My first “Water” swap package has been received and feedback was left at Swap Bot. It seems to have been well received, thankfully. I really wish I had taken photographs before sealing up the packets as I really did like some of the pieces and was well pleased with my attempts at needle felting which I included.

To tell the truth, it hurt a bit to part with the felts – I was pleased as Punch with my efforts. That’s the best way, isn’t it? To give away the ones that we like the best and not keep them for ourselves. It leaves room and drive to make some more art.

Talking of making more art – I was keen to get some of my blue prints and Shibori done within the PS3 Water period. It ain’t going to happen, though. Logistics. Like the lack of sun and windless days in Orkney. Actually, my fist challenge will be to find a way of drying my prepared fabric in the dark. I’m not at all sure how I can make that happen.

I might try an ad in the local shops to see if anyone can loan me a UV sun lamp… that would take care of the exposures, but still leaves the dark drying problem to be solved.

Here’s a PS3 Water ATC that I completely forgot to send out. Digital, from an original photograph – prints available on request and I will limit to an edition of 4.

It’s called Sea Fever and that is Mr Plumbum in the shot. Comment below if you want one, or use the form on the Contact page.

I did some very quick and dirty scans of the Earth swap items – just for comparison. Large-ish files.

I think that the ATCs came up much better than in the photos. Click for a larger view

The tag came up truer to life in the photo. The three digitally based images scanned well, though.

The postcards have scanned beautifully and are really good representations. The envie is less good – like the tag it is a matte material and I wonder if the scanner copes less well with materials that are less reflective.

Overall, I believe that I should make more use of my scanner! In fact, I’d like to do some arting with it sometime.

Some of this week’s work, all for the PS3 “Earth” (Brown/Green/Metallics) ATC swap (yes, I went way over the top, but I was having fun). None of these photographed at all well – I may try to scan them when I have time [EDIT: Done, see here].

ATCs:

1) O Sweet Spontaneous – the one ATC that I set out to make for this one ATC swap. I searched for Earth quotes and came up with ee cummings. I rummaged in my pile of acquired ATC materials and found two nice dark brown backgrounds. A little more thought recalled some clay beads that Ryan kindly sent my way. Perfect for “Earth” ! What next? Well “Earth” says “growing things” to me and growing things in turn says “trees“. I am obsessed by trees since I moved to a virtually tree-less place. I have a brass stencil of a tree that I use frequently. In this case I elected to spray through it with Moon Shadow Mist in Golden Doubloons. I elected to hand sew the beads onto the tree leaves. Requiring some kind of finish, I continued hand-sewing.

The two versions are slightly different – different backgrounds, random spray effects, selection and placement of the beads, and edging stitches – but related in using all the same materials apart from the background papers.

So far, so good, but it’s a bit mean just to send one ATC in a swap. Also, I wasn’t fulfilled by the first pair. They didn’t live up to the inspiration. I thought I would try again. This time, with no planning.

2) Earth Collage ## 1 & 2 – I rummaged for earthy colours in my boxes of ATC backgrounds and paper bits. I rummaged in my colour-themed boxes for ephemera and embellishments. I trawled my box of select embellishments. I selected carefully from my bead stash. And came up trumps, I think. I just laid items down and rearranged them a little until the Muse spake: “Yes.” Both ATCs use backgrounds selected from my ATC stash, plus scrap papers and yarn, chocolate foil wrapper, brass embellishments, and shell beads. Again, some similarities, some differences between the two – different beads and brass charms. Golden browns, not very earthy, but plenty of metallic influences.

I like these!

So, now I had 2 sets of 2 brown themed cards. Clearly, I needed a green influence!

3) Bound Leaf – More rummaging on the ATC stash found some backgrounds that had originated via a Try It Tuesday technique. I had cut a large sheet into ATC-sized pieces and then left them pretty much to moulder.

Everything comes in handy one day! These backgrounds were not only green but also had growing things stamped into them. Bingo!

I find the background to be rather elaborate and rich both texturally and visually – so I opted to decorate them with a minimum of fuss. Still thinking about trees, I remembered that I had a heap of leaf die cuts. The leaves are a bit flat so I just messed them up a bit and then tipped them with bronze Krylon. I stuck them onto the backgrounds and wondered what to do next. That was when I recalled some birthday cards that I once made – I had wrapped some curly wire around them. So I did the bondage trick again. I think this stuff is called Purl – it’s a green and gold colour.

Verdict. OK, but not thrilling. Probably a bit too tasteful and quiet for my tastes. Doesn’t feel cohesive in design. Doesn’t say anything. Boring, I’d say.

But this is a voyage if exploration and we are bound to hit the doldrums sometimes.

Onwards, in search of a few thrilling waves… and a little balance. I had two brown pairs, but only one green pair.

4) Gaia – Two more greenish backgrounds in my ATC box jumped up and down for attention. These were mistakes, rejects from early experiments with photo transfers. I had kept them because I liked the dark and light smear effects and the smooth texture of the matte medium.

