Gosh, I truly love etegami. I love looking at other artist’s work and I love thinking to myself ‘oh, that would make a great one!‘ when I see something inspiring.
These are a couple etegami postcards featuring poinsettias I sent out in the last couple of days.
And for those of you that may have never seen etegami before, it’s a traditional, Japanese folk art. You paint very simply an item from everyday life and pair it with a simple phrase or quote. Then, you mail it off! For those of you reading that are letter writers, etegami is like, the ULTIMATE in personal correspondence. You are literally painting a picture and sending it off to an intended recipient. Traditionally, you are thinking of a particular friend or family member as you paint. To me, etegami can be more vulnerable than a letter. You are putting your artistic skills out there and what if the recipient doesn’t like it?
Here’s what I sent out:
Hello! My name is Cole. Simplicity Embellished is my special place. I talk a lot about writing letters, etegami, gardening and yoga. Please sign up for Sunday Tea (comes to you via email), subscribe using your feed reader of choice and don't hesitate to say hello on Twitter or Facebook either.
If only I had any talent in the drawing/sketching/painting/tracing department ……. I admire that skill so very much. In turn though I can usually manage to ‘paint’ a picture in words and that is a different skill in itself. You have impressed me though and I do truly love the etegami idea.
Thanks K!
Wow, very cool cards! I make my own cards too, but not like you. :)
I visit your site for the first time now (just read your work in the Magazine of sandbook.net) and I really like your site. Just subscribed for the Sunday Tea. :)
Thank you for sharing all this pretty things with us!
Mariska- So nice to meet you! And thanks for visiting Simplicity Embellished.
Glad you saw me in Sandbook–Raia does a great job with the magazine.
They’re all great, but I especially like the middle one. The different shades of red to distinguish each petal is inspired!
Love the cards. I haven’t had the courage to try something like this yet.
I hope you Hannukah was wonderful.
Got here via sendsomething.net
Welome! So glad you found me via SendSomething.
I highly suggest giving it a try. You can use a black sharpie for the outlines and basic watercolors for the ink. They’ll obviously work differently on the paper, but it’s nothing you can’t work with!