had an awesome idea for a trade project, and it's


"Quarter machine trades!

How do you do a quarter machine trade? You trade handmade art in quarter machine capsules! Here are some steps:

1. Participants post a wishlist and/or set of hints, guidelines and interests that will help others decide what to make for them. Can be as specific or as open to interpretation as you like.

2. Contact somebody else who has posted a wishlist and ask if they would like to trade.

3. Go out and buy something from a quarter machine. Take the original toy out of the capsule and make something else to go in there, using your tradee's wishlist as a guide.

4. In keeping with the spirit of getting surprise loot from an actual quarter machine, it is recommended that you do not make specific requests. However, this is completely up to you. It's your trade!

5. Once your prizes are made, put them in their capsules and mail them to each other.

Guidelines:

DON'T BE LAZY. Put as much effort into your half as you would like the other person to put into theirs. Materials needn't be expensive, but they should be durable and your work should look nice. Treat your prize as an art piece.

Make sure that you are both working with the same size capsule (if this is important to you).

Be creative! Consider the quarter machine capsule as a form of presentation, not just a container.

Be sure to sign your work, and/or the capsule that you send it in.

Prize suggestions:

Handmade sculptures or figurines

Flat artwork on tiles, sturdy cardboard, etc.

Pins/buttons with your art on them

Mods of existing toys*

*These should clearly be MODS. I.E, don't just paint a plastic kangaroo a new color--sand off its head and sculpt a new one, attach wings from a different toy, glue spines on its back and then paint the entire thing in stripes. Put your mark on it.

I'm pretty excited about the potential of this project and would love to see it take off. Think of it! Collections of designer quarter machine prizes sitting in fish bowls. Well, that's where I'd keep mine. If this sounds cool to you and you want to participate, repost the rules or link to this journal, and then post a wishlist. This is something that will definitely be cooler if a lot of people participate."



I THINK THIS SOUNDS AWESOME.

So would you like to trade?
To give you an idea of what I might enjoy getting:

- Bats, ferrets, snails, snakes, tarsiers, orcas, skunks, african wild dogs, geckoes, bumblebees, jellyfish, (manta)rays, sea gulls and hyenas are just some of my favourite animals.

- I also like very bizarre animals and the idea of combining features from different animals into a new one.

- Stone gargoyles are awesome.

- I would be delighted to get literature. I speak English and German (and Latin). I really like ultra short stories, but everything else is fine too! (Please no sex or too much violence or gender stereotypes. If you come up with a more creative way than folding a piece of paper into the capsule, that would be extra awesome.)

- Using the International Phonetic Alphabet would be a sure way to my heart. I'm a linguistics geek.

- Zines! Zines are awesome and I love them.

- I love the shape of unfurling fern.

- I love StarTrek. Especially TNG, DS9 and Voyager.

- old-fashioned, mysterious keys and clocks...

- books are beautiful

- I'm not generally a fan of ultra bright colours.

- I love clay. (But I'm not sure if that won't break during shipping)

I'm vegan, and like ~Dumpysaurus I ask that you don't use any animal products (leather, silk, wool, feathers, bone) in anything you might make for me.

BUT: I live in Germany and this means shipping costs can be more expensive (depending on where you live of course, but most of you seem to come from america or canada...). I promise to put very much effort into my part of the trade though! It will look better than most of the stuff I have in my gallery now. I'd so love to take part in this!