In honor of Cyber Monday, I've taken the plunge

Well, with the holidays here, I thought it was time to allow online ordering. I'm doing it via PayPal and you'll start seeing an "order now" button appearing on each post. Just click it to place an order. So, now you can buy my art from home, the office cubicle, the neighborhood coffeehouse or, well, you get the picture! Shipping will be first class via USPS. Now, back to creating those buttons ...

Out on a Limb: 11

I took a break from the Santa series to return to Out on A Limb, thinking I'd pick up where I left off. Ha! The piece ended up markedly different. I still was going with combining color and black-and-white images of birds but wanted to use an engraving of a robin I've had for some time. It's from a series published in The Chatterbox throughout 1871. The British children's magazine was big on nature and education, and there's no better proof than its beautiful engravings of flora and fauna. I scanned the original, below, in case I want to reproduce it some day. Luckily, I have two sets of the magazine from that year, so there's still another original to play with.

Some of the trellis is missing at the bottom of the collage, a casualty of the knife. I know that I probably shouldn't point that out. But, well, I was determined to cut out that intricate trellis at all costs to expose the background, which includes a piece of veneer from my friend Laura Chapman (I love that it's labeled veneer and wanted to show that) and a sliver of an 1877 map of Ohio from Harper's School Geography.

The vibrant robins were clipped from an antique Christmas postcard. Birds were a common holiday motif and the Christmas theme is carried out subtly in the holly and mistletoe on the trellis. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]

Down through the chimney ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 1
(SOLD)

Opps! Meant to post two Santas today, but just realized that I didn't scan one of them. So, this Santa is solo. Well, not quite, since there are two Santas on the collage. The central image is from a vintage Hallmark postcard that reproduced an antique image. The Santa in the background was printed on an envelope for a newsletter. The other background elements are (from left to right): antique book spine lining, recycled greeting card, a border from the "Intertype Book of Intertype Faces" (1928) and recycled marbled wrapping paper. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel.

He knows when you are sleeping ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 6
Price: $75

Ho! Ho! Ho! 7
Price: $75

The Santas keep going and going and ... The collage at top features an 1877 map of Ohio not just behind  Santa but also on the sides of the panel, which is about an inch deep. At first, I left the sides of all the Santa panels bare. The wood is attractive with a natural varnish, and it makes the pieces feel a bit cleaner and more modern.

Then, I made a mistake when trying to add stamped dots to the side of one and had to cover them with something (the bingo Santa in yesterday's post, if you must know). Next thing, I was tackling the sides of a few more. On the bottom collage, I stamped "confidential" on the wood, allowing the ink to fade so that it has a random, rushed feel. 5"x5"x1" on claybord/hardwood panel.

The mother lode: sumptuous nursery rhymes

I'm the first to admit that I'm shameless when it comes to asking for old paper for my collages. Signs dot the studio urging visitors to let me take old stuff - "the grungier, the better" - off their hands. I'll even pay for it if I really, really want something.

But people seem happy to find a new home for their paper and often donate it. That's what happened last week when a woman walked into my studio holding a postcard from an open studio back in the spring. She told me she had seen the signs and had a bag of stuff for me. Did I want it? Sure. Turns out that it included a box of about 40 sewing patterns for children's and teen clothing from the early 1960s, which couldn't have come at a better time; I was just about to start shopping for some.

Also in the bag, the 1915 Volland Popular Edition of Mother Goose. I've made it clear before that I am a huge fan of all things Volland. The Chicago publisher's publications were stylish and often avant-garde. This compilation of Mother Goose nursery rhymes was put together by Eulalie Osgood Grover and illustrated by Frederick Richardson (1862-1937) with full-page paintings so lush and colorful that a reader gets lost in them. As Grover says in her foreword "children, as well as interested parents, will eagerly welcome this beautiful edition of the great nursery classic, just as a worthy edition of Shakespeare is welcomed by discriminating adult readers."


