Results of an arty collaboration with my buddies....

For a while now, mentions of the Tofu Millenia mail art project have been popping up on a lot of arty blogs - clicking on the link above will take you to a Flickr group with lots of examples.  And Tofu, the artist who started the whole thing off can be found here.

Basically, the concept is that you divide a postcard up into a number of 'strata', and it gets passed around from artist to artist until it's full up.

I kind of had this pegged as something we could maybe do as a project over at Collabor-ART, and maybe we will one day, but in the meantime, one of my pals on facebook suggested we could do a round just between us buddies, and so we did!

We all chose a theme, mine was 'copper and teal' as that's one of my favourite colour combos, and we each arted up the first layer of our postcards (well, I say postcards, we actually agreed to work at a larger size, so most of the participants went for 10"x8", mine was a little smaller).  That's how mine started off up there ^

And this is it all completed, as it came home this week - it looks so cool all filled up:

From top to bottom, me, Carmen, Sami, Jo, Susan and Virginia

And here are the contributions I made to the others:

First of all, Virginia's - her theme was red and black:

I know she loves Celtic imagery, so I drew her this design, based upon an image from the Book of Kells which I have as a tattoo (I had it done back in my Uni days, a long time ago now, when Celtic tatts were all the rage, but I still like it)

Next up - Susie, who went for Steampunk as her theme:

I went for a bit of a pun .... as I don't think there's always enough 'punk' going on in the steampunk trend

Here's my layer along with the other two that had already been filled in at that point, I love how Virginia filled in that heart with loads of tiny, real watch parts:

Jo's rainbow themed postcard was next - we were allowed to choose any colour we liked, they didn't have to be in order a la Richard of York ....  I went for green and painted a pair of envious green eyes:

Next was Sami's - theme 'the motion of the ocean' - most people had gone with fish so I went with an octopus:

And here he is added to the card and embellished a bit in line with the previous additions:

And last, but certainly not least, Carmen's ace Edgar Allen Poe themed card - I was really hoping nobody else would have done something relating to the Tell-tale Heart, as that's my favourite Poe story - and I was lucky....

Here's my contribution:

The quote from the book reads "I admit the deed!  Tear up the planks!  Here, here!  It is the beating of his hideous heart!" - it's kind of supposed to look a bit like it was engraved into the floorboards but I'm not convinced it quite worked, never mind :)

Close up of the heart, smothered in a thick coat of Diamond Glaze - you can see the reflection from my window in it's shine....

I can almost hear it beating .....boom boom boom ..... ;)


And here it is in place with Carmen's poe-tastic postcard now complete:

This was a really fun project, let's do it again sometime girlies!

Mail comes in.....mail goes out.....

.... and thus is the balance of the world restored :)

First of all - mail came in

You might remember, a few months ago, my Rock CJ came home - the one with all the little record sleeve makeovers.

When I blogged it back then, I had a couple of spare record sleeves left over, and asked if anyone out in blogland fancied doing me a favour and completing my CJ for me.  And Donna and Bex (fellow Collabor-ARTists both) were kind enough to volunteer.

And here are the fantastic results!

Donna chose Kraftwerk's The Model for her makeover:

And Bex went with Faith no More's brilliant Angel Dust, one of my favourite albums of all time - love the screaming Mike P on the front :)

I LOVE them both, thank you ladies!!

And then some mail art went out

The first one, coincidentally, was for Donna - yes that Donna up there :)

I happen to know that her mis-spent youth was very similar to my own, and that she shares a love both for the punk rock sensibility, and for those crazy old anarcho-space-rockers Hawkwind.  So I chose the most punk rock song Hawkwind ever wrote as the basis for my mail art offering.

First of all I got my Banksy on with some spray paint and a hand cut stencil:

And this is the end result:

I realised once it was finished that the song lyrics I included on the card ("I'm an urban guerrilla, I make bombs in my cellar"....etc....) could possibly be taken the wrong way lol

So I wrote a little note on the back to the postman assuring him that it was just a song and there really was no need to alert the authorities ;)

And it must have worked as the postcard arrived at Donna's safe and sound the next day

The eye in the pyramid on the back is another logo used by Hawkwind along the way, and was drawn using Posca paint pens

And the faux postage stamp is one from this sheet, still going strong

Next up, a postcard for my good friend Virginia

It started off like this (gelli-plate background onto corrugated cardboard - I love the how the texture shows through - and drawings on top with Posca paint pens) - can you tell what it is yet?? :D

How about now?

