Ginkgo Leaves

I never thought much of ginkgo leaves until recently.  Then, I saw a beautiful plate on Etsy (the one below, specifically, a gorgeous chartreuse piece by HopeJohnson) and I knew I had to use ginkgo leaves as one of my card designs.

Ginkgo Dipping Dish

I loved the fan shaped leaves on the long thin stems (ah! you know how I love those spindly legs!).  They are just so perfectly odd I had to use them.  I didn't even realize til later that ginkgo leaves are on ginkgo trees.  I prefer to imagine them bobbing on their own in the gentle breeze, growing in tall clumps in a marsh or bog.

Red Ginkgo Card

I also found out a few interesting things about ginkgos along the way.  For one, ginkgo is a living fossil, meaning that it has no close living relatives, having been the one survivor of all major extinction events.  That basically means it's a tree right out of the Jurassic period.   Also, the leaves are unique among seed plants, with their lovely fan shapes.  I like the idea that maybe all the weird plants I illustrate were once at home right alongside the ginkgo.  Perhaps I should look into prehistoric botany.

Ampersand

It's amazing that I've managed to get anything done this week, with the puppy parade going on at my house. I'm pet-sitting my mom's retriever mix who, at maybe 8 months old, is easily twice the size of my dog. He's a big lumbering galoot, and she loves having one around to play with, so everytime I sit down to do something, I am accosted by the thunder of doggie feet as they run around me in circles. I never get very far before I have to take them out or calm them down or feed them.

However, I have managed, amongst all the canine thunder, to carve out one card so far: the ampersand card. That ever-familiar 'and' symbol that has mostly been relegated to formal writing only is one of my favorite symbols and I love everything it represents, a world of infinite possiblity. So I drew up a simple version of it and printed it on cards.

Ampersand Cards

And even now, as I finish up this post, the dogs are growling incessantly as they play tug-of-war with each other.  If I'm lucky they'll wear themselves out and I'll have this afternoon to work.

The Postman

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters.  You can't reread a phone call." -Liz Carpenter

For a long time, as you readers know, I just drew, then painted, then illustrated, then started block printing. When I started doing linocuts, I could have just carved big designs and printed them on lovely creamy sheets of cotton rag, selling them for much more than my cards.  But instead, I work mostly work small (even though the medium of block printing gets all the more difficult the littler one works) and print my images on cards (when, even still, I could be printing them on half the paper and selling them for twice the price).  

I do this simply because I love letters and wish more people wrote them.  I feel it's a dying art form.  All over the country, and the world people are taking up new crafts that were once dying the same way-- soapmaking, silversmithing, blacksmithing even-- and I wish they would do the same with letter writing.

There is something to be said for receiving a letter in the mail, with it's handwritten address and maybe a lovely or unusual stamp.  I love seeing different forms of penmanship, from shaky scratch to the most perfect Copperplate script. There's always that moment you wonder what might be inside, besides just words.  Perhaps a picture of a lover, or a check from grandmother.  More often than not, what is inside is a moment.  That moment when you read words the first time that are funny or sweet or kind or loving, your fingers feeling the soft paper, that familiar, faint wood smell in the air.  A letter is something private and beautiful, it's a memory that can be relived and unfolded.  There is a reason that the most important things are still carried out this way, such as invitations to weddings, birthday greetings, Christmas cards, and thank you notes.  It is, very simply, more special.

Some of my best memories are of letters.  When my cousin (who was my best friend through much of grammar school) moved away to Oregon, I still remember to this day the first letter I received from here, crammed in a too small envelope, covered in stickers and stamps.   I received the same kind of letter, often, from my other best friend, when I moved away to North Carolina.  Through much of the beginning of my husband and I's courtship, when I had to leave his house while he was at work, I'd write him a love letter to find in place of me, a way of saying "I'm with you, even when I'm not."  You cannot and never will be able to do that with an email. 

So I make cards, and I don't sell very many, but they still get used often.  I write to my grandmother-in-law regularly, used them for the thank-you notes after my wedding, I use them in place of store-bought cards for every occasion, preferring to write my own note inside, rather than some manufactured well-wish and now and again, I still write a love letter.   My hope is, maybe one day soon, you will too.

Dogwood Card Process

I just finished a new flower design, based on dogwoods that bloom here in North Carolina in the spring (the state flower, but not the state tree).  What follows is a photographic representation of the process of making the linocut and printing it on paper and on card.

The original sketch, cut down to fit on the block.

The image has been transferred to a Speedball linoleum block.

The flowers have been cut away so they will show through the white of the paper.

Ink on the block, rolled out and the first test prints made.

A close-up of the test prints.

I always to test prints, so i have a good idea of how the ink is transferring and the best way to clean the image up.  I then file away the test prints to and the original sketch to refer to later (and in case something happens to a block and I need to recreate it).  

UPDATE: The cards have been printed and are for sale in my Etsy store. Check them out here.

Giveaway Wednesday: Magnolia or Sway Cards

It's that time of the month again...no, the other time, the one people actually like.  It's Giveaway Wednesday.   This time the winner will have the pick of either a set of four of my new magnolia cards (which come in turquoise and orange):

Or a set of my new Sway cards, which come in dark yellow and blue.

The rules are as follows, and are a lot like last month:

1.  Go to my Etsy store here, find your favorite listing and copy the link for it into a comment at the bottom of this post.   Also comment as to whether, if you won, you would prefer Sway or Magnolia cards.

2.  Wait.  This time you have until Monday, March 14th at midnight.  I will announce the winner next Wednesday.

3.  Only one comment per entrant please.

4.  I will once again tally up the number of comments and use a random number generator to determine the winner.  If I cannot contact the winner within 24 hours, I will select another winner the same way. 

Let the commenting begin!

NOTE: I have decided to extend the opportunity to win these cards until NEXT Monday at midnight, so please, send your friends this way!

First Official Giveaway Wednesday

Starting today and continuing the tradition on every second Wednesday of every month (barring vacation, illness or unforeseen whatever), I will be doing a giveaway here on my blog. I'll try to make it something different every month.  This month we'll be starting with a set of four of my brand new Fiddlehead Fern cards (so new they aren't even in my Etsy store yet):

The rules are as follows:

1.  You must go to my Etsy store here, find something you love and post a link to it in the comments.

2.  You have until noon on Friday, February 11th.  

3.  You may not be a family member, soon-to-be-family member or close personal friend.  I'll just ignore your comment.  You may also not comment more than once.  Repeat comments will be deleted.

4.  After noon on Friday I will count up all the comments and use a random number generator to determing the winner, who will then be emailed, and once reached via email, will also be announced here on the blog.  

5.  In the event the winner has not been contacted in 48 hours, I will generate a new number and pick a new winner. If THAT person, doesn't respond, I'll presume the Universe wants me to keep the cards.

Let the commenting begin!

ADDENDUM:  Rule Number Three only applies to super-super-close friends. If I don't hang out with you on a weekly basis, rule three doesn't apply to you.  It's basically for people I would give free stuff to anyway.