Fabric Postcards

When I signed on to trade with two groups of Postmark’d Art, I thought I had a good idea about what I wanted to do. As so often happens, though, the ideas kept coming and the postcards I finally created are somewhat different — though I am very happy with them. They also turned out to be more challenging that I had anticipated. And so it goes.

Karen Musgrave suggested a Deck of Cards as a long-term trade idea and a well-spring of support followed. We decided to start with the Heart suit and formed several groups of eager artists. Each group has 7 participants, each being dealt 2 cards (King-Ace plus the Joker) as their inspiration. I drew the Jack and 8 of Hearts.

I have had a package of Artist Transfer Paper (ATP) for some time but had not used it. Now was the time. I did some internet surfing and settled on inspiration from Alice in Wonderland. The Knave of Hearts was quite a rascal and I couldn’t resist him.

 

 

For the address side of the postcard I scanned a playing card back, converted it to black and white and lightened it. I quoted Lewis Carroll to complete the idea.

 

 

I was happy to be dealt the 8 because I know that the number 8 and the color red are considered to be lucky in Chinese culture. With this idea I challenged myself to create a word cloud. Maureen Callahan wrote a very good tutorial for us on creating word clouds — I highly recommend it as a starting point to a fun adventure.

 

 

I used red acrylic paint to finish the edge of the postcard. Again I scanned the back of a playing card to use on the address side.

 

 

And it was fun to have a project so perfect for using my chop. Read about the chop purchase here.

The other theme group is My Town (something symbolic, distinctive or map-ly about where you live).  There are many things to crow about in my town but the single item that rose to the top of the list is Lake Merritt, the Jewel of Oakland. It’s unique, it’s beautiful and it is very well-loved in this city. And it recently underwent a face lift that is attracting even more locals.  I used TAP again to transfer a scanned map onto fabric.

 

 

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) famously said of Oakland, “There is no there there.” The much-quoted statement appears in Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography (Random House 1937, p 289). Well, things have changed. Oakland boasts big metal letters that spell THERE. So there. And here they are.

 

 

To be fair, she said this in 1933 after coming to San Francisco on a book tour. She took a ferry to Oakland to visit the farm she grew up on, and the house she lived in near what is now 13th Avenue and E. 25th Street in Oakland. The house had been razed and the farmland had been developed with new housing. So, even though Paris had been Home since 1903, the complete erasure of what she remembered so well about her childhood in Oakland was gone. I can understand her waxing nostalgic.

I converted the above image to black and white, lightened it quite a bit and added the quote by Stein for the address side. There. All done.