Wednesday, May 28, 2014


Version One of my Japanese Pear ATCs. I only had time to make enough for the current exchange. I'll soon make a variation to give to friends, tentatively creating a background of bouncing Romans with a broad-edged pen.
   The pear was cut from a Japanese detective novel that I found at a thrift shop. Yes, I believe I have the text in this one upside down, since the Japanese write from top to bottom. For the red "skin", I painted a page with a mix of WN Scarlet Lake and WN Alisarin Crimson watercolor. The small seeds and stem are cut from scrap paper--that took awhile!
   I'm very happy with the bright, cheerful color contrasted with the black and white background.

Thursday, May 15, 2014


Playing around with techniques for decorating envelopes. This color, added with watercolor pencils, is a variation on a piece done by Jane Shibata--she used Uncial lettering. The color here isn't really true--it looks better "in person". I'll blend better on the next try--fun, but time-consuming.