Kickstarter

The 'Out of the Nest' project started out in january of 2012, as a group of paintings for cards, at the request of a local bookstore. I soon realized that I had no cost effective way of getting them printed but that didn't stop me, I just kept going- posting the progression of each painting to my friends. They literally watched the paintings come alive, offering me encouragement and suggestions every step of the way (and they hated when I recycled a painting I thought was not good enough) I am so grateful to them all

I included some of that progression in the video as well as on the blog for this project so you folks too can see some of the paintings from start to finish
http://outofthenestcardproject.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-beginnings.html
I also included some glimpses into my studio, as well as a few other things i'm working on. 

  In august I discovered kickstarter, and realized that with help from other people, I could get my cards printed!
WHY 'out of the nest' ?
I named this project out of the nest because on so many levels this has meaning for me - obviously it's nests and birds.   
But in addition it is the first really large scale project I have ever done by myself.
To me it is so exciting to know that with your help, my birds and their nests will be going out into the world. That one person will perhaps send a card to another person, and in a way my images will have a life of their own. Truly out of their nest
So what is this project? 

 
It is 12 of my finished paintings that will become card sets with envelopes, 6 are birds, 6 are birds nests with eggs.
They will be professionally scanned, which takes 3 days, then printed on 5'' x 7'' mat card stock, ... you can use them as greeting cards or frame them as small prints
The scanning alone is very expensive as it is being done by drum scanner, I've tried to scan them myself but the color is not as nice as the originals. Being Professionally scanned insures that the quality of the finished cards as well as any fine art prints will be the best that technology can offer today, and the color will match the originals exactly.
The cards, 500 of each of the 12 paintings, are being printed in four color offset prints which takes 3 weeks as plates are made of each of the four colors used for a total of 48 plates. Each color is printed separately, then when printed and dried, the cardstock is cut and scored. Why 500 of each image? The 500 amount is the most cost effective way of getting this project done, allowing me to offer these cards at a good price.

If this project goes over my funding goal, there is a 13th painting of a fledgling bird about to leave the nest (that's it at the end of the video)  that can also be printed as cards, and depending on how much funding this project gets, the other paintings can also be printed as fine art museum quality prints ready to mat and frame, these will be larger then the original 5x7 paintings. Another possibility is tote bags.

Now kickstarter only works if a project is fully funded, you can go OVER your goal but nothing happens if you don't reach your goal - so i am hoping that you folks will join me in getting these paintings out into the world.

Just launching this project was a project in itself, first, i was determined to use a local printer, to hopefully do my part in helping american jobs. it took a while but i did finally find one willing to take this on 

i had 16 paintings all together which i narrowed down to 12, as i felt that would be a good number.
I also found a local company that was able to do the fine art scanning! THAT was a miracle as every other time i had looked for one, the closest one was 150 miles away! 

The making of the 'video' was interesting, as I don't have access to a camcorder, so I just used the photos that I posted to my friends as the paintings were being done. I used the mic on the laptop, and some really simple editing equipment.  It took me a while to figure it all out too. I can laugh about it now.

  Now about the rewards, ….well the rewards for backing this project are the cards themselves! 

I have them listed on the right there. Every level of backing gets cards! 
I expect to ship mid november, just in time for the holidays! 

If you like this project but for whatever reason, are unable to back this, please spread the word about it. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to look this project over with me. And I hope together we can make this happen

MUSIC 'Haunting' by Jamie Evans - Thank you so much Mr Evans for permission to use this beautiful music.      http://jamieevansmusic.com/