Mail Art Monday: Picnic, Googly Eyes and Button Swaps

This week on the incoming front, two long awaited packages arrived as well as a surprise envelope. I spent a full week putting together a stack of packages and the first one arrived at it's home in the UK incredibly quickly.


INCOMING

Rhya sent me an unexpected picnic diorama this week. I have been enamored with her dioramas and I'm thrilled to have one of my own. I must admit to sneaking away several times one day to play and rearrange. The items are quite small, but have beautiful detail and delicate lines. A really great project would be to make a stop motion movie from her dioramas one day. Here are a few of the best arrangements I put together.

 Having a picnic despite the fog when the wind picked up and blew the snack right out of her hand.

 

 Finally, a nice spot under a tree. Perfect for a wee nap.

I was a little worried that Kye Sangha's Creative Collective package wouldn't make it to me, but thankfully it did! It was a nice surprise to find out that she would be sending me a package since we knew each other already through Twitter. Kye packed the envelope with a myriad of interesting items. Some of which I'll happily reuse and others I will keep all to myself. I really liked the newspaper comics envelope, something I should try if I can find some vintage stuff. I was also tickled to discover that I'm not the only one who sends googly eyes in the post for mail art.

Kye was also kind enough to send two little letters to my daughters. They were both very excited about receiving mail and, like they do with any paper product I give them (other than books), they delighted in coloured all over them. My oldest daughter (who is three) 'wrote' a little thank you card for Kye, which I'll send along in a reply package.

Also waiting a bit longer to make it's appearance was Suzee Neal's Creative Collective package. This means I have received all three despite the strike! Suzee was generous enough to send a little owl wallet, zipper case and a couple of paper items. I have a handmade purse which is begging for a handmade wallet to accompany it and I'll store some of my pens and small sketch pads in the case for sketching on the go.

OUTGOING

Katie Wittingham's package arrived astonishingly quickly. I am happy to hear that she loved it and that it, along with other packages, helped renew her love for mail art. She wrote a lovely post about it here.

I used a custom-made envelope that I thought fit her style and stuffed it with a Phlox watercolour silhouette, a test print of fronds that created an interesting effect, a small brown envelope stamped with a mermaid that contained colourful ephemera, a print of some of my favourite stamps, a maple seed sketch and an ampersand stamp tag. Finally, a button swap in shades of pink and red and a hand written note on map printed paper with an airplane sticker.

I feel as though these packages are less about giving and getting, but more about having a meaningful art conversation with another individual. While I can spend entire evenings reviewing someone's portfolio or blog, I really cherish looking through the odd bits of collected items and quick sketches someone has pulled together for a package just for me. I also adore gathering items from my collection or spotting the perfect clipping in a magazine. I hope I'll always have enough spare time to continue these conversations.

...J