Fabulous mail to kick off 2014

Already 2014 is a fine mail year. I've spent a good chunk of my free time writing, and have received some spectacular mail in return.

Above, a handmade gocco postcard from the fabulous Carroll, whose mail art and artwork always just astounds me. This postcard is going up on my bulletin board right above my writing desk! Have a look at her own photo of this artwork, which she sketched from her ink storage shelf.



Next up, brilliant bat mail from Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance. Wow, does she ever know me, and is she generous, or what? It's a light wooden bat ornament, which is probably also going to somehow fly from my writing desk bulletin board. It came beautifully and soundly packaged, and I was able to preserve that loveliness with some fancy fingerwork with my special craft knife, which I had to use to open it. I love mail challenges!



Finally, I have acquired a new pen pal. Normally my pen pal roster is closed, but the 3-year-old 4-and-a-half-year-old son of my dear first cousin wrote to me. He actually wrote me FIRST, out of the blue, and I haven't even seen this fine young fellow in more than a year. So of course I wrote back, and he's now written me a couple of times, most speedily - and he always mentions cats (which just wins me over even further). Here is one of his annotated illustrations from his latest missive.

And now... off to write some letters!

Green, gold, and gorgeous: Lunar New Year Snake from Carroll

I can hardly thing of a lovelier harbinger of the Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year) than a fabulous block print postcard from Carroll. She has sent me countless gorgeous things over the years, and I haven't even blogged about them all. She does hand-carved stamps, block prints, paintings, drawings, collages - and what else? Probably everything.

I admit I don't understand the detailed process of block printing, not really, but you can take a look at a great photo of her process on her Flickr. The scan doesn't do justice to the golden snake in the green, green grass.



It's not only the front that's fabulous, of course - she used a delightful older Year of the Snake rainbow 34-cent stamp, and her own hand-carved 2013 Year of the Snake stamp (I assume she carved it, she's such a fine stamp carver). Carroll, you could sell this stuff! In a comment on my photo, she noted "The skinny snake carving is made on a scrap from the soft block I used for the big snake on the front. Rubber stamps by Design in Squares and Kodomo say 'Having Plenty' and 'Long Life'."

And, she's headed to the L.A. Pen show soon. Who's envious? ME!

AMAZING writing bat postcard from Carroll!

If you know me at all, you know I absolutely plotzed when I saw this postcard. It came to me in my own Monster postcard swap, and the amazingly talented Carroll. Oh my gravy. A bat, holding a fountain pen and writing a letter to me? Incredible! And what a fine bat it is!

You can't tell from this scan, bit it's like this was a painting painted right on canvas. Carroll worked her magic somehow to make this beautiful yet tough, and it arrived in my mailbox today in absolutely gorgeous, perfect condition.



And here's the back. Of course she used bat postage stamps! She also used a wonderful hand-carved stamp of a skeleton holding an envelope, and I'll wager that is bound to be Carroll's own handiwork. If you've been following my blog for a while, you may have seen some of her hand-carved stamps featured here...



...most touchingly one she carved for me showing my dear cat Memo ("Memo guards the mail") which I received just a few months before he died.

Carroll, you have outdone yourself once again!! What a treat!

Memo Guards The Mail

Mail artists and letter-writers are a generous lot, and I have sent and received many fine gifts to and from pen pals. I appreciate the spirit of giving in serendipity - not for birthdays, not for Christmas or some other gift-required occasion, but "just because."

My cats are particularly close to my heart, and this hand-carved rubber stamp from the amazing Carroll just arrived out of the blue. She titles it, perfectly, "Memo Guards The Mail." And yes, folks, she hand-carved it herself! I have oft admired her handiwork (more of the fine mail she's sent me here), and prodded her to sell her stamps, but she is a creator for joy and not for cash. I was positively verklempt when I opened this, and it came in this amazing box. (I don't know how to embed these photo files, so please do follow the links - they're worth seeing!)

Carroll's own photo of the back and impression of this stamp is here...



...and she referenced this photo of him as one of the inspirations.

Ain't it the spitting image??

Slight tangent and Memo update:
I was so verklempt when I unwrapped this that I actually teared up and wept a bit, and that is because Memo is not in the best of health these days. When the stamp arrived, we thought he was descending further into kidney failure. (No joke, he's had "six months to live" for the past 4 years.) The day before we went away on our many-days holiday whirlwind trip, he was convulsing and we took him to a very expensive Sunday morning emergency vet appointment, bracing ourselves for the worst and prepared to put him down. However, it wasn't kidney failure, it was a combination of (unrelated?) a bladder infection and feline diabetes. Because he needed constant monitoring, we had to board him at the vet while we were away ($$$$!!!). He is back home now, and I'm becoming a pro at giving my fat cat twice-daily injections of human insulin. Surreal. But he's doing much better now, and no longer seems to be at death's door.

But what an amazing gift Carroll has given me, Memo forever embodied in a stamp. I am absolutely touched beyond words, and stamping Memo all over everything. He is gracing quite a lot of my outgoing mail these days - you might see Memo guarding mail on a future letter to you!

A trio of terrific dumpster-dived mail art

Here are three more fine offerings from Carroll the Dumpster Diver, mail artiste extraordinaire. Love the very puffy chubby cat stamps, complete with paw prints. More on this envelope here.



I think I've blogged about these stamps before, she's used them on other items to me. I am absolutely in love with them.



Embellished by "a touch of spilled ink"... how can you do better than an artistic elf?

If you can't decipher it from the photo, the quasi-limerick reads:

E was an exquisite elf
Who enjoyed being quite by herself.
She delighted to play
In an elegant way
With the things that she found on a shelf.

Meta mail art: a pen and ink collage

Just another gorgeous piece of mail art from Carroll. She wrote more about it here. I think everything she makes is amazing, and I am lucky to receive her art.

Kawaii kitty stationery with clear envelopes

This incredible kitty stationery came as a surprise gift from a pen pal (thanks, Carroll!!), and I am so very taken with it. I need to photograph the writing paper part, I think, but here you can see that the envelope is clear so that the design of the paper shows through. Neat-o!



I have seen glassine/vellum type clear envelopes in the past that are some kind of paper, but these envelopes are actually plastic. No ripping these guys! It does take a special sort of pen to write on them, but that's okay, I've got some handy, of course.



This is the perfect medium for Sakura Glaze gel pens, which write with a thick plastic-type ink that dries to a glossy, textured surface, which I think I captured pretty well in this photo. One must write very slowly with the pens to get a nice, thick ink line, but it's a sort of zen experience, writing an address really slowly.