A good mailart day

I haven’t been a particularly active mailartist lately, but a little while ago I got motivated and sent out a few things to various mailart calls. Some of them are documented on-line and you can see what I sent in under the “Mailart” tab. Sometimes when you send out mail art, you get some back, and today I got two fun envelopes.

One came from Japan, surprisingly without any postage. It’s been canceled and everything, but there is absolutely no sign of any stamps of any sort, and perhaps even more oddly, the envelope wasn’t even sealed. Here’s what was inside:

It’s part of a project called “Braincell” which is the baby of a fellow named Ryosuke Cohen. He collects rubberstamps, stickers, artiststamps and whatnot that people send him from all over the world, and uses thme to assemble a sheet that resembles the one I received. He sends a copy out to everyone who sent him something. He also includes a full list of participants with their addresses just in case you feel inspired to make the next “braincell” connection. Oh, did I mention that he does this every 10 days or so (yes, you read that correctly) and he has been doing it since around 1997 – I’m in issue #766. My contribution is the happy little red cupcake near the bottom right corner.

I also received a trio of mini-zines from my friend Tanglecrafts in the UK.

They are part of her “Going Postal” project where she is collecting postage themed artist trading cards (ATCs). As part of the project she assembled these little booklets which include 3 ATCs each and some information about the contributors. Coincidentally, my friend Pengrafyx’s ATC is right next to mine in one of the booklets. As with all things Tanglecrafts sends out, they came very nicely nestled in one of her handmade recycled envelopes.

Blatant commercial message here: Check out Tanglecrafts Etsy store to see and maybe buy some of her exquisite craftworks – the things she makes are just so wonderfully, professionally done.

Sometimes when you send out mailart, you get something back right away and sometimes you get nothing. Then there are those delightful surprises when you get something back long after you’ve forgotten all about it. If any of you send out “decos” you’ll know exactly what I mean. Well, over a year ago, I sent a postcard out to someone. This is it here. At the time I was hoping to get something back to include in my mailart zine “What Art Mail”, but nothing came. Then, out of the blue I received this fun little fabric postcard:

There is a caption on the back that reads: “Into every life some bunnies must fall.” It makes me smile and that is always a good thing.

Speaking of not getting mailart back, I am about three booklets behind on my “It starts with a pencil” project. If you are waiting for one, they will get done, soon I hope.

Necklace statements

I was looking for something the other day and came across a necklace that I made many, many years ago – long before the children were born, probably even before I was married.  Somewhere along the way it had lost one of the end caps, so I did a quick repair with a tiny length of black yarn and it was good to go. It’s such a happy joyous piece that’s made up of pretty much every kind of bead I had kicking around at the time. Perfect for cheering up a rainy spring day (like the ones we’ve been having way too frequently lately). Apparently bold necklaces like this are called “statement necklaces” and they are very big for spring this year.  Looks like I was about 20 years ahead of that curve.

I’ve decided to call this necklace Rings on her Bells.  If you look carefully, you might be able to make out some of the ring shaped beads that slide over the smaller beads. It also has some little bells that tinkle as you move around.

Finding that one inspired me to make more “statement necklaces”.

In a swap on Nervousness a few years ago, I received some very nautical feeling beads. Some were obvious:  There were lumpy clay beads hand painted by Biker Mermaid with mermaids, ocatopi and seahorses. There were some little beach pebbles lovingly needlewoven with luscious bits of yarn by Sacredartist and there was even a bottle cap with little bits of sand and shells embedded in resin and a tiny pearl dangling off the end.  Once I made that connection the rolled paper beads reminded me of seashells – some of them even had tiny seafoam microbeads encrusted on them. The bead wrapped beads and the lumpy verdigris balls felt like buoys or barnacles or something decidedly oceany anyway. I added a silver chain, some hand dyed varigated silk yarn in watery colours, a few silver charms shaped like keys, locks and feathers. I threw in some aqua tinted glass beads, and dug out  a string of light blue seed pearls and it was done.  Well, it’s done for now, anyway. I’m considered creating a charm for it from a tiny bottle with a little scroll and maybe some sand and tiny shells inside. Maybe – one day.

All the beads I used here originally did time as a very chunky bracelet, but I’ve decided that I don’t like wearing dangly things around my wrist, and I spent more time taking it off so I could do important things like eat, type on the keyboard, and other more personal things. You don’t need the details, but I’m sure you get the idea. I’m much happier with them as this  “statement necklace” that I call Flotsam and Jetsam.

Have I mentioned that I love to gather things that I receive through swaps and find common themes to link them all together? I have several altered books that I’ve assembled this way. This next necklace is also made from charms I received in an online swap that were made into a chunky bracelet that I never wore. It was hard for me to find a theme here. The colours, shapes, materials and styles were all over the place. There are charms made from buttons, beads, some glass, plastic, metal, a domino, a bottle cap, some shrink plastic (including my absolute favourite one – a teeny charm with a hand drawn insect that makes me think of amber). In the end I’ve settled on the title The Faces of Letters. In addition to all the faces and letters (words) you can see, one of the charms is even made from a scrabble tile – I think the letter “F”.

