Ok, Let's Start Trading!!

[Erin Young]

I would like to open up this discussion wall for trading our ATCs! 

You're welcome to trade your original artwork 2.5x3.5 inches only. 

Any style is welcome.. Mixed media, hand drawn hand painted, rubber stamp collage, collage. etc... 

You're also welcome to Re-trade atcs that are in your collection. Let's not be afraid to re-home and give new appreciation to old forgotten atcs.. 

If you're re-trading other people's atcs maybe state that they aren't yours to avoid any confusion.. 

This page is for trading ATCs only. 2.5 x 3.5 

Please post pictures of your available atcs. And let's get trading!!!

[Mim Golub Scalin]

ATCs going out in tomorrow’s mail to Tom and Erin.

[carl baker]

why are they only 2.5"x 3.5"? thats really small,

i like big ones, mine are bigger ones,

who said ATC is only 2.5 x 3.5?

any style, any size/p>

[Keith S. Chambers]

It is the ubiquitous standard size. Personally, I like the challenge of producing in the diminutive frame, similar in size to standard sized playing cards and commercially produced trading cards.

However, Carl, there are always peer-to-peer workarounds. But be it not to me to condone any skirting around our dungeon master's game.

And, um, the person credited with the creation of atc's, Swiss artist M. Vänci Stirnemann, deemed the atc to be 64 x 89 mm in size. Just saying . . . don't blame the messenger.

2.5 x 3.5 inches equals (approx) 6.35 x 8.89 cm . . . (64 mm × 89 mm)
https://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Honored Keith

How do you feel about the format of a standard postcard?

(I make collages only on postcards; they have a single standard: 15 centimeters x 10.5 centimeters).

Ilya

[Mim Golub Scalin]

Hi Carl,

I met Vanci Stirnemann several years ago. He actually is the person who started ATCs. Crazy right? Someone actually started it. He chose the size because it's the size of sports trading cards and that was the impetus for what he started. One can make whatever one wants. Any size. But Trading Cards per se assume a set size. There are trading card plastic envelopes and trading card plastic sleeve for 3 ring binders, etc. So it's a thing. Hope this clarifies the size thing. If you want more info on Vanci, it's on the internet. Happy trading!

OOPS, I just noticed Lynne Larkin posted a link for you to follow. 

[Erin Young]

Mim, that's so awesome that you got to meet Vanci Stirnemann in person! That would be so cool and surreal to meet him. How did that meeting come about? 

[Mim Golub Scalin]

Hi Erin,

I'm not sure of date because I forgot to write it on the back of the photos I had printed from the meeting. Maybe 2008? My husband and I were in Paris on one of our 2 month artist residencies (I was the accompanist according to the formal document) but anyway, we were in Paris for 2 month, living in the Cite International des Arts. It's a great place with 300 artists' studios. We met artists from all over the world there. So this particular time, I noticed that on the door to the Swiss studio, just 2 doors down from our studio, was the name M. Vanci Stirnemann. I was like coo coo! I went back and was stammering to my husband about it, oh god I couldn't believe it, was that for real, omg, because I'd been doing ATCs since maybe 2002, and had been doing them with my students, so was familiar with this guy's name. 

So I pushed a paper under the door, Hi my name is and we're in the studio down the hall do you want to come by for some wine. 

Well, he calls and says YES! So we had wine together. And we chatted and he told me how it all began, the ATC thing. And then we had an open studio and he came, And I got some photos of me with him. I found one recently and popped it into one of the ATC collection binders. 

I was like a crazed fan. I had a grin that wouldn't quit. Like I'd met a pop star, or something. I thought maybe I'd made him uncomfortable with my being so dleighted, but in more recent years when I made contact, he said he remembered meeting up with us several times, enjoying our open studio, and I don't know, maybe I made dinner for him. He had a woman friend with him but never got to meet her. 

So that's my fan story. 

I still think it's pretty cool that I met him. Makes me even more connected to ATCs.

But here's the thing, he started it but has never, ever benefitted from it financially or "fame". All the commerce that's happened - companies making ATC sized paper packs, rubber stamps for the back, books about it, etc., nada. He never thought to do a registered trade-mark.  So there ya go. 

 Thanks for asking, by the way.    Mim

[Lynne Larkin]

Carl, ATC's are traditionally sized 2.5"X3.5" see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

for a history of ATC's.

[Erin Young]

Hi Lynne, thank you for sharing the history of the ATC!

[Mim Golub Scalin]

Hi Keith,

I posted previously some ATCs that I'd made, I've sent off a few to Erin and to Tom already.  I'll send you something and you can either send back or not. I'm feeling that whatever happens is okay with me. Best wishes to ya, Mim

[Erin Young]

Yes, Mim's previous post asking if anyone was interested trading atcs got my quick thinking brain into action Hahaha. There should be a section in the awesome ATC Rebels group for trading..Why not, right?!?.. After all, this group is all things ATCs :)  hopefully we can get more people active!! 

[Keith S. Chambers]

Okay then, off this atc [above; striped bird] goes to the young lady from Richmond . . . perhaps this atc should travel with a friend.