February: a big month for mail

Clearly I have come in under par so far for my resolution to write more blog posts in 2015, but at least I have been spending my time actually writing mail. I hope that's a fair excuse for lagging behind in the practice of blogging about mail. January was a hugely productive writing month for me, and I enjoyed every letter and postcard.

And fans of mail have a fine month in February! There are two letter-a-day type challenges this month: A Month of Letters, aka "LetterMo," and International Correspondence Writing Month, aka "InCoWriMo." While I don't participate officially in either of these (I write as much as I can, all the time, and most months average more than one piece of mail per day anyway), I know lots of folks who really enjoy them, and I think they're a fine way to get anyone to engage more deeply with mail. If you tend to like shorter projects, or like to challenge yourself with daily goals, maybe one of these might be a fun thing to try. Also, if you're looking for pen pals, both of these are a great way to pick up new ones. There is even a page of addresses from letter-seekers on the InCoWriMo site.

Happy February mailing, everyone!

Mail art call: What's Your View?

Since many of my blog readers are also mail artists, I'm sharing with you a Mail Art Call from Mary of Uncustomary Art for her upcoming exhibit, "What's Your View?" All the guidelines are on her blog post, but I'll tip you off that the deadline is coming up pretty soon (January 24, 2015) so make sure not to delay!

I met Mary this fall at the Mail Social Club at the National Postal Museum, and she is one of the most awesome mail enthusiasts around. She and a friend are curating this exhibit that will be on display in Baltimore, and it sounds pretty exciting. Since Baltimore is only an hour(ish) away from where I live, I'm going to try to both participate in the mail art call and check out the exhibit when it opens. (Anyone else interested in going? :-) Mail trip!)

And mail art aside, if you haven't visited Mary's blog, Uncustomary Art, I highly recommend you check it out. She blogs about more than just mail, and a lot about life and her wonderful and inspiring art projects, but more than that, Mary has an incredibly positive and uplifting view of life and her way of living it. I always feel inspired, and often a little more warm-fuzzy about humanity in general, after I visit her blog. So go check it out and uplift yourself, and maybe make some mail art, too.

Here's that link one more time:
"What's Your View?" Mail Art Call

Any questions about the project, please direct to Mary on her blog, as I can't answer 'em.

And finally... Happy New Year 2015! As I type this post, I'm waiting for the first mail of 2015 to arrive. New Year's Day is fun, but as a holiday and no-mail day, I'm eager to see what my mailbox brings today!

New page: Stationery Sources

I am often asked where I buy my stationery.

I used to direct folks to a sidebar on this blog, but that became cumbersome (it's not a direct link, after all), and felt incomplete. I want to explain why I like what I favor.

So, I finally finished a project I've been meaning to do for months: a big old page of links on my favorite stationery retailers (all online), and why.

Voila! Stationery Sources is now a page linked from the page navigation at the top of every page, and you can get to it from the old sidebar as well.

I hope you find it useful, and please share comments on your own favorite retailers.

XOJane's thoughts on how to find a pen pal, and why I haven't been blogging

I'm a little late on the uptake, but I just came across this lovely article on XOJane by Marianne Kirby: "To get a letter, send a letter: where to find a pen pal."

Some of the resources she lists are ones I've heard of and mentioned, but some are new to me, and she does a lovely job of explaining the ebb and flow of letters, and why she always comes back to them. Also, she gives out her PO Box address and offers to write a letter back to anyone who writes to her. Do check out her fine article.

In other news, I suppose it is good news to explain that the reason I haven't been blogging much lately is because I've been writing lots of letters. The 5-year-old son of my cousin is newly a mail devotee, and he writes me almost daily... I've been trying to keep up with him, and sending him letters and postcards almost daily, too! Whew. It's exhausting but exciting work to mentor the epistolary aficionados of the future. Also, his dad (my cousin) is writing letters to me, too (generally in the same envelope), and that brings back some great memories. His dad and I used to write each other pretty frequently, back in the days before email had overtaken the world, and it's delightful to take up that habit again with him. Oh, and I've been trying to keep up with all my other letters, too... though I've long since made my peace with the fact that I'll never really catch up. That's okay. I enjoy trying.

