EMBOSSING FOLDER
For the "Eye Nose Ears" GOTOGRAM
2023-2024
XX Month 202x
EYE NOSE - Envelope Embossing Folder for Mail Art Project, New Year 2023-2024
As a teaser to get artists interested in participating in my "interactive printed mail art" project, I'm showing this photo of the floor lino embossing folder I made for last years GOT-O-GRAM which was called "EYE NOSE EARS".
It is actually made out of floor lino. I cut the same design into both sides, with the one a mirror of the other so that they would press into one another and make a permanent impression in the paper. I call the gradual peeling off of the surrounding area not included in the embossing, "pick and peel stripping". A GOTOGRAM consists of two seperate pieces, a front and a back piece. This embossing folder is for the back piece, into which is usually pressed an embossing or a 3D impression of some kind. To do this, I use pre-cut cardboard which is placed in between the two sides of the embossing folder in a similarly sized recess in a support frame which keeps the paper and the folder in the same position. I call this the pressing frame. Before passing the frame with the embossing folder and carboard in it through the press, I push a lid on the top which will actually produce the pressure required to create the embossing. It has a curved edge on it so it will slide into place. This little lid is pressed downwards as it is passed through the press, and when it is pulled out you have an inkless embossing neatly and exactly pressed into the "GOTOGRAM" back piece. I can press it in either my electric embosser or the etching press.
This years design, naturally, looks very different to the one I created for last year's printed packages... I use this folder for the back of the little package. There are two sides to it - they both have artworks on them. The back side has an embossed design on the outside, whereas the front side has a printed work - usually a multiplate combination print. The envelope is very much part of the artwork, and your opening up and experiencing the little fragments of art all together form part of the artistic experience. Imagine receiving a little package with an 3D image on the back! The two sides fit into slots and are folded around one another enclosing little postcard size artworks which I send off to people. It is a complete package that is designed to encourage people to be creative, experience my 'complete' art in as full a way as possible (allowing them to smell, touch and feel it)... and then throw it away once they are finished enjoying it. This the nature of recyclable art! I am making twenty of them this year under the title "Eye Nose the Moon", and I am still looking for 17 printmakers to send them to. I hope that I will find a lot of new artists who'd be interested in experiencing my interactive GOT-O-GRAM experience. Over the next week I'll be releasing more images and short films of last years GOT-O-GRAM to let people know how I make them and why I try to get like-minded artists involved in this project.
TAGS:
#gettinggot #makinganimpression
