June's Postcard of the Month - Phase II

I was somewhat tempted to just stop at Step 9, not add the poppies... I probably should have kept ONE that way! It had such an 'undersea' feel to it, instead of blue sky and verdant hills. It would have been an appropriate July or August card - the aquatic (pool, mostly, for me, but The Pots if at all possible) months.

Step 9

But that was not the intended result of my wheel and poppy musings!  So, on to the final steps: poppies:

Step 10

and falling petals (seven): 

Step 11

Each card's individual configuration of stems and poppies make this set of postcards the most individually unique of all the Postcard of the Month sets so far. 

There were some variables that I kept the same: seven stems; one each of a very tall and very short; five of the mediums.  Also:  same order of (seven different) poppies.  ( I did consider that maybe 6 of everything would have had more resonance, what with June being month 6.   But 7 just seems to provide a more graceful balance to my aesthetic.)  But, beyond these basic parameters, each card has a completely different poppy/stem dynamic.

So, here's a sampling of some of the individual cards:

And this one, whose stems interwove together so nicely:

 and which made me think of the Celtic Tree of Life tattoo design I'd just drawn out for nephew, Anthony:

Hmmmm....  A tattoo design based on a collage might be cool.  Translation from medium to medium would be strange. 

A less square version of one like this might work:

.....   So: I'm DONE.  Now I have to ponder July's PoM. 

I think I'll end this with some pix of my beautiful patch of Columbine, that I've been bringing along so devotedly:

It's actually a HUGE patch, and I was rewarded with some FABULOUS eating for my grooming efforts:

Oh yeah!  JUST what you think it is: A MOREL!!  Only one, but HUGE!!  And SOOOOOO yummy.

And I also harvested and sautéed (in ghee) a few of these Dryad's Saddle mushrooms:

Which do indeed smell a bit like watermelon rind!  I thought they tasted very 'meaty', reminded me of Portobellas a bit, in both flavor and consistency.  Mostly they were too big/tough for eating, but I'll look forward to more young ones.  I thought they were pretty scrumptious.

Fin

Phase One: June's Postcards of the Month

June’s Postcard of the Month

This month's cards' inspirations came from this being the time of year we've always geared up for Laconia Bike Week. 

(me on Mule's 1980 Shovelhead, c. 2008? 09?)

And it's also right when the Poppies

(and Azaleas, Iris, and Lupines...)

are all in bloom.

So... Poppies

 and wheels and gears

all went into the mix.
(I did not print the cards with this brown ink!  It runs.  GOOD I CHECKED.)

And, of course, it is all happening in this bucolic, blue-skyed (of late) Vermont, so:

And, so it begins:

Step 1

 Step 2

 Step 3

 Step 4

 Step 5 (there's an anomaly in this step; hint: last card: ooops!)

 Step 6 (all fixed)

 Step 7

 Step 8

And that's as far as I got on Day 1 of production.  EIGHT steps so far!  And I still have the poppies to do!

OK, here's some musings:

This process always reminds me of prepping/doing air-brushing.  Careful pre-planning of each step is critical to the intended finished product.    Our friend, Gary Blodgett - wildly inventive, biker artist (and responsible for the re-worked flame job on the old Shovelhead) - said that poor air-brush work is often responsible for the pinstriping OUTLINING one sees around airbrushed designs (such as flames).  And, as you can CLEARLY see in the above photo: NO outlining.  :)

I'm taking advantage of OPEN STUDIO Weekend to: Yes! OPEN the STUDIO!  

With a sign on the door and everything!

June's PoM's are just about to go into production.  

I've been playing with circles:

 Still awaiting some final magic.

May’s Postcard of the Month

All the preliminaries are in place for tomorrow’s gluing. (glue is a weird word to add ‘ing’ to…)  30 postcards in this set.

I cut out 30 of these (rubber stamped) geese today.  @ 6 minutes ea.  3 hours!

It took cutting about 5 of them before I figured out the best scissoring approach.  Tip: Always nice to leave enough material to grip as you cut around tiny little spaces.   :/


Wished I’d had another white paper option, other than this fairly thin rice-paper, to use the rubber stamp on.  It is more transparent than the effect I think I’d prefer.  But it was what I had, in enough abundance for 30 cards.  The constrictions of ‘mass-production’ are interesting.

And here's the production line, steps 1-6:

Between Steps 6 and 7, I dealt with 2 issues. One entailed a design decision: Sprinkles (upper l.)? Or no sprinkles?

The other issue was the matter of the rather insubstantial rice paper, upon which I’d chosed to stamp the geese…

When I applied the diluted Modge Podge (glue), it rendered the white rice paper transparent! Thus the geese were barely discernible.

So, I decided to touch ‘em up w/ an Ultra-fine Sharpie – which I had very serendipitously JUST seen, for the first time ever, and very presciently actually PURCHASED, just the week before!  Smart subconscious to know what I had to look forward to once I got the rice paper wet?!

TOO BAD I hadn’t glued my prototype card before committing to the 30 little sets of geese I cut out of the troublesome paper...! Lesson learned, and I’m not at all unhappy with the result.

And (one of) the final product!