Eva (36) Reading bird

Where would we be without books? This great bird totally agrees with the importance of reading books (and her book has a cover of my favourite colour :-) .
So I am happy to receive a picture of the reading bird, created by Eva. Thank you very much!

Eva (33)

After the Turtle, cousin Crocodile arrived! (Via water or via air?!) Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (32)

Who would ever have thought that turtles can be puzzled by lighthouses?
Wonderful drawing by Eva, and look how the colourpencil colours match with the stamps!
Thank you very much, Eva, moltes gràcies!

Eva (30)

It has been one year and one-day-and-half since I posted my most recent blog post here at 'Real Weird Animals'... Meanwhile I have received so many beautiful matching mail art!
I apologize for being this late, and I guess my huge backlog (in sharing my received mail with you) will keep on being huge.
Hopefully, and step by step I'll show you the gems. To start with this Squirrel, named Francis, which I received today:

I wish the squirrel would have been baking pancakes for me, but fact is, he is baking for his BF, Peris Little-Dormouse :-) Made and sent (and accompanied by a matching story) by Eva. Thank you very much!

Eva (25)

This pretty illustrated envelope I received from Eva. A cute Cow, and see what this Mail Bird holds in the beak!

On the front side Eva created a wonderful typography.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Minneapolis Gnome

Wow, such wonderful drawings!
Created by Minneapolis Gnome from Minneapolis (well, the Rhinoceros and Tortoise originally are from Tucson, Arizona).



Along these animals and gnome the staring lady returned, with an inspiring new surrounding: the Gnome's studio.



All arrived in this great envelope:



Thank you very much, Minneapolis Gnome!

Eva (22)

A belated blog post as you can see: it's the 15th of June today, so not before four months after sending, this friendly Dragon finally landed into this online gallery.

Created by Eva who has sent him/her from Spain.



I always love Eva's drawings, and I think you'll enjoy these as much as I do!



The Dragons arrived in this envelope (note the Doves/Pigeons on the stamp!). And while we are sure that Dragons are real, existing weird animals, I am not that sure about the Aliens, also appearing (a bit hidden in their homes and transport means) on the cover.

Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (21)

Eva drew great beetles and other useful tiny creatures and thus made this a wonderful envelope.

Inside a postcard from the 'There's nuffin like a Puffin' book illustration postcards serie. The Water Flea and his friend Water Mite show up on the cover of a book issued in 1964, named 'Pond life'. The illustration was made by Paxton Chadwick.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Ehagaki Hana

This beautiful colour pencil drawing of a Warbler has been created by Hana Ehagaki from Japan.
The drawing arrived in this beautiful envelope:





With the animals came these interesting postmarks, among them a stamp print of the Kingdom of Amaooi.
And more Birds! A Shoe-billed stork, and a Gannet, so to see (?).





And beautiful train designs (besides animals, I love trains).



Thank you very much, Hana!

John Edwards (2)

Similar to the Blobfish, the Dumbo octopus - named after the famous little long-eared Elephant - is living in deep sea.
With his/her large eyes it's a cute looking animal.
Similar to the previous drawing of the Blobfish I love this drawing, which also has been created by John Edwards.
The mail machine has added some interesting small hole (bottom middle) in this card, but fortunately John's autograph is still there.

Thank you very much, John!

John Edwards (1)

The Blobfish is an intriguing animal, and I was very happy to receive this great drawing and background information from John:
"The blobfish lives off the coasts of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. It is a deep sea fish. Its flesh is a gelatinous mass with a density less than water.
It is now an endangered species."

By the way, I found a short movie about the Blobfish, in which you can see how the Blobfish is supposed to look like when he/she is in his/her own environment, in deep water. See this link.



The stamps show another endangered Fish, the Wolffish (and three ladies who turned their backs upon them, leaving the Wolffish behind in bewilderment).

And the air mail sticker in a good place :-)



Thank you very much, John!

Eni Ilis (2)

Colourful and interesting drawing created by Eni Ilis from Brazil. It arrived in this envelope full of colourful postage stamps - on which the Brazilian mail company has added cancellation stamps in a very mail-arty way.



