Arttechniques Fatbook Swap

A couple of months ago I joined another Yahoo group (like I needed another group) called Arttechniques. I joined at a good time as sign ups were just beginning for a Technique Fat Book. Each artist was to send in to the hostess 4" x 4" samples of a particular technique that used recycled materials in some way. Well, I can do that!

The response was enthusiastic, to say the least. The number of "players" continued to rise until the swap was closed at 120! That meant that each artist had to make 120 4" x 4" pieces of art using the technique that they had chosen. I chose paste painting (big surprise there!) and made six large sheets, then cut them down to 4" x 4": easy. Then I had to glue the brief instructions of how to do it on the back of each 4" x 4" piece: hard, time consuming and a big pain.

Anyway, my pages were shipped off at the end of February. In return I'll get 120 sheets back each with a different technique shown. The hostess of this swap is really on the ball and I'm told that the return package is already on it's way back to all 120 players!

Here are some of the samples that I mailed out:


These are unusual for me as I used black as my base color. I never use black but it was leftover from a workshop that I taught. This was a challenge for me and I had to keep going over the dried paste with new colors in order to brighten the sheets up.

I did get frustrated a bit, but trying new things is often why I do these swaps anyway. And this one should be remarkable: 120 swappers, all with techniques using recycled materials. I'll show more pictures when I get the package back.

Lorrie