International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club

Remember my whole caveat about how I'm drowning in pen pals and can't take on any more? Yeah, that's still true. But since so many of my blog readers are still looking to connect with more pen pals, I wanted to share this new phenomenon, which has been a Twitter/Tumblr sensation since its launch just last week: International Geek Girl Pen Pal Club.

It appears to be a pen pal matching service that works in rounds, and it looks like the second round is closed already. The first round reached 1000 pen pallers in 3 days, and the second round reached 1000 correspondents in 26 hours. Wow!

As with any new pen pal matching endeavor, stay tuned to see how it goes. I really hope that all 2000 of those folks who signed up will genuinely exchange some great mail, and I hope the service continues, because it certainly looks fun.

Their blurb says "we are reviving the lost art of letter writing," and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you may be aware of how I get a bit touchy when someone asserts that letter writing is a "lost art." Maybe you lost it, folks, but it's been with me and lots of others, going strong! Still, as I always try to remind myself, any efforts to get anyone to write more letters are worthy and appreciated.

Did any of my readers make it in the first two rounds? Any thoughts on the experience?

Deep Letters Correspondence Project

I know a lot of my blog readers are still looking for more pen pals, and I try to post resources to that end when they come to my attention. I am doing this post as a favor to another mail blogger. I do not participate in this project myself, and so I make no claims for its longevity or reliability, but here's the info:

LadyKayy is launching a "Deep Letters Correspondence Project". She calls it a "letter exchange with a twist" and she describes it thusly:

This exchange is geared towards those of us who suffer from emotional or psychiatric issues! I've always found that it is much easier to confide in someone who has similar 'problems' (I prefer to call them quirks!) as me, so this will hopefully link you up with someone who is looking for that same deep friendship that I am so glad to have in my life already!

I do know that letters can be a real lifeline to anyone who is suffering, so I hope this is a great outlet for some. Full info at Deep Letters Correspondence Project. If you have any questions, please direct them to LadyKayy at the link above.

About the fabulous Platinum Preppy fountain pen, and the eydropper conversion thereof

A blog reader recently spotted a Platinum Preppy fountain pen in one of my recent blog posts, and asked how I "filled the barrel completely." That practice is called an eyedropper conversion (when you completely fill the barrel of a pen with ink, and then just screw it shut, that's called an eyedropper pen, because you used to fill with an eyedropper), and Platinum Preppies are famous for this. I love 'em. You can see the difference in ink capacity in the photo above - the 7 pens on the left are all eyedroppers, with nearly the entire barrel full of ink, whereas the 2 pens on the right are using Platinum converters, which hold only a scant fraction ink in comparison.



I have no fewer than 7 (actually I have 10, I missed a few in my last count!) eyedropper Preppies going at once; that is my current favorite fountain pen option. They write beautifully, they hold a ton of ink, and the Preppies have some thingamajiggy device (that's a technical term, folks) that is spring-loaded inside the cap so that it makes them extremely airtight, and therefore unlikely to dry up for months. You can see a close-up of it above.



You can see above how when the pen cap is closed, the nib pushes it tight inside the end of the cap. That special inner airtight cap thingamajiggy is a handy thing for me, since - I confess - I do often neglect my pens. I can manage not to write with one of these pens for months (it's happened), and then when I pick up the pen again, the ink is not evaporated or dried up at all. Love it. But I digress - let's get back to the eyedropper info.



If you are at all a pen or ink geek like me, you may think it's pretty cool to see that ink sloshing around in the clear pen barrel like that. The ink in this pen is Iroshizuku Shin-Ryoku, a lovely deep green with quite a lot of blue in it.

So, an eyedropper conversion is very easy to do properly, and there are tons of online resources to get you through it... even those of you that, like me, are loathe to undertake any fancy pen modifications.

My favorite two articles are from JetPens and Goulet Pens (which are, incidentally, two of my favorite online retailers for all of my pen and ink needs). The JetPens article, "How to do an Eyedropper Pen Conversion, shows a really nice tutorial using a series of photos. I prefer step-by-step photos, because my internet connection does not always allow me to stream videos very successfully. Goulet pens has a tutorial, "Converting a Platinum Preppy to an eyedropper pen," and theirs has both photos and a how-to video. Both Jetpens and Goulet Pens sell the supplies (o-rings, and maybe silicone grease) to do the eyedropper conversion, which is extremely easy and no-fuss. I do recommend using the silicone grease. JetPens calls it optional, but I consider it pretty much essential.



