b mused

January's Postcard of the Month

Inversions.

Since I am always working on these cards a month ahead of the actual month that the cards represent, it can sometimes be tricky to summon the feel of the coming month.

And since December here in Vermont was decidedly un-wintry, conjuring something that - in my mind at least - evoked the feel of January/the dead of winter was indeed challenging!

However!
What we did have a surprising amount of was
fog

and ice fog*

and these atmospheric 'inversions':

where the warm air that's high up traps these dense layers of fog/clouds.

These inversion photos:

were shot by our pal (and path-through-the-woods neighbor),

photographer and videographer Peter Wolf**

from the top of Mad River Glen, in December.

So... My prototype:

Ha! I'd never even thought of the bit of sheet music looking like lift lines

'til Peter sent me his photo (above)!

For maybe the first time in these 47 months of postcard production,

the design and materials were barely altered when it came to final production

of the rest of the 21 cards!***

I got to use this nice tree stamp:

And then I did a test to see which stamp effect I liked best

on 4 different white papers.****

The Fixin's*****

Steps: The Movie:

The Steps

(21 this month)

Panel of 21 of January's postcards:

'Inversion' just seems a suitable word for January in Vermont.

Turning inward.

Fin.

*I snapped this shot early one morning (through my closed and dirty car window...) as the sun found a sliver through the clouds and was hitting the ice-misted tree tips and the field with this amazing shimmering pink strip of light.

**Peter Wolf - http://peterwolfphotographics.com/

***In final production, I finessed the inking of the stamp - just partially inked it - so that I didn't have to add so many layers of white to hide the lower branches.

****Instead of stamping directly onto the already partially collaged cards, I pre-stamped onto white tissue paper, and then glued this piece on in one of the last steps. This way I could minimize the risk of the ink running if it wasn't properly set (I hit it w/ a heat gun after I've stamped, but this doesn't always guarantee fastness).

*****I brought all the fixin's home and did all the production in my cozy living room,