Collecting

I collect lots of miscellaneous stuff, including vintage textiles. Below are a few of my favorites.

The piece in the background was purchased in Vietnam. The small bag in the top left is a Banjara piece from India with cowrie shells decorating the corners. The bag in the center is Lakai embroidery (the opposite side has different embroidery) from central Asia -probably Uzbekistan. The small bag in the top right belonged to my grandmother and I believe is from Greece. My grandmother travelled all over the world and growing up, we had a costume chest filled with embroidered shawls from Spain, fabric from the Mideast, a traditional Portuguese vest and apron, and much more. My sister now has the chest, but I got most of the textiles.

New Letterpress Print

I did this cactus print for a custom order and now have it for sale in my shop.

I seem to be terrible at keeping real cactus alive so I purchased the faux ceramic ones from Etsy seller Woggie's Place.

New

New letterpress cards in my Etsy shop.

Time for a new collage

Here's a new little collage I did. It's mounted on wood and uses all my favorites. I found an old worn tape measure that is now one of my new favorites for collage.

The Torn Letter

For the last few weeks, I have been re-vamping my collage shop on Etsy. I changed the name to The Torn Letter, gave it a new look and re-photographed many of my collages.

It's almost Valentine's Day and I've been making some little treat bags. The bird is from a hand carved eraser stamp.

100 Tags - The Book

I decided I needed a permanent record of my collage challenge so I put together a book. I used Blurb for the printing - I like Blurb because I'm not forced into using a template - I can design in InDesign. Also, their print quality is really nice. I chose the hard cover but a softbound version is also available. I do want to color correct the cover - it came out a little too blue.

Welcome to 2020

My calendar for 2020. Letterpress printed from my hand carved linoleum blocks and available in my Etsy shop. Images include a leaping bunny (in honor of the bunnies in my backyard), an Owl duo (because I like owls), and a little mouse ( for Year of the Rat and the mice living in my garage who watched me print)

January thru April

May thru August

September thru December

Last but not least

Last but not least is Tag 100, posted on New Year's Eve.

Tag 100

Tags 98 and 99

Tag 98

Tag 99

Down to the Wire

Tags 96 and 97

Tag 96

Tag 97

Five to Go

I made this tag from a vintage postcard (dated on the back 1898!). The purple ink inspired the color scheme so I used purple papers from my stash and vintage postage stamps.

Tag 95

Winter White

Frosty white and gold handmade papers plus a little bit of white acrylic paint.

Tag 94

Mid Century Christmas Wishes

One of my favorite children's book illustrators are the husband-wife team of Martin and Alice Provensen. They also did a wonderful set of screen printed Christmas cards illustrating the 12 Days of Christmas. The cards were done in the 1960's and I've been looking for them to purchase for a number of years. This year, I got (half) lucky. Etsy seller Finds of the Attic had 6 of the cards for sale. Now, to find the rest of the series!

There still some sets from Finds in the Attic available - buy your own here.

Ok, here is the last of the blue series.

Tag 92 is made from a vintage letter, an old Japanese label, part of a Florentine design envelope and vintage music.

Tag 92

Tag 93 uses vintage wallpaper, part of an  old letter and vintage postage stamps.

Tag 93

The last stretch

Here come the 90's.

Tag 90

Tag 91

Shades of Blue

I've had these tags done all week but with lots of rain, it was hard to find time to photograph. These 2 tags were done with vintage wallpaper and handmade papers.

Tag 88

Tag 89

Two tags with Type

This weekend I have 2 more collages - both using vintage documents and a variety of patterned papers in black and shades of tan.

Tag 86

Tag 87

Tag 85

Tag 85 uses patterned papers in black and tan with a letterpressed piece in the middle.

Tag 85

Pattern and Type

This tag combines pattern with vintage type-rubber stamp in the background with hand made papers an a bit of a vintage document.

Tag 84