Catching up on Mail Art, again.

#68

#69

 This is an odd assortment of Mail Art, not in any series, though done on either the same day or successive days.

This one was only three bits but it needed more so I added the black square. It works.




 #70 is a collaboration done for #CreativeSprint. I was on the train headed north to Washington, DC, for the day when my friend Shelia got in touch with me about doing the collaboration for that day.

#70

We came up with a plan. I sent her some photos from my trip to give her something to work from, she photo shopped an image together, and I added collage to it, and voila, she suggested it'd be a good Mail Art piece.  It was fun to do this, as we had no idea what we'd end up with. 

#71

#72

I found that I had some Kandinsky stickers, and managed to keep one before our Grand girl used them all on her collage.
I had an idea for using it on some Mail Art and like the way it turned out.

 Here are some stamps that I bought at the Post Office in the National Postal Museum. The blossoms were no longer blossoming, so we didn't get to see them in person.

I love this part of the National Postal Museum, people getting excited about being able to take home stamps. A mother and two children, in this instance. And C and I chose some, also.

Mail Art, of course, and some news!

#193

#194

#195

 Notice that I'm circle happy these days.

Perhaps because I've started a group on IUOMA (the Internation Union of Mailartists) that is all about circles.

It was suggested to me by a colleague
and it's taken off. Obviously, it needed to be started!

#196

#196

The two pieces with the black background were inspired by a jacket that someone in my Spanish class was wearing. I was very attracted to it - it had a black background and a print of pink and rose calla lilies with green leaves. These pieces do not do it justice but they are reminders for me.




















My friend sent me this eye so I had to use it to alter a card I received announcing a photo exhibit.













This collage was sent off to France as a thank you to someone who sent me a lovely little water color painting in an envelope with my name calligraphed on it so beautifully. What a treat.

I like how this piece has a spatial quality to it. It's so float-y. Do you like it?

So here's my news!

Shoalhaven River Festival NSW Australia

I sent 30 prints of photographs that I took driving the New Jersey Turnpike (I've mentioned these before) and made them into postcards that were sent to Micro Galleries (friend Kat Roma Greer) who had them installed along the river for the festival. The deal was that people would take them away, alter them, and send them to me. I'll set up an installation here, locally, with the a copy of the original and the pieces I receive back. All of the pieces were taken so I hope I get lots back, but if I only get one or two, I'll be delighted.

The usual and More!

#20

 Three bits of paper and random text, what fun! I'm not sure what's going on with the baby, but it's quite an expression.

#21

I'm tearing up more of the 1906 French business receipts. Here I got a bit fancier using 4 bits of paper and a circle.

#22

I'm so surprised that the letters "J.B.G" are so bold. They are under that brown piece of translucent paper. Interesting! Scraps glued to recycled cold cereal box.

 This mural is on the side of Snake Oil Records/Recording studio. It was painted by young people in an Art180 project. It's so wonderful to see how it changes up the look of a space. I hope the kids involved go by this and feel pleased with themselves.

My friend BeeBee gave me a new Hydrangea plant, and N picked it out and delivered it to me. It has HUGE flower "petals." I painted my nails with new green polish, O.P.I. Jade is the New Black to coordinate with my plant. Having green nails makes me happy (okay so lots of little things make me happy, I'll admit that.) I now have 4 different shades of green nail polish. Is that too much?
Honestly, this silliness, nail polish, keeps me from getting too sad about some other things in life. What do you do when you feel sad and want to pick yourself up?

Not planned #47

"Merit"

I seriously had NO idea what I was going to do for today's piece. I cut up some mat board to do something similar to the #43 series. I was planning to cover a board with some background, cut up, and so on. But as I prepared to do that, I noticed the Josef Albers card (actually saved the front of a note card) and remembered that I wanted to send a "merit" badge to someone who commented on my "puzzle" post last week. So I sandwiched the badge between the Albers card and  one of my many free cards, the kind that I pick up in restaurants in New York City.
I used wide double stick tape to put the two cards together, neatly sandwiching the badge.  I had this sweet faced little boy, probably from a Dutch master, which fit perfectly in the corner, and there at hand was this text from a design magazine. Perfecto! Today's card appeared, I had to make it #47.

