Fiber Fool

Chris started a monster when she visited back in June. Not only did she get me haunting the swap-bot web site and signing up for photo swaps, but she got me making mixed CDs like a mad woman! She also got me checking out eMusic (I got 50 free non-DRM’d downloads in 30 days to check them out, and she got 50 too when I signed up - let me know if you want to check it out and I can send you an e-mail) and listening to the stream of The Current (Minnesota Public Radio). I’ve had so much new music in my world since and it has been a blast. My music listening had gotten pretty stale.

Participating in these swaps have also given me an excuse to play around with digital art once again. For the cover art in this post I used digital scrapbooking elements from various free kits at Two Peas in a Bucket and built the inserts in Photoshop CS.

If you click on the images it should be a bit easier to read the track listings. If you like what you see and would be interested in a personal swap, just let me know. I am also wrapping up a mix of local indie groups (not all still together, but…) and I have a CD mix ready that is very eclectic but all the songs are about breakfast foods. Sounds odd, but it is a fun mix!

There has been a definite lean of my new music towards contemporary folk and indie music. Neither are a real stretch for my musical tastes, but it has been great to add some new stuff to my iPod. Among my favorites?

• Editors - The Back Room (An End Has A Start is on my wishlist)
• Great Northern - Trading Twilight for Daylight
• Great Lake Swimmers - Great Lake Swimmers (I’m definitely going to be looking into their other albums)
• Joshua James - The Sun Is Always Brighter
• Romantica - America
• The Wailin’ Jennys - 40 Days

Also, don’t forget - tomorrow is that last day to sign up for the Fiber Art Photography ATC swap!

When Chris was visiting after EPWM she turned me onto swap-bot. I had heard about it and even occasionally had an invite to join a swap there but had never done so. I really joined to take part in some music swaps as I have been wanting to mix up my music listening lately. However, I discovered newbies are not readily welcomed in lots of the music swaps. I did discover these awesome Photo ATC (Artist Trading Card) swaps though. They are quite low cost, quick, and allow newbies to establish a rating. There are also postcard photo swaps as well. I signed up for a few and really enjoyed it.

I decided to jump in and host my first swap-bot swap. They often have a specific theme so it struck me - how about a fiber arts themed photo ATC swap? There are some amazing fiber arts photos out there and it is always inspirational to see how others photo style their WIP or FO shots, or even their stash shots. There are many other yarn-theme swaps on there as well so if you think you’d like to do other fibery swaps, this one is a great way to get a rating. I do have the send date out a bit as I wanted plenty of time to recruit people so it won’t be a quick turn around rating getter. But whether you are old or new to swap-bot I’d love to have you play!

For those who are unfamiliar with artist trading cards there is a lot of info on them if you just Google it. For the photo ATC the “standard” is to have 2 X 3 inch prints made (or high quality home prints are okay here) and then mount them to 2.5 X 3.5 inch pieces of sturdy cardstock. Some people embellish them further, some don’t. Since they are trading cards contact info should be on the back - name, e-mail, web site if you have one. Some include a bit info on the back. If you are photographing commercially available stuff it would be nice to have the info on that on the back as well.

When I get my 2 X 3 inch prints I just order the 4 wallet 4 X 6 inch print. It’s 99 cents at Walgreens. You can save a bit of money by making your own file with 4 copies up and just get a standard 4 X 6 print for 19 cents, but I find that to be a little less precise, but it does save money. The photo ATC swaps are usually 3 partners so you get 4 copies of each photo you are sending and it allows you to keep a set yourself.

To read more about it and to sign up head over to http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/5970. If you have any questions, just ask! I’m fairly new to this, but FarrStarr has been of great help to me in finding my way around the photo swaps.