Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Oh, that one's a particularly sweet and soft explanation, just like bears.  (sigh) 

All's well that ends well.  Good on you and congrats on the sale!

Well, how exciting is THAT???  Kudos to you!

But Paula, how do you pronounce that??

lol...

Brenda:  "All digital" usually means a card that has been created digitally in its entirety and then printed out and sometimes, laminated.  So the end result would be essentially a photograph.  "All digital" cards are essentially photographs; they're prints of digitally created work. 

I'd probably call your cards "Collage, with 3D and digital elements" or "Collage with 3D and photo print elements" or something like that if I were describing it.  With cards like the ones you've posted here it's pretty clear how you constructed them so the descrption, per se, becomes less important.  There are times, though, that what appears to be an original on the monitor is actually a print in reality (they would, of course, look the same on a computer screen)... so that's where describing things with great accuracy really comes into play.

Christine:  Darling cards!

Kerrilyn:  Many people frame their art cards.  Others build special cases for them and display them that way.  I have one friend who has a rotating display of cards that she switches out each month.  Check it out: 

http://flickr.com/photos/originalyouth/2495052258/ -- OOH, she found a new display case!! :)
http://flickr.com/photos/originalyouth/2449221169/ -- This is the one I was thinking of when I wrote, above.

I happen to put my own cards inside an album because I like to tote them around and immerse myself in them. Plus I have a biggish house with tall walls and they kinda disappear on the walls otherwise because they're so small.  I have a few framed and displayed in my office but mostly I group my collection by themes into a black 12x12 scrapbook album.  I go the extra mile, though, and create pretty pages for them by gluing 9-slot card protectors to black 12x12 cardstock.  The black makes a nice, neutral background for all that art, and helps tie every page together.  Here's a very quick and dirty scan of two of my ATC album pages (sorry for the reflection, I did this on my scanner very fast and as you can see, I couldn't fit everything!)

These pages feature FAVORITE ARTIST PICK-A-THEME swap returns, with art my friends have made for me of my favorite artists Scott Radke (weird figures), Cassandra Barney (willowy females), and Patricia LeBon-Herb (abstract trees)... and my VINTAGE IMAGE COLLAGE page, which includes work by the aforementioned Deb Burnham (she's got three there, in fact; one was a card she sent me that was too pretty not to include) and the center piece is by our own Aleta Breese (hi, Silly Girl.)

I don't think we've covered this here (or have we, and I'm having a midlife moment?), and I find myself wondering just exactly how to pronounce certain user names, and where they came from, and why they were chosen.  What's YOUR story?

I'll start.  Mine's boring, if convoluted.

I make high end teddy bears for adult collectors, which some of you may know.    The name of my company is POTBELLY BEARS.  I originally wanted to call it ShelliBelli Bears and to name my website www.shellibellibears.com, but my friend Andrea, a graduate in graphic design and now, a consultant in marketing & branding, handed me a list of about a bajillion reasons why that name wasn't "ideal."  Reasons such as:  ShelliBelli is not an intuitive spelling and people might not get to my website as a result; ShelliBelli has no relationship to my product and is therefore harder to remember than a term that makes better sense; ShelliBelli is a very long thing to type into a browser bar; and so on.  I think she was dead on and I'm grateful for her advice.  So I went with something similar, dropping the Shelli and keeping the Belli.  And came up with Potbelly Bears.

When I started making imps (softies) and jar bears and art cards, I liked the idea of expanding my branding, and began using the moniker POTBELLY ARTS to reference myself instead, including registering the domain www.potbellyarts.com, which is an overlay to my original website www.potbellybears.com.  I thought POTBELLY ARTS was kinda memorable and whimsical and weird so I chose that as my ATC world user name and my "arts & crafts" name more generally.  I'm also POTBELLY ARTS (as all one word: potbellyarts) at flickr, on Etsy, on DeviantArt, and so on.  I figured it was good to be find-able on the web since I have a web-based business, and that's worked well for me so far.

I go by POTBELLY ARTS pretty much everywhere on the web (early in my career I used POTBELLY BEARS too.)  People can generally find me under one of those names, or the other, various spots on the web...

