mefi atc swapping group? October 16, 2011 4:13 PM   Subscribe

I know there are artists, hobbyists, and crafters among the Mefi members. Are any swapping ATCs?

After a terribly long dry spell I've returned to making art, and I'm making some artist trading cards. Anyone else make them?
posted by FunkyHelix to MetaFilter-Related at 4:13 PM (29 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

There's a page on the wiki that lists some of Mefi's visual artists.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:17 PM on October 16, 2011


I used to make and trade ATCs through nervousness.org, before it crashed. Stuff like this. I'd be up for a swap.
posted by fancyoats at 7:21 PM on October 16, 2011


This is enthusiastically in my wheelhouse. I'm in.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 7:34 PM on October 16, 2011


Hah, your profile tidbit about realizing that you're like your mom made me LAUGH OUT LOUD.

I'm not really an artist, but I'd be interested in this!
posted by two lights above the sea at 8:02 PM on October 16, 2011


I've never made ATCs before and I don't think I really qualify as an artist, but I would totally be into this.
posted by enlarged to show texture at 9:00 PM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'd like to be in on this, too! My creative side could use some exercising.
posted by codswallop at 10:22 PM on October 16, 2011


Never made ATCs, but I've been meaning to do smaller silkscreens and this might be a good start. Some larger posters up here, so something along similar lines I'm thinking.
posted by monocultured at 12:58 AM on October 17, 2011


Glad you laughed.

I'm a hobby artist, so no sweat everyone. If you've got an urge to create, that's awesome. I have an old atc where a knitter crocheted a square and mod podged it to a card and sent that.

I've never run a swap for mefi before. Any ideas for how to run this besides commenting here something like, "I have X cards. Who's up for a swap?"
posted by FunkyHelix at 5:30 AM on October 17, 2011


I've never made an ATC. Perhaps it'd be good for me to start! Do you put your stats and mana costs on them?
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:25 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Well, if you want to make a personal Magick card, go for it. Geek craft.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:36 AM on October 17, 2011


Ooh, this could be fun! I'm in. Also, I haven't used it before, but swap-bot.com could be helpful for organizing it.

Warning: my ATCs will probably be something like handspun-yarn-wrapped-around-a-card or bad-quality sketches of my cat. Or squiggles. I like squiggles.
posted by mismatched at 11:38 AM on October 17, 2011


I love ATCs! I do indeed them and would love a swap. I haven't done one in a long time. Sign me up!
posted by Calzephyr at 9:14 PM on October 17, 2011


So there are a few ways to structure.

We can make it so individual participants are paired with one other person and then they swap ATCs with each other. Quick and easy, but the drawback is that you only get a sampling of one other person's work.

Or we can make it something like this: Say there are 12 people in the swap. Each person makes 12 cards and sends them to the host, along with a SASE. The host will take everyone's cards and divide them up so that everyone gets one card from everyone else, and then sends them back out to everyone. This takes a little longer, and sometimes you end up waiting on one or two stragglers to get their cards to the host. Firm deadlines help with this problem.

We could also do it round-robin style wherein Person 1 sends X cards to person 2, Person 2 keeps some and sends the rest, along with some of his own cards to Person 3, etc. But these can sometimes get delayed when people's lives inevitably get in the way of posting the package promptly. It can also be hard to wait if you are near the end of the list. Or if you are at the beginning, you have fewer options to sort through and that has the same drawback as Option 1.
posted by fancyoats at 6:42 AM on October 18, 2011


Can someone confirm you are talking about artist trading cards? Otherwise I have no idea what is going on in this thread.

If so this is the coolest idea I have heard of for ages, are these like magic cards, or something more awesome?
posted by adventureloop at 11:38 AM on October 18, 2011


I want to do this. How should we do this.
posted by everyday_naturalist at 5:22 PM on October 18, 2011


Can someone confirm you are talking about artist trading cards? Otherwise I have no idea what is going on in this thread.

