In the Pink

My collage for week 17 started off with the urn of flowers - a scrap of my letterpress that is hand colored with watercolors. I found a piece of ikat patterned handmade paper in shades of pink and combined it with a piece of vintage wallpaper also done in shades of pink with gray and gold. Some rubber stamping in gold and another scrap of pink paper complete the collage. This one is done on a 5" square canvas.

Collage week 17

Wild Dagga

While on a hike, I saw this pretty orange flower and snapped a picture. When I got home, I did an internet search and found out that it is a "wild dagga" or "lion's tail", latin name "Leonotis leonurus". It's in the mint family and a native of Africa where it is used as an herbal medicine. You can read more about it here.

Wild Dagga

Art Exchange

I follow a blog - Four Corners Design - full of cool vintage ideas and inspiring art. Today I read about an art exchange that blogger Amy has started. So, I've decided to participate. If you want to join in, read on...

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Art is all about sharing as far as I'm concerned...sharing thoughts, ideas, viewpoints...and in this case, the actual art...check out this idea...
Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014
I'm participating in this art share project - I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking this is a great idea...you need to sign on completely to participate...and in the end, increase your stash of original art five-fold!

You must in turn post the rules and make something for the first five who comment on your post...

The rules are simple:
– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.
– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in-between.

I'm paying this forward thanks to John Arbuckle. I've admired John's collage work and now I'm excited that I'll be getting a piece of original art from him...

PS. It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist, just want to try something out, google/ YouTube how to make stuff, step out of those boundaries...the sky's the limit...

Step 1 
 Copy & Paste this as your latest entry on your favorite social website (in my case, it’s this blog).
Step 2
For the first five people who comment on this blog post saying they want to participate, you will do an art trade with them that must be completed by December 31, 2014. I would count as the first person so technically you only need another four. If you find your friends are keen you can do as many as you want.
Step 3 All forms of art count including creative writing, photography, digital -- anything goes!

so the First Five...GO!
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If YOU decide to participate, you'll receive an original collage by moi (that french for me!)

Russian Roulette

My collage for week 16 started with the orange square at the bottom. I saw it in my paper drawer and thought I'd pull out all my orangy papers and see what came together. I am a hoarder of ephemera and all sorts of bits of paper. So out came a font catalog from House Industries (always really cool stuff in there) and on the back was a sample of Neutraface Slab Cyrillic (basically, Russian) in the perfect color scheme. Next I found a wrapper from a chocolate bar that a Russian co-worker had given me. And finally, I used a vintage rubber stamp in cyrillic (no idea what it says) that I purchased from an Etsy seller in Latvia. Rounding it off is a scrap of handmade orange paper, a decorative rubber stamp and the inside of a business envelope (have you ever noticed that business envelopes have a variety of patterns on the inside, some in blue and some in gray, in funny little patterns to thwart thieves?). My Russian Roulette collage is complete!

Collage Week 16

A note about the Russian chocolate bar...the bar is from the Krupskaya chocolate company which was named in honor of Lenin's wife, Nadya Krupskaya. She married Vladimir Lenin in 1898 and from 1929 to 1939 was the deputy minister of education. She died in 1939 and a Leningrad chocolate factory was renamed in her honor. You can read more about her here.

New Cards

Mother's Day is Sunday, May 11 and I've got three new cards for Mother's Day in the shop.

Letterpress printed from a hand cut linoleum block

Letterpress printed from vintage wood type

Letterpress printed from a hand cut linoleum block

Bird Song

This week, my collage features vintage wallpaper, vintage music, some letterpress scraps and a bird. The type is part of the title from a piece of vintage music. I couldn't decide if it needed a pop of color but in the end, I left it with the more subdued sage green, brown and gold.

Collage Week 15

Recent Acquisition

Sometimes I find something I want on Ebay and bid my max knowing I probably won't be the winning bid. And sometimes I get surprised! I was the lucky high bidder (there were only 2 bids) on this fabulous mid century tile by Swedish designer Lisa Larson.

I had admired this bird tile for ages - I believe it dates to the 1960's and each one is glazed a little differently. It is now hanging on the wall in my office where I can admire it every day.

Lisa Larson was born in 1931 and worked at the Gustavsberg (Sweden) porcelain factory from 1953 to 1980. While some of her designs are still being produced (you can buy them here), I like the older pieces such as the Lilla Zoo series from 1955 (I'm hoping to acquire a fox someday...).

One thing I have found about shopping on Ebay-if you get outbid, the item will usually turn up again. And if it's too high priced the first time (or second, or third...) be patient because eventually someone will post the item at a price you can afford. Happy bidding!

Collage in Blue and Black

I have boxes of all kinds of scraps that I use for my collages. Sold papers, patterned papers, vintage wall paper, vintage ads, type, stamps...When I cut or tear a piece of paper, the remainder goes in the box for next time. My collage for week 14 was made from scraps that needed no altering - everything came out of my boxes as is in shape and size. I used some Japanese papers, Japanese newspaper and a Japanese postage stamp of a woman in traditional dress. The collage was done on a heavy weight textured paper (which doesn't show in the scan) and is approximately 5" x 5.5".

Collage Week 14