... Except (ironically) on this forum!!, which best represents my business and background and interests, and the reason I developed a "web presence" in the first place!!  Here at Teddy Talk, in order to appear accessible and friendly to the readership and to personalize our presence and take away any sense that we're authoritarian or "bosses" lording over the members here, the decision was made that all TT advisors use first names as their user names.  Which I think was a fine and good decision!  Anyway... That's why I'm "Shelli" here, and POTBELLY SOMETHING everywhere else.

And gawd, that was a lot of words to tell a really, really boring story.   

What's YOUR user name story?  Do tell!  And please... share how to pronounce your user name if it's a weird one.

JEALOUS here!  Have a great time, everyone... and congrats and best of luck to you, Samantha, on this huge undertaking!  Wowza!

Please take picture, everyone.  We'll be dying to see them when you're through.

I'm sorry, Dilu... I don't understand your question!

The ATC world has certain rules and conventions but the strict ones are really limited:

1.  Must measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches
2.  Must be traded, not sold

If you want to sell your work, these rules apply

1.  Must measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches
3.  Must be called ACEO's (Artist Card Editions and Originals) and not ATC's (Artist Trading Cards, a term reserved for art that's traded, not sold)

I'm not sure what 'rules' you're talking about!  Did I imply or say that there are a lot of rules in this hobby?  If so I communicated badly, misspoke, or have been misunderstood.  I've been talking about all kinds of things in this thread, including the rules of certain WEBSITES, or the rules for certain SWAPS that are hosted at those website.  But in terms of making art cards, period, it's pretty much anything goes!

There's a certain etiquette to swapping and selling art cards and if you want a good reputation in the community you follow and respect that etiquette but it's pretty much a free spirited, easy, fun hobby.

Please help me understand your question better. :)

Brenda -- Really nice cards!  I like your bunbuns (hey... that sounds naughty!)  You said they're "all digital."  It looks like they're collaged with all kinds of really cool ribbons hanging off them to me.  Did I misunderstand??

Hey Kelly... Thanks for the pointer!  I DO use nylon upholestry thread so again, will take you up on your excellent suggestion next time in the hopes it's just a matter of thread choice that's been causing my stitches to slip.

Where HAVE you been all my life???

PS  I use upholstery thread because I pull really hard with my hand stitching and kept breaking every other kind.  But I don't necessarily think it's a prerequisite to making a good bear.  It just stands up to ME better.

Here's a thread on that, Bobbie:  http://www.teddy-talk.com/viewtopic.php?id=609

I don't know to be honest with you.  I think they go with certain printers.

Visit the HP website.  I think that's where I found out about the inks my particular printer uses.  I'm sure yours would be listed, too.

I ended an auction early once, very early in my career, for what were actually pretty solid reasons -- I thought, anyway.  In doing so, I know for a fact I completely irked one of my potential collectors who was new to my mailing list and actually a very decent person.  She was angry at me because she had her hopes up for that particular bear, too.  We talked it out via email and things turned out just fine but I have to admit, I didn't really understand how disappointing it might be from the collector point of view to lose the OPPORTUNITY to bid, even for a good reason, until she wrote to explain it to me.

I vowed to her I'd never end an auction early again, having heard and understood her arguments -- and I never have.

I stand with Bobbie... firmly in the NO camp on this one.  I think it's just good business, operated with integrity, if you start a sale as an auction, to end the sale as an auction, too.  No surprises, except the final bid price.

Lesson learned!

BP -- hey, that's a kind of ominous set of initials -- I use my home printer, which is an all in one.  It uses Vivera inks; I have six separate cartridges.  I did research online and they appear to be archival quality inks so I print on premium paper (glossy or matte depending on need) and then, yes, use my Xyron to cold-laminate.  Xyron materials are acid free and intended for use in scrapbooking so I think I'm producing cards that will stand the test of time.  I hope.  I tried to do my research!

I rarely make prints of my cards, though, simply because I enjoy making originals so much... and RECEIVING originals in return, which you will rarely get in exchange for a print.  In fact it seems downright like cheating to me to exchange a print for an original.  I'll offer to custom make something for someone, if I want something in their gallery that's an original and I have nothing to swap, before I'll offer them a print.

