Mail Art Monday: Astronomy and Owls

Catherine Stone may have set the record for the fastest overseas reply. I could have sworn she only just received my package when a brown envelope full of astronomy and stamp goodies arrived in my mail box. Catherine set me several beautiful stamps including a heart shape and moose, not to mention a book page with several more examples. A small sheep print, a pin and postcard were included along with several solar system clippings and cards.

Sometimes when I go through magazines there are certain things that scream out someone's name. In this case, the Canada Geese clipping jumped up and shook me while yelling "Jessica Gowling." My Mail Art mentor, Jessica, received my owl envelope this week. It was stuffed with a lure watercolour print, an owl clipping, a letter on brown paper, several magazine clippings including a t-shirt with a "F-cking Awesome" print, a circle garland and a hunk reply. I've noticed that I have several visits to my site under the "70s man hunks" search term. Whether the individual is sweetly surprised by this or disappointed is a mystery to me. Ha!

On that note, I'd love to know the strangest search term that has been used to visit your site. Let me know in the comments!!

... J

Mail Art Monday: Clothespins and Anchors

When I finished Valeria's traveling journal I decided to send it off to Kimi Kobashi. Since I was sending her the journal anyway, I felt compelled to add a few extra goodies. I drew a maple seed onto dark brown paper, using a peach coloured gel pen, a dinosaur and lily watercolour print, handmade stickers and a pretty clothespin photo postcard from Oakmoss were all nestled inside the handmade envelope. The postcard proved to be the inspiration for the staging of her post about my package.

Sumi Senthi received my bison envelope in very good time. Inside, she found a letter on brown paper, adorned with plus stamps, a watercolour tag, a circle remnants piece and a mixed bunting line full of astronomy clippings, washi tape and stickers. I also included a nude figure postcard I've had for ages, a lure print, part of a bookbinding postcard, stamps, stickers, an anchor punched paper, a clipping of a sperm whale and a 'drop your anchor, stay for awhile ' card.

When Catherine Stone requested mail art partners recently, I quickly took her up on her offer. For our first exchange I decorated a sheep envelope and stuffed it with a camera, lily and ship print, stickers, stamps, paper ephemera and a letter on brown paper, stamped with pluses.

Sketchbook Project: Round Up

I enjoyed working on the 2011 Sketchbook Project so much that I signed up for 2012 as soon as it was available. I had been jotting down advice note for a few months and interpreted the theme 'Ask Me How I Can Help' as an advice journal from my current self to my younger self. As with most of my work, the spreads flowed it fits and spurts. Some ideas and images coming quickly and easily while I laboured over others. I notice that in this sketchbook, and in most of my other work, I tend to focus on the humorous end of things and skip the heavier topics. Heavier topics aren't something I usually enjoy tackling in my art, but I'd like to scratch the surface a little this year.

The front cover redux

I'm proud of my final sketchbook and I can see how my ideas and techniques have evolved in the past year. I'm already well into my Limited Edition Sketchbook Project, but that is another post for another day. For now, I'll leave you with a picture of the front cover after I added some texture to the hair, as well as a link to all the spreads on my Flickr. I've also uploaded the images to the Arthouse site. If you're a member, please follow me and I'll happily do the same.

Traveling Sketchbook

In my most recent mail art package from Jessica she sent along the traveling sketchbook from Valeria. It had been quite a while since I signed up for the collaborative project and when I began I couldn't quite remember if there had been a clear theme or not. I gathered from the previous entries and a few posts that it was along the lines of travel and returning. This made me think of the time that my husband traveled to another city for work each week and our weekly routine.

Using coloured pencils, I drew two suitcases. One was zipped up tight in the same way that it would be resting by the front door shortly before the cab would arrive. The second suitcase is slightly open, exactly the way it would sit on a chair in our bedroom for the weekend before being filled again.

I liked the way 'from there to here and back again' was written on a previous panel as it reminded me of the eager anticipation of his return rather than focusing on missing him so much. In the background of the panel I used a marker and quickly wrote a familiar conversation we would have by telephone, skype or email. Little bits about being in a cab, a plane leaving on time, what we should do on the weekend how each of us slept and how our day was going.

I am always delighted to participate in a collaborative effort because I have opportunity to gaze at the previous work in person. I think the book is coming together so well with such diverse pages and talented artists. Valeria is in for a real treat when it returns home to her!

The closest individual to me on the mailing list is Kimi, so I thought I'd send the journal straight south on its next journey. I'll be tucking in a few extra mail art goodies for good measure.

I enjoyed the subject matter of my panel so much that I will be applying it to my Limited Edition Sketchbook project in the coming months.

... J

Sketchbook Project: The End

A glitter thank you card.

A short message and contact information.

Back cover.

The last few pages of the sketchbook are some of my favourites. I created a similar pattern to what appears in the front but created a little pocket to house a card. The back has a light wash of green and pink and I mimicked front cover but drew the back of our heads.

I'll be posting one last round up of all the pages then you'll start to see the pages from the Limited Edition Sketchbook. Are you participating in that project too?

... J

Mail Art Monday: Stickers and Stamps

I love to send Rhya items that I think she can use in her journal. I created some handmade stickers on a sheet of blank, white labels and included some colourful dot and star sheets as well as a gold alphabet sheet. She recently sent me a link to her wonderful journal page on Instagram. I also sent along a Christmas card a dinosaur watercolour print and a note in a shells card.

I'm so happy to hear that Jessica is back to work on mail art! My lucky mailbox was blessed with an ornate envelope that included the perfect nautical and bumble bee stamps as well as stickers. She must have the best stamp stash ever! Inside was a collection of ships, stickers, a magazine clipping, and a note using her new typewriter. A cardinal card was slightly bittersweet as I am missing the little guys this winter. While we have some pretty amazing birds on the island, cardinals don't seem to want to venture this far north on the west coast.

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If you're interested in exchanging mail art, send me an email at saylormade at gmail dot com or a message on my twitter.

Sketchbook Project: Easier

The idea for this spread was conceived by a childhood flashback. Not sure what started it, but I suddenly remembered the stress and anxiety I had over a computer class in elementary school. The test was on a Commodore 64 and yes, I am that old.

...J