A good mail weekend

I've had a lot of other stuff going on in my life lately, and I haven't been spending as much time on mail as I'd like... but this weekend, especially Sunday, I got back into it and wrote a bunch of letters and postcards. It felt wonderful to immerse myself in mail all day long again!

There are changes afoot, and I will share the news in due time... but for now, I will say I am thankful for the wonderful world of mail as a longtime hobby and passion that has sustained me through many circumstances and changes.

Happy mailing, everyone!

1940s aerogramme-style Air Mail with wings

What a find! I'm so excited about this World War II era stationery, just listed in my etsy shop. The little envelope with wings is my favorite part!



This is a complete original set of Wessel's Air Mail Envo-Letters, in original packaging. The paper folder contains 12 sheets of aerogramme-style stationery, which fold up into their own envelopes. The 1940s air mail graphics are stunning! Though they do not have a specific date on them, I'm near certain they are from the 1940s, roughly in the World War 2 era.



The packaging folders do show some wear and age spots, as you can see in the photos, but the envo-letters contained inside are in excellent shape, perfect for modern retro letter writing (or for the collector, of course). Above you see the folded sheets on the outside, with the excellent red and blue air mail stripes...



...and they are mostly blank on the inside, except for the fantastic Air Mail with wings graphic shown in close-up at the top of this post.

For aficionados of vintage writing instruments, I have enjoyed these in my own letter-writing, and can attest that this vintage paper is very fountain pen friendly, and takes fountain pen ink beautifully.

These are not to be confused with V-Mails, which Wessel also manufactured - V-Mails were for correspondence with American troops stationed overseas, but these Envo-Letters looked to be for any international air mail. (I also sell vintage WWII V-Mail sets, too.)



I have a few of these sets in the original packaging - fun to look at, and fun to write on. Check out an example of one I sent internationally a few months ago.

Red, white, and blue

I thought some good old red, white, and blue was in order for the season.

This is a letter I wrote last night on some vintage Wessel "envo-letters" stationery. It is WWII era, dates around the same time as the V-mails, but notes in packaging that it can be sent anywhere, not just to and from U.S. troops (as was the intent for V-mail.)



And yes, I do use the stickers I sell in my shop for my own correspondence, too.

To all my American readers, have a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Aeroplanes with eyeballs

Here's another design from International Girl aerogrammes: it's charmingly called aeroplanes with eyeballs. Yes, I just did another International Girl aerogramme order - I really had gone through all the ones I ordered before, and I got a couple of new designs - or designs new to me, anyway. (I've blogged about these a lot before, if you want to see other designs.) I think the little eyeballs on the airplanes are pretty adorable, and this set has narrow-ruled lines which I really like. Someday I'll photograph those, too.



Here's the back, which shows our eyeballed-aeroplane from a different angle. As is customary with the Int't Girl aerogrammes, each one has directions in a different language - this one is Portuguese.

Hmm... if these are aeroplanes with eyeballs, does that make them airmail with vision? Heh heh...

Yak mail

Introducing yak mail! I just love this little design. It may not be called yak mail but I dubbed it thusly. This is from the One-speed aerogrammes set by International Girl aerogrammes.



I know you want a closer look at that yak.



The back has Tibetan characters (it says the same as the English, just noting where to fold and where to open) and our friendly yak facing the other way.

If you're new to my blog, you may not know that I've done an extensive review of these aerogrammes, and that I really love them and post about them quite a lot.



If you're anything like me, you want a closer look at the back yak, too.

Yakety-yak! Do write back!

Gratis aerogrammes

Thanks to all the business that my blog posts on the fine International Girl aerogrammes generated, Jaki of said fine International Girl aerogrammes sent me a surprise gratis package of the one-speed design. How lovely. Thanks for supporting their business, folks.

Cinema stamps + flower doodle

Here's an image of sent and received all in one. In response to another wonderful letter from Singapore (with those smashing "Cinema Theatres of Yesteryear" stamps), I wrote on an International Girl aerogramme, which has a handy little box that commands "draw picture here." I'm not a huge doodler, but given the directive, I'm finding it kind of fun. My doodles are nothing fancy - flowers, little cartoon images, etc - but perhaps my doodle skill will improve with practice. Anyway it's fun to use a bunch of different fountain pen inks.

For a closer look at those awesome stamps (or the doodle, but it doesn't do as well under the macro spotlight), view large.

Aerogramme with meta mail stamps

Here's another look at the Chinese Sun & Clouds design from the International Girl aerogrammes. I used some of my favorite stamps. Let's have a closer look at those stamps:



Oh yeah. Super postal. How much do I love those U.S. Postal Service 8 cent stamps, with the big old 70s car? They look a little out of focus here, but that's just the way the artwork looks.



And finally, the lovely posterior of the aerogramme.

