KatarinaNavane

Update: I've just graduated college and moved into a shiny new apartment! Mail from my old address is being forwarded to the new one so assuming nothing goes wrong I should still be able to get and rate everything in a timely fashion. I hope this doesn't cause any problems!

IMPORTANT: All my artwork is © Me. In fact all everyone's artwork is © the original artist (whether or not they register it with the government, look it up). Don't incorporate it into your own work without permission. Just ask first, seriously, it's not that hard.

I'm a recent college graduate, art major (bet you could've guessed that one). I'm creative, intelligent and eccentric. I'm nerdy AND geeky (yes there is a difference). I like people but am not a people person. I'm too honest for my own good. I'm a realist. I'm hard to draw. I'm articulate and impulsive. I'm either extremely "quirky" or ever-so-slightly obsessive compulsive. I am pleasure-driven, but very rational in my quest for it. When faced with an absurdity, I respond with another absurdity, because that's the only logical response. I'm mature enough to know that I should continue to act immature for as long as I can get away with it. I have the demon-kitty critter thing that is my icon tattooed on my ankle. I'd rather people be honest than polite, and I'm nearly impossible to offend. There are three words that I will not use unless I mean them: Love, Hate, and Promise. I like fancy cheese.

I can angel most swaps that I host and if I can't I'll find someone who can. Let me know if this is necessary.

I'm interested in private trades for ATCs, just send me a PM if you'd like to trade ^_^

If you don't receive something from me, please let me know before rating. The post office isn't perfect, and I can re-send for most things. Thanks!

I usually send extras with my swaps. I try to cater them to people's profiles so they get things they like, so if it says "no extras" in the profile I'll see it and not send any. If I send anything you don't like/can't use, just forward it on to someone else with your next swap and maybe they'll be able to use it. And I'm not doing it for hearts so don't feel like you have to give one. Just hoping I can make people smile.

Also, if you're sending to me, and you're faced with a choice of doing a good job on your ATC/whatever and sending it late or doing a bad job and sending on time, I'd rather you sent late. To be honest I don't even notice when things are late most of the time, as long as it's by days rather than by weeks or months. I'd appreciate a PMed warning of lateness, of course. But don't be afraid I'll rate down for lateness. I'd only do that if it were really really late either with no communication/apologeticnesss or with BS excuses.

I really love this site, it's like christmas every day getting and giving things all the time. Thanks everyone ^_^

I have extremely eclectic taste in music. I like a little of everything, except for country and rap, but particularly like anything with fast violins, especially combined with more modern instruments and styles, and interesting vocal harmonies. My favourite bands right now are Les Yeux Noirs, The Fratellis, Foals, Enter the Haggis, The Decemberists, The New Pornographers, The Postal Service, and Dionysos

Books: The Princess Bride, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Anything else by Christopher Moore, The Pushcart War, basically anything by Neil Gaiman, the Abarat books, and the Youth in Revolt series.

Plays: Any of Shakespeare's comedies, Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, and Of Widows and Vegetables.

Comic books: Sandman, Bizenghast, Godchild/Cain Saga, Nightmares and Fairy Tales, Fables, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Tarot Cafe

Movies: The Princess Bride, Stardust, The Prestige, 10 Things I Hate About You, Dogma, Real Genius, Pan's Labarinth, Mirrormask, Paprika, The Secret of Kells

Videogames: Final Fantasy X, Okami, Legacy of Time, Syberia (1&2), Still Life, Portal, Zeus: Master of Olympus, the Professor Layton games,

Firefly, The Daily Show, Futurama, The Simpsons, Digging for the Truth, Mythbusters, Project Runway, Top Chef, Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, Dexter, and House.

ATCs done in collage, drawing or a combination thereof, inchies, artistamps, matchboxes, jewelry making and other metalworking. If you'd like to see some of my work, browse my gallery on deviantart, link above. I make a lot of steampunk jewelry, and some more basic jewelry as well, some of which is for sale in my etsy store (also link above). I also dabble in bookbinding, paper making, stamp carving and other forms of printmaking, polymer clay sculpture, and making zines.

