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Started and overseen by Etsy sellers Stellaloella and DecadenceDesigns, "The Etsy traveling journal is mail-art project. A handmade journal is passed from one Etsian to another, via the mail. Each participant gets a full spread in the journal to create, embellish, draw, paint, write, whatever they want. Then they pass it along to the next person until the entire book is filled. ... Each book starts as a medium-format, hardcover blank sketch book. It will come with a companion writing journal to include your thoughts and experiences on the project.
The finished books will be donated to the Library at the Etsylabs in NYC. We will have this blog set up to track the progress of the book, updated with images of each spread: http://etsyjournal.blogspot.com/ " (quote taken from the journal blog site).
I am lucky enough to have had a chance to participate. My collage is in Book 2, pages 11-12.
My comments in the companion journal:
OUT OF THE BLUE
The traveling journal arrived just a couple weeks shy of my five month Etsy 'anniversary.' Since signing up for this project I have wondered what I would create when my turn came.
Last fall, essentially out of the blue, I began drawing hummingbirds using colored pencils and acrylics, and pairing them with haiku assembled from text cut from old books. In December I opened my shop in order to sell these drawings. Over the five months of running my shop I have striven to create artwork as often as possible. My media and subject matter have increased and diversified.
This collage includes a pen & ink drawing of a hummingbird perched on a cloud in the semi-abstract style I have developed. It includes an ACEO with a cut-paper haiku -- I have found making ACEOs in all kinds of mixed-media quite addictive. And finally, it includes a photograph called "Blue Shadows" that I took in San Francisco. Photographs are the newest addition to my shop.
These pages represent my evolution as an artist, and the outlook I try to uphold -- do something creative every day.
This pen & ink drawing is part of my "Sketchbook for Charity" project. Like many artists, I spend a lot of time drawing in a sketchbook. Until now I haven't done anything with these drawings. Then I realized that through Etsy, I could sell them, and give that money to charity.
When you purchase this drawing, $20 will be donated to First Book, an international nonprofit organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books, and provides a supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring, and family literacy programs. For more about First Book, visit their website at www.firstbook.org.
This is an original page from my 8 x 5 inch Moleskine watercolor notebook. It comes "as is," meaning untrimmed, and with the perforated edge at the top; I think it would look interesting left this way, as a page, and floated in a frame, but it can be trimmed or matted to have straight edges.
This drawing is priced at $23. $3 is to help me cover the costs of Etsy, Paypal, and supplies. When you pay for this drawing, I will turn right around and donate $20 to First Book via their website. You will be sent a copy of confirmation of this donation with the drawing so that you can be sure your money was indeed donated. $20 is enough to provide EIGHT new books to children in need.
You get a nifty little original drawing, and eight children receive their very own brand new books to read and cherish. How can you lose?
S O L D
Today I'm embarking upon my second "official" haiku bird project: A Week of Haiku. This will be a series of ACEOs (Art Cards: Editions and Originals), original, one of a kind artist trading cards. ACEOs have one rule -- they must be 3.5 x 2.5 inches in size. Other than that, anything goes. They can be originals or editioned prints. They're traded, or bought and sold, and collected much like other types of trading cards. (I have several that I've completed; click on the ACEO label to see all of those posts.) For more information see this article in wikipedia.
So, the project. Each day I will create an ACEO with an cut-paper assembled haiku. One each day for a week. The week's cards will be cut down from one large collaged / painted background, so the week as a whole will be of the same design. At the end of the week I will have seven cards, which I will package up nicely and sell as a set in my shop on Etsy.
Week One starts today. And over time we'll see how many weeks I continue this project!
33 Birds in 33 Days: a New Year's project in which a new hummingbird drawing will be published each day from December 30, 2006 to January 31, 2007.
Pen & ink and regular & metallic colored pencil on 90 lb Canson drawing paper.
4 x 4 inches with a .25-inch border.
S O L D
