Wow! We're so pleased to be featured on Lúz Gallery's website! A big thank you to Diana Millar and Quinton Gordon for your wonderful write up about Finchley Paper Arts' products. Here's what they wrote:

"There's something that I love about picking up an old book, opening the cover and finding that someone, years ago, took a moment to write a beautiful inscription, or even just to write the date that the book was received. There's something about handwriting from a hundred years ago, the flow of the ink from a fountain pen with the swirls and curls that I love to admire. Even old documents of simple accounting have a beautiful flair. I have kindergarten teacher printing- perfectly straight, up & down - just like you learn in kindergarten. Or most days I may never even pick up a pen or pencil, just fill a computer screen with typed out letters. 

But, the problem is, you can't handle these beautiful documents every day. Most of the time they remain tucked away in archival sleeves and dark boxes, only to pull out on rare occasions, so they don't crumble from the daily use.  

That's why I loved finding Finchely Paper Arts and their 'undercover' creations. They are bringing a new life back to these beautiful old documents & images, and allowing them to have a new life in this age of technology. Each design comes from their love of the arts, combined with parts of history, their worldwide collections and photographic & book images, resulting in beautiful new compositions or undercovers for your iphones, laptops and ipads.

Something that you use everyday!

I recently visited Finchely's studio, and I was allowed a peek into a few of their inspirations...! There is an incredibly special book that was pulled from their grandparent's collection of 'old dusty books' from under the crawl space. This book was originally printed & bound in 1600's and was part of a incredible collection!

Here's their story in their own words; 

While researching vintage ephemera, we came across a wealth of family genealogy data from Cambridge England. Some of the many passions of our family were bookstores, publishing and even a mobile library.  In the 1740’s a large private library came up for auction. Our family purchased several books containing the personal bookplate of Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles of Wellbeck Abbey in Sherwood Forest.

Finchley was the last home of our Great Grandparents before their immigration to Canada in the early 1900’s, we thought it fitting to use the Finchley name to re-establish our family in the publishing industry.

The book I was able to view was from this special collection of Lady Henrietta, and had her incredible handwriting in the book, as well as her own personal bookplate. She even had her own way to mark each book that she read, in her estimated collection of 50,000 books!

Or there's the dramatic red wax seal now part of the very first designs from Finchley, the Face of Finchley. Or the gorgeous colourful Seven Seas cover (currently looking great on my phone!) 

So well...these may be a bit unusual for a gallery to carry, I just love that Finchley is breathing a new life from the bookarts and bringing them into the 21st century ~ 'little mobile works of art'

We are very excited to be carrying these new items at the gallery. If you are not in town, we have many of the undercovers available to purchase online. Or stop into the gallery to see all covers we have in stock. 

The covers currently are available for iphone 4, ipad 2 and laptops (PC or Mac) for 13", 15" and 17" 

Or send us an email if you have any questions on Finchley Paper Arts and their gorgeous creations.

(perfect stocking stuffers??!) 

* I forgot to mention, in case you're wondering, Finchley Paper Arts is located here in Victoria BC !!"

Thanks Diana and Quinton!

Spring has arrived in the land of Finchley in Victoria. We are frantically playing catch up at Finchley Paper Arts putting the final design touches to our new Passport-Catalogue and display backdrop for our upcoming big show in NEW YORK CITY May 15th-18th, 2011.

The National Stationary Show will be taking place at the Javits Centre in Manhattan. This is the World Stage for the stationary market with delegates from across the globe.
FPA has designed a new line of greeting and holiday cards , plus a beautiful line of wrapping paper with gold metallic highlights. With the roll-out of the IPAD 2  last month, we have had GelaSkins produce a series of skins for the IPAD 2 to be unveiled at the NY Show along with many other new designs for laptops, iphone 4, and the iPad 1.
If you are in NY city in May , please drop by Booth 1771 at the Javits Connvention Centre.  Hope to see you there!

The best skins on the planet!  We have teamed up with www.Gelaskins.com to bring you a variety of skins for your laptops and iPhone4.  GelaSkins are removable vinyl skins for protecting and customizing your portable devices.  Not to mention turning your ordinary device into a piece of travelling artwork.  With our designs and their technology, we feel we have come up with a winning combination.

GelaSkins removable covers are backed by adhesive technology from 3M, which allows bubble-free application.  When it comes time to switch it up for another design, GelaSkins remove cleanly leaving no trace of residue on your device.

Our first sample order has arrived and they have almost sold out even before getting them onto our website!  There are still a few available in each selection.  Check out our Blog for a "sneak peek" at our first set of designs.   We are submitting another order now and hope to have them back in stock by mid to late January.

