My sister brought to my attention that I am officially one third of the way through this mailart 365 project :) The idea for this week was inspired by the transparent colors of japanese washi tape. Did you see this post via poppytalk handmade, where someone is making large rolls of the tape to put up on your walls, swoon!
card 111/365
card 112/365
card 113/365
card 114/365
card 115/365
card 116/365
card 117/365
Another Mailart 365 update.
card 107/365
card 106/365
card 110/365
card 109/365
card 108/365
card 105/365
card 104/365
While we were at the flea market a couple of weekends ago, I was looking through one vendor’s collection of old photographs. The vendor was selling each picture for .50 and while I started to go through them and collect my favorites, my sisters were tapping their watches, ready to move on. I couldn’t walk away though because there were so many good ones and I was afraid that if I stopped going through the rest I’d end up missing some amazing pictures. There were pictures in there from probably the beginning of the 20th century up until the 80s or 90s. The vendor told me they belonged to the estate of an artist/art professor and he was also selling this artist’s huge paintings as well. There were some quirky photographs, but the majority of them were just group shots and pictures that belonged to his ancestors before him. Long story short, I ended up asking him the price for the whole carton of photographs and bought them all, filling up a big grocery bag.
My family has lots of old pictures from generations and generations back. They hold so much history, including all the family stories we grew up hearing. I love looking through them but would never cut them apart or use them in my own artwork. BUT, when I see old pictures like this I want to snap them up so that I can finally play. It kind of kills my sister, who is our family tree keeper. She says it’s wrong and someone should try to track down the current ancestors and give them their pictures back. I understand that, and so I just try to tell myself there are no ancestors, it was the end of their family line, no more children. And it could possibly be true. In Any of the pictures of the artist, or pictures from his generation, there weren’t any children shown, only from previous generations.
All of this is to say a few things:
I came up with an idea for a week’s worth of mailart, using my new/old photographs. Here are some sneak peeks above.
and
(picture via ransom riggs, here)
Mim shared a “trailer” for the book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Ever since seeing this, and the old photographs used in it, I can’t keep it out of my head. I keep showing it to people. This weekend I had the idea to ask my mom if she’d allow to me buy and download the book to her Nook. I’ve never used an eReader, so I thought it would be fun. Turns out she had already downloaded it earlier that same day. Great minds think a like. She hadn’t seen the trailer yet, so of course I had to show it to her.
Today I showed the trailer to my coworker and he got intrigued enough to look up the author Ransom Riggs. Turns out he isn’t just an author, but a movie maker as well! As if I wasn’t excited enough about Miss Peregrine, guess how thrilled I was to find his page about his work “Talking Pictures” where he shares his collection of old photographs and the accompanying text scribbled on the back. Check it out here. Really, check it out, it is very cool. BTW, very few of the pictures I bought from the flea market have text on the back, sadly.
Looking at those old pictures and notes reminded me of Found Magazine, to which I used to subscribe. If you like old photographs, as well as found personal notes written on napkins, grocery lists and ephemera, you will LOVE this magazine. The magazine is filled with all of these things and more, submitted by it’s readers. The website showcases a daily “found item”. The co-creater, Davy Rothbart is an amazing story teller and has been featured on This American Life many times.
Okay, and then because I just can’t stop myself from going from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. This reminds me of when my sister and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of my very favorite things was a room which has original lyrics for famous songs written out by the artists as they were composing the songs. Many of them were scribbled on hotel notepads and stationery.
Okay, now to fullfill my daily requirement of mailart catch-up for the week, I present cards 97-103. I tried to stick primarily with ball point pen on cardboard for these. Many of them also have a gold shimmer ink.
card 97/365
card 98/365
card 99/365
card 100/365
card 101/365
card 102/365
card 103/365
Okay, here we are, day one of the catch up. This is where I would normally post the cards and the theme of the text on the back, but right now I’m so far behind, I’m just focusing on the mailart pieces themselves. The backs haven’t even been addressed or written on yet. I’ll tackle that hurdle once I’m caught up.
card 90/365
card 91/365
card 92/365
card 93/365
card 94/365
card 95/365
card 96/365
It’s a little bit late, but here is that picture I promised of mailart that has come to me through my P.O. Box recently. This picture does not do it justice at all. Each individual piece has so much character and attention to detail. You can view it larger here.
I have two pieces that I want to share pictures of their own.