I'm blathering again.  ATC's are my passion.  Such a fun addiction!

I might add, btw, that I did an encaustic abstract a while back.  At our local farmer's market on Saturdays you can buy pure beeswax in blocks.  I used that and actually my heat gun.  I put little shavings of wax onto my work by rubbing the wax across the paper.  I also sprinkled some on that I had shaved off with an Exacto knife.  Then I used my heat gun to melt it and a brush and palette knife to spread it.  I was going for textural and rough.  I kinda liked the outcome although it didn't "go" so well with my abstract art underneath as it might have, say, with a vintage image collage.

Anyhoos... that's all for now.

I just hope when Karen comes back she posts pictures of what she ended up in!  Has anyone mentioned yet how incredibly unfair it is that she's at a Disney resort and we're not?  It IS, after all, the happiest place on earth.  No matter WHAT she's wearing!

Ha!  Nice video, Mr. Dean.

I'm afraid the world isn't ready for me in just a lippy and flats -- hysterical, Paula... and a comment I'm really trying hard not to ask more about  :twisted:  -- so when I show, I go for comfort (those are some long days) and presentation.  I want to be me, with that little extra bit of polish.  Cause, ya know... at home, I work in flannel jammies with little cows on them.

As for wearing live cats as stoles... Hmmm.  What with the number of dogs I know attend shows, that would be quite a thing to see, indeed.  Do tell....  Does claw-scratched neck flesh GO with a tiara??

Christine... Even more amazing than these three pages is the fact that about five or six people are doing all the talking.  With about about 1/2 of the bulk going to me.  Whee!! :)

Brenda... Your comment about matte paper makes sense.  I have some and love it too but frankly don't usually grab it for photo printing in general.  And I think one of the times I had a problem with it I had used actual magazine pages on a card as a border, for color.  You make good sense, though; matte over matte.  I might play with it a bit more and see how it goes.

Oh, you're a total cutie patootie, Alexis!    You know there's a place here where you can upload an avatar and a personal photo.  If you roll your mouse over each member's avatar the personal photo shows up under there.  Check it all out in the colored menu bar at the top of this forum. If memory serves you can add both avatar and personal photo under the PROFILE function.  (Did I return to work as an Advisor here at some point over the last day or so...?) 

First... your shaving cream dye job is fab-oo.  Love the effect.

To Brenda:  Yeah, I know Deb uses matte sealer!  She's the one who turned me on to it but I can't get it to work for me.  Fearing I'd appear dumber than cotton I never wrote her back to ask her how on earth she gets such a nice finish with it.  All I know is that if I dare put it over a photo I've printed, it completely ruins it.  I don't even know how to describe how; it's kinda a dissolve/disintegrate sort of thing.  Never seen anything like it.  And of course it takes away special finishes and effects (metallics) unless you put those OVER the sealer, or at least, that's what happens to me if I spray over metallic ink, PearlEx, or gel pen.  Maybe Deb just works differently than me.  For sure, though, her cards have a wonderful matte luster to them and are super thick and FEEL finished, which is really nice.  I love 'em.

Having said that... because nobody seems interesting in me, shutting up just yet... Do know that there are lots and lots of people who HATE fixatives and if there is even a hint of them on their art cards they tend to like those cards LESS.  For those folks it's all about the texture and they are really after that textured, hand-made effect that sealers sometimes MASK.  So just FYI.

The people I trade with are usually really good artists and incredibly cool people to boot and they're not snobby, but they do have standards, and everyone is different.  I have one friend who makes absolutely beautiful, super original works in oil pastels and she really likes the smeary dots of pastel that get left on the backside after her work is finished, so she leaves them there as a kind of badge of her process, and doesn't back her art with cardstock to cover them.  For me, that would just be too messy to let out of my house and mail elsewhere!  I am surely OCD.  To each his own.

Can't wait to see what you're readying to trade with me, Brenda.   :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:

I mean to thank Dilu, too, for the mention of the class... so Alexis, good on you for noticing!  Dilu, you're a saint.  Thanks for the help.

