save the date (2)

You may remember my post last fall about save the date cards --a concept that was new to me at the time. I had been asked to design a set of cards for a couple who were planning a vow-renewal ceremony (another concept that was new to me).

I knew they loved coffee, but hadn't realized the extent of that passion. As it turned out, they were rather keen for me to use a coffee theme in my design, and asked me to try to include the phrase "all you need is love & another cup of coffee."

It's been almost a year since I designed their cards. They were professionally printed and sent off a couple months ago,  and the event itself will soon take place. Now I can post the images without fear of ruining the surprise for those invited to the event. May they enjoy many, many more years of the love and commitment that led to this celebration, and I thank them for letting me play this small part in it.

illustration friday (jump)

playing with food

I confess. I've been playing with my food. It occurred to me that I could do more than draw food for my food-themed mail art series. I could use the food itself for drawing. So instead of sumi, I experimented using coffee for ink. Ordinary-strength coffee wasn't dark enough, so I dissolved some long-expired coffee granules with a bit of water to get the desired density. After using this "ink" to make the outlines of various images, I watered it down to use as I would gansai paint, for coloring inside the lines. What resulted were etegami with the feel of sepia photographs. Kind of retro. I drew the coffee bean etegami with a bamboo quill-pen on a brown-tinged card (hence the blotches). The character in the upper right corner is the character for bean. I drew the old-fashioned coffee grinder with an ink brush on a white card and used the diluted coffee to color within the lines. I obviously need more practice, but I feel like I'm on to something. And the room sure smells good. ;D