This is a mailart diorama piece from Rhya in Canada. I had just discovered Rhya and her amazing work through fellow mailart blogger Jessica Gowling. Rhya and Jessica send each other mailart with missions and I just love that. Rhya makes these amazing, beautiful and detailed little dioramas with her illustrated characters. I thought about messaging Rhya to see if she would interested in trading mailart, but then I got intimidated so I didn’t message her. But, wouldn’t you know it? A couple days later I got an email from her asking if I’d like to do a mailart trade. I was thrilled. I had just started following her blog, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise so I stopped updating in case she showed the piece she sent me. Even after it arrived I didn’t open it right away because I wanted to save it as an incentive for when I got caught up on my outgoing mailart.
There are so many little tiny parts to the diorama and while I was positioning the parts I got swept away in the fun. Afterwards I realized it reminded me of when I was a kid and would play with my Smurfs Colorforms. When I finally went to Rhya’s blog to catch up I found a post about this piece she sent me, and you can read it here. Apparently, each raccoon is based on one of her hometown friends. In the picture above you can see some little characters (bottom left) and they have this breathtakingly detailed and subtle watercolor on them. When I was playing with it, I thought of them as rock friends, but after looking at her blog, I saw some similar shaped characters in a different diorama and she referred to them as spirits. I loved that and think maybe my little guys are rock/ghosties.
I loved this package and had so much fun with it.Thank you Rhya!
I want to share one more package that I got recently. It wasn’t necessarily mailart, because I purchased part of it, but when my order arrived it was filled with so much more than just the postcard I bought. I’ve been admiring Oly’s work on flickr for years now. Her work is so unique and very stylized.
Oly posted to her flickr that she was selling postcards in her online shop and so I went to her shop and bought one. After I bought the postcard she messaged me letting me know that she likes to take her time and put together special packages with each order and that was fine by me. The package arrived earlier this week and opening it up was such a treat. It brought me back to when I was in middle school and had a pen pal from Japan. While I would send a letter to my penpal, she would reply back with very little writing, but with a package just filled with all sorts of presents, each part individually wrapped. That was exactly how this order from Oly was.
That penpal experience left an important impression on me in everything from my love of mail, and mailart, to the way I package things for my Etsy store as well as my Artomat pieces. I always want whatever I send out to give the recipient a memorable experience. This order from Oly reminded me that not only are all the little extras important but the presentation is just as important. Wrapping each item causes some excited anticipation while opening piece after piece, and while I’m not sure if I have enough time to wrap tons of tiny pieces for each outgoing etsy order, it does make me want to rethink my clear plastic cello bags that go out with every order.
These are mailart pieces 76-82, more little books.
I’m kicking myself because I forgot to take pictures of these books opened flat before I sealed them shut. So, for now I just have these front and back shots. I haven’t dropped them in the mail yet, so maybe I’ll take the pictures and reseal them all closed.
I’m actually more excited and in love with the pieces below. They are on empty envelopes that I sealed shut. The addresses are written on the reverse, which is the side that seals, the opposite of the side that is usually addressed. I coated them with gesso, then applied dry pastel, watercolor pencil, watercolors, acrylic paint and colored pencil. I love, love how they came out.
and…
The mess I made while making those envelope pieces.
And now, after this post, I am only one week behind in my mailart 365. I promise, I am not defeated yet. I hope to return in a couple days and post the pieces that should have been posted this last friday AND a load of the awesome mailart I’ve been receiving in response. I tell ya, I’ve had a PO box for a couple years now (I think) it’s never been so active.
“And, in the end, the love mailart you take is equal to the love mailart you make”
I’m trying to play catch up. I’m three weeks behind in sharing mailart365 postcards. The top two are brand new, but the ones below that are all postcards I made years ago but never sent out until now.
Postcard No. 71/365 - The list on the back “Patterns”
Postcard No. 75/365 - Things I can see outside my window
Postcard No. 69/365 - Things I can see on my work table
Postcard No. 70/365 - Things I’ve done in the last 24 hours
Postcard No. 72/365 - A few things about myself
Postcard No. 74/365 -Things I do every day
Postcard No. 73/365 - 10 Great Movies
My mom is retiring from teaching 8th grade English this year. The last several weeks my sister, brother, my mom’s coworker and I have put in a lot of time working on a surprise video for her retirement. Last night was the school district’s retirement program where they honor all the retiring teachers and our video was shown. It was great and the video had an excellent reaction from the crowd; some awes, some laughs and apparently even a few tears as we were told later. I’m excited for my Mom. I definitely inherited her love of making and creating and now in her retirement she will have a wealth of time to get at all those projects she’s had to put on the back burner. Both of my parents were DIY before DIY was DIY.