Not sure whether this is directed at me/my comment? I am for sure talking about artist's trading cards.
posted by fancyoats at 8:17 PM on October 18, 2011


fancyoats, wouldn't another possibility be that each of the 12 people sends one card to each of the other 11 people? In other words, each person receives each of their 11 cards separately. Advantages of this approach: people can work on their own timetables; it's more fun to get multiple packages. Disadvantages: addresses are disseminated more widely, which some people may dislike; involves more $ spent on postage (but hey, apparently the USPS needs all the business it can get).
posted by enlarged to show texture at 8:25 PM on October 18, 2011


I'm in! I like enlarged to show texture's suggestion, for each person to send individual cards separately. It also seems like the easiest, logistically. Perhaps we could compile a mailing list through private message? Here's the Artist trading card wikipedia page, for anyone who isn't sure what they are.
posted by smartypantz at 9:32 PM on October 18, 2011


Yes, enlarged, that's definitely a valid suggestion, and if that seems to folks like the best way to organize, then I'll go along with that. I do want to keep the USPS in business!

So for participants so far we have:

FunkyHelix
fancyoats
The demon that lives in the air
two lights above the sea
enlarged to show texture
codswallop
monocultured
Metroid Baby
mismatched
Calzephyr
adventureloop <> everday_naturalist
smartypantz

Which is 12-13 peeps, depending on adventureloop's yes/no. Do we want to cap the number of participants to keep costs manageable?
posted by fancyoats at 5:31 AM on October 19, 2011


Whoops. My formatting was off there. There was supposed to be an arrow pointing to adventureloop and asking if ze wanted to participate? I guess it looked like an open html tag...
posted by fancyoats at 5:36 AM on October 19, 2011


We could always divide into multiple groups, if the number of participants seems too ungainly for one big swap. I'd say 12 is about my upper limit for the number of cards I could produce; I dunno about the rest of you.

(The timing of this is great, since I need things to keep me occupied while listening to recorded interviews for my dissertation!)
posted by enlarged to show texture at 11:47 AM on October 19, 2011


Just a few days ago I realized it had been a year since I made or traded any ATCs and had decided I needed to get back into that, because it's really, really fun. I come to MetaTalk today, and here's this post! Apparently, the universe agrees I need to make ATCs again. LOL! Count me in!
posted by Orb at 1:56 PM on October 19, 2011


I'd love to get in on this! I've not made ATCs either, but I'm a pretty prolific maker of lots of stripes, and it sounds like a blast!
posted by polymath at 11:23 PM on October 19, 2011


I'm interested if you're still accepting participants. Who doesn't love art and mail?
posted by book 'em dano at 2:57 PM on October 20, 2011


Ok this looks to be our final list.

1. FunkyHelix
2. fancyoats
3. The demon that lives in the air
4. two lights above the sea
5. enlarged to show texture
6. codswallop
7. monocultured
8. Metroid Baby
9. mismatched
10. Calzephyr
11. adventureloop
12. everday_naturalist
13. smartypantz
14. Orb
15. polymath
16. book 'em dano

Does anyone have ideas about how to share mailing addresses? My first thought is to make a private google doc whose link is Memailed to each participant, since it seems a little tedious for each of us to send 15 PMs to everyone else.
posted by fancyoats at 6:21 AM on October 25, 2011


Hmm. No one's suggested different. Google doc sounds good. Anyone have an objection?
posted by FunkyHelix at 11:43 AM on November 1, 2011


I don't have an objection. Google Doc away!
posted by enlarged to show texture at 8:25 PM on November 1, 2011


Alrighty, I made a Google spreadsheet for folks to edit. Sending PMs now.
posted by fancyoats at 5:55 AM on November 2, 2011


Was just stopping by to see if anyone had set anything up, so great timing on my part again! Anyway, I added my address, and I hope I did it right. I'm an artist. I look at a spreadsheet and my brain panics. LOL!
posted by Orb at 10:14 AM on November 3, 2011


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