The recipient will have to peel apart the two cards to get at the badge, which may mean this image is the only lasting one of the #47. Unless the recipient is VERY careful, the cards may get torn in the peel apart process. But all is impermanent, to quote the Buddha.  

#44s

"1920 fears"

"1950 style"

Some of the participants in Mail Art 365 write a lot about each of their daily pieces. They write their motivation, their technique, their recipients, and such. Me, I write nothing but the number of the piece. I read the other day that some people like to know about the above things so I decided to write about them here. And post process or technique the way I did the other day.



Since I'm trying to use up the scraps that I already have, I find it interesting how I find ways to combine them, ways I'd never thought about but work for me.

The backgrounds on these are from that Merrimekko "newspaper" I got in NYC. I searched in my tins for vintage items. I wanted a person and a thing and some writing. I was happy to re-discover the 1920's bit of advertising. It was from an article about what fears were focused on during the 1920s in the states. The old-timey Georgia Belle seemd to be perfect for the 1950s bathing beauty.  These turned out okay. Now to make today's piece of Mail Art. Running late!!

Mail Art workshop.

I had such a lovely time this afternoon. I lead a Mail Art workshop at the home of a friend of mine in beautiful Ashland, Virginia. I'd donated the workshop to the Richmond Peace Education Center for their annual auction last fall, and my friend bought it as a Christmas gift for her daughter. Pretty cool! It took awhile to coordinate a date so it's Christmas in spring. My friend, her daughter and her nearly 8 year old grandson participated. We had a great time and everyone did such nice postcards. I love doing this workshop. It's like playing, and it's impossible to tell whether a card was made by a grown-up or a child, right? It's such an excellent way for all of us to interact on a level playing field, I think. Another neat thing, my friend's grandson is going to send a postcard to my little cousin Ryan, since they both like to send and receive mail, it'll be perfect. Pen Pals!

Mother's Day

I took the bus into Manhattan from NJ yesterday and met up with Mica. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Nomado 33 in the Murray Hill area. We sat by a window overlooking a little garden with a fountain that reminded me of Isomu Noguchi. The food was fabulous. I can't say anything that would be able to explain the delicous-ness. It was major YUM! Later, we went to see the movie Iron Man, which was fun. If you see it, stay to the very end of the credits for a surprise. I was happy that I was able to climb the six flights of stairs to Mica's apartment! Yay for staying fit! We had brunch this morning at Oliver's in the west village, where we had Mimosa and Bloody Mary cheers. After a stop to buy some yummy cheeses and a baguette, we boarded a bus to New Jersey where we had a nice family visit. Photos of Ryan's frosted cupcakes will be posted at some point. They were pretty spectacular. A nice Mother's day, the first I'd spent with Mica in a long time, and maybe the first ever with Dawn.

Arthritis Walk

Saturday morning, I joined with my friend and his team of walkers for the Arthritis Walk. It was only 3 miles and it appeared to be a cool morning, which as things go here, got to be a hotter moister morning. But look at the lush view as we started our walk. Beautiful. See my feet, with striped socks and comfy shoes, ready to go? The quartet of women were getting their official photo taken. Lots of walkers brought their dogs, but we didn't. He'd want to smell every new smell and the walk would be three times as long for us. We walked from a medical park, under a roadway, and around the parking lot of a shopping center, which is set in a wooded area, with some slightly hilly places, adding interest to the walk. We didn't time ourselves but moved at a nice clip. It was a good walk.