Signs, signs everywhere…

Lest you think I only see humour in other people’s signs, here are some I’ve found in the Vancouver area:

On a house

in front of a skating rink built for the Olympics

in a store (it was like that when I got there, really)

and just yesterday, I saw another little sign that someone had slapped on a telephone pole that read “soften your perspective”. I didn’t take a picture of it, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

There were also some really great signs that we saw in Malaysia, and I’ll try to dig up some of those photos while I’m on this whole kick.

Road trip humour

Over Spring Break, we went to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and various points in between. We have a whole slew of pictures of the typical tourist sites, but I thought I’d post these two for your enjoyment.

For those of you who don’t want to dig out your Spanish/English dictionaries, the last two lines in black read “head, tongue, brains, mouth, stomach and chicken.” I know this from helping the kids with their Spanish homework – obviously someone was learning about body parts recently. Yes, we did eat there. It was either that or the Burger King next door.

Oh, and this one at the entrance to another restaurant. That’s not something you see everyday where I live, non smoking signs on the other hand…

My bathroom

As I was bringing the camera upstairs to the computer today, I walked past my powder room and thought I’d try taking a photo of it. It is the tiniest room, and I wasn’t sure how it would work out.

I have a memory from my childhood of a very overgrown garden where someone had thrown out their bathroom fixtures. There was a cast iron tub, a toilet and a heavy ceramic sink. They had been there for sometime and the weeds had grown through, over and around everything. I thought it was magical, and I created an indoor – functional – version in my powder room. I have very nostalgic memories of working on that while S napped in the afternoons all those years ago. When she woke up, I’d set her up with some toys just in the doorway while I cleaned up. I had to stop doing that when she became mobile though.

Everything you see in the picture is “faux”. The “window” is actually a mirror that I painted and distressed years ago. The brick wall, wrought iron fence badly disguised fairies and ivy are all painted.  If you look on the shelf in front of the mirror, you might be able to make out a ceramic snake that A made in a class when she was about 4. You can also just see the top of the tall birdhouse cupboard that I use to stash extra rolls of toilet paper.

Some stuffie buddies

as opposed to stuffy buddies! These are two little critters that I made as examples for the folks at the Rainier. They are supposed to be imperfect, just like we all are. That’s the story I’ve been telling people anyway. They’ve inspired the residents to make some of the cutest little stuffies of their own. Unfortunately I’ve been having camera issues and haven’t been able to take any pictures.

At the Rainier

Here’s the second quilt that the residents of the Rainier made. This one is for one of the residents who is quite sick and waiting to have heart surgery. We have not yet been able to give her the quilt as she has drifted back to the streets. I’m keeping it safe for her until she is in a more stable situation.

We’ve started working on individual projects now. Some of the ladies have made some garments or things for their rooms like curtains or pillow covers. We’ve got this bin full of fabric scraps. None of the pieces are very big, and let’s just say it is an interesting assortment. I wanted to come up with some way to use them creatively. Someone had also donated the insides of some ski jackets, at least that’s what I think they are – they are made of a satin lining and polyester batting all sewn together in the shape of a jacket, but the outer fabric is missing. I was going to throw them out, but it seemed like a shame to waste all that stuff. Then I had a brainwave – we could make stuffies. I’ve been having a lot of fun making samples for inspiration, and the idea seems to be catching on. Unfortunately my camera has been acting up and I don’t yet have any photos.

Time to play

I recently did some workshops at a private boy’s school. The younger kids were all making ATCs (artist trading cards) for their “arts week”, and I was asked to come in to do workshops with the teachers and parents. At the beginning of one of the workshops, a parent asked me about the educational value of ATCs. I had to really think about how to answer that question. I mentioned the value of interacting with another person during a trade, being open to new styles of art etc. etc. and I also said that sometimes it’s just about having fun. She didn’t look convinced. Later on in the workshop, I overheard her commenting to her friend about how much fun she was having and how she should make more time in her life to do creative things.

Another mother came up and told me that she had almost skipped the session because she was so busy working and didn’t think we would miss her. She said she was so glad that she decided to set aside her work for an hour or two to do something fun. I told her that I was glad she had come too and that I would have missed her.

I did a little informal poll with the other  parents and asked them how often they spent time just doodling or playing with glue and scissors, and they were unanimous in their answers: NEVER!

I was very glad for them at on that afternoon at least they had all chosen to take some time to play.

Robot Hearts

Here’s the planned cover of the upcoming book that will include my story of how R and I dated “online” back in 1991. Didn’t even know there was an internet back then? Well, you’ll have to get a copy of the book to find out just how convoluted cyberspace was back then. I understand the book will be available through Amazon in the very near future.

Prayer Flag update

I’ve had a few questions about the exchange, and rightly so. I haven’t exactly been communicative lately. In any case. I believe all the flags are here. I have swapped them around and am just in the process of packaging them all to mail back out. They should all be in the mail by next week.

I hope that everyone who participated will enjoy the flags they receive in return.

M