Sketches from an Classic Project Become New ACEO's!

What's an ACEO you might ask? It stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals, and collecting them is becoming very popular all over the world. It's a great way for collectors to get a piece of original or low numbered mini prints of artwork that are affordable. The measure 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and generally come in a plasic trading card sleeve. Some people display them on a small easel on a shelf or in a curio cabinet, some collect them in trading card books with sleeves. I've been tossing around the idea of offering some ACEOs for about 6 months now.

The other day I was sorting through my studio after it had been ravaged by our holiday production line for both Etsy orders and gift making, when I stumbled upon my old notes and sketches from my work on The Well Worn Path deck. I worked on that deck with authors Raven Grimassi and Stephanie Taylor beginning in 2004, and I did a lot more sketches than I normally do because I was working from their descriptions. When I finished a sketch, I would email them a scan of it, and then print out small copies of them and sometimes I would make notes and test colors on them before starting the finished piece. I called these "color tests." When I looked at these little gems it occured to me that they are just about the right size to make ACEOs! I thought there might be people out there who enjoy the deck and would love to own these little pieces of creative history.

I created a card back design from the deck art proclaiming that this is a handmade ACEO with a hand drawn original sketch from The Well Worn Path deck. Each one has the name of the card hand written on it and it's signed with the year.

The first one I created was from The Rede card. I printed out a thumbnail size of the full color finished art, tore and cut the edges of the sketch and thumbnail and created a pretty scrapbook like card including decorative paper, rose petals, a piece of black ribbon I used as reference, and I also hand copied some of the keywords from my original notes from our phone conversations discussing the image. It turned out looking like a miniature version of a page from the book of shadows from the film Practical Magic or something!

I've added it to my Etsy shop, and I'll be adding more to this collection as time allows, if you are quick, you might be able to own one of these little treasures for yourself, each one is unique and won't (and can't) be duplicated! Watch for more coming soon!