Knit news

While I've taken my knitwear off of Fritzi, my Etsy shop, I'm still knitting. I got a wonderful organic wool (O-Wool.com) at The Yarn Lounge .
I made the jacket for Zelda, my Blythe doll, finger-less gloves for myself, and am now working on a scarf. I love the pale "sage" green color.
I worked at the farmers' market yesterday, selling lovely organic produce grown by our friends, the Collins, from their Victory Farms. We were so busy that I had no time to take pictures of the gorgeous produce. Someone said to me, "did you see the yarn for sale?" Oh dear, danger! I took a brief break and checked out the stand. Lovely hand spun, from the sheep on the Nordt Family Farm, which is in nearby Charles City. I was NOT going to buy any yarn, NOT, but I did. I got one hank of singly ply, merino. I'm not sure what I'll make with it, but it feels and looks so wonderful.

Last night, I finished a pair of finger-less gloves out of mercerized cotton, the color "viola." I love the way they feel. It's the first time I've used cotton to knit and want to do more of these.

I just love knitting. This summer, I'm determined to learn how to knit socks. That's the goal.

A nice day....

Last Sunday, while Ryan was visiting, we took a walk over to Monument Avenue for the annual Easter Parade, which is not a parade but a BIG walk around. People and dogs, many in fancy hats, just walk down one side and up the other, with the median park area filled with booths and activities. It's a lot of fun. There are bands set up on porches, Morris Dancers in the street, jugglers, clowns, food, and in general a happy atmosphere. We liked this lawn decorated with fake eggs of all sizes and a fat bunny. Later, after our family headed back to New jersey, we stopped by our friends' house and they had made these cute cupcakes. Susan was happy to tell us that she'd used her new paper cutter, we thought on the coconut, but it was to make the duck napkin fit the tray. We had a laugh over that. Okay, so we laugh easily and at little things.

Fritzi, my etsy shop news

I'm so excited about my Etsy shop, known as Fritzi.

My sister Eilene, sent me images of her beaded bag. Here's one of the photos. The bag is reversible so we've got lots of views of it on the shop site. She's working on a new one, but they take so long to hand bead, I don't know when we'll have another one to show.

The hat and scarf set are teeny! They're for a doll! Someone asked if I could make a hat for their Blythe doll, and after seeing the doll on-line, I was taken by it. I made several hats to the measurements I was given, met up with the doll (and her owner) at a coffee shop for a fitting, and voila...I'm a Blythe doll hat maker. Such fun. Now I want my own doll, to model for me.
Am I having fun, or what!? Gotta go make something....

Tote

I'm so happy when I make a tote! A friend gave me some really nice fabric and I made this bag, which Chuck said reminded him of the south of France. It's so chilly here in Richmond, VA, that we're thinking of sunny south of France right now. You can see another view of this bag on Fritzi, my etsy shop.
My neighbor just gave me big box of fabric to go through. Oh, fun, lots of great fabric to make totes from. I'd forgotten how much I LOVE fabric. Both of my sisters and I have this thing about fabric, which we come by directly from MOM!! We grew up watching her cut patterns from newspaper, to make our clothing. We cut our teeth making doll clothes. In high school, she'd make me these way sophisticated Vogue pattern dresses. Wish I still had them. Okay, not really, I haven't worn a dress in years, but it'd be fun to see them again.

Rainy day look at the Elflog

We've finally had some rain, what a relief; the shelf had stones and a Picasso "birds" magnet on it, looking cheerful in the mistyness of the morning yesterday. The leaves have started to fall off the trees but there is still a lot of green going on.

More Bags

I'm feeling green~ my new blog look came about so that I could learn how to add my favorite sites to a side bar. I had to have a new template! I feel all new and refreshed. Now to take the time to add sites.

I'm not sure that I related my previous post to Blog Action day, read all about it here. The action was to post about the environment. The Stats are impressive for a first time action.

Here are a couple more bags that I made. I got up early yesterday to make the black and brown one and the other I made this afternoon. I'm on a bag making roll. Don't forget, carry a bag with you and use it whenever you shop. Mother Earth will like that.