By now I realised that I had a bit of a trees and leaves theme going and those die cuts have been needing using up for several years. I selected some silver leaves. They looked well if I paired them. I tipped them with gold Krylon and then looked blankly at my ATCs.

More rummaging required!

I found some metallic face beads. They seemed to be to be in scale with the piece. The Earth theme, the need for balance, the tranquil face… all said Gaia to me – hence the naming, but what of the placing?

A little shuffling about brought me to a place of reasonable contentment but I didn’t like the faces being just parked. There was something lacking and yet I found the idea of a further collage element to be quite unappealing.

I felt that just a small flourish was required to complete these ATCs. I settled on a small piece of golden wire, which I threaded through the beads and curled into a spiral above and below the face.

Well, it works for me – because I find that these ATCs make me smile.

5) Digital ATCs “Earth to Earth” and “Quilted Hills“. Editions of two. It has been a long time since I tried some digital ATCs. Photography is my first love and I really enjoy digital manipulation of my original images – so I decided to have a go for this swap.

I used a couple of images from the early days of my DSLR – when I was living up in the hills of Dumfriesshire. The headstone was a natural “Earth to Earth” subject and I just played with the composition and some filters until I felt that enough had been done. I like this quite a lot.

Quilted Hills arises from my love of the rounded, billowy forms of The Lowther Hills. I attempted to make to look more quilted. I failed. Not pleased with this one at all.

6) Furrows – just as proof that I do have spectacular failures as well as more pedestrian boringness to exhibit. What was I thinking! Well, I know what I was thinking – where the inspiration came from. I looked out of the window, at the farmers ploughing the fields and seeding them. I looked at the patchwork of fields and the lovely furrows. I caught sight of a hand-carved eraser stamp that looked like said furrows. I stamped away.

Then, for some strange reason, I elected to add the seeds.

It just doesn’t work.

Not visually.

Not practically, either. The glue isn’t holding the micro beads on and I can’t work out how to add the green haze over the surface (like the fields will look in a few days) that I wanted to achieve.

And this is my constant problem. I have ideas and inspiration, but no knowledge of methods and techniques and materials. I really have no clue as to how to realise my visions. And you can say what you like about how you don’t need to go to college to do Art. I do. I wish that I had. I wish that I could. I would have loved the opportunity to be exposed to variety and to have learned the basics. It is like trying to drive from A to a long way away B, unaided – without ever having been taught how to fill the car with fuel or how to pump up the tyres.

So, there :-p And don’t try to “correct” me – this is a statement of my opinion about my needs.

Bits and bobs:

Envies

Left – mini-envies to hold some extra goodies like beads. Right – C6 envie, just because I could

Postcards

Two postcards from alcohol ink experiments. Lovely. One brown, one green. Metallic accents included. Look much nicer in real life than they do in photographs.

A Tag

I found a big green parcel tag that must have come in a RAK package. Couldn’t help but dress it up with a few smudges of ink and some yarn and a quote.

There are one or two more small projects on my desk waiting completion. Another C6 envelope, for instance. And some packaging for the ATCs. But I need to complete these very soon, The mailing date is May 7th but I would like to get them off asap – both to go to the US of A, of course.

The other thing that I need to do is to make a lightbox and camera stage so that I can make better photographs in my workroom.

ATCs: some of the above may be available for swaps. I haven’t decided yet how many to put in my swap package – there may be leftovers. Contact me if you want to claim any of them.

Comments: I’d really like some comments on any of these pieces. I work in a vacuum and cannot tell how much progress I am making towards being a creative – if any at all. Be as rude as you wish about my ineptitude. I don’t think I’ll cry…

Fabulous textile ATC in today’s post from Helen Darmara. I don’t have any photos yet, but you can see the ATC, and its pair, on Helen’s blog.

Ingrid has confirmed that this ATC is part of the Project Spectrum 3 ATC Swap for the Fire theme.

Ingrid’s blog is pretty_ing.blogspot.com

You can find, and buy, Snowpeople paintings at Etsy: jessing

Ingrid’s swap-bot name is knittinging, as it also is at Ravelry.

It is a fine ATC. I don’t think I have ever had an original painting ATC before.

Does it make you feel like smiling? It certainly put a smile on my face when I opened it this morning.

Very cute ATC in the mail this morning, with really nice Canadian stamps on the envelope.

I think it is for the PS3 Fire ATC swap, but that is unconfirmed, as there was no note enclosed and I couldn’t match any swap-bot user names.

So, no photos until I get the facts confirmed. It is red, though, and pink – and hand painted and original. Very nice indeed.

I can disclose that the source was Ingrid, who has a very nice blog and a rather fetching new fringe (thanks, Ingrid, I had always wondered what “bangs”  were – now I know it’s just a fringe)

 

You can have no idea how relieved I am that mine were mailed before I received any!

My ATCs for the Project Spectrum “Fire” swap are completed and ready to post.

The brief: 2 ATCs on the Fire theme: orange, red, pink colours – trying to incorporate the theme of fire.