Brenda... I think I found my voice in bearmaking a while back, but in terms of my "flat" art, I'm not there yet and am still playing around with methods and media.  A lot!  Some examples of how all over the map I am, below...!

I LOVE painting in oils but they are frankly impractical for small art even though they produce a very nice effect and are creamy and dreamy and blendable which I adore.  I "think" in oil paints in terms of how I construct my work.  Here are a few of my oil painted cards which are actually two of my favorites.  They all happen to be reproductions of work by other artists (for "Favorite Artist" swaps) and those folks used oils and I was trying to emulate that effect, hence my use of this media.  They take forever to dry, though, and require a priming with gesso first, so it's a rather time consuming media but actually my favorite if I had to pick just one think to paint/draw/color with.

Acrylics are very popular but I feel clumsy with them.  They dry too fast and I haven't learned yet how to use retarders, thinners, etc... although I'm getting there and experimenting.  I tend to use acrylics only if I need to, such as in swaps where I'm trying to get a very particular effect, like a Favorite Artist swap.  Here are a few of my acrylic painted cards, the first three of which are reproductions of famous works:

I've played around a bit with watercolors too but this is the least intuitive way to lay down color, to me.  I just don't "think" in watercolors, which require a certain mindset to do well and plenty of forethought.  I tend to prefer to lay stuff down, mess with it, change it, erase it, etc.  Not easy with watercolor!  Watercolor also lends a nice, clear, crisp look to work and I tend to be more smudgy and smeary with my stuff.  When I use watercolors I tend to do so in layers with a fairly dry brush so my watercolor work doesn't have that "wet" look I'd like it to have for it to really represent the medium well.  Anyway, here are a few of my watercolor attempts:

I've also done a few purely colored pencil works.  This is more and more desirable as I like the one-medium approach but it's a real art to get intense color out of colored pencils and lots of contrast, and I'm not there yet, and sometimes feel my work is washed out.  So they're not yet a favorite medium, either.  I'm telling you a whole bunch of nothing here, aren't I?  lol...  The first two are reproductions, the last are original pieces including a triptych, three ATCs meant to go together.

Last, I've dabbled a bit in digital ATCs.  Usually I start with a pencil sketch which I scan and then color with overlays, and then print.  This is increasingly fun and rewarding but there's a steep learning curve and of course you need a pen & tablet to play this way.  I was lucky and got one for Christmas.  It's my newest plaything. 

Most often, I grab what's quick, easy, and right at my fingertips and doesn't require any water or clean up!  That would be graphite pencil, colored pencil, marker, and gel pen.  Often, in combination.  I tend to do a lot of mixed media card and that includes collage pieces on occasion, although I admit I'm leaning more and more in the direction of doing everything by hand as I enjoy the challenge of creating it "all by myself" as a wee one might say.  It's VERY common to find art cards which are a mix of mediums, and one very popular combination is MARKER and COLORED PENCIL, sometimes with gel pen accents (to add highlights especially.)  Here are some examples of my own cards which combine more than one of the above-mentioned media in one card.

More and more, I'm thinking I like the idea of using marker and pencil.  Some of my favorite work from other artists is in marker & pencil.  It produces really, really vibrant, intensely colored cards at the marker level, with the potential for finer shading and detail with the pencils afterward.  You can blend pencil with colorless spirits which is really fun.  Never thought I'd like Q-Tips that much -- dab, dab, dab.   

The only drawback to this combination is that I'm still working to find a way to get that shaded effect I like so much when I use markers... maybe by starting with a pencil sketch as an underlayer.  But of course that only works with lighter marker colors.  Now I'm getting all flustered just thinking about it!  Thanks, Brenda.  lol...

Ultimately it sometimes boils down to tools. I'm using Sharpie type markers and lots of people do just that, but I've also used Prismacolor markers which cost about three bucks a piece -- ouch! -- and aren't much less even if you buy them in bulk in huge sets, which in total are seriously pricey.  And truth be told the Prismacolor markers are just better suited to what I want to do, they're more transparent, so at some point I'm gonna have to bite that bullet and get some.  The tools can sometimes make the piece.