Note: This is to give you an idea of the sort of thing that I like and would like to trade for, possibly in a private trade. Please don't interpret these as demands or a shopping list.

THEMES:

• Victorian

• Steampunk (goes with the Victorian)

• Airships

• pocket watches and anything clockwork

• birdcages

• History in general (ancient egypt, ancient greece/rome, medieval, renaissance, etc.)

• Fairy-tales (though not Disney)

• Mythology

• tarot cards

• top hats

• Sakura (cherry blossoms)

• Pirates

• Anatomy, organs, skeletons, dissection, etc.

• freak shows, medical oddities, the grotesque and the bizarre.

• antique medical/scientific instruments

ANIMALS:

• foxes

• peacocks (and peacock feathers)

• crows, quetzals, and just birds in general

• Dragons

• any mythological creatures (though not like super-cutesy/girly unicorns and fairies)

• dinosaurs

• woolly mammoths

• any long-extinct animal actually. Living fossils like coelacanths and horseshoe crabs are cool too.

• Octopuses (and yes that is the proper plural, "octopi" bugs me because it's pluralizing a word with Greek roots as though it were Latin)

• squid and nautilus

• Jellyfish and Ctenophores (comb jellies. Look 'em up, they're really neat)

COLOURS

• anything in the blue-green family

• silver

• brass, copper, all metals

• dark purple and green in combination

FOODS

• I'd love to get foreign candy that I've never tried before. There's an Indonesian hard candy called "nano nano" that I like and can't really get here so more of it would be very welcome. European chocolate is much better than anything we get here--I'm particularly fond of kinder chocolates. Also, interesting flavours of Pocky would be wonderful--my favourite is Mango, which I can't find anymore. I'd really like any mango candy, actually.

  • Anything maple or grapefruit (I just discovered tic-tacs come in grapefruit which makes me happy)

  • Toffee and caramel! Especially salt caramel.

  • I fell in love which chicken flavoured potato chips (/crisps) when I was in Europe and I can't get 'em here

  • anything I've never tried before!

THINGS I'D LOVE TO RECEIVE

• Anything involving the themes I like

• Amazon and etsy wishlists are at top of profile--expensive stuff is just for inspiration purposes unless we're doing a really big private swap or something.

• Clean animal bones, especially skulls (no harming animals please)

• Fossils

• Milagros--Especially body part and organ ones.

• Glass bottles, jars, test tubes, particularly smallish and old fashioned looking.

• Dead butterflies (only ones you found dead already please, don't hurt any)

• Rubber stamps. Clear acrylic stamps, wood mounted, or unmounted, all are cool! Particularly ones of vintagey things or anything in the themes etc. I like.

• Mail art

• Artistamps/faux postage

• Handmade postcards

-Any kind of art, really!

• Vintage theme scrapbooking paper, particularly that with handwriting/text--even small pieces are great.

• I'm a casual kawaii collector and love things of that persuasion, particularly stickers. I like kawaii animals best, especially seals. Food with faces is cool, or anything random/weird, but not crazy about kawaii kids/people. Don't like hello kitty herself much but other than that no preferences as to brand or anything else.

• Anything My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Only FIM though, not the old/classic stuff.

• sealing wax (though not seals, I have a custom made seal and really don't use others)

• amigurumi's and handmade stuffed animals look absolutely adorable, I love them, although I can not crochet or sew myself.

• fingerless gloves. I wear 'em all the time because my hands are always cold--the kind with no fingers at all though, not the half-fingered kind--I guess they could be called "mitts" or something.

• metal bits and shiny things

• brads, esp. mini-brads

• broken/junk jewelry to take apart, particularly cameos, cameo frames, and lockets

• BPAL imps ears (particularly any from the steamworks collection)

• clock/watch parts

• hand drawn things

• ATCs, Inchies, Matchboxes, etc.

