Artist Trading Cards: History, Rituals, How To’s

March Reflections, Mixed Media/Collage ATC Folding Book (Cover), March 2011

Continuing from last week on the subject of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)…

Joining an ATC group can be a lot of fun and anyone can start a group – not just artists!  The following are a few tidbits to familiarize you with ATCs:

Brief History:  The concept of exchanging ATCs originated in 1996 and was the brain-child of a Swiss artist.  See http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/ for further information on this.

The ATC Ritual: Meeting at coffee shops or the houses of participants are a couple of cost-free options I know of.  Gathering face-to-face to exchange cards for free (no selling allowed!) is an ideal that’s vital to the spirit of exchanging ATCs. These meetings foster a great feeling of community creating the perfect context for socializing and networking.  There are a number of ATC on-line trading communities; ATCs are exchanged via snail mail and some are even displayed in on-line or real world galleries.  Groups may get together once a month to trade; some pick themes (to give direction); others don’t.  At some venues people are sticklers for creating only original art work; others don’t mind accepting copies.  Copying comes in handy when you’re dealing with trading with large groups of over 20 people and don’t have time to make many original cards.  In my Painted Pony ATC Group we make one card each and draw numbers to see who we’ll trade with – this makes things easier if we’re really busy with other professional and personal projects.  We get together for a couple of hours before we do the actual trade so if anyone hasn’t had time to make their card, they can do so during the session; for those of us who’ve finished our cards early it becomes a great sharing/networking time.

Here are some on-line ATC Trading groups :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATC_World/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artisttradingcards/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bmuse/

Here’s a great ATC publication:

ATC Quarterly

Size: ATCs are 2.5 x 3.5 inches (64 x 89 mm).  Depending on what type of work is done on them, a nice thick 130-140 lb white cover stock paper or smooth, mixed media paper is good to use.  Many art stores sell blank pre-made ATC cards by Strathmore in paper stocks suited to a variety of mediums. 

Olive Jones made me a wonderful 4-card ATC holder

Storage: ATCs are the size of sports cards; they can be stored in the same plastic acid-free sleeve holders and placed in albums.  They may also be kept in small boxes or envelopes.  See Bernie Berlin’s book or Cedarseed website (listed below) for cool ideas for crafting your own ATC holders.

Renée Deschamps' "Bird" ATC, Collage, February 2011

Collaging ATCs: While any medium can be used to produce ATCs, many agree collage and mixed media are well suited to this type of work – everyone has bits of paper and glue around the house or studio.  If you don’t know how to draw or paint, collaging is an easy way to produce cards.  When collaging consider these materials: a variety of papers (tissue, wrapping, scrapbooking, handmade), cropped/mini photos, metal embellishments, buttons, stickers, sequins/beads, stitching, beeswax, fabric/lace, rubber stamping,  stencilling and text to create your cards; recycle scrap papers from around the house, too.  Use a glue stick to stick light papers and heavy glues or gels for mid to heavy weight papers and objects.  Because they’re small, ATCs take no time to make – if you’re an obsessive artist like me it’s easy to spend several hours on one!  It’s my personal rule of thumb to give only my best cards away; when I receive cards made with the same passion and care, I feel very blessed.  Once completed, the addition of one’s name, addresses and other pertinent info (theme, title, etc.) is written on the back of the card. 

Amazing reading and visual source for making and trading ATCs:

Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin

Excellent on line source re ATC history, ATC holders/envelopes/techniques:

www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html

Reader Challenge: I’ll trade a card with the first person who can tell me the name of the artist in Switzerland who originated the idea of artist trading cards… (hint: one of my links can help you!)  I’d love to trade cards with more of you in the future.  Stay tuned for collage-related ATC card ideas from me throughout the year.