Sweet finale

© Sweet!
mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce

For the final Sweet Petites I just had to cook up a pair of cakes. The top one was in the works before the vintage cook booklet cover was found. It made the perfect, background and adds to the overall graphic appeal. It took a lot of time to find the pink plate the cake rests upon. I wasn't necessarily looking for a pink one, just one the right size. Bonus: the knife that looks like a cake server.

© Love Birds
mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce

This cake is similar to "Love's Offering," which was made back in April for the anniversary exhibit at the Bonbonerie Cafe - which is still up, by the way. It was so much fun concocting the cake with Victorian needlework illustrations that I wanted to try my hand at it again.

Well, I didn't use that many. The bottom layer is made from vintage wrapping paper, and the blue layers are from a vintage greeting card, so, only the two remaining layers are needlework patterns. But so is the lacy border at the bottom. The birds rest on bejeweled leaves from a vintage greeting card. As a kid, I loved those cards with their sparkling, plastic "jewels."  

The train kept a rollin' ... more petites

© Flight Plans.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

More of the petites, as in each is 3" x 4.5." All are matted to fit a standard 5" x 7" frame. One thing I like a lot about this batch is the fairly even blend of antique, vintage and recycled paper in each. I'll be making more later in the summer but, for now, am moving on to some much larger pieces. Enjoy.

© Ella's Green Thumb Transforms the Garden.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

© Porkoplis.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.
(sold)

© Makes Me Wanna Shout.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

The petites keep going, and going ...

High Spirited.

Two more petites. Taking a break from them, well, maybe ...  found some dancing pigs yesterday, and there is an elephant one I've been toying with, and still herding cats and dogs. Plus, these two make me consider the possibilities of what can be done with the hundreds of postcards in my stash.

Untitled ... at the moment. Maybe "All The Young Dudes"? 

Animal attraction

Village Dandies

Footloose
(sold)

Last week, I mentioned a new line of "petite" collages I'm creating. They really ARE petite, that is:  2.5"x4.5" and 3.25"x4.6" - and matted in 5"x7" acid-free mats to fit ready-made frames. 

Well, this week, I hit my stride with a series of animal collages - a first for me, except for birds, that is - for a fundraiser to aid a new Cincinnati non-profit: Pets In Need. It provides vet care for animals owned by low-income people, which could be anyone from a person who's been laid off from their job to someone with a serious illness whose income has been depleted by medical bills.

Pets are a passion of a good friend of mine, Carol Sanger, who chairs the board. So, when she asked me if I wanted to participate in their Summer Solstice Celebration, I jumped at the chance. Since the group is not charging any "set-up" fee or taking a commission on sales, I decided to donate part of my proceeds to them.

Well, enough of the back story, here are more of the petites ...

Cat o' Nine Tales
(sold)

Waited on, hand and foot

Melancholic
(sold)

Groovin'
(sold)

You Talkin' to Me?
(sold)

Snail Mail

The Proposal

Studio open today

Just a quick reminder that I will be in the studio 10 a.m.-3 p.m. today (Saturday June 15). Since last night was the first time I was able to make the monthly Open Studios at Brazee Street Studios - my studio's home - I thought I'd extend things into today. The rest of the building is open, too, so you can also visit the gallery, glass shop, hot shop and, if any other studios are open, those, too. Usually, there are people working in the metal shop and hot shop.

Surprises at tonight's Open Studio ...

New petite collages.

Since I missed the first two Open Studios of the year, I am pulling out all the stops for tonight's (6-9 p.m., Studio 1C, Brazee Street Studios in Oakley). First, I will be open at 5 p.m. Second, I also will be open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday).

Meanwhile, as I was creating a slew of new Fit To Be Tied collage tags/bookmarks, some grew a bit more complex and a tiny bit larger. Voila! Sweet Petites were born. Yeah, the name's a bit precious, but til I come up with something better, well, that's it. 

The first five in the series feature antique engravings of women from Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's Magazine; Victorian flower scraps (thanks Shirley Tenhover); vintage paper flowers and dried flowers (thanks Tim Leslie). They are matted in acid-free, conservation grade mats and ready to pop into  a standard 5" x 7" frame.

New Fit To Be Tied ® collage tags in the works. 

When I said a slew of tags, I meant it. That's them, above, on the work table, awaiting laminating - new this time around - hole punching and their vintage seam binding ribbons. Finished them last night, just in a nick of time.

Last, but certainly not least on this Father's Day weekend, finally got my act together and had a pile of vintage 1932-33 car ads from Fortune magazine matted. The over-sized ads - 11" X 14" - are in mint condition, the mats are wide and conservation grade, and, of course, they're matted to fit a standard-size frame. As much as I love the car ones, well, the Firestone tire ads are the real eye-poppers.   

I've been magnetized.

OK. Went a bit craft crazy this week. Found some old supplies in the attic - a Xyron machine and cartridge for making thin, laminated magnets, hauled it all to the studio and, well, I now have a line of magnets.

At the moment, most are body parts like these, which are reproduced from a mannikin in the 1904 edition of Medicology. Some are mini Mad Women collages. Hope to be selling them at the studio Friday night ... in case you need some prying eyes. (I did make the opposite eye, too.)

Tied to the past

The gift tags above were created years ago by my late Mom. So long ago, in fact, that they are now vintage.

I've written before about my mom's innate craftiness, and it's lasting impact on me. One of her many projects was recycling holiday cards as gift tags. She needed a lot, because we had such a large immediate family - seven children - and extended family.

I found these in the garage of my parent's house. We are preparing to sell it, because our dad - now 86.5 years old - is in assisted living. My brothers have been remodeling the house for the past year, and stashed most of my parents' belongings in storage. But a cache of photos, ephemera  and craft supplies were still in the garage. My youngest sister, Helen, and I were sorting through it all when I found these.

I actually still have the tags that my mom wrote for Christmas gifts that she bought, and wrapped, for my family before her death, which was 11 days before Christmas. They are tucked away in a box.

As for these, it's tempting to use them on my "Fit to Be Tied" holiday collage tag line. But a more meaningful re-use would be attaching them - as is - to family gifts. So, that's what I plan to do.

The Third Eye

© Hindsight
Mixed-media collage: antique engravings & text; 
marker, ink, watercolor, colored pencil.
2.5"x3.5" on archival mat board.

You know the saying, hindsight is 50/50? Well, I'd like to say it applies here, but nothing could be further from the truth.

This trio of petite collages began as pieces for a traveling exhibit being organized by Cincinnati artist/curator Paige Wideman. The initial thought? Tiny Grand Tour collages that would be the opposite of the enormous ones made earlier this year, but just as detailed.

However, while ransacking the travel and map files, I happened to grab a folder containing 18th/19th century engravings of faces. A friend talked me into buying them last fall, even though I thought I'd never use them.

Well, they were just the right size for this. I knew immediately that they would be combined with anatomical images. The idea of a "third eye" clicked, and, so, one thing led to another.

I wish I could divulge some deeper meaning, and there may actually be one - but at the moment, it escapes me.    

© Joshua's Third Eye Experiences An Alarming Growth Spurt
Mixed-media collage: antique engravings & medical notebook; 
marker, ink, watercolor, colored pencil. 2.5"x3.5" on archival mat board. 

© Second Sight. Mixed-media collage: 
antique engraving; vintage textbook; marker, ink, 
watercolor, colored pencil; image transfer. 
2.5"x3.5" on archival mat board.