mixed media with Italian souvenir sticker
This page sort of collects some scraps left over from earlier mixed media, so it's in effect a paper equivalent of an ‘end of the day’ bead. Of especial interest (to me, anyway) is the metallic sticker, which was centered on a box that included a nib or two, a couple of cork-stoppered bottles of ink in black and blue, and a nib-holder; as you see it was specifically packaged as おめヤギ —omiyage, or souvenirs.[1]
Mixed media page, roughly 6x6", dated 08Oct24:[2] sticker, teabag tag, metallic paper, scrap shodo practise on junk mail, Japanese and vintage US newspaper, ink, glue. Sony A7c, sony 90mm macro, natural light, f/2.8, ev +0.7, 1/200s, ISO 100, WB: shade; cropped, lightened, & scaled in gimp[3]
Unfortunately, I don't remember who gave this to me; as a known calligrapher in my circle of friends and family, I've tended to collect this sort of thing, though usually it's Chinese brush kits:) It sat for quite a long time, re-enforcing the vintage aspects (wax? coated corks) so this lent extra appeal to me:)
The fabric print in the upper left came about because I was able to rescue some of the dried up black ink (diluted, of course, which is why the practice 漢字（かんじ/kanji）are greyish, but couldn't find a bottle big enough to fit the brush pen into...so I put the ink in one of those little carry-out sauce dishes and, you guessed it, it tipped over and made a mess on my desk. I had a scrap-book ribbon that absorbed some of the spill, and so lemonaded it into said print.
The very dark, acid rotten newspaper is almost certainly from the 1950s; I might have found it in our basement. I evidently really enjoy making doodles with 4x0 technical pens, or at least, missed that super-delicate quality last time so this page was an excuse to indulge as much as anything:)
Not super exciting, perhaps, but I enjoyed making the piece.
[1]Welllll, specifically omiyage tends to be sort of a cross between souvenirs and hostess gifts—food from your own region when visiting someone else, or from the someplace else when returning home, frex, when f2tE stocked up on Trader Joe chocolate covered pretzels. Which then had the temerity to melt in the car, so they had to be re-purchased, again.
[2]I have this habit of adding to things, so the dates can be kind of relative—but the bulk was probably done on that date.
[3]Actually the +1.0 ev was a better exposure, but I cut off the bottom of the image, but hey, at least this one was shot square!
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
