re-run - parabolas

 i think i called this style parabola or something like that. it was one of my favorites and as i recall, i actually came up with it on my own. i do not recall being inspired by anything specific - except possibly nature.

i see that i have a label that already exists called -parabole-
so maybe there are more to see at that label. i probably do not have time to check it and come back to edit this post.

to eric

this was a reject until I fixed it. The base lettering is something I posted earlier.

pickle pie from elizabeth

elizabeth was surfing and ran across a font called picklepie. she made her version on an envelope to me. my first thought was to cross polinate it with the parabolas

i had no stamps in mind for the one to alex and it is a challenge to find $1.20 in stamps that look good together.

thanks for the inspiration, elizabeth. while this is just showing up on the blog today, i wrote this on june 7th which was at the height of the peacock binge. or depth, depending on how you feel about that particular binge.

pueblo pots for alex

so, these stamps look great, but i'd need to use 9 to send this to her in canada. plus, she isn't even two years old, so this is a lousy way to teach her the alphabet. multiple problems, plus the obvious one that i messed up the E. so, this is just an example of how this style depends on looking at which letters are next to each other and figuring out ways of making shapes that fit together. has anyone been making their own parabola names? if so, i'd like to see examples.

i might have to make some envelopes that have really nice pueblo designs in the letters. i think that would be lovely.  i like the RA at the end.

since i had to put $1.20 in postage on this one, i was looking for two forevers - and dang - the ramirez stamps are perfect. now that i am almost out of them, i finally find a style to go with them. rats. i don't want to buy any more.

karen's deer

after one that was similar to this one got rave reviews on the blog, even though i thought it was a dog, i figured i might as well do some more along these lines. but it was the same day that i started making bad address choices, so i am just posting these sans address and will repost if i don't mess it up when i add the street.

it's just black with white gel pen over the top. mimics some detail on the stamp.

repeat? cathy's parabolic olympic

sometimes i wake up and find an envelope in the scanner and i have no idea if i blogged it. if this is a repeat, i'll delete it. otherwise, it's a warning. don't try to do a mosaic pattern unless you have infinite patience. or are actually working in mosaic.

parabolic jack and cathy

 the bottom envelope is the one i sent to cathy that i thought was ugh-mo and was not going to put it on the blog. she said she liked the organic feel of it. so i thought i would try some other variations. i already posted one i sent to cathy and another one for elizabeth. i called it pueblo lettering, because it reminded me of pueblos. then jack left a comment/question asking about pueblo lettering and i googled pueblos. they were actually very square and the only dome shapes they had were in some little structures that were sitting in front of the houses. they look like ovens to me. maybe finn will do some research for us and let us know. i just looked at the pictures. i think finn and i had some conversation about cactus. and i thought i had some cactus stamps, but could not find them. then, i saw the pueblo pot and realized that those shapes were the ones that made me think of pueblo for that lettering style.

when i did the pueblo envelope for jack -which is the middle one- i didn't take time to look at the cathy envelope to recall exactly what those letters looked like and the result on that middle jack was clunky, so i went back and looked at the cathy envelope and voila, it hit me, those are parabolas. so i googled parabola designs and there were a ton of them that popped up, including the arch in st louis- very fitting for mr. jack who lives on the peacock farm in missouri.
so - there you have it - my parabolic alphabet - which is the top envelope.  you have to built it letter by letter. you can't just figure out 26 shapes and have them look good together. i have to start doing some pod casts or ted talks to really explain some of these lettering ideas. but, a big shout out and thank you to cathy for liking something that i just tossed off and then tossed out. if she had not said something nice about this toady little envelope, i never would have gotten to that top one...and i have only just begun to develop the full concept...although, to be perfectly honest, i am on a serious peacock binge - which i am bumping ahead of the regularly scheduled envelopes. i hope mr. jack can get some sleep. i pretty much outdid my self ...and it's all from his inspirational bio.

bonus post - elizabeth's pueblo

another version of the pueblo letters that cathy liked. alyce also left a comment. once again, looking for the right tool for the huge stack of free envelopes. i tried ballpoint pen. loved the feel, but -oops- ended up with one of those nasty smears. solution: just make a lot more smears. i like how they are almost becoming clouds and if i had time, i would make lots more clouds at the top. so nice with the airplanes.....love this.

thanks to cathy for encouraging me to do more with this style - which is not ripped off from anyone. but, i am sure that there is something very similar somewhere.