
print hunt info
The last step depends on the first. Don't think you're there just because you see the summit. Watch your footing, be sure of the next step, but don't let that distract you from the highest goal. The first step depends on the last.
Being an artist can be a tough deal, pushing work into the void and hoping for a positive response. To mark our 10th birthday, our aim is to celebrate the people striving to put their souls out into a world that desperately needs them. Peradam's Birthday Cards are trading cards featuring artists that have worked with Mount and Peradam over the past 10 years.
It’s our 10th birthday this year and to celebrate we're creating a set of collectable trading cards. The concept is based loosely on baseball trading cards, featuring artists we've worked with.
There will be a total of 50 cards to collect, plus a special shiny edition. Each card will feature a different artist we’ve worked with over the past 10 years. The cards will be available in sets of 5 random cards in envelopes available from participating shops in Frome, as well as from our studio and on our website. The rarest few will only be available by solving puzzles and clues to find them. Profits raised will be donated to Black Swan Arts Save Our Swan.
The main aim of the project is to celebrate the artists we’ve worked with.
There are two collections, an open release “Studio Collection”, and a limited release “Exquisite 10 Collection”, which showcase 10 artists who’ve had a particular impact or represent a formative moment in our history. The Exquisite 10 will be rarer, with special shiny editions alongside.
The first 20 of the Studio Collection will be released on the April Frome Independent Market, along with the first of the “Exquisite 10”. Thereafter another of the Exquisite10 will be released once a week over ten weeks. The remainder of the Studio Collection will be released later in April and early May, with all of the Studio Collection out by the midway point of the project.
The project will end on the July Frome Independent Market. There will be a prize for whoever collects all the cards first/ the most cards.
Extra Info
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We’re aiming to represent 50 artists.
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We’re in discussions with indie shops in Frome to display and facilitate the cards.
They will also be available from our webshop and from our studio.
The rarest cards will be hidden, and can only be obtained by solving puzzles and clues.
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Whoever collects all the cards first will win signed archival giclee prints by selected artists.
Peradam vouchers can also be won, details TBC
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We’re printing each card as an archival giclee print, which has a value in itself.
The actual artwork is only A7 size, barely larger than a business card.
Opposite the artwork is the information about it. In theory this could be cut off so that you just have the A7 artwork on its own. But we recommend leaving them whole as they are.
The cards may come to have a collective value, a bit like baseball trading cards do.
Each card will be embossed on the information side with the Peradam logo stamp to show it’s a genuine part of this project.
We will give to each artist involved a special one-off version of their print, this will probably be a full shiny. There will only ever be one of its kind, so if the project does end up being popular then the artists will possess the most valuable version of their card.
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No. The cost of printing the cards will fall on us, none of the participating artists will have to pay for any printing.
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It’ll be a not-for-profit project. The main aim is to drum up publicity for everyone involved rather than a revenue-generator (the retail price would have to be astronomical for it to be commercially viable). We’re giclee printing on cotton rag, so the material cost is significant. We’ll need to cover this in case the project becomes popular. Shops will need to charge a fee to prevent a shoplifting mentality and to cover VAT. Stockists have agreed to donate their usual mark-up to the Black Swan Arts Save Our Swan campaign. Black Swan Arts is a community-hub for the arts in Frome supporting young people and creatives. It’s been at the heart of Frome’s art scene over the past 40 years, without which this town would probably not be the arty vibrant place it is today, so by donating a little from each sale to the cause we hope to keep the centre alive for all artists and creatives in Frome to benefit from.
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There are two collections, the main collection is the Studio Collection - these are the blue cards that feature 40 artists we’ve worked with over the years, all of whom have had an impact on us.
The Exquisite Ten is a play on the NBA Exquisite Collection of baseball trading cards. Our Exquisite 10 represent ten artists who’ve had a particular impact or represent a formative moment in our history. These are the pink cards.
There will be a special shiny version of each of the 10 - printed on Metallic Gloss paper with the non artwork half of the card laminated with holographic film.
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The Exquisite 10 will have special edition cards - similar to the ‘shinies’ you could find in a football sticker album (one from the 90’s at least, they’re probably augmented reality now). These will be rare. Some will be in the envelopes, but others will only be obtained by solving puzzles and clues.
The “full” shinies are printed on Metallic Gloss paper, a photo paper with a shiny blue metallic sheen. We’ve laminated the non artwork side of the card with a holographic film too. We’ve not laminated the artwork side to retain the archival nature of the print - the holographic film is probably not acid free.
We’re considering creating “half shinies” for the Studio Collection to make things more exciting. A half shiny will be a print onto the 100% cotton paper we’re using for the Studio Collection with the information half of the card being laminated in holographic film. These half shinies would be rarer than the general Studio Collection cards.
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Some of the cards have Collectors Codes on them, these will form part of the puzzles to find the rarer cards later in the process. We’ll be putting up more details on the main print hunt page later in the project.
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The project launches on April 6th with an early release of 20 cards from the Studio Collection, and 1 Exquisite 10 card.
We’ll stagger the release of the Exquisite 10 to release one per week, and more of the Studio Collection will release as the project progresses.
All of the Studio Collection will be released by the midway point of the project. The final Exquisite 10 card will be released about a week before the end of the project (July 6th).
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We don’t know yet how many we’ll release over the three months it will run for. It depends how popular the project becomes. The limited release aspect will be limited in proportion to the open release, rather than a set number for the time being. As the project unfolds we’ll gauge the demand and make the limitation according to that. There will be three cards that will be particularly limited, these can only be obtained by solving puzzles and clues. In some cases there may only be 1-3 of that artwork ever released.
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The cards are larger than normal trading cards, so you won’t be able to use standard trading card albums to display and store your collection.
Our cards are A6 size in total, which means postcard collector albums can be used to display and store your collection.
There will be a total of 90 cards that can be collected, including 10 full shiny versions of The Exquisite Ten, and a shiny parallel/ half shiny version of each of the Studio Collection cards.
The Exquisite Ten cards will be printed on various different paper stocks, depending on what paper that artist usually prints on.
The Studio Collection will mostly be on our standard 100% cotton archival 300gsm paper.
Very select Studio Collection cards may be printed on different stock if that artist is known for printing on a particular stock, or the stock forms an important part of that artist’s work.
Studio Collection cards are bordered in blue. Exquisite Ten Collection cards are bordered in pink. Our original Mount brand and logo colours were pink and blue, so that’s what the colours represent.
Shinies are printed on Metallic Gloss 295gsm, with a holographic film laminating the information half of the card but not covering the artwork itself.
All cards will be embossed with the Peradam logo mark on the information half of the card.
Each card has a number from 01 - 50. (Cards with an additional code S are the full shinies from the Exquisite 10 Collection, and code P are the half shiny parallel cards from the Studio Collection)
The first person to collect all 50 plus the 10 full shinies can claim the grand prize.
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Collectors are free to swap cards to enable faster collecting and offload duplicates. We’ll probably facilitate this on our instagram page and promote any swapsie requests made via Instagram.