I have done countless Platinum Preppy eyedropper conversions, and only ever had one leak on me. The reason it leaked was because I screwed it closed too tightly and cracked the barrel. Platinum Preppies are very well-made pens, but they are inexpensive, and the plastic isn't perfect. When you have a rubbery o-ring in there, there's a lot of "give" when tightening the barrel. I thought, the tighter the better, but that is not the case. It's a little counterintuitive for me NOT to screw the eyedropper pen full of ink as tight as possible, but lesson learned; I close them gently now, and haven't had a cracked barrel since.



As the name implies, the first eyedropper fountain pens were filled with eyedroppers. There are some inks that come in bottles with eyedropper tops, and those are handy - but some people use a syringe to fill their pens. I use disposable plastic pipettes, which can be found all over the place (I get mine on eBay), and I know they are not terribly sustainable, but plastic pipettes keep your ink safer from contamination than a syringe would do. They are also faster, and require no cleaning because you just throw the darn things away. Granted, you have to be quite the intense fountain pen and ink geek in order to have a supply of plastic pipettes on hand, but... we all have our quirky hobbies.

My thorough blog reader also asked about air travel and these pens, which is a wise question indeed. The major advantage of an eyedropper pen, especially one with a large barrel like the Preppy, is that it holds tons of ink and lasts for ages. The disadvantage is that it is very susceptible to heat and air pressure. If the ink is very low in the barrel, the heat of your hand itself will make the ink "blort" (another technical term, folks) and flow out of the pen too quickly. On airplanes, they can also spit out some ink. This is very easily handled. When I fly with fountain pens (and I always take pens with me when I travel, so I should just say "when I fly"), I wrap them all in a paper towel or two inside a plastic ziplock baggie. Most of the time, there are no leaks. If there is a leak, the paper towel inside the baggie absorbs the excess ink, and the plastic baggie keeps it from making a mess on anything else in my bag. The one time I had a Preppy leak fantastically on a trip, it was a little messy when I opened the bag to clean off the pens, but since the bag was clear, I knew what I was in for. (It was also my own fault, sort of - I should have known better than to fly with the ink level so low, and therefore more susceptible to changes in pressure.)

If I've made you all excited to get some Platinum Preppies of your very own, you can get them at JetPens or at Goulet Pens, along with eyedropper conversion options from either site. In the top photo on this post, you can see the little baggies of o-rings I've purchased from both Goulet Pens and Jetpens. I always have extra supplies on hand, so I can throw together an eyedropper conversion whenever the whim strikes me. [UPDATE: It seems JetPens no longer sells o-rings. You can get o-rings from Goulet Pens.]

Happy writing!

Mail Me Some Art: another mail resource

Here's another quick tip on how to see some more mail in your mailbox: check out Mail Me Some Art, a paper-based (postcards, ATCs, tags, etc) swap site.

Caveat: I've not tried it myself, I just saw a link to it on Twitter (thanks, @Taylormaidemom), but it sounds like a really cool idea that is guaranteed to have "no flakers" since you have to send something to receive something. All swap items are sent to the coordinator, who then distributes them.

From the Mail Me Some Art FAQs:

"All styles of art and all levels of experience are welcome. In order to guarantee everyone who makes something receives something in return, all swap items are sent to me and I mail them back out to others in the swap."

There's no formal registration process, you just send items to the coordinator by the deadline. Has anyone tried this site or have experience with their swaps?

Oh, and by the way - enjoy the longest days of the year! Happy Summer Solstice (tomorrow), everyone!

How do you find pen pals? A nice blog post

Through a comment she made on my blog, I just discovered the Musings of a postcrosser and letter writer blog. I've just added it to my Letter Blogs list. A recent post may be of interest to some of my readers, and I encourage you to check it out:

How do you find pen pals?"

She's got some good resources and tips listed, and chronicles her own process.