At any rate, all of this is to explain, or give excuse to the fact that I’m a week behind in my mailart365 project. I know you probably don’t care, but it is weighing very heavily on my conscience. I realize that all it takes is a week to fall behind, which then turns to two weeks, and next thing I know it spirals out of control until I feel so overwhelmed that I throw the towel in on the whole project. I’m just worried that this summer is going to be one of those where every single weekend is spoken for weeks in advance and I have no free time. I don’t want that to happen, so this is my plea. Please Life, stop throwing things at me. I’m only one person with precious time and I already work a full time job. Please, and thank you!
So, now onto another round of little mailart books. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE these books. I’ve already received thanks for a few of the books I sent out and I’m thrilled.
To read more about the concept behind the books, see this post. The above picture is the collection’s front, sealed and ready to be dropped in the mail. Below are the books open and without mailing addresses, to protect the recipients from ruined surprises.
The grass area is pencil and watercolor and the binding has fabric over it.
The background image is a picture I took of a framed yoyo set I made in all white fabric. The “OK” is chalkboard paint with white pastel and spray fixed. Which reminds me, yesterday I had another piece complete and I went to spray fix it and accidentally grabbed the adhesive spray. The piece was ruined, so I had to scrap it and start over. Yeah, I’m the genius who keeps her spray fixative (2 cans) next to her spray adhesive (2 cans). It’s a surprise this hasn’t happened sooner.
This background image was a camera phone picture I took of our lawn before the first mow this season. The grass drawings over it are done in gesso, pencil and watercolor and the green plaid is fabric.
the zigzag pattern bit is the only paper that I designed on this book. The rest is just little scraps from my paper hoard.
More chalkboard paint with fixative. The zebra is from the packaging of our copy paper at work.
I was going for a quilt like pattern on this piece.
Vintage map, gesso, collage and pencil.
And once again, all the pieces have been matte varnished to protect them against wear and tear through the mail.
Instead of my standard postcards, I’ve come up with a new idea for some mailart365 project pieces. It started out when my best friend showed me a moleskine app she had on her iphone. Unfortunately, she has a newer phone and mine won’t let me download it. No harm because it got me thinking of the moleskine cahiers that I love so much.
I’ve been making my own little cahiers for quite a while now, and this whole thing spurred the idea to make some more but then turn them into mailart.
I’ll send them directly through the mail, where the addresses, and postage are stuck right on the cover. Each book is 4.25″x5.5″ closed. I collaged on some pressed board, and then coated them with a sealer.
These are the open faced covers. I stuck a rubberband inside each book so the owner can keep them closed like in the picture at the top. I haven’t yet put the recipients address on them in these pictures, so that I could share them.
I thought it would be a cool collaboration of sorts. My artwork is on the cover and the recipient can fill the blank pages inside with their own words or artwork. I think it will be cool with the cancelled stamps.
It’ll be a crapshoot to see if it makes it through the mail or not.
We print and mail booklets all the time at work, but those are through bulk mail and these are obviously not bulk. I’ve seen pictures of a banana and toast with postage and addresses being sent through the mail successfully, so I think it’s a good bet they will make it to their destinations.
I made wafer stickers to put on the edges to keep them closed through the mail. You can see that below.
I really love these books and this idea. I think it would be so much fun, and so unexpected to receive a little blank book in the mail. I hope the recipients like them and use them. I can’t wait to make some more.
Also, I wanted to thank you for the commiseration, tips on other sites and terms to search for regarding the Ikea frames in the last post. I’m a bit more hopeful that I will find a suitable and thrifty replacement. I did hear back from Ikea officially, and it was pretty much the same thing the employee at a nearby store told me, the frames have been discontinued and that “IKEA products are not discontinued based on sales or consumer demand, but on product availability.” Bummer. Those frames were only $7 or $8, and other frames I’ve seen are closer to the $30 range. Ouch.
Once again, my weekly dump for the mailart365 project
Postcard #48/365, and the list on back reads Things on my wishlist
Postcard 49/365, Guilty Pleasures
Postcard #50/365, Best things to put on a sandwich
Postcard #51/365, Books I’d like to read this year
Postcard #52/365, Today’s to-do list
Postcard #53/365, DIYs I want to try out
Postcard #54/365, What I’d like to do over the next week
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