b mused

May's Postcard of the Month

Ha! So much for trying to simplify my production process! NINETY-ONE production steps (per card!) in the making of this month's set of cards! So, repeated 21 times...

And, for all this investment, I wish I was happier with this month's cards.

The stamped circles (from buttons) somewhat redeemed it in the end for me.

I do like to do something with blossoms for May*. And bees. :)

Our bees made it through this (non) winter just fine.

Just look at their little pollen pantaloons!

Here's a close-up video of the hive entry:

I'd pulled a few images from various google searches - Spring blossoms:

I'd thought perhaps of going with one or two magnified flowers:

And then I thought I'd look at some Japanese approaches:

Liked this, too:

But then I'd also been thinking about illuminated letters recently**- thinking about getting some sort of a series going (alphabet? names of the month?) - something to change up my game a bit!

So, I was checking out old postcards like these:

And then I threw together this:

I liked the idea, but wasn't so crazy about this

(not to mention its production complexities x 21...),

so I shelved it - at least until I can think it out a bit more.

Then I threw down this:

Which was close, but still needed something...

In the end, I reversed the branch, thinking a new orientation might perk it up.

And give the bee a little more room...

The Fixin's

(most of the) 'blossoms'

Production Steps, The Movie(s)

I made two production steps 'movies' this month -

the first one has each of the NINETY-ONE steps, and is WAY too long***!

So... I edited it down to a more palatable 25 steps, and that's the one you'll see here:

The Steps

Maybe if I'd started with the leaves,

before the blossoms,

this might have had more magic...

These pink notes were another late-stage attempt at capturing the magic...

This dark green 'vegetation' was gleaned from left-over fixin's

that were not used in some prior months' postcards.

It might have just made the card too 'busy'...

Needed more sparkle!****

(The branches have some metallic gold and silver streaks, but they don't show much.)

I wanted a smooth surface in order to catch as much of the sharp definition of the bee stamp as possible - I knew I'd loose a lot of these fine lines if I stamped directly onto the layers of paper that had already been glued down (and the bees land on some of the blossoms in some of the other cards in this set, making some spots even thicker/more uneven). So, I'd first ink-stamped the bees onto white rice paper, which I then laid down over the other layers. Kept it nice and crisp!

The addition of these ink-stamped circles was my final attempt at salvation!

And I do like the cards much better as a result!

So... I'm not quite sure why I'm not as happy with this month's cards as I'd like to be.

I think I could have paid more attention to blossom - and leaf - placement/sizes.

I think it might have benefited from more green?

Something other than the dark green 'vegetation' in the lower left?

But at least I can be pretty certain that next month's set of cards won't be as labor-intensive! It actually didn't seem to take me much longer than monthly production usually takes (@20-30 hours), but NINETY-ONE steps is just nuts! And to think that I am so increasingly attracted to MINIMALISM!!

Ha! indeed.

Panel of 21 of May's postcards:

Fin.

*May's 2013 and 2015 blossom postcards:

And bees, May, 2014:

**I'd been perusing a gorgeous book about Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent that my father has on his coffee table (he's nearing the end of the 8-week, 16-session OSHER - http://osher.dartmouth.edu/ - class he's been teaching on the Fall of the Ottoman Empire... Impressive for being nearly 88!) - it had beautiful illuminations that I shoulda taken pix of...

***If you really want to see the long (almost 3 minutes!) version: