Ruud Janssen (9)

Sent by Ruud Janssen from the Netherlands, this awesome artistamp. