Patti Gibbons Art

A few weekends ago I picked up several lots of Victorian holiday cards, many of which I  used in my greeting cards. There were many however, that are too beautiful or collectible to cut up. Those I will eventually list on eBay or Etsy; some I will keep for my collection. Many of the cards (and some booklets) were printed by Raphael Tuck (England) who were printers of postcards, greeting cards, children's books, chromolithograph prints, etc., and were one of the first companies to offer contests for greeting card design.   They are one of my favorite companies, along with the fine quality postcards that Stengel printed.  With the advent of the industrial revolution and the growth of industry all around, postcard/card/scrap collecting became the rage, where women and children collected these images and pasted them into ledgers, scrapbooks, and was the start of scrapbooking in this country. The quality of chromolithograph printing is like nothing else you will find ...

  I have abandoned my dissertation on chormolithographic prints/cards for a word about greeting cards. And, Thanksgiving. In the early 1900's, when millions of postcards and greeting cards were being printed every day, every single holiday warrented sending a card.   Actually, people sent cards every day for any occasion back in the early 20th century. With the advent of this virtual technology, fewer and fewer cards are sent, especially for birthdays.  We get virtual cards, wishes from our friends on Facebook, a text, or a phone call.  I only received one card in the mail this year, vs. the usual half a dozen. I'm not complaining folks. I got more birthday wishes on Facebook that I have ever received in 10 years combined.  It made me smile.  But not sending cards is bad business for us greeting card designers, and it gets harder and harder to find our market.   However, I won't give up.  I love antique paper.  I think I ...

A while back I invested in a huge old falling apart salesman's book that contained many botanical prints.  They are chromolithographs , a fancy word for a color lithograph print. I love this method of printmaking, as the colors are dense and rich.  Because it is so time consuming, few, if any, do them anymore, thus making such prints a collectors item. You can tell a chromolithograph print apart from any other method of printmaking by looking at the print with a loop or magnifying glass (some of you might be able to use your naked eye, lol). The surface of the print consists of a series of dots of color, many laid on top of one another. During the industrial revolution, many of the advertising cards, trade cards, postcards, die cuts, and prints were made with this method. Now it has nearly disappeared. This book belonged to a salesman who marked the prices of the plants on the pages in pencil. Written on the front of this leather bound book was the type DO NOT MAKE M...

I have been working hard on building up more stock of my cards for submission to Olana, to have them ready at the drop of a hat when my client emails me "NEED MORE CARDS" and to have for others to buy. I just spent nearly 100 dollars investing in about 500 pieces of new paper and postcards, in order to be ready. It is harder and harder to get antique paper at a price that I can afford to create with. I am a one woman show here, and only hire someone on occasion to help me put on the finishing touches of glitter for holiday cards, to package/label/price them, and that is usually just before a big show. The rest of the time I do it all myself; the designing, sewing, and usually everything else in between. Then there is the marketing, the listing on Etsy, and the occasional post here and on Facebook etc. I will never get "wealthy" from these cards, as they are labor and material intensive, but oh do I so enjoy making them. Since I often can't get into the studi...

Today was a busy day. Studio work again, but I so LOVE being in my wonderful studio, built by my friend Tom. I fantasize about bumping it up to a second floor, with a sliding glass doors that opens out to a small deck. It would be sort of like a loft, and the floor where I would just paint. I would have a day bed there of course as I have always wanted a day bed in my studio. Dream on...I think. But dreams CAN come true! Here are some prints I have on Ebay. They are late 1800's, fab for framing for your house. From a traveling salesman's catalog. My ID (in case you are hankering for one) is catskillpaper. Off to finish off a bunch of stuff I still need to do before I sleep. Ciao for now, Patti O Seller