My copy is grungy. The outer spine is missing, along with a few of the illustrations. Aged, yellowed cellophane tape holds many pages together. Pencil and crayon drawings can be found throughout the book. I like that; it shows that the book was used - not just sitting on a shelf. Overall, the central images are in terrific condition. Plenty of the images are available online, as is the entire book, but I'm scanning a high-res version into my digital library anyway. Then, we'll see what kind of new collages come out of the originals from this wonderful gift!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ho! Ho! Ho! 4
(SOLD)

Ho! Ho! Ho! 8
(SOLD)

Two more depictions of the Jolly Old Elf from the new Santa series. The top collage is a recycled greeting card that, in turn, used an antique illustration. The background includes a brochure that featured Edward T. Hurley's 1911 painting "The Midnight Mass," which depicts Cincinnati's Mount Adams' neighborhood on a snowy night. It's quite beautiful and can be seen in the Cincinnati Wing at the Cincinnati Art Museum and they offer it as a poster; (although the image on the web site does it little justice). 5"x5" on claybord/hardwood panel.

The bottom collage also is a recycled greeting card. I just loved that Santa being doted on at the salon. The bingo card was a long, paper one. I topped it with dotted vellum rescued from an invitation and a sliver of a gorgeous, screen-printed envelope liner from the 1920s. I found it in a cache of letters and greeting cards that were being sold years ago at an estate sale. 5"x5" on claybord/hardwood panel.

Santa, baby

Ho! Ho! Ho! 2
(SOLD)

Ho! Ho! Ho! 3
Price: $75.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I'm enamored with Ampersand's 5"x5" claybord/hardwood panels, so I used them as the base for my new Ho! Ho! Ho! series of Santa collages. I'm a sucker for Santas of every era and am trying to mix it up in this series. The Santa at the top is a vintage German scrap from the days when Germany was divided and it was printed in West Germany. The Santa at the bottom is from a vintage American greeting card that didn't have a publisher's name - or copyright - printed on it.

They are backed by a variety of papers including vintage sheet music, a type maker's catalog and antique endpaper (top), and recycled wrapping paper, greeting cards and a vintage price tag (bottom). Right now, there are eight in the series, so you'll be seeing more.

Look what turned up in the mail:an Edwardian holiday beauty

I get the best mail! A few weeks ago, I posted an item about some Dennison Halloween stickers that I had nabbed and in it, mentioned how red hot Halloween is among paper collectors. Well, all collectors. A few days later, a plain, No. 10 business envelope arrived in the mail. It was from my friend Laura Chapman.

Laura had recently given me a nice cache of paper from her collage-making days that included food labels, French newspapers and signs from the 1950s, paper sample booklets and more. Now, she was sending me some holiday postcards - pretty much the only postcards I collect. I thumbed through them and when I got to the one on the bottom of the pile, I gasped. Really. It was the marvelous 1912 postcard above.

Anyone who collects postcards will recognize it immediately as one of New York publisher John Winsch's and as the work of illustrator Samuel Loren Schmucker (1879-1921). Happily, it has the Winsch copyright in the bottom left corner. Winsch's company wasn't around long - just five or so years - but it was the heyday of postcard publishing and the company made quite an impact.

The illustrations of "beautiful women" that Schmucker created for Winsch - and for the Detroit Publishing Co., earlier - are among the most collectible postcards. His gorgeous, rosy-cheeked "girls" almost as iconic as Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girls." His wife, Katharine - considered a great American beauty - was his initial model.

I don't have many Winsch/Schmucker cards; they're usually outside my price range. Yet over the years, I've managed to snap up some at bargain prices. Two seasonal ones are below; the Thanksgiving card is from 1911 and the Christmas one from 1910. Oh, and two more beautiful Christmas women are in my exhibit case in the dining room of the Taft Museum of Art as part of its annual Antique Christmas exhibition.

  

Out On a Limb: 8

This is the final post of the six new Out On A Limb collages. The parrots were jumpstarted by the background paper on the right side. It's a piece of a recycled file folder with a leafy pattern I find tropical and exotic, not to mention that it echoes the pattern on the birds' wings. The parrot on the far left was added after I thought the piece was done. I was afraid that the bird might get lost in the background and, to some extent, it does - yet still manages to hold its own. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel, ready to hang. $65 + $5 shipping & handling. [SOLD]

Note: For those keeping track and wondering what happened to Out On a Limb: 7, it is a mockingbird collage that I used to promote November's art shows. It never appeared in a regular post.

