Thursday, June 20, 2013

post card swap!

Years and years and years ago, back when people still sent physical mail, I got this postcard. 

postcard labeled: photo from Portsmouth, NH

Fast forward to maybe 2 years ago, when I came across this again and I started thinking how awesome it was to get a handmade postcard and how nobody does this sort of thing. I thought about asking a few artists to swap with me, but I also thought I could easily get in over my head if I was personally swapping with each person. And I sorta just filed the idea away. Sometimes it would cross my mind, but I never really did anything with it.

So this is the plan: I'm looking for a group of artists willing to part with one of their creations in return for another artist's work. You will be randomly given another artist's name and address to send it to. 

This is not a partnership. You will get a piece from one artist and send yours to another. In this way you will connect with 2 different artists. By all means load your postcard up with all your contact info.

There is no cost, other than your supplies and the postage. I am in the US, but that doesn't mean everyone else is. You might have international postage. 

It's a postcard. It does not need an envelope. But: be thoughtful in your work. The USPS will surely handle it carefully, right? If you are using media that is not water safe or could smudge, maybe you put it in an envelope anyway. If you chance this, it will rain on the delivery day. Just because. The same with threads and wires. Will it get caught in the sorting machines? Use your discretion with this. Do I need to mention ink/paint should be dry? You want your work to show up in decent condition, and you want the piece you get to be in good shape. 

I am leaving the media open, but it must be handmade by you in someway. Photography/digital arts is okay as long as it's your original work. Prints/postcards that you've had made of your work are not acceptable. Don't send the postcard from your last show. You should be making something for this project.

Let me know that you want to be a part of this! If you can create a postcard you can be a part of the swap. Know some friends or other artists who might be interested? Pass this along and invite them! If you're in, send an email with your mailing address here. Sign up by July 5th. That's 2 weeks from when I posted this. I will get your artist address to you within a week (or two depending on the response) and your postcard needs to be postmarked by July 31st. Please be sure you follow through. It will suck to be the person who sent off a piece of artwork and didn't get one in return.

When your postcard is done, send a jpeg of it to the above email. I'll put together some follow up posts featuring your work. And if you post it online, tag me in it and I'll share it! Tag it with #postcardswap, and you'll be able to check out other artists' work as well!

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Ready? Sign up and start creating!

4 comments:

  1. Ok just let me know I will start my post card this weekend :)

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  2. John, you've got so email your address to be signed up. There are links in the blog post to the email addy. Glad you are joining us!

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  3. hey, this might sound rather silly, but regarding the section to write a note, do we merely ad or contact info (which i'm guessing is something like website(s), etc.) or do we actually write a "letter"?

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  4. I will leave that up to you. Contact info seems kind of obvious, but I didn't want anyone to feel like they *shouldn't* add it in. You will likely be sending your postcard to someone you don't know, so I'm not sure how much personal info you'd want to include in a "letter."

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