Friday, June 24, 2011

Mail art time!


So, for a while I've been interested in the concept of mail art. A while back I purchased Good Mail Day and  Mail Me Art and have looked through and read both several times, enjoying the pictures of the cool mail art. I have amassed a nice bit of ephemera and scraps and yesterday made some of my very first official mail art which I promptly put in the post today. If you aren't familiar with mail art, one of the most important rules is that if you receive mail art you should send something back in return. So, I am looking forward to getting some cool mail art back in my mailbox. Hopefully soon!

The top photo shows two pieces that I am sending off to a couple of mailartists. Sometimes mail art is just that - mail art on envelopes with nothing inside. Sometimes you write a letter and include some ephemera. Both of these envelopes are filled with stuff from my stash. I hope the recipients like it. The top envelope was just a folded up map from our day trip to the San Diego zoo with an address label that I designed and stuff collaged on it. The bottom one is a security envelope from some junk mail that I undid and re-glued inside out. I put in a map of the San Diego zoo (yes, I grabbed a few sheets of those maps - perfect for collaging!) and some of the labels that I made, among other stuff. Below shows another envelope made from paper I designed with stuff collaged on it. The 'letters lift spirits' is from a vintage stamp (I think from the 70s or 80s) that I found in my postage stamp stash. I might make a sticker with those words on it to use in future mailings.

Paper is some that I designed and printed out, made into an envelope and then collaged on some images I had from a notepad and a magazine.
 I've already made several other envelopes that I am going to send to more mail art friends. If you are interested in learning more, check out Every day should be a Red Letter Day  - Jennie Hinchcliff's blog (author of Good Mail Day). She has links to more sites on her blog. Good stuff!

My daughter now wants me to send her some mail art. I told her she has to send me or someone else some first. :)

When was the last time you sent someone a letter?

2 comments:

  1. Oh My Gosh ... look at your mail art! It's incredible. I'm in love with mail art and belong to a group who are also pen pals. Lovely to see your work. Just wanted to thank you for dropping into my blog .. great to have you there. Hopefully, we will see each other more often now. take care, Donna

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  2. Wow, Clara, that looks like it might be as much fun to make as it is to just sit and look at. These are some pretty inspiring ideas. Love it.
    Mary

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I'd love to hear your comments! thank you!

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