
I am an ongoing participant of Art2Mail, a fiber postcard exchange group that began in the fall of 2003. I am also participating in a sister group, Postmark'd Art. My cards can be seen on both sites, and I have further examples below.
You can see a brief tutorial on Variations on Heliographic Prints at the Postmark'd Art site here.
January, 2008. See the latest cards at my blog, Sue Reno Studio..
October, 2006. Two more series of cards! Here's the group shot of the "Locust" series. They are heliographic prints on cotton, heavily stitched:

Here's an closeup of a "Locust" card.
Another card from the "Locust" series. Most of the cards from this series are going out to the members of Art2Mail.
Here's a series of 12 "Ginko" cards. They are cyanotypes on silk. The lighter colored cards were deliberately under-exposed when I made the prints.
Here's a closeup of a "Ginko" card. Again, most of these are going out to Art2Mail members.
September, 2006. I had just spent several intense weeks working on a very complex quilt, and wanted to make something lovely yet uncomplicated. This small set of cards I'm calling "Simplicity" is the result. They feature cotton patchwork and ric-rac trim--I'm a huge ric-rac fan--stitched onto wool/rayon felt:

Once I had that out of my system, I moved on to another small set of cards, this time made with heliographic prints of leaves from a perennial Hibiscus plant. The prints are on cotton; they were heavily stitched and the leaves were highlighted with iridiscent paint:
A few of these new cards will be going to Virginia Spiegel's ACS fundraiser at the Houston quilt show this fall. This is the final installment in the saga, and Virginia and scores of artists who are donating cards have accomplished something wonderful.
June, 2006. Summertime, and the living is easy.....I had so much fun making the "Carpet of Leave" series (below), and had such a good response, that I wanted to explore the idea a little futher. This time, instead of looking down at the fallen leaves on the ground, I am looking up, into the canopy of leaves provided by my red maple tree. I used silk charmuese to make the heliographic leaf prints, stitched it heavily, and futher embellished with paints. Some of these cards will be going out to members of Postmark'd Art, some will be offered for sale, and some will go on other adventures. Here's the group shot:

And here's two of the individual cards. These two are going to Virginia Spiegel, to be part of this fall's Fiberart for a Cause sale at Houston.
"Canopy of Leaves #1", 4" x 6". Silk, paint, stitching.
"Canopy of Leaves #2", 4" x 6". Silk, paint, stitching.
March, 2006. Spring is just around the corner.....Here's a set of botanical cards, all heliographic prints on cotton and silk, that just went out to Postmark'd Art members and a few other venues. One of them will be for sale at Virginia Spiegel's ACS fundraiser at the Chicago quilt show in April.

January, 2006. The winter weather here in Lancaster County varies wildly. We may have mild days, we may have snow storms, but often we are subjected to sleet and freezing rain. It's a nightmare to drive in, but it's incredibly beautiful when the sun comes out after a storm and illuminates the ice covered landscape, refracting into a myriad of colors. My latest series of postcards is called "Ice Storm"
I started in the summer, cutting out lots of paper snowflakes, and using them to make cyanotypes and heliographic prints. Here's some silk cyanotypes outside for their timed exposure (they don't turn blue until rinsed):

And here are some heliographic images printing, on a variety of silks:

This winter I started turning the images into postcards. I added various shiny and luxurious fabrics, did some quilting with iridescent thread, and trimmed them with embellishments and glittery threads. Just like real snowflakes, each one is different! Here's some examples:




Here's a collage shot of all the cards in the Ice Storm series. Most of them have been mailed out to the members of Art2Mail for our third round of exchanges. I've sent a few to Virginia Spiegel for her next ACS fundraiser.

August, 2005. It's still the dog days of summer, but change is just around the corner. A few leaves are drifting down from the trees, the birds are gathering into flocks, and one day soon there will be a cool breeze. Autumn is approaching, and my latest series of cards reflects this theme.
Here's the photo that served as inspiration. It was taken a few years ago, when the weather conditions were such that the leaves all fell from the maple tree at once.
Here's a closeup of the leaves.
Here's the genesis of the cards--I started with a piece of white pima cotton, and made a heliographic print of leaves on it. I layered the print with batting and a muslin back. I machine stitched around the leaves and emphasized the veining, then rinsed and dried it to shrink it and give it some texture. Next I used gold mica acrylic paint mixed with textile medium to add emphasis to the leaves.
I backed the whole piece, cut it into 4" x 6" postcards, and finished off the edges. Here's a completed card, "Carpet of Leaves # 1". It will join other cards from members of Art2Mail in a special exhibit commemorating 10 years of the Quiltart internet group in the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. Other cards in this series will be going out to the members of Postmark'd Art.
Here's "Joe Pye weed", from the heliographic series, which will also be part of the Art2Mail exhibit. The cards in the exhibit will be for sale.
"Carpet of Leaves #2" will also be going to Houston, as part of Virginia Spiegel's fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. You can read about this worthwhile project here.
"Sage" will also be part of the ACS fundraiser. Oct 30 update: I just found out that this card was bought by Pam Rubert. How cool!
The first series of cards started with a digital picture taken in my garden. The pictures were printed on transparencies, then transferred to pima cotton using acrylic medium. The images were trimmed with cotton fabrics and machine quilted. They were joined with cotton backs by decorative stitching around the edges. They were stamped, hand cancelled, and sent through the mail.
Calla Lily
Daffodil "Albert Einstein"
Hosta "Krossa Regal"
Hydrangea "Nikko Blue"
Pansy
Rose of Sharon "Diana"
Sedum "Autumn Joy" with wasp
This is a collage of the postcards in this series taken before mailing.
The second series of cards features cyanotypes, all made from leaves found in my garden. The prints were made on silk blend fabric, trimmed with silks, and machine quilted.
Azalea
Black Snakeroot
Clematis
Locust
Moonvine
A collage of the cyanotype series.
I made a third series of cards featuring heliographic prints for exchange on the Art2Mail sister group, Postmark'd Art. Again, all the prints were made with leaves from my garden. They were trimmed with vintage cotton fabrics, stitched, and embellished.
Black Currant
Columbine
Coral Bells
Meadow Rue
Raspberry
A collage of the heliographic series.
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