Another aerogramme design

As promised, here is a peek at another design from the International Girl aerogrammes, this time the Chinese Sun & Clouds design.



The stickers are my own addition.

Spread your words and fly!

International Girl aerogrammes: my latest fancy

I warn you all, I'm going to kvell about these International Girl aerogrammes for quite a while, with a lot of photos here and probably more in the future. These things are AWESOME.

Really do check out their website, because before I get into all the practical considerations of why they're great stuff, I should mention how much I support their mission. (Yeah, they're a little on the pricey side. I debated for a while, and had to wait for the appropriate time in the budget to buy them.) In the "our cause" section of their website, they note how not only does the aerogramme "celebrate the timeless art of letter writing," they go on to state most eloquently how each design has an international theme "with the aim of increasing awareness of different languages and cultures across the globe." Of course they're environmentally friendly, being 100% recycled (a little more on that in a moment), but the part that really gets me is that they are created in support of The Slow Arts, an approach to life. "We believe that happiness and kindness come through slowing down and taking time: savoring the moment and being aware." Hear, hear! That is so much a reason why I write letters, and maybe why we all write letters.

But on to the practical with more pretty pictures. You can see what the inside writing space of the aerogramme looks like in yesterday's post. The top photo of today is the aerogramme design side, before folding into an envelope.

(For those of you who are wondering, the International Girl site offers a great explanation of "What is an aerogramme?": "a letter that folds up into its own envelope.")



Here we have the back, once it's folded, with a space for return address. I assume the arabic writing says the same.



That's the front, with the pretty design. I used a kind of weirdo Star Wars stamp, but don't let that mar the overall beauty.



Here's the pretty packaging - all the aerogrammes are in a tablet inside, and you tear them out one by one.



I love this so much: writing suggestions. Tee hee. Their slogan is "spread your words and fly." Delightful.

Okay, this is a long post, so thanks to those of you serious readers who've hung in there with me. My big concern when I bought these was how they would hold up to fountain pens and fountain pen ink, because I prefer to write all my letters with fountain pens (unless they're on black paper, and then I'll reach for the metallic gel pens). I was a little worried about the high recycled content, because that often means there will be a lot of feathering and bleed-through. However, these have been a fantastic surprise in that they take fountain pen ink beautifully. The top photo was taken AFTER the letter had already been written on the other side - clearly no bleed-through at all, and you can see for yourself that there's no feathering on the ink. (That green ink is Noodler's Eternal Hunter Green, for those who are wondering.) The paper has a lovely feel, with a little bit of a laid surface, but it takes even my extra-fine Japanese nibs without any feedback, AND the ink dries very quickly on it. This has become some of my favorite letter-writing paper in its own right.

I also have the Chinese sun and clouds design, which is just as lovely, so I'm sure to feature some photos of that in future posts. (It is lined with a fairly narrow rule, while these of the Arabic Birds are blank/unlined.)

If you're looking for some great letter-writing stationery that supports a good cause, I just can't recommend this highly enough.

One question remains: why is the company called "International Girl?" My inner feminist digs the concept, but it does seem a bit mysterious.

9 May 2009 UPDATE: if you read the comments below, you'll see info from Jaki of the International Girl Aerogrammes, and she gives an explanation for why they're called International Girl and a confirmation that indeed the translations in other languages are exact, and some more fun back story on the company. Thanks, Jaki!

To Plugger Jay: The Desperate Penpal Experiment continues

To follow up on yesterday's post, here's the letter I wrote him in response. It is on an absolutely smashing International Girl Arabic birds aerogramme, about which I will kvell in further detail in a future post very soon.

If you want to read my letter to Jay, you can have a look at a larger view of the photo above, in which you'll hopefully be able to decipher my penwomanship.

Because the aerogramme included a space that commands "draw picture here," I gave a rare effort at a doodle, which came out pretty well, considering my skills in the visual arts:



For the fountain pen aficionados out there, the text of the letter and the envelope vampire are all done with Noodler's Eternal Hunter Green in a Sheaffer Agio F. The blood dripping from the fangs of the envelope vampire + the written caveat is Noodler's Tiananmen Red in a Hero 329 Fineline. I think the color representation is pretty accurate, if you're wondering about the inks.

Are stamps from Singapore just always gorgeous?

These lovelies came on a package from Singapore. Here we have the Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot and the Cream-Coloured Giant Squirrel. It seems like every stamp I see from Singapore is positively lovely!

In a few days I'll be blogging about the contents of this package from Singapore: International Girl aerogrammes. You may notice I've added them to my Beloved Stationery list in the left column, because I've tried them out now - in fact, I've gone a bit nuts on them - and am just so blown-away impressed. (YES, they take fountain pen ink beautifully.) Anyway, I'll save the kvelling for the actual post/review, and say again here how gorgeous these Singapore stamps are.