Ten little Santas ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10

Here they are, the final Santas in the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" series. That's it - at least for this year. I'm moving past the holiday to new series and extensions of some past ones - Out on a Limb, False Sense of Security - for exhibits I'll be in during the spring.

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 features an engraving of a DIY pinecone Santa from Godey's Lady's Book that I scanned to use on a postcard promoting last week's open studio and this month's extended studio hours. Isn't he splendid! Behind him: 1950s greeting cards, a sliver of a map of Ohio (yeah, the same Harper's map from 1877 that I've been using every last inch of during the past month) and a strip of wood veneer. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang. [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10 is strictly '50s/'60s via recycled cards from the era and, yes, authentic Christmas seals. I lucked into sheets and sheets of vintage Christmas seals last year.  5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang. $55 + $5 shipping/handling.

Welcome December!

I've been working on collage tags for the Fit To Be Tied® line and thought I'd post a pair to usher in December. These screen-printed '20s cuties were together on a cardboard cutout found in a used bookstore. Wish I could tell you who the publisher and artist are, but there wasn't any info on it. I was attracted to them by the unconventional, yet seasonal, colors.

I cut the card in half to make a matching pair. Behind the girl on the left: antique endpaper and an illustration from Christmas: An American Annual of Christmas Literature and Art, which was published by Augsburg Fortress from 1931 to 1997. Behind the girl on the right: vintage sheet music and recycled wrapping paper. By the way, see the reinforcements at the top of them? Well, I hand color each one. Not kidding.

I'm thinking about how to show - and sell - tags online. It's cumbersome for the blog - there are just too many at a given time - so, it may be time to open my Paper With a Past® Etsy shop. Time to wake up that post-undergraduate studio assistant who's working for me 10 hours a week to pay her room & board while she applies to grad school ...

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

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. [SOLD]

He knows when you are sleeping ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 6

Ho! Ho! Ho! 7

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. $65 each, + $5 shipping &handling

Santa

Ho! Ho! Ho! 6 $65.00 USD Ho! Ho! Ho! 7 $65.00 USD

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. [SOLD]

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. [SOLD]

Santa, baby

Ho! Ho! Ho! 2

Ho! Ho! Ho! 3

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. They are ready to hang and are $65 each + $5 shipping & handling.

Santa

Ho! Ho! Ho! 2 $65.00 USD Ho! Ho! Ho! 3 $65.00 USD

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.