Big Art-Little Spaces: Postcard Swap on Swap-bot

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I started looking for some mail swaps on Swap-bot this week. 2018 was the last year that I participated in a Swap-bot posting. I joined a postcard swap that was open to handmade cards. Most swap hosts ban handmade cards because some swappers slap a few stickers on an index card and think they have performed an act of art. If those swappers were Ray Johnson, they might get away with it.

However, some of the best cards I have received in swaps were handmade ranging from pristine pencil drawings to elaborate collages. The card I sent in the swap was the penultimate card in a series I made in 2011 featuring small scherenschnitte pieces I cut for Valentine's Day. I am keeping the last card in the set for my own collection.

I would not mind receiving a postcard like this in the mail.

Here are some other postcards I have made.

Enveloping the Word: "Drop Cloth" Envelopes

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I always put a large piece of white drawing paper on my work table when I am in the act of art. I call it my "drop cloth." It catches extra paint, paste, ink, or whatever else I may be using and makes a handy paper for testing color combinations, stamps, off-handed doddles, and experiments. When I've used a drop cloth for a few days or weeks, I sometimes make an envelope out of the paper. Here is the latest effort. The "drop cloth:"

The resulting envelope:

Some other drop cloth envelopes:

Book Arts Mania: Work in Progress Continued

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I finished two more pages in the concertina fold book I am trying to finish. I am a big fan of Vicki Grant's ceramic works, especially her Celestial Landscapes. If I had lots of discretionary funds I would buy some of her pieces. I can only admire her work and be inspired by it.

These two book pages are inspired by her work. The color choices are mine using Tombow dual-brush watercolor pens.

"Circles, like the soul, are never ending and turn round and round without a stop." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I am adding here some envelopes inspired by Vicki Grant's work.

Book Arts Mania: Work in Progress

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I have been working for the last few weeks, when I have a moment or two, on a concertina fold book. The folding is easy; it is facing the blank page that is difficult. The pages are 5 1/2'' by 6'', and there are seven almost square, empty pages staring at me.

For some reason, I love using an abundance of circles in my drawings, doodles, and designs. Maybe it is as the circle painter, Wassily Kandinsky said, "The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension." So, of course, circles will dominate each square page in the finished book. Here are the first three finished circles:

"The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals." John Hartford.

Book Arts Mania: "Australian Reverse Piano Hinge"

"Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

Last week I was browsing some Pinterest bloggers and rediscovered Alisa Golden's Making Handmade Books blog. I have two of her books, Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures and Forms and Expressive Handmade Books in my studio library.

This particular blog post from way back in 2019 was on a linked hinge binding that she created from a structure she had dreamed about. I never dream of book structures, but maybe a new envelope design though. I like how the spine looks like a piano hinge binding, but it does not have any rods, sticks, or other apparatus holding the pages together. I thought I would give this modified piano hinge structure a try.

However, on the blog sidebar was a link to one of her posts from 2012 where she showed a binding from Australia called Flat-Style Australian Reverse Piano Hinge. The spine of this binding is also pleasing to my eye, and that is the binding I decided to tackle first.

I made three books with this binding. I used some signatures that I had folded long ago for books I did not get around to binding. These premade signatures came in handy. Two of the books are 4 1/2 inches by 5 3/4 inches. The third book is 6 1/4 inches by 9 1/4 inches.

I like the look of the spines very much. I modified the binding of the book on the left. The binding is created with an accordion-folded strip of paper. The instructions for this binding are in the link above.

This photo shows the reversed [inside the book] piano hinge created by the mountain fold. The "lock" of the hinge is a strip of paper the width of the mountain fold and a bit longer than the width of the paper strip. Because of the hinge, the binding edge of the book is thicker than the fore-edge. This allows for ephemera or small art pieces like ATCs to be attached to these pages without the fore-edge being thicker than the spine. 

This shows the space between the signatures. I like how the pages lie flat when the book is open as with a Coptic stitch.

The third book was constructed of thick, stained papers I made at least ten years ago and never had the motivation to sew together with a Coptic stitch. Now I have used them.

Enveloping the Word: 2023 Christmas Cards

"Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman 

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. I will attempt again to keep something going. I have decided to concentrate on decorated envelopes [Enveloping the Word], ATCs/postcards [Big Art-Little Spaces], and handmade books/art journals [Book Art Mania]. I am going to refrain from commenting on criminal political antics, disgusting current events, and the mindless morass of social media in the third decade of the 21st Century. I shall leave any observations I may have on those disasters for other venues, and here concern myself with acts of art.

So, for this first post of 2024, I want to present the decorated envelopes I made for my 2023 Christmas cards. I wanted to have a stylized wreath surrounding the address. After several experiments, I settled on the following pattern. I first drew a circle on the envelope followed by two interlacing, serpentine lines to represent foliage.

I added a few circles for decoration.

I used Tombow ABT Water-Based pens to color the wreath. The greens are numbers 173 and 245. These are two of my favorite greens that I often use together. The gold is number 993, and the red is 845.

I sent out 87 decorated Christmas cards in 2023. I posted photos of them on Mailart365 where I finished my fifth year making 365 envelopes a year.

Here are two of my experiments before I settled on the final wreath design above. I sent these experiments out as well because no envelope gets wasted.

Here are some cards from previous Christmases.

A Third Year of Mailart 365

I have now begun my third year of creating envelopes and postcards for Mailart365.com. I have completed the goal of 365 pieces of postal art during each of the last two years. Here are a couple of my first envelopes of this year of creation. One of the nice things about sending art to other mail artists is that you usually receive art in return. The art runs the gamut of styles and techniques created by professional and amateur artists. I keep the pieces I receive in a binder of Mylar pages along with Artist Trading Cards, and some I have framed for the walls. I am having a lot of fun, and I invite anyone reading this to check out the different online mail art associations and join in the fun.

IUOMA International Union of Mail-Artists   Mend Me Some Art   MailArt365.com