Merry Christmas, Y'all! December '23

This year I decided I was finally going to make my own Christmas cards. I’ve always loved receiving cards, but never got around to making a list and sending them myself.

An old friend from the Reaper days invited me to a card making party where I joined several other women in making art together while eating healthy snacks and watching Love, Actually. I didn’t know it at the time, but I needed this in my life and I hope we can make it into an annual event. Thank you, Dani!

I decided that if I was going to be hand-making Christmas cards, I might as well make a small scale production of it so I could send them to a fair number of people. 

I first tried linocut printing in high school, then again in 2011 during a relief printmaking Maymester class at UNT. The class at UNT was especially fun in the spring while the weather was still nice. Our classroom was a converted loading dock and we kept the bay doors open for the fresh air while working on our respective projects and listening to our TA’s killer hipster playlist.

I have enjoyed printmaking every time I’ve dipped my toes into it. Periodically over the years I have daydreamed about combining linocut and watercolor, so that’s what I decided to do with the cards. It was fun kicking a long-considered art idea out of my brain and into the world.

Working on this project was like taking a trip to the past, bringing back fond memories of setting 2mm stones in my jewelry classes. Of building and cutting black rubber molds for pewter minis while listening to podcasts all day. Of demoing watercolor techniques under an Elmo document camera to a room full of 6th graders.

I am most in my element when I am working on something small and fiddly with my hands. Always have been. Encouraged by the wild success of this first attempt, I aim to make one print every month for the year of 2024 (except January, which I spent planning this project and doing a little traveling). I will be sharing progress pictures on my Instagram, and writing a blog post telling the story of every print.

Until next time.