Yes, it's a zombie bunny - or will be when it's finished.  This subject matter is a bit of an in joke for Virginia harking back to a previous conversation.  I hope she remembered the conversation as otherwise she probably thinks I'm a little peculiar right now! :)

And here he is all done and ready to pop in the post:

cute isn't he .... in an undead kinda way :)

(finished off with a combination of Fresco chalk paints and oil pastels - bunny adapted from a digital illustration by Patione)

Rock hands for the Queen of the Rockettes :)

Virginia expressed some surprise that the postcard had travelled through the mail unhindered given the Biohazard stamp - but that's nothing compared to Donna's bomb threats :D

just collage, no cheating....

Over on Collabor-ART we've been having fun with collage recently.  Well, when I say "fun", I mean that we were all painfully dragged kicking and screaming from our comfort zones :)  But I think most of us enjoyed it in the end, at least a bit.

The challenge was a two stage collaborative project to make purely collaged postcards - absolutely no paint, ink, pens and pencils even, allowed.  All we could use were cardboard for the base, printed papers, scissors and glue.  It was hard work!

Everyone did two postcards each, so here are the backgrounds I made for Vicki to work on:

And this is a get well soon card I made for my friend Pam at the same time:

(that one isn't "purely collaged" as the get well plaster was stamped, but I won't tell if you don't ;)  )

This is what Vicki did with my backgrounds, love them, especially the dude on the straw:

And for my part I was sent these backgrounds by Jean:

and

And my final collaged postcards:

and

To see more of the amazing collages that resulted from this little experiment, click here

And if you fancy joining in some fun, collaborative projects like this (and you are European based) - then why not join us over at Collabor-ART?  We are always on the lookout for new members....

My "empowered" postcards are on their way

Today was posting day for iHanna's autumn postcard swap - and by the skin of my teeth I was ready just in time

Four of my cards are headed to America - 2 x Virginia, plus Arizona & Oregon -  and the fifth card is Quebec bound.  None at all going to Europe this time which was a surprise, as last time I took part in this swap there were a lot of Scandinavian participants.

The theme for the postcards was "empowerment", and the most empowered words I know are those from the Pearl Jam song, "I Am Mine":


I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine


So I decided to kind of re-create a journal entry from last year:

Although I didn't still have any of the original imagery, and I thought I'd do it in slightly more uplifting colours, so the end result is nothing much like the original:

I've stuck one of my faux postage stamps on the back of each (along with a real one!) - I hope the recipients like them ....

And I wonder what I shall receive in return? Exciting!

It's postcard swapping time again

I'm not sure if you will remember, but back in the spring I took part in iHanna's annual mail art swap

I made these

and I got these in return

It was a lot of fun and myself and others were keenly looking forward to next spring so we could do it all over again

Well, it turns out we didn't have to wait that long as iHanna has launched a mini Autumn version of the swap (just the 5 postcards this time) to tide us over.  Yay!

And this time it has a theme - empowerment - ooo er missus, very deep!

I haven't got very far yet with mine:

Do they look empowered yet? :)

If you fancy joining up and playing along with me, just click on that banner at the top and it will take you straight there

(NB there is a $4 charge to play, but that's quite good really as psychologically it tends to encourage people to follow through and make and send their cards, as they have had to think about it a bit at the sign up stage and it has cost them a little bit of cash - apparently in previous years when it was free, you were lucky to get 6 or 7 cards back for the 10 you sent out, but I got all 10 this year)

Going postal!

I've been getting back into Mail Art recently so I thought it would be fun to make some "Flo Post" artistamps to use on my  postcards....

These are fun to make, here's a little step by step if you fancy making a batch of your own:

Draw up an even grid on a plain sheet of printer paper

Use a sewing machine with no thread in the needle to sew along the lines you have drawn to perforate them

The sewn sheet will look like this

Draw up the same grid as before on a second sheet of paper, and then draw a line a short distance to the left and right / top and bottom of each line in the grid

Use a craft knife to cut out all the small interior squares

This sheet becomes your mask

Align the mask over your sewn sheet precisely.

Sponge ink through the mask

Stamp or draw a focal image

Cut masks for the stamped images from post it notes and cover them up

Spray or stamp a background design 

Continue to stamp or otherwise embellish until you are happy with the design

Peeling the masks off for the big reveal is the most fun part:

Look out for these on my mail art over the next couple of months :)

Rocking Your World Tuesday – week 19

It’s that (variable) time of the week again – time to count my blessings and put a few more ticks on the grateful list

I’m feeling a bit fed up today – nothing major, just a bit run down, big cold sore threatening to erupt any minute, super tired, you know how it is – and so it’s a really good moment to do a round up of what’s been rockin’ my world – to stop me feeling so down in the dumps

And last week had a lot going for it – for a start it kicked off with a three day weekend – can’t beat a free day off work!! :)

On the Saturday we had a nice lazy day, mainly spent at home, the boys played on the Xbox and I worked on my Steve Tyler CJ entry.  Very chilled.  We did have a little walk into town when we dropped Connor off at his dad’s for a bit – and I bought three fab new colours of spray paint at the market – got to say I’m liking this MTN 94 stuff even more than my usual Montana Gold.  

