Witchelm

Beautiful songbirds, in this unique piece of mail art created by Witchelm, named 'Sing sing'.



Thank you very much, Witchelm!

Barbara Fanta

This poetic Bird - who tells about one of my favourite subjects: letters - has been created by Barbara Fanta from the USA.
It is part of an awesome envelope.



And inside a lovely surprise: a soft tissue heart.



Thank you very much, Barbara!

Micu (5)

Great mixed media mail art from Micu from Hungary!
The Fox shouldn't be hunt by people, Micu writes on the back of this card.
And I agree with her. (Although all rabbits and hares would be very pleased if people would hunt foxes - but I think people should not hunt rabbits and hares either, even though these long-eared animals eat all vegetables from our local garden before I get the opportunity to harvest them.)

This Fox fortunately is friendly, he or she even allows a Sheep to sit on his/her back, to make it a real Easter card!



Thank you very much, nagyon szépen köszönöm, Micu!

Nancy Spanauf

This beautiful bird is very dear to me, and it has been created by someone who is very dear to me, too. Nancy is a talented woman, and I am very happy and feel honoured that she created this very first Bird to send to me.

To my opinion, history proofs that many talents in women have remained under-exposed, simply because taking care of all other tasks in life prevents them from developing their skills. Nancy started just now, after decades of taking care for many other people. I am happy with this original pen drawing, and I hope Nancy will create more, looking forward to it!



Love her great handwriting, too.
Thank you very much, dankjewel, Nancy!

Zahra

I am very pleased to have received this beautiful and original pen drawing by Zahra from the Netherlands. There are a lot of hidden treasures in this picture. The Butterfly and the heart are clear. But did you notice a snail (intended or not - I love it!)? And words, in different alphabets?

Zahra wrote that this is her first work of art, but I'm sure she has made many more art work in previous years, so this might be the first official one. I'm happy and feel honoured to have received this one, and am looking forward to seeing more of her drawings!

Thank you very much, hartstikke bedankt, Zahra, ben er heel blij mee!

Frank (from Nijmegen)

I was wondering whether I would post a regular postcard here or not. In fact, the drawing itself concerns a regular (printed, bought) postcard, made by Johanna Basford, issued in 2014 by Thoth Publishers. But the colouring has been handmade by a good friend, so I decided: Yes!

Frank and I played guitar in Below the Mole in the late eighties. Below the Mole was an important band in the Nijmegen music scene (although almost no-one knows that :-) ). We started with two guitars and drums. A bass player joined only after years. We existed for 4 years, until our drummer Rob left to Amsterdam, and in those years we had 10 public concerts in total.
Below the Mole was an underground band, not only musically seen but also literally: we rehearsed below the (former) Post Office near Nijmegen Central Station. Alas this post office and the cellar rehearsal rooms don't exist anymore.
However, to my surprise the concert hall Doornroosje has been moving last year to this location. As many others do, I'll miss the old, cosy Doornroosje and its former location. In those days I've put a lot of footsteps there, volunteering at concerts and by drawing concert flyers (and did the typography, in a pre-computer era!). And I gained some hearing loss by the noise (be warned if you enjoy music, too!).
Post Office, rehearsal rooms, concert hall.. Maybe the circle should be full this way.

So this postcard not only reminds me of the good times we shared - Frank, Rob, Arnold (and temporary Miesjel) were more than family to me - but also gives me the opportunity to share a tiny little postal and pop history of one of my favourite cities, Nijmegen.



Frank sent me this card last week for my bithday (good day to not send it on my birthday itself, because that is not a public day :-) and he added that this alas isn't a Mole. Never mind, I think it great (and will share a coloured version of our logo below). Thanks a lot, dankjewel, Frank!



Nijmegen Central Station in 1977. The (now disappeared) large building on the right was the former Post Office.



Some BtM songs:
Blue Hour
Turquoise Cloud
An evening at night (featuring Miesjel)

FinnBadger

Having been born in the Year of the Dragon, I always love to see Dragon mail. Receiving such mail makes my day complete!
FinnBadger created this beautiful one. In real it's even more beautiful, because the lines are shining silver and gold, and of course I love this cobalt blue background.

Gold is also on the postage stamps, issued by the USA post for the Lunar / Chinese New Years.
The scanned images don't show it that clear, but if you look close to the left upper corners of these stamps, maybe you see them: the Rat, the Snake and the Goat.



FinnBadger has some interesting and awesome websites, be sure to take a look at:
- his poems:
Poems found in Morrow
- mail art:
Envelope 100
- alphabets / letters:
A Letter a Week 2014
A Letter a Week 2013

Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Eva (13)

Who would ever have thought that a giant animal such as the Whale would fit in a letterbox and would be able to travel by snail mail?
Eva (and the Spanish and Dutch Post) proofed it by sending (and delivering) this nice friendly Whale in front of an envelope.

And she added a funny fish. Maybe I could use it as a template to create more Fish!?!



With the Whale and Fish, Eva also sent two regular postcards, of which one is a great DIY 'build a whale' card, and the other shows how people can meet Whales in real.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!!

Servane Morel

It's the Year of the Sheep/Goat, and this colourful Year-Goat makes my day!

Created by Servane Morel from Belgium, sent from France with a great apt Goat stamp.



Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Servane!

Frips

Yay, mail!



Beautiful rubber stamp print of the Tapir, and Cat drawings by Frips, sent from Belgium.



Apart from these animals, there is a great stamped envelope, there are artistamps, papers, and a collaboration art collage.








Thank you very much, duizendmaal dank, Frips!

Cheryl H.

Mail Art, like any snail mail, can't exist without the Snail Mail Snail!
Cheryl H. from the USA created this great traveling snail (on the artistamp below you can see how he/she travels the whole world!).
Cheryl founded an IUOMA group on Snail Mail Preservation Art, and writes these wise words:
"In an effort to preserve Snail Mail via the postal service, we can send a postcard with a message/ artwork visible on one side of the postcard that can be seen both by the postal worker and the recipient of the card. You can send a postcard to anyone OR someone who is in this [IUOMA] group. The goal being to support the postal service as well as to enliven recipients' and postal workers' day."

So true! In the past years, here in the Netherlands many postal workers got fired, and the ones who kept (or re-gained) their job got worse labour contracts. The days of delivering have been reduced from 6 days a week to 4 (officially, but in real I see new mail arrive in my mailbox on less days a week). In many countries the official post offices are vanishing, in our country the last post office already has closed it's doors in 2011, to be replaced by service points in regular shops (by the way, my present stamp dealers are friendly and hard working people, too, but I feel that mail isn't a primary core thing for them as it was for post office employees). And recently I heard a very sad news about the Canadian post, who is step by step stopping home delivery to many Canadians!..

That said, and Cheryl's message read, I think it's time for all of us to send out snail mails!



Thank you very much, Cheryl!

Alain Cotten

Some time ago I created an Ostrich (hiding a Rubik's cube under his wings) for one of Alain Cotten's mail art projects. Not long after that, Alain pleasantly surprised me by this wonderful bird collage.
It looks like someone from the Swallow family, but which one? For his/her grey black colour this one reminds me of the Swift, and then it would be even more wonderful, miraculous! Because Swifts almost never are sitting, but they live, sleep, eat and do anything while flying high in the sky. While this one obviously has landed!

You can see more works of collage mail art by Alain Cotten on his website.
And if you are interested to join one or more of his ongoing mail art projects (the one on ostriches, or 'black and red', or 'rebel people', or 'angels vomit devils'), please check his call for entries.

Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Alain!