Out On a Limb: 10

I often sets rules for myself when making pieces, well, let's call them parameters - sounds less dictatorial! In any case, when I began this new series within the Out A Limb series, the idea was to combine color and black-and-white images of birds. Then, I found this image in my stash.

The two birds are actually connected to one another, and try as I might to add another, full-color, bird, it didn't work. I could've separated the birds for more flexibility in positioning them, but liked them as they were. So, I tossed out my parameters.

The background looks hand painted, doesn't it? It's not. The "finger-painted" section on the bottom is from a recycled children's book proof, as is the feathered cloud sky at the top. 5 "x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]

Holiday hours at Paper With a Past Studio

I adore this DIY craft project Santa from the December 1868 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, so I thought he'd be the perfect image for the announcement of extended holiday hours at my studio. I put all this info on the studio page but thought it would be good to repeat it here. Instead of being open only during the second Friday night open studios, Paper With a Past will be open noon-8 p.m. Thursdays ('cept Thanksgiving) and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays through Dec. 22.

Please stop by to see what's new. I'll be whipping up all kinds of holiday goodies from ornaments to greeting cards to tags to, well, whatever else comes to mind. I'll also be squeezing in some new non-holiday collages. For directions to the studio: go here.

Oh, I'm usually at work every afternoon, so if you want to stop by at another time, please call or text 254-9776. I'll try to keep my cell on - really! 

Every time I say I want to go bigger, I go smaller.Now, I'm customizing, too!

Well, I couldn't resist trying my hand at collage ornaments. In this case, tiny collage ornaments. As in 1.5"x1.5" and 1"x3" and 2"x2." The result: my new merry&brite® collection. They are $20 each - and  are available in the studio and Brazee's gallery One One downstairs as part of the Multiplicity/Hang it Up group exhibit.

I didn't realize how difficult working this small would be. The main issue is finding images that will "read" at this size. So, these took much longer to create than I thought they would. There also was the issue of not making them too thick so they could fit into the frames with the glass. That ruled out a lot of recycled greeting card images I planned to use - they were too thick.

The original plan was to make soldered ornaments. I took a class, bought the materials and equipment needed, but once I spotted these frames, well, I bailed. I do think I will solder some day, if only to make pieces the size that I want. I have some beautiful, old, beveled-glass squares I've been itching to turn into ornaments.  

Still, I'm happy with these. So happy that I'm offering to make custom ornaments using your materials or that include a map of the city, state, country you select. Interested? Contact me. The deadline to order is Nov. 25 and delivery is guaranteed by Dec. 16. The price for the custom-made ornaments is also $20.

Out on A Limb: 6

Another of those Victorian scraps paired with a black & white image, which is from one of the Dover image books from the early 1970s. The piece at the bottom is hand-made paper that was used as wrapping paper and was a last-minute add - thanks to a suggestion from my daughter. It did need something to ground it. And, yes, it will be in the Redtree exhibit that opens Friday. 5" x 5" on claybord & hardwood base, ready to hang. [SOLD]

Sharing a treasured Victorian scrapbookin the Taft Museum of Art's holiday exhibit

Guess what? A selection of antique holiday cards and postcards from my collection are on exhibit in the Taft Museum of Art's annual Antique Christmas exhibition. As much as I love, love, love the cards, what I'm really excited about is the inclusion of my great, great Aunt Phebe's scrapbook from 1881.

A few years ago, my father made the mistake of sharing it with me. It was full of so many beautiful, vibrant Victorian cards - by noted publishers such as Louis Prang and Raphael Tuck - that I had to ask if I could borrow it to scan into my digital library. He hemmed and hawed and, finally, let it out of his grasp. My father's family wasn't terrific at saving paper, which is why the scrapbook is so special both to him - and me.

