More on method

Lynda asked yesterday about my postcards, whether I had a general idea in mind before I started working. I replied to her privately, and then decided that as others have commented similarly in the past, it was worth posting, and even adding a little more detail to. So here's my answer... It depends. (Great answer eh?) If the theme of a postcard is something specific (houses, leaves, 1940s, celebrations, starts with Q) then Iusually have a fairly good idea before I start. But for the vague themes (black & white, a single colour, metallic in this case) I tend to just get out a pile of stuff and poke around in it until I find one item I definitely want to use, then I build the card around that.

In this instance, I knew I wanted to use that fabric with the writing on it (although I had three different colours and wasn't sure which I wanted to use!) - I auditioned it as a background, but it was too busy, so I had to think of a different way to use it. When I saw the metallic frame stickers, I knew I was onto something - then, once I had the piece of writing fabric framed by the metallic frame, the rest of the card began to come together. (By which I mean, after laying a dozen or so elements on the card in various ways, I decided that the ribbons were the way to go - in the process, I have also rejected a various of items, including metallic tags with letters on them, brads, swirly metallic sequins, foil, copper shim, coloured wire and who knows what else!)

In many ways, these are my favourite types of cards to do because I just let the materials talk to me - laying out various elements to test them out is a freeing way to work - often things I pick up don't work for the current project but I see where they might work for something else, so they get filed in the back of my mind for future projects - and sometimes even used for them! It also helps me to get lots of stuff out, as sometimes I find stuff I forgot I had, or have simply never been able to think of a way to use before. The hardest thing with this type of card for me is knowing when to stop adding things. Which is why one of my artistic watchwords for 2008 is LISTEN - listen to my instincts!