Showing posts with label ballerina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ballerina. Show all posts

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Russian ballet postcard with great stamps

RU-1104338

This lovely postcard came to me from Russia this week, as RU-1104338 via Postcrossing. The sender, Cathi, writes that this ballerina is the real deal and not just a posed photo. "Her legs are telling that she's a dancer: gastrocnemiuses look strong, perfect shape of shank, back is not slouching." If you're like me and wondering what that muscle she references might be, it's the calf muscles! She goes on to write a lot more about ballet and some ballet she loves, and why. It was a delightful education.

RU-1104338Stamps

AND, she used fantastic stamps! What a lovely combination of folk art, portrait art, and a fine-looking beetle.

RU-1104338StampsCrop

I like the folk art stamp the best - is it depicting a fairy tale? Why is this long-haired lady letting her hair down a stream? It reminds me of a watery Rapunzel. If any blog readers, Russian or otherwise, might know the answer, please do elucidate.

This is why I love Postcrossing - surprises like this in my mailbox all the time! If you enjoy sending mail and would like to receive more, I highly recommend Postcrossing for adventures in mailing. You will most likely get quite a lot of crappy postcards, but there are gems, too, and the international stamps are always fun.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

US-696230

US-696230

I don't often send a postcard from the Isabel Samaras set, "On Tender Hooks," via Postcrossing, because the Samaras stuff tends to be quite odd and offbeat. But this Postcrosser had a combination of things listed on her profile that made me think this one would be a good fit. Of course this set is from Chronicle Books, home of so many fine postcard collections.

Back of US-696230

As we learn on the back, this work is called "Gone Native (Princess Broglie)," and is oil on wood from 2005. I livened it up with an Edward Gorey stamp (a fairy? a princess? a fairy princess?) which I embellished with some glitter pens, but I'm not sure those really come through on this photo.