Tag: Alleghany County

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Stratford Oaks Tales: Colorful Storytelling in the Blue Ridge

We are proud to announce Imaging Specialists’ association with The Stratford Oaks Tales. It is the first in a series of children’s books by local educator- and now author, Dr. Suzanne Mellow-Irwin about the life of the animals on her family’s mountain farm. Illustrated by Alleghany native, Zach Hamm, the first book, the “Tale of Gretchen,” tells about a pygmy goat, born at Stratford Oaks and her adventures there.

Just one of the happy animals at Stratford Oaks Farm
Just one of the many happy animals at Stratford Oaks Farm. (You can almost see Nya's tale wag!)

It is an honor to be allowed to help with the book. As we took Zach’s delicate, pencil and crayon drawings and placed them into story pages, laid out by his mother, Donna, our challenge was to showcase the artwork and story without interfering. We wanted to preserve the light, pastel colors without losing saturation.

We will let the reader be the judge, but we are very pleased with the result. Zach’s images are the perfect complement to Dr. Mellow-Irwin’s positive message and both are sure to appeal to children and parents.

The Tale of Gretchen will be available at The Sparta Store. Look for new installments, coming soon.

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Support Alleghany Community Television

If you’ve not yet watched Alleghany Community Television, don’t feel bad, a lot of local folks haven’t even heard of it, yet. But you should know our little school-system sponsored station is now in around 3000 homes in the region. ACTV is, at present, in 437 Surry County homes, 800 in Wilkes County and 1675 in the Skyline and Alleghany Cablevision viewing area. Those numbers are growing (daily) as Skyline and other systems bring customers online to new fiber-optic delivery systems in the mountain region.

Imaging Specialists has been working with ACTV by donating hosting and maintenance for the station’s web site www.alleghanycommunitytelevision.com (which was originally a Senior Project by a student that participated in the program.) Their live schedule is online now, and we hope to eventually stream station content, which will showcase Alleghany County in a way never before possible. After that happens, viewership will potentially include anyone in the world with a computer and an Internet connection.

ACTV is a relatively new organization that originated in the Alleghany County School System and the A. Anderson Huber Cyber Campus. Station Manager, Charlie Scott and Cyber Campus Manager, Travis Sturgill have been working with Alleghany High students for several years to build a modern, viable TV Station.

With their oversight, the students have been doing the lion’s share of the work, learning and performing jobs like videography, programming, announcing, sales, makeup and every other job associated with operating a TV station. Their newest project, soon to be broadcast, is an Alleghany News program. It will join the many locally produced shows including school academic and sports events, Senior projects, Sparta Town Council meetings and area church services.

Other counties all over North Carolina, have been watching ACTV closely, hoping to replicate our success. There are plans to bring in students from the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, to intern and help train Alleghany students.

ACTV is the best unknown resource in Alleghany County (and possibly Northwest North Carolina) and you should be a part of it.

If you don’t know much about the station and would like to learn more, contact Charlie Scott at 657-0825. Since it is a non-profit enterprise, overt advertising isn’t allowed, but sponsorship is welcome, either of individual shows, series or at station level. Gifts to the station will (very) soon be tax deductible after it achieves full 501(c)(3) status.

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Black Family History Coming Soon!

ISI’s latest project is a 280-page book titled Descendants of William Black & Nancy Allison. It is a family history of the Black family here in Alleghany County and our largest book-design project to date. The book features over 100 photographs, letters and information on William and Nancy’s family, gathered by Lorene Sturgill of Piney Creek, North Carolina.

The book is a marriage of experience and new technology. We input the entire family history, scanned and optimized the photographs, built an index of descendants, and, after the initial order, plan to print the casebound books on-demand.

Cover design by Imaging Specialists, Inc. for the Descendants of William Black and Nancy Allison
Cover design by Imaging Specialists, Inc. for Descendants of William Black and Nancy Allison

You may or may not know we’re not new to book printing. Imaging Specialists has a long history in books, from humble phone directories at R.R. Donnelley in Portland Oregon, to high-end, leather bound, Easton Books at Nicholstone in Nashville, Tennessee, we’ve shot more book pages than most shops our size.

Thousands of titles passed through our lenses during our years in Greensboro.

We’re not even new at family histories, either. For years we shot pages to imposition for Craftsman, Delmar, Edwards & Broughton, and other North Carolina printers on our projection step-and-repeat systems. Sometimes it was the only way to copy them.

It’s this experience that helps us to anticipate many problems before they arise. This is the first of several titles we will be publishing this year.

Interested in producing your own book? You don’t have to go to the Triangle or even the Triad. Give us a call to find out how easy it can be.

The Descendants of William Black & Nancy Allison will be available later this month.

Purchase your copy at The Sparta Store.

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A (surprise) new family album

Recently, we’ve been working on a (surprise) family history book for my dad, Ron Halsey, for his birthday in August.

We compiled a photographic family history of Eli Hamilton Halsey and Lillian Blanche Smith, Dad’s grandparents. It is 102 pages hardcover, 8.25″ x 10.75″ and can be ordered print-on-demand. It takes about two weeks for delivery.

We think this will be a great, affordable service we can offer writers for small runs or print-on-demand type books (like family histories!)

Using family photographs, tintypes, genealogies, stories, and some recent images, we have made a chronological photo history of the lives of our Alleghany ancestors.

We also drew a map of the northwest section Alleghany County where Eli & Lillian lived and marked important family homes, churches, and schools.

Continue reading A (surprise) new family album

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Embossed Leather Signs for the Open Horse Show

Alleghany 4-H Sponsor Signs
Alleghany 4-H Sponsor Signs

We’ve gone cowboy around here this week! Alleghany 4-H asked us to design and print sponsor signage for new panels that replaced their old wooden show ring.

We printed weather-proof, FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) signs with an old-timey embossed leather look. The design features pastel colors that give the leather a stamped and painted look. If cowboys didn’t have gear that looked this cool, they sure should have!

We’re really proud to be able to support the Open Horse Show this weekend co-sponsored by Alleghany County 4-H, Young Riders 4-H Club and Horse Whispers 4-H Club. Gates open Saturday at Alleghany Fairgrounds 7:30 am, registration begins at 8:00 am and the show starts at 9:00 am. For a copy of the program and class list, click here.

Get more information on Alleghany 4-H here.

Get more info on area activities from the Alleghany News, here.

Imaging Specialists can make your event look great with signage, posters, flyers- whatever graphics you need! Give us a call today at 336-372-3002.