such an encouraging experience. Thank you again for your support and kind words!

I am officially in week 3 of my printmaking apprenticeship with Beautiful Angle! Beautiful Angle is a letterpress street-art poster project by Lance Kagey and Tom Llewellyn that started in 2002 here in Tacoma. When I first moved into the Jesuit Volunteer house in 2017, there was a Beautiful Angle print hung on my bedroom wall. I was immediately intrigued by the combination of the hand image and the poetry in varied type (see poster below). I knew basically nothing about letterpress, linocut, or the city of Tacoma at the time. When I left the JV house in 2019 to move to my next Tacoma home, I took the poster with me.

Fast forward to 2025, and I’m spending my Monday evenings in the Beautiful Angle Studio. I’ll add a special thank you to my friend Emma here, who has been apprenticing with Beautiful Angle for some time and asked Lance & Tom if they were open to having another apprentice (me). I love learning in an apprenticeship, because you learn in an intimate setting about the artform and the people making the art.

I first discovered my love of apprenticing in the beekeeping world. I’ve been lucky enough to follow around two very quirky beekeepers (shout out Charlie & Rick), both of whom taught me many important things about bees, and about life in general.

On my first night coming to the studio a couple weeks ago, Lance made it clear that I was welcome. He encouraged me to look around, touch things, and ask questions. He gently shared information as he showed me around. He asked me what music I like to listen to, and then played one of the bands I mentioned on the speaker.

This week, Lance showed us the text for the upcoming Beautiful Angle print. He had Emma teach me how to choose the type, collect it, and lock it in. 8 years after seeing my first Beautiful Angle print, I finally learned how to set up a letterpress! I have more I want to share about letterpress, but I’m going to leave it at that for now…

Next, welcome to my series called Artistic Angel of the Month, where I feature the artistic prowess of a pal. Want to nominate yourself or a friend to be the next Artistic Angel of the Month? Comment or email me back!

February Artistic Angel: Bailey Meade

Who are you & where do you live?

Hi! I'm Bailey, I use she/they pronouns, you can also call me B. By day, I'm a clinical social worker at a little community behavioral health program. I get to walk alongside and deeply know some really incredible humans in this so-called "work". By night, I like to rehearse with my choir on Tuesdays. I'm an amateur silversmith, jeweler, and bead worker. I also like to write poems and short prose-y stuff from time to time. I live in Tacoma, WA, which is a gritty little city on the south Salish Sea, on unceded Puyallup and Nisqually land. I'm grateful to call this region my home since I was a little one.

What does your creative practice look like right now? 

Creative practice is always an ebb and flow for me. Right now I'm gathering a lot of jewelry inspiration from folk artists, random 00's movies, colorways in nature, etc. My focus for this month is to cultivate a studio space in my home so I have a "place" to play with my materials. A few months ago I bought some secondhand metalworking supplies from a neighbor and I'm stoked to get that stuff inventoried, cleaned and set up in a workspace. 

What aspects of your creative life do you feel most excited about right now?

This maybe is boring but I'm most excited to have a designated space to create. I love the idea of opening up my office door and seeing everything waiting for me on a Sunday morning or after a long day at work. I can get lost just exploring my materials so having them somewhat organized will be helpful. My neurodivergence really shows up in the way I currently store things. Metalwork and even beading is a really physical process, so having a space that feels both physically comfortable and inspiring is important. 

If people want to see more of your work, how might they find you?
I'm working on a low-tech website and email to field commission requests and make purchases of pre-made pieces. Until then, follow me in the meta dungeon @opal.herb. You can also follow my Substack (where I occasionally wax poetic about Czech glass beads) at @estuaryopal.

Lastly, a report of some things I’m loving that I wanna tell you about:

Reading: Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino. It’s all the things I love in a novel- tender, unique, funny, poignant. Thanks to Allison for the rec.

Eating: my go to end-of-the-night sweet treat has been Yasso greek yogurt “poppables"

Playing: doodling and experimenting with color on my ipad

Obsessing: my research deep dives into the artwork of Corita Kent, Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal.

Recommending: pls watch Traitors on Peacock

Treating: upcoming Vancouver trip with Riley!

Ok, that’s all! Feel free to leave your REPORTs in the comments, I would love to hear from you! ❤️

take care!

mag