BBF - Be a Back Finisher - Tales from Studio Mailbox

Anybody recall "BFF?" The sign-off for handwritten childhood notes we'd pass one other in class? Signed "BFF" it meant "Best Friends Forever."

Well BBF is my new catch-phrase. It's also a way of signing your creations but it means "Be a Back Finisher."

This idea probably sprouted from my days of learning to cross stitch. My mother, belonging to the Military School of Perfection Stitching, would look at my piece that I'd proudly present to her and then flip it over. If the backside was a knotted messy nightmare, she'd look at me and say, "you know, you should always be able to tell the design from the backside nearly as well as the front side."

How gratifying many years later when a much older collegue discovered I was doing some handwork. She picked up my work, tipped her chin down to look me in the eye and simultaneously flipped over the cloth. I will never forget the smile on her face as she exclaimed, "you are an excellent stitcher."

It's like I'm hard-wired to finish off something "all the way." I recognize this in other people's creations and always appreciate the

"little extra" they worked to make something truly complete.

In printing, all "last steps" are referred to as "finishing." In big print houses, this can be an entire department. Finishing means taking the flat sheets that were printed in the printing press and then transforming it into the job that was ordered. At the minimum this means trimming in the guillotine but it can also mean folding, scoring, stapling, punching, binding, etc.

Without "finishing" the job isn't finished.

Sometimes I look at these gorgeous ATCs or Art Cards and they're blank on the back. Blank. Now I understand that depending what you're going to do with something can determine whether or not you art up the backside. For instance if you know the art cards are going to be corner mounted into an album, then it would be crazy to put effort into something you can't see. Yet I can't help but feel that loose cards can have the minimum of a signature and a month/year. The backside is also a good place to mark something "original" or if it's from a series "1 of 3" and so on. If it's a gift for someone an inscription is always appreciated by the recipient. If it's a flap or a tip-in inside an altered book, it's one more side to admire while the book is being paged through. It's also fun when people take the time to "name" their artwork or describe what it actually is. "Graphic collage of children's crossing signs." "Photograph of metal gate printed on transparent substrate and collaged over cereal box." Give people a description of what you've actually done. It's not always apparent to other people's eyes.

Join me will you? BBF! Why? Because it's the OTHER side.

Click over to view other photos of the backsides of some of my cards...