Anyway, I hope this illustrates that anything is possible, that all styles work, that just as with choosing mohair, sometimes the media you use will depend on depend entirely on the look you're going for.  People that I come across are moved by GOOD ART more than USE OF A PARTICULAR MEDIUM so I'd say go with what you're comfortable with!

Last... please be careful with Matte Sealer.  I hate that stuff!  It's ruined more pieces I've made than any single other thing.  You can use fixatives -- workable, and final -- to seal your work permanently and keep it from being smudged.  I've found, personally, and maybe I'm just a dork, that matte sealer can really ruin special finishes like sparkle, Pearl-Ex, etc., as well as literally bleaching the color right out of any photo, magazine page, or printed piece you might be incorporating in your work.  Test first!!

I try to have a life outside of TT but I fail miserably.  :)

Christine, your card rocks my socks off!  Wowza!  I hope you're planning to trade it for something fantastic or to a really deserving person -- Shelli Heinemann comes to mind; check out her stuff and see if she'd swap with you -- or that you'll sell it as an ACEO for a nifty price (please don't underprice it.)

DillyDilu, your kind comment made my day. It's very nice to be appreciated and you know you touch my heart with more tender caretaking than most with your friendship and intrinsic goodness.  Thank you for saying such a really nice thing.

Hey, Silly Bear!  What are you making 4x4's for?  That's chunky book size... right up my alley...  Tell me more!  Quicker!

Tina... No, I don't generally use anything around the edges of my cards.  Foil tape looks really cool, though; I like the effect a lot.  It all just depends on what you're going for in your work.  Do check out my flickr gallery; I've made a number of different sets of photos, like digital, collage, hand-drawn, so you can more clearly see the different kinds and styles of art cards you can make.  Anything goes!

Check my signature for my flickr info.  The "ATC's & ACEO's" set has ALL my art card work... but the other sets -- hand-drawn, collage, digital -- separate them out by media.

Brenda... I'm here. :)

Christine... Good for you, and good luck with your first trades!  One thing to note:  Sometimes people are hesitant to trade with a newcomer if that person doesn't have a good sampling of work in his/her gallery.  So before you approach people for 1:1 swaps you might first make a few cards, posting your best work in your gallery at AFA.  I'd be happy to swap with you to help start you on the path of positive feedback (called iTrader by most art card forums.)  Just find me there via PM:  I'm, you guessed it, "potbellyarts."

Tina...  There are excellent artists who work on very thin, kinda "regular" paper.  But my own personal preference is to receive -- and create -- much thicker cards.  I usually work on something like Bristol board, which is sort of like a thick cardstock.  Then I back my cards with another piece of cardstock (I often use spray adhesive to attach it to the artwork) and put an ID sticker on the backside, too, with my name, etc.  I like it when a card is a hefty handful of weighty, arty goodness.  But there aren't any "rules" about it.  Just stick to making your cards "finished" and you'll be fine!

I just now wrote them and asked if they might post some details here.  We'll see what happens!

True.    But what about people who can't attend?  I can't reserve half a table I won't even be there to monitor and supervise!  I guess that's more my point.  Can that be done?  Are there rules against that?  Against one vendor representing more than one artist?

I've never done an ABC show and I don't have access to their materials and contracts right at the moment.  Help!

  My story is more or less the same as Aleta's.  My kids come back from nearly an entire summer spent out of town with their dad and start school, all of which is a HUGE transition for our family, right around this show's dates, every year I've been in the industry.  So it's just too much for me to fly south with inventory and attend a weekend-long show.  Maybe there are some creative ways that people like me can be represented there, without having to attend?

I don't want to complicate things in a bad way.  Just trying to think creatively about how more vendors can get signed up and fairly represented, to maybe help out the show.

Go John Paul!

Sonya, the note you posted seems to address only former/experienced vendors who've done this show in the past and are known to ABC.  Are Connie & Amber looking for NEW vendors, too, at this point?  Or are they only inquiring of prior vendors whether they'd be willing to sign on for this fall show?

I ask because there's no information for newcomers to go on in your post; no dates, no times, not even a location.  I happen to know this is in the San Diego area, but someone else might not.

Can you tell us more??  Can Connie and Amber?  Are shared tables allowed?  Please, more details.

Thanks!