• Shrinky Dinks

• Old things, particularly Victorian era (or older),

• Pennies (or whatever the smallest unit of coin currency is) from other countries (besides the US...and Canada, got plenty of those).

• Wheatback US pennies or other Old coins, US or otherwise.

• vintage postcards and photos (reproductions are cool as long as they're nice prints, not all pixel-y)

• pretty paper esp. fancy origami paper (yuzen/chiyogami) or other fancy papers from other countries.

• pages from old sears & roebuck catalogs!

• Books or book pages in other languages, or old book pages, particularly languages with a different alphabet from the Latin one (this one). Longshot ones I'd particularly like are Greek, Hindi/Urdu/any other from India, Thai, Armenian, Mongolian, or any African language. If anyone has or has access to books in any of these languages that they would trade, PM me!

Note: I don't mean that I would be offended to receive any of these things, they're just probably not going to earn you a heart from me, though they won't keep me from giving one if I would anyway for the rest of the package. If I receive these things I will probably forward them on to someone who can make better use of them than me.

• I have athsma! If you are a smoker, please include an unscented dryer sheet with your swap (some kind of baking soda packet might work a well) as that does a lot toward getting rid of the residual smoke (even if you don't smell anything I promise you, I can).

• Holiday theme stuff, for the most part (I prefer classy to kitchy, and like dark things in general so some halloween stuff of the darker variety is cool)

• "inspirational" quotes/words. They're so cliché and overdone.

• Loose glitter! Even on an ATC or something, I don't like the kind of glitter that falls off the card and gets on everything.

• Not a big fan of pink or orange (particularly neon), or of pastel colours in general, though all colours can be used well. *Pink is probably my least favourite colour--I am completely Not a girly-girl. Excessive pink like the barbie aisle in a toy store or like valentines stuff makes me cringe.

• anything baby related or little-kid-y (except dinosaur stuff and kawaii). Not planning on having kids anytime soon (maybe in a decade or so. Maybe.) and don't even want to think about it.

• Diddl. Just don't see the appeal.

• candy-wise, I don't like anything coconut or banana or anything licorice/anise-y, or artificial cherry or grape flavoured, and I don't really like gum or gummies.

• I don't drink coffee or tea and am not too fond of those flavours in other things.

• I don't really use sewing stuff. Lace is ok, I use it for ATC stuff every now and then, but I don't really use buttons, thread, yarn, fabric, etc.

• Scrapbooking die-cuts of flowers or anything equally generic, like letters, photo corners, etc. People keep sending me these and I don't know what to do with them.

• I have too many stickers so with the exceptions of ones that fit aforementioned 'like' themes, I don't really need any more.

• I'm not religious and have no intention of becoming so. I sometimes like religious imagery, but not when it's trying to convert me--for instance, I find images of demons and hell fascinating, but don't like being told I'm going to hell. I love medieval artwork, a lot of which is religious, but prefer people refrain from "praying for me."

If you see anything here you are interested in and anything in the above wishlist section that you have and are willing to trade, PM me and we'll see about making a private trade. Note: Shipping costs are really an issue with me so I'd rather trade things in cheap-postage quantities.

• ATCs

• Inchies

• Faux postage/artistamps

• mail art surprises!

• matchboxes

• paper goods/supplies/kits for the above (I have a one inch square hole punch so cutting inchie blanks is easy for me as well).

• Stamped images--my rubber stamp collection has really taken off. Especially if you want images from steampunk/victorian or slightly goth-y/dark stamps.

• punchies/die cuts from decorative hole punches. Again, I have tons of variety of these.

• ATC sleeves

• used/vintage postage stamps

• Handmade jewelry

• handbound mini books (I often make them as small as one inch square)

• Handmade pinback buttons/badges

• stickers

• marbles (though I'm leery of how much it would cost to ship a bunch of them)

• Postcards: I have tons of freebie art postcards from art galleries.

• Any candy or easily shipped food readily available in the US.