The Elevated Envelope: a mail art exchange project

Blog reader Rosemary recently tipped me off to a new mail blog, The elevated envelope. Not only a blog to show and encourage pretty mail, it also seems to be a mail art exchange project: "a project where creative strangers from all over the world send each other artistic snail mail." It runs "every 6-8 weeks or so" and full details, including sign-ups, are on the elevated envelope blog. I'm not a participant myself, just passing along a tip about the site. If nothing else, it's worth a look for all the great mail photos!

Looking for a pen pal? Here's a Twitter option...

I just saw that one of my fine tweeps (that's Twitter users I follow, for those unfamiliar with that lingo), @LetterSets of lettersets.com has offered to help with pen pal searches on Twitter. If you tweet that you're looking for a pen pal, they'll retweet it to all their followers for you.

Seems rather instantaneous, but for all those people who are looking for a pen pal RIGHT NOW, it could be a fun option.

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that the last thing I am seeking is more pen pals... but I do know a lot of folks who land here are looking for more pen pals and letter writers, so I hope this is useful to someone.

You want mail?

I just read a wonderful blog post called You want mail? by Pamela of the excellent blog Cappucino and art journal. I highly recommend you check it out. She really breaks it down for mail enthusiasts, and burgeoning letter-writers: start writing!

For inspiration, and a bunch of good links, go check out You want mail?

Have you ever wanted to mail a letter from an airport?

I know I have. I am often eager to mail things from airports, be they postcards or letters... either because I want that area's postmark, or because I've been writing letters and postcards in airports and on airplanes while traveling.

But airport mailboxes can be really hard to find! And sometimes the airport personnel don't even know where the mailbox is, or even that there is one on the premises.

Now, letter-writing friends, we have a new resource to aid us in our travels! Meet airportmailboxes.com.

I just learned about airportmailboxes.com from today's post on The Letter Writers Alliance website (where, for mysterious typepad reasons I don't understand, I am somehow unable to comment today). Isn't this fabulous??

I just looked up mailbox locations for two airports through which I've traveled before, where airport staff have told me there is no mailbox - HA! Now I know there is! I also just submitted the airport information for my local airport. Traveling letter-writers and postcard-senders, rejoice! (And, if you can, submit info for any airports with which you're familiar, to aid other postal travelers.)

Here's to 21st century air mail...

A little more on Letternet

I have posted a few times before about Letternet, Deutsche Post's (Germany's postal service) pen pal website. (See Deutsche Post's Letternet, Letternet Update, and More on the Letternet Saga for past commentary.) I just wanted to share with my readers that I have received many, many fun letters from Germany this way. For all the details about it, please read my previous posts linked above and visit the Letternet website (I think I linked the English version there), but I can heartily say that you are pretty likely to get quite a few pen pals from this service if you are patient. People in Germany can request pen pals from anywhere, but anyone from other countries can only be matched with writers in Germany. This makes sense, being sponsored by the German postal service - what's in it for them if they link me, in the USA, up with someone in France? Anyway, I've only written first to one or two people, and I have approved countless other address requests from other people, and I admit I haven't kept an exact count, but I think I've probably received Letternet letters from at least 15 people by now. So I give Letternet my full endorsement for anyone who's looking for a way to find a pen pal in Germany. Incidentally, a few of the letter-writers had some degree of trouble with English, but most of them wrote in English most impressively. (Don't ask me to write in German!)

I'd love to hear feedback from anyone else who's tried Letternet - so far I've only heard positive things.

Looking for a pen pal?

I often get questions from blog readers about where they can find more pen pals. Let me call your attention to one of my handy little sidebar link sets, practically titled "How to find people who might write you back." It's just under the old-school USPS logo (that came from a photograph of one of my grandfather's old patches... he worked for the Postal Service for most of his life).

All those links can hook you up with people, addresses, etc. Caveat: I have not used all of them myself, but some I list as a convenience for those who are searching. As I've said before, I've got more letters and pen pals than I think I can keep up with, but it was not always thus, and I appreciate all the tips from others I got along the way.

That being said, there are two fine blogs that are currently doing a sort of ad-hoc pen pal thang.

From the Good Mail Day blog (yes indeed, one of the very fabulous mail art pros behind the very fabulous Good Mail Day book!), there is a "call for scribblers, mail artists, and pen friends." It's very informal and ad-hoc, but people list their addresses and interests right there.