He's in South Jersey. I'm in Cincinnati. I figured that once the book was out of sight, it would be out of mind. Wrong.  Each time I'm back home, he asks when I'm going to return it; each time I answer "never." It's become kind of a joke between us. My latest excuse for keeping it? Why, it's inclusion in the Taft exhibition, of course.

The album contains Christmas greetings for the most part, with a few Easter cards and a smattering of other ephemera. The latter includes two small envelopes with locks of hair tucked inside them, a menu from the Third Triennial Dinner in 1884 of alumni of the Hampton N&A Institute, calling cards and other odds and ends. Phebe wrote the names of who the cards were from beneath many of them after gluing them onto the pages. I don't  know much about Phebe; neither does my father. But I suspect the family had money back then - sigh - and that if she had this scrapbook, she must've had others.

I'm thrilled to share, especially in this exhibit, because the show is one of my favorites. I tend to hit it 3 or so times, often with family and friends in tow. I'm endlessly fascinated by the extravagant and frequently odd ornaments, toys, decorations and other collectibles. The selections change each year; a smart tactic for luring people back. It's also a savvy way to show off the house and its first-rate collection since visitors must roam from room to room to view the entire exhibit. My case is in the dining room.

Since just one page of Phebe's scrapbook is open, I thought I'd share more of it here. Yes, I finally scanned it into my library. So, once the exhibit ends, I'll have to cook up a new excuse for keeping it!

 

Out On A Limb: 9

In the last post about the new pieces in this series, I mentioned that it started with the idea to combine antique black-and-white images of birds with color ones. Well, that impulse came from the vibrant Victorian scrap shown here. It's part of the trove of Victoriana that my friend Shirley Tenhover keeps surprising me with. Just received a new box of goodies from her, but more about that another time. I left the number tag on the scrap, because it reminded me of the tagging of animals by scientists. Like the earlier piece, this will be in the Redtree show that opens Friday. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel, ready to hang [SOLD]

Hope you stop by, because bidding ends tonight at 8:30

Out on A Limb: 5

Way back, that is in March, I posted the first of the Out On A Limb series. I mentioned - well, maybe whined a bit - that I didn't particularly like making the pieces. At that time, as you will see here, I was creating the birds and limbs from various bits of paper. I used vintage bird images to make stencils, then, cut the parts. Once the initial construction was finished, I did enjoy adding to it but getting there was tedious. To me, it's like cooking - I once was a chef and went to chef's school in Philly - in that the prep work isn't necessarily the fun part. I feel the same way about sewing, hate cutting out the pattern but love embellishing the final product!

Well, as time has passed, I've returned to the series. But it has evolved into something I now enjoy making much more. I just completed six pieces in which I decided to combine color images of birds with black-and-white ones. For this one, I used a vintage page from a 1930s Audubon bird coloring book - the same book from which I had made the stencils - as the background, pairing it with a color image of a cardinal from one of the beautiful American Singer song bird trade cards published in the early 20th century.

Each piece is on a 5" x 5" x 3/4" Ampersand claybord panel. Normally, I don't hawk products, but I just bought a slew of these in a variety of sizes and love working with them. Unlike the boxy, wrapped stretched canvas, there is no give-and-take on the surface, so the papers glue down flat, flat, flat! I varnished the sides, which are made of hardwood, and attached sawtooth hangers to the backs so that the pieces can be hung without framing. I just learned that the entire series will be on view in Redtree Gallery's "A Small Glimpse" show, which opens Nov. 11. {The cardinal is SOLD}

Autumn's Arrival Gave Venus the Perfect Excuse to Cover Up

I suppose that since my collages frequently are about women taking control that it was inevitable that I'd get to Botticelli's famous 15th century painting sooner or later. You might argue that it is happenstance that Venus has grabbed some of the leaves being blown about by the autumn winds as a cover up, but I prefer to think of it as intentional. The leaves were cut from antique postcards, vintage greeting cards and catalog covers.  4.75" x 4.75" on archival mat board. It is matted to fit a standard 8" x 10" frame.