And I was super excited on Saturday evening when I got an email from the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project tour to say that my travelling sketchbook had been checked out and viewed at the tour’s first stop in Chicago.  I hope you liked it, Angela B. :)

Crossing the Severn Bridge into Wales

Sunday was our day trip day – we try to have at least one big family day out every week, weather permitting.   The Sunday weather had been looking a bit sketchy in the forecasts around our usual haunts, so I tried a bit of sun chasing, and checked the forecasts for various different potential destinations, choosing the one with the biggest chance of sunshine.  And surprisingly the weather man chose Wales – usually renowned for its rain :)  So a trip to Cardiff it was….

The weather man was spot on and we had lovely weather all day.  First we went into central Cardiff to the city’s main museum and art gallery.  Very impressive buildings and lots of interesting things to see inside.  Also we got the chance to see a mother peregrine attend to her chick up on the clock tower (in the black Olympic ring in my photo…) – as the RSPB were helpfully stationed outside the museum with telescopes trained on the nest.

Next we walked what looked like a short distance on Google Maps, but turned out to be quite a trek, to find “Europe’s biggest sticker graffiti combo!!!!” – only to discover that someone had painted over the whole thing with dark green paint – boo.  Never mind, we still added our stickers to the mix.  Better three months late than never :)

Next we took a drive out to the Llandaff area of the city, looking for the Boiler House Graffiti Project gallery.

Which we found, but it was shut.  Pffft.  But never mind, the legal walls around the back of the gallery were all open and well worth a look.  I especially loved the “Silence in the Library” spaceman.

It was a short trip from here to St Fagans where they have a fantastic (and FREE apart from the car park fee) open air museum featuring original and reconstructed buildings from all periods of Welsh history, many of which have been transplanted here brick by brick.  The kids particularly enjoyed the olden days sweet shop (well, they would, wouldn’t they :) ) and having a wrestle in the cock fighting ring.  Connor also had a go at archery.  We were only here a couple of hours and I’m sure we barely scratched the surface of it.  Definitely a place worth re-visiting one day.

And finally, we popped up the road to the coast, and famous Barry Island. I’ve managed to get to the advanced age of 45 without ever visiting the home of Gavin and Stacey, but I couldn’t put it off any longer :)  The place is a bit tatty and a bit run down, to say the least, but it has a certain classic British seaside resort charm to it, and the kids had great fun on the rides.

And we even got ice creams from Marco’s Café, which I think features in the TV show.  (I have to sheepishly admit that I couldn’t get into the programme, only ever watched one episode and didn’t get it at all.  But I know everyone else thinks it’s really funny so it must just be me)

We got home at about 11pm, thoroughly tired but having had a brilliant day – and happy in the knowledge that we could have a nice long lie in the next day thanks to the Bank Holiday.

And we did exactly that – it was nearly midday by the time we struggled out of bed!  I cooked a big roast dinner – which I don’t often get the chance to do given that Connor is always at his dad’s one weekend day, and we tend to go out for day trips on the other day.  And then after we’d had our fill we walked around to the cinema to see the new Avengers movie.

I’d been looking forward to the film, and expected to enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as MUCH as I did – it was awesome!! :) :) :)

And not only for the eye candy ;)

(I have a new Avenger crush, by the way, Thor was still super cute, but oh my, Hawkeye! He had me all a quiver….see what I did there? :D )

Such a fun film – now I totally understand why people have been going to see it two or three times on the trot.  I wouldn’t mind another watch myself.

If you are one of the two or three people left in the world who hasn’t seen it yet, I can heartily recommend that you get yourself to the cinema pronto – even if you don’t think you like super hero films – you’ll enjoy THIS super hero film, promise.

For the rest of the week I was back at work but there were a few more fun spots:

- I made a kite themed bit of mail art for Vicki via Collabor-ART, and a birthday card for my sister – making stuff is a great way to unwind in the evenings

- My theme and free Prismacolor marker arrived from the Art House co-op for the Mystery Project (just need to work out what to actually make now…)

- The Apprentice had a street art episode set in East London and Bristol, which was highly entertaining – blimey this year’s crop of the young business elite are a proper bunch of twonks!

- Our Download tickets came!!  Can't wait!  less than 4 weeks away now :)

- and we booked our accommodation for our trip to Berlin in July - cool little apartment in the artsy part of town on the former East Berlin side - looks ace doesn't it, so excited :)

And that’s about it for this week

As ever I’ll be linking this up at RYWF Central aka Virginia’s blog.  Feel free to join in if you would like to spend a little time thinking about the high spots of your week….it makes a refreshing change from thinking about the downsides of life.  I can definitely attest that having written all this down, I feel a lot less sorry for myself than I did when I started :)

See you again next time!