Magic lantern slides....  even the name conjures up a magical image for its time...

There has been some debate about who the original inventor of the magic lantern is and what year the original device was developed. It was around the late 1640s - 1650s. It was  even referred to as the “lantern of fright” because it was able to project spooky images that looked like apparitions.  In its early development, it was mostly used by magicians and conjurors to project images, making them appear or disappear, transform from one scene into a different scene,  or even create the belief of bringing the dead back to life..

The first lantern slide producers made their slides using albumen-coated plates and, after a short period, switched to wet-collodion plates. The introduction of dry plate processes, as well as mass-produced lantern slide kits, made the slides easier for amateur photographers to produce.

The finished product was placed within a lantern slide projector to be viewed on a wall or screen. The first projectors used oil lamps for light. By 1870, limelight, produced by burning oxygen and hydrogen on a pellet of lime, offered a better, although more dangerous, form of illumination. In the 1890s, the invention of the carbon arc lamp, followed by electric light, provided a safe method for displaying the lantern slide image.

Our latest Magic Lantern finds are some great Nature and Comic slides from England.  Due to the weight of the glass slides, the shipping to Canada can be pricey or free depending on the vendor.  All arrived in great shape with no breakage.

Recent sets that we managed to find and add to our collection are Moths and Butterflies, Nature, and Comic Cats and Dogs. They make a great addition to our World Culture, Cities of the World, Children and Nature series.  The Comic Cats and Dogs show a great side of English Humour.

Stay tuned for up coming designs using content from our slides for our new Collage Pages, Gelaskins for Laptops & Iphones and new Art Card Designs.

Here are a few links to sites for info on Magic Lantern slide Machines and history. 

http://www.antiquesjournal.com
http://www.magiclantern.org.uk

Cheers, Doug

The Polaroid Transfer process involves hand printing each image, resulting in no two images alike.  They are printed on Arches Watercolour Paper.  Image transfer is often described as a "crossover" art form, one that blurs the distinction between conventional photography and handcrafted art, such as painting.  This creates mystique and a truly artistic image.  Each miniature portrait should be kept away from direct sunlight.

The original vintage trays come in three sections.  We have modified them into individual trays for a more convenient  size, each with it's own theme.

Using vintage papers for backgrounds, family heirlooms, photos, and a variety of embellishments, each tray starts to come alive once the indiviual compartments are filled with treasures.

Welcome to the new line of Finchley Paper Arts " TAG ART" !  We have drawn upon our vast archives of personal world photos, maps, old documents and trading cards to create these new tag pages.  We hope you enjoy the new layouts with multiple sizes of tags on one sheet. They are Quality Digital printed on 120 lb McCoy Card Stock. We welcome your comments and feedback on our new line.

We now offer 32 pages of Tags.

We have designed our second set of  Finchley Art Cards !  Check them out, new sizes are available.  We now have 32 different cards.  We welcome your comments and feedback on our new line.

Come and see us at the "Antique & Collectable Show" in Victoria, B.C.  June 13th !  Pearkes Arena 10am~4pm.

Well it's been 2 months since our last Blog entry BUT we have been busy "Treasure Hunting" and designing 2 new sets of Art Cards and 35 new Tag pages!!

The first set of Art Cards are now available on our site and the next set of Art Cards and Tags will be available early June.  They will be off to the printers next week!   So please check back.  Wholesale card inquiries are welcome as well.

We will be offering our Collage Sheets as pdf' down loadable files in June.

"Latest Treasures" include modified smaller Letterpress Trays for mixed media collage.  They are available in limited supply.

We found these rusted grates at a local 2nd hand store. (See below)  Lots of ideas for these beautiful caste iron sculptures....  We will photograph each step in the process of transforming them into Unique Altered Art.  We will feature the before and after photos in our Gallery Section.

With each art piece we will try and create a colour combination palette, in the hope that you may also want to use it.  It always takes me ages (sometimes days) to pick out just the right vintage document, photo etc for a new piece, background colours generally are several layers deep to obtain the right hue..... and then changed again.  Each layer has its own story to tell as well.  I have many canvases started but never finished...

From each palette one can create unlimited art pieces, handmade or digital.  The colour formulas are in RGB and listed beside each colour for easy reference.

"Awakening" Bookmark"

Look for our new ad in Somerset Studio in the May/June Issue.

Ok so here goes...  If someone had told me a year ago I would actually have a blog, I would have laughed at them.  English was never my best or favourite subject in school and I think I skipped out of every oral presentation I had to do!   Geography and the Arts were always my passion and still are today.

