Mail Art Monday: Butterflies, Rainbows & Fake Money

There were two plentiful deliveries in my mailbox this past week while two people received my packages. It was a fine balance.

INCOMING

Ashley Gaia responded to the collection of bird ephemera I sent her with a package stuffed with so much great stuff. The dolphin and rainbows stationery was the first thing I spotted and it made me smile the entire time I viewed the rest of the pieces. I can't wait to write a letter to a mail art friend and spread the rainbow dolphin love. There was a fantastic collection of stickers and a preview sketch of a series focusing on how nature adapts to man.

Some handmade paper (which reminds me that I should really make paper again sicne I loved the process), some bird stickie notes and a collection of various textured and coloured paper. A sweet note in a pretty bird card topped it off.


Jessica Mack's package caught me by surprise but it was a joy to go through. Again, the first item I spotted set the tone for the rest of the package. I did a major double take when, at first glance, I saw what I thought was proper currency. Turns out they are actually to-do lists. Sneaky Jessica! There was a lovely 'robots love' painting which reminds me of this song, a rhino watercolour, a temporary tattoo sheet in which you use markers (neat!), two mini zines (girl is a zine-makin' machine), a card, an Australia flag sticker and a letter on personalized stationery.

While prepping this post it occurred to me that I never blogged about what I sent to Jessica (Palm to Forehead). Jessica is an ardent admirer of NYC so I sent her a postcard from my collection as well as a mixed media of one of the buildings. Her sister had been admiring the boat illustration I created for Jessica's first package so I created one just for her. I also included a 'J' stamp sheet.

OUTGOING

I put Rhya's envelope in the mail the day before the postal strike and I think it had a wee camp out in the mail box before making its way to the sorting depot and finally to her house. Slow and steady, I suppose. I wanted to put together a little something as a thank you for her wonderful wolf zine. Some origami paper and fabric, possibly for reusing in mail art or such. Stickers, fuzzy initials, googly eyes, a postcard and a small mixed media piece of a tree and butterfly. The butterfly was actually cut out for something else but I dropped it on the paper and it looked rather nice so I glued it down.

Kimi Kobashi was one of the first recipients of my custom made envelopes from the animal encyclopedia. I chose an image of a squid as it reminded me of her earth day printing workshop. I used another element of my busted Polaroid pictures and etched and painted a butterfly onto the emulsion. I found some clippings that I thought Kimi might like such as the amazing sewing machine and a blue mushroom (!!) A few butterfly punch outs, stars, stickers, origami strips and a seagull stamp were also stuffed into the envelope.

Kimi recently returned from a road trip so the postcard of the US from my globe and the camera silhouette were a perfect fit. I also painted a school of fish onto a piece of watercolour paper which reminded me of her school and all the children. I finished the package off with one of my 'blarg' cards. I've been sketching things like this for a while now and after rooting through my old sketchbooks it seemed like the perfect thing to create for mail art. 'Blarg' is the height of my daylight hour swear words I can utter aloud with two small children who seem to be permanently set to record and playback. I imagine she can sympathize with that one.

See you next Monday!

...J