I love guitars, so I'm very happy to see a part of a guitar on this beautiful envelope, too! Although guitars are not animals, but Musicians are a weird kind of human animals as well (according to the Musician within me).



Update 4th of May 2014:
I made also a photo of the inside of the envelope, which you can see below. Because I discovered such an amazing coincidental thing: inside there's a text about Caymmi. An interview with a Brazilian singer who says: 'Tudo em Caymmi me fascina' (which means: 'Everything in Caymmi fascinates me').
And I'm sure this must be Dorival Caymmi.
Dorival alas passed away in 2008 - and last 30th of April would have been his 100th birthday...
I happened to have made mail art on a text of a song by Caymmi two months ago to send to Ryosuke Cohen. He published it recently, in Brain Cell nr 885. I think it so coincidental!

Eva (8)

Yay, the Platypus! Holding a letter, so a post-platypus, even!
Drawn and sent by Eva.

Inside this beautiful envelope two lovely hedgehogs, who resemble of course the Platypus' cousin: the Echidna.



And inside the letter, this interesting text about monotremes.



And while I always get a big smile when seeing a platypus, I guess Eva is smiling when she sees a laughing cow. Check her website, and whenever you find laughing cow, send it to her!



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Vizma Bruns (2)

A Platypus from the land of the Platypus: Australia!

Thanks to Vizma Bruns we can learn the story of the Old Man Platypus...



.. and learn how to have a drink while being in a Fish Tank! (My bottle of course contains water, or coffee.)
(What happened to Marie?)



Nice stamps, even a Mailogram and an original Vizma Artistamp!

This Giant Lobster was on the smallest part of the mail:



And this is a piece of fabric which really asks for being added some more stitches to!



And last but not least: a great transparent dotted envelope, with on the stamp... an Echidna, yay!



Thank you very much, Vizma!

Rachel Carter

After the Eurasian Coot, it's time to show you an American Coot aka Mud Hen!
Great weird animal, and I always love their funny lobed toes.
And note the animals on the postage stamps!
Created by Rachel Carter from the USA. Besides collages, she makes great drawings, check her 'The First 10,000 Drawings' blog!

Thank you very much, Rachel, for these - more and less - weird real animals!

Daniel

I feel very happy and honoured to be the receiver of the very first postcard made by Daniel (sent from the USA)!!
I love coloured pencil drawings, and I love pelicans, who are weird, too, having a large bill with a distendible pouch beneath it.

Daniel made me curious, there is something he knows and I don't: who is hidden in this Brown Pelican's mouth? Definitely this 'Help!' crying creature isn't as lucky as Marlin and Dory in Nigel's pouch.

Together with the beautiful drawing I received this photo postcard with more information about this kind of Pelican. So I learned the Brown Pelican is the Louisiana State Bird (strange enough we don't have a Dutch provincial or even national bird, as far as I know) and that the young pelicans feed by sticking their heads into the pouch. The Brown Pelican has been in danger of extinction, but thanks to extensive conservation efforts this marvellous bird has been making a comeback.



Thank you so much, Daniel!

Zoë

What a big surprise to find this wonderful Lion - very properly titled 'The Wonderful Lion' - in my mailbox!
Zoë from Louisiana, USA, created this unique coloured (or colored, I never know the difference) pencil drawing and I am happy to receive it!

Lions indeed are weird animals: why only male lions do have manes, and their male cousins, for instance tigers, lynxes and domestic cats, haven't?!

Thank you very much, Zoë!

Elena Gjorgjievska (2)

Not only beautiful color pencil drawings of Sea horses, also these Birds were made and sent by Elena Gjorgjievska from Macedonia.

What else to say than these birds are beautiful!





Thanks a lot, blagodaram, Elena!

Elena Gjorgjievska (1)

From Macedonia Elena Gjorgjievska sent beautiful color pencil drawings of real weird animals: the Sea Horse!

In fact the sea horse is a fish, though a vertical swimming one. The sea horse has some similarities with other weird animals: like a chameleon he/she can move the eyes independently; like the marsupials, he (!) has a pouch, in which the young sea horses can grow; and like swans, most male and female sea horses stay together for their entire life.



Blagodaram, Elena!