I hope to be able to share with you my view of the colours and textures I've seen in this world.

It is amazing that each continent definitely has a "colour combination palette" that we associate with it, but they can be easily blended harmoniously if we only take the time and imagination to do so.

We would like to introduce to you "Finchley Global Colour Combinations" ~ "Colour Palettes"

With each art piece we will try and create a colour combination palette, in the hope that you may also want to use it.  It always takes me ages (sometimes days) to pick out just the right vintage document, photo etc for a new piece, background colours generally are several layers deep to obtain the right hue..... and then changed again.  Each layer has its own story to tell as well.  I have many canvases started but never finished...

From each palette one can create unlimited art pieces, handmade or digital.  The colour formulas are in RGB and listed beside each colour for easy reference.

Colour Palette #4 ~ "Afternoon Tea At The Kasbah"

Artwork:  Polaroid Transfer on Watercolour Paper.

Inspirations:

1. Polaroid transfer of Patrick Dunbar Antiques front yard, Taos New Mexico.
2. Inspirations row from left to right - Polaroid transfer of an Indian Door.
3. Finchley Poem.

I am from an exotic land.

I am the door and pillars from an ancient Kasbah.

I have housed many generations,  from pilgrims to armies to harems to princes.

I have heard the laughter, the orders and the whispers throughout time and felt the touch of hands.

4) Polaroid transfer of an Indian Door

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

Colour Palette #5 ~"South Indian Musician"

Artwork:  Digital Collage.

Inspirations:

1. Top far right.  Luminious paper with vintage Benares Temple engraving overlay.
2. Inspirations row from left to right - Vintage bank document. Finchley reproduction of vintage documents coming soon.
3. Finchley Photoshop brush. Brush sets on CD coming soon.
4. Scan of a 1800's Lantern Glass slide. Sometimes black and white is just as dramatic as the original colour slide.
5. Finchley Photoshop brush. Brush sets on CD coming soon.

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

Colour Palette #6 ~ "The Journey~Invisible Tattoos Of Life"

Artwork:  Digital Collage.

Inspirations:

1. Top far right. Vintage Egypt Map.
2. Inspirations row from left to right - Vintage North African Postcard.
3. Finchley photo of early morning camel safari, Zagora Morocco. Available in Collage sheets Blue Morocco and Finchley Flash.
4. Photoshop brush.

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

Colour Palette #1~ "Stolen Moments" 

Artwork:  Digital Collage

You could easily create a similar mixed media collageusing luminious colour washes, black and white photos, vintage documents, letters and transparencies.

Inspirations:

1. Top far right - Luminious paper.
2. Inspirations row from left to right - Ziegfeld Girl Billie Dove photo.
3. Finchley European Post Collage page.
4. Photoshop brush ( Finchley Photoshop Brush Sets coming soon as  a new product !)
5. Finchley Sepia Documents Collage page.

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

Colour Palette #2 ~ "A Step Back in Time"

Artwork:  Altered Art Assemblage -  Vintage Letterpress Tray

Inspirations:

1) Top far right - Place of The Winds, Jaipur India.

2) Inspirations row from left to right - Morning Light at Benares (Varanasi) India.

A fellow traveller once told be there would be places in this world that one feels a "special presence and energy" if you take the time to sit quietly and wait.  I felt this several places, but especially sitting on the steps of the Ghats along the River Ganges in Benares at 4:30 am, and climbing the steps of the pyramids in Cairo Egypt awaiting sunrise.- ( which one can get fined for if caught... another story for a later day ! )

Even though I didn't use the "India" theme in this altered assemblage, it certainly gave me the idea for which colour palette and vessel to use.

3) Finchley Keys.

4) Vintage Handwriting Collage page.

5) Finchley Cabinet Cards.

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

Colour Palette #3 ~ "Awakening"

Artwork:  Digital Collage

Inspirations:

1) Top far right - Vintage Indian Currency.

2) Ziegfeld Follie Photo.

3) Rajasthani Tapestry Collage page.

4) Background walnut stained paper with Finchley Photoshop Brush Set #1 ( coming soon as a new product!).

5) 1800's vintage French Letter ( Reproduction French Letters - coming soon as a new product!).

Colour Palette: Created from the inspiration pieces.

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   Altered Letterpress Tray

Vintage key, cabinet card, antique glass bottles, vintage blue box, handwritten 1800's French letters,  vintage envelopes, wax seal, vintage watch, scissors, ceramic door knob, mollusc shell and quail eggs.

Terrace Studio

"Gypsy Traveller Collage"