Second, Megan of the fine Australian Time after Tea has started a Penpal mailing list. It's brand-new, but it seems there will be profiles with an email option - so that might be more of interest to those folks who don't want to give out their address publicly. (To quote the abovementioned Good Mail Day Carolee, "may I just say that a post office box goes a long way towards achieving privacy peace of mind." I myself have a box at a UPS store, which has different perks and drawbacks than a PO Box, but affords the same sort of privacy... hence my willingness to post my address on this here blog for all the world to see.) There should be more details on Time after tea soon, but I am excited to see how it develops. It seems I tend to find out about these pen pal things after they're done and closed, so I'm glad to be able to share this info while it's still good and hoppin'.

Go write a letter! It's late and past my bedtime now, but I'm a little overly proud of myself that it's only July 2 (well, okay, as per the post-midnight clock, it's July 3, but it's July 2 to me until I go to sleep and wake up the next morning) and I've got 14 outgoing items this month already. That will maybe give me a head start on making up for my week of vacation off in the woods later this month...

More on the Letternet saga

I don't have any fancy photos at the moment, but I just wanted to update my faithful readers on the continuing Letternet saga. In my original post, I mentioned the penpal service of the German postal service (Deutsche Post) called Letternet. You can read my previous posts - oh-so-handily linked right here for your convenience - to catch up on the saga, but I do have a couple of recent developments.

So far I've received two letters from Letternet. I wrote one letter to the only pen pal I requested who approved my address request, and she wrote back very swiftly. Her English is probably the worst I've seen from a German... don't get me wrong, her English is a hell of a lot better than my German, but maybe she just wants practice. In any case her letter was very sincere and I shall definitely write her back, though there may be a bit of a language barrier. The second letter arrived today (postmarked March 4 - yay Deutsche Post/US Postal service for 4-day delivery from Germany!), from a fine gal who writes much better English. She requested my address and I approved that request, and she must have written me really soon after that, and she included a photo of herself. I confess that I cannot really explain why, but I get a little skeezed out when people send pictures in the first letter (well, okay, I did get a couple of really creepy photos like that from The Letter Exchange, but we'll write those off as the inevitable weirdos), but maybe including photos is more of a European cultural thing to do... I mean, I know what a lot of my pen pals look like because they have blogs and they post photos of themselves there. Anyhoo, this German gal's photo was not skeezy at all, just a nice-looking German lady about my age, standing by a pretty mountain with her cute dog. Totally a lovely letter, descriptive and warm. I will definitely write her back and enjoy doing so.

So - for anyone interested in finding pen pals from Germany, I do recommend Letternet. It has its limitations - you cannot write anything in a personal profile, can't list a blog, can't add a photo, and if you're in the USA, you can only search for people in Germany (clearly Germans can search for folks in the USA, though, because at least one ended up with me), but since I've gotten two nice letters from there already in 3 weeks of membership, I'd say that's a pretty good track record. Quite a few other folks have requested my address, too, and I've approved those, but at this point I'm just waiting to see if they'll write first, since they were the ones who made the request.

Happy writing, folks!

New mail blog + 50-state challenge for postcards

I just discovered the new mail blog (sorta - he blogs about delicious food, too) food.fun.post, which is the brainchild of one of my newer correspondents. He makes lovely mail art and writes a fine letter, too. My readers might enjoy his blog, too - I just added it to my letter blogs sidebar - but I'm posting this today to give him a little help for his 50-state challenge. He's trying to get a postcard from every state in the USA. He doesn't list his address on his blog so you'll need to leave your email address so he can send you his mailing address, but I'm sure he'd appreciate a postcard from your state if it's one of the 30 or so from which he's still seeking a postcard.

Letternet update

If you recall my original blog entry about Deutsche Post Letternet, I promised to keep you updated about the arrival of my address code.

I initially joined up and requested an address code on Sunday, February 14 - and today I received that address code from Germany via snail mail - or rather, via Luftpost. The letter is dated February 16, and though it doesn't have a postmark date (go figure), that still seems right speedy to have arrived in less than a week.