My immediate idea was to “burn” some paper or card stock, using lemon juice “invisible ink.” The second notion I had was that the project should be based on the idea of burning passions. So far, so good. I filled up my water brush with Jif lemon and began to experiment.

While the lemon juice dried, I rummaged in boxes for items of the correct colours and tried a few layouts. Nothing gelled, until I found a lovely dusky red wine bottle foil. It was perfect and I knew that I had to use it.

I wanted the two cards to be related through the materials and techniques used. I selected a bright red mirror card for Love and a dark silver mirror card for Rage. (My passions were restricted to four letters each, to fit onto the size of an ATC.) I added rubber stamped textures to both.

Once the backgrounds were dry, I fiddled around a little more with my collage elements. I ended up discarding the red mirror card and deployed instead an original digital image that I made last year. The red/orange/vermilion colours and swirling firework appearance suited the theme admirably and the green in the background went rather well with an image of a lady holding a red rose that I had stumbled across. I turned the lady into a packaging tape transparency, which I distressed considerably.

Also in my box of bits were a copper colour heart, inscribed “love” and a pair of coppery leaf sequins. With some inking and heating… wings! The wings are echoed by the “V” symbol on the wine foil cap.

  My burnt paper never made it onto the ATC. But I did fashion an ATC packet deploying the lemon juice technique. I wrapped my collage in tissue to help protect it on its journey to the States.

So, once again, my project failed to match the original idea. Nonetheless, I confess myself quite satisfied. The ATC packet is really naff but I refuse to entirely relinquish my original project plan, so the naff packet goes out regardless of my hostility to its general appearance.

Rage also got a burnt packet and a tissue wrapping.  This time the tissue was tied in a burgundy cord, darker and harsher than Love, and with a swirling red mist of rage on the tissue (kind of) – I wanted to keep the edge of that theme going as best I could. Love is all flowers and bows, but Rage should certainly be otherwise.

I prefer Rage (the card) to Love (the card). The background rubber stamping in Pearlescent Crimson and Copper (Brilliance inks) works wonderfully well on the dark silvered card. The stamping came out beautifully grungy, too. On top of the card is a very sheer orange fabric, with the edges frayed. It moderates the stamping nicely and brings up the orange in the Fire theme while complementing the copper and tying it into the overall theme. The wine bottle foil was safely incorporated, in itself it gives the appearance of a lick of red flame, and I added some dye cuts of stinging insects that had some into my possession somehow (never throw anything away, no matter how unlikely it seems that you will ever use it. You will use it. One day that little oddity will provide just the inspiration that you need.)

I balanced the composition out with some red wire, distressed, inked, and contorted – and a lovely beadish thing, for which I have been trying to find a use for several years. It is dark and angular, as Rage should be, but offers brilliant flashes of magenta to bring up the pink in the fire theme colours. To help blend the insects in, I over-stamped them with one of the background stamps. The foil also got an inking treatment to make the thing cohesive.

There is just something about this ATC that really works for me. It should do – this little thing took me about five hours to get right! I hope that the recipient thinks that it was worth it. Me? I want to keep it!

These months of puppy minding have taken their toll. Wee Nell keeps me busy to the extent that “tidying up” seems to consist of little more than opening the workroom door, chucking a pile of stuff on the table, and closing the door tight again.

Well, no more! The time has come.

I spent much of today tidying and sorting and wielding the Dyson. Daylight has almost broken through the heaps. In fact, I even found space in which to rattle off a quick photo postcard this evening. Just a thank you card for a PX mailing I received a while back.

There is still more to do yet – and I desperately need more shelves/drawers/cupboards, and some kind of sturdy table to work at, but I think I shall see my way clear this week and will soon be sitting down to make…er…more messes.

First up: 2 ATCs for Project Spectrum “Fire” – for which, I shall be needing a lemon…

What?

Yes. A lemon. And I forgot to buy one at the shop on Thursday, so I am a bit stuck.

What? You want to know how to turn a lemon into an ATC?

Wait.and.see.

• Purple card
• hand-made silk paper with mica inclusions
• stitching in jade and aubergine
• rubber stamped: background with hand-carved eraser, silk paper with purchased stamp

Untitled and unfinished. Available for swap soon.

Yay - I am working!

Not only that, I picked up my free writing journal today. I woke today with the urge to write again. It seems to be manifesting itself as a web concept. I shall be interested to see how the plot thickens. And, over at Woolgathering, there is evidence of further creativity as freeform ambitions manifest themselves.

Perhaps the reappearance of the sun is promoting the creative urge.

How to fit it all in, that’s the thing…

Well, I signed up for the Project Spectrum  “Fire” ATC swap. It’s only two cards, due in March, but it might just get me interested and working again.

That said, I did run up a quick ATC today – but only to test my sewing machine skills. I applied some of my hand made silk “paper” to an ATC with stitching. Quite effective. I added some rubber stamping but am now stuck for finishing ideas. It will come to me, I am sure.