So I entered by address code and am now a "full member." The searching for pen pals system seems pretty darn random and you don't have a lot of search options (nor can you write your own profile, it seems), but I've requested at least one address so far, just for the heck of testing it out, and we'll see what happens.

UPDATE 23 Feb 2010: Thanks to a very helpful comment from tanuki below, I discovered a little more about the methods. No, you don't get notification when someone approves an address request - they just show up in your pen pals list. So I logged in just now, and found that someone had requested my address! I approved it, but now I just see a very minimal profile and an address for her. Does she write first, since she requested? Or do I? There is really no way to message each other or communicate about that. Maybe I'll send her a postcard.

Yet another penpal project

Although it seems that penpal projects started by individual bloggers come and go like dust in the wind (in my jaded long-term letter-writing mindset - remember, I've been doing this consistently since I knew how to hold a pencil as a little girl, and I'm in my mid-30s now - I tend to think it's because people get really enthusiastic, and then find out how much work it is to keep it up, and then quit - R.I.P Penpal Party, which I never even got a chance to join), I have enough blog readers and pen pals who ask me how to find more pen pals that I feel like I should mention something that sounds interesting - BIG CAVEAT - even when I don't really think I'll try it out myself. (I have enough of you blog readers who are still waiting for a letter back from me, oui?)

So, I just learned about The Indiefixx Pen Pal Project from the intrepid PostMuse (or is it Postmuse? She's still deciding and she's open to feedback, but however you capitalize it, her blog rocks).

Goodness, I am deeply parenthetical tonight, aren't I? Blame it on overwork. (I am doing 7 days a week from Feb. 15 - March 7. Don't ask.)

Anyhoo, this Penpal Project seems enthusiastic. If you're looking for more pen pals, it is a potential resource for you. If you sign up and participate, do let me know how it goes.

Deutsche Post Letternet

Through the Penpalling and Letters blog which I just discovered recently, I learned of Deutsche Post's Letternet. (Deutsche Post is Germany's postal service.) I've linked the English version of the site, but the original language is, of course, German. It appears to be a pen pal service - free - for anyone in the world. Goodness knows I don't need any more pen pals, but I did sign up out of curiosity. I found it a little unsettling that I had to agree to Terms of Service that are available only in German, so I couldn't really read them, but oh well.

Letternet, which calls itself the "largest pen pal club in the world," has a weird questionnaire that involves asking questions with picture associations: four pictures for "this is what friendship feels like," "this is what stress feels like," etc. It seems geared to younger people, but of course I am supportive of any endeavor to encourage good clean letter-writing. The site is in beta form, and I suspect some things may be clearer in German than in the English translation. For example, my address is listed in my profile as "not confirmed." To confirm it, I need a confirmation code. How do I get this code? I don't know. I couldn't figure that out. I used the contact form to ask, but haven't heard back. From the post about it on the Penpalling and Letters blog, I think I might need to wait for a snail-mail envelope or package from them - fine and dandy, that seems a lovely way to confirm my address, although it would be nice to learn that from the Letternet site itself.

EDIT: Actually, I poked around a little further, and in fact the info is on the site, on the How you can participate page. There it says: "As soon as you have created your profile we check your address so that you can make pen-friends. We shall send you a letter containing your personal registration code, which you need to enter in "My Data/Confirm your Adress". You are then a full member and can search for pen-friends all over the world." OK. All good. I'll wait for the letter in the mail.]

Also, when I entered my mailing address as part of the registration process, the required fields were pretty specific to a German address format (makes sense, after all - it IS a German service), and I had to enter my own address in a weird way - I hope their fields will align with the US mail fields such that mail will reach me successfully. I'll find out, I suppose, and I'll keep you posted, but anyone who is brave that wants to try it out, go for it... the site seems very legit and is clearly part of the Deutsche Post larger website system.

I have a few German pen pals, and my experience with Deutsche Post overall is that the service is fast and reliable, and the stamps are really cool... so I joined up without hearing other reports first.

If anyone else out there who reads this blog has used or is using Letternet, I'd love to hear about your experience with it.

On another note, Happy Valentine's Day! I might do a V-Day posting later, and I might not. Truth be told, it's not a very big deal to me, but I didn't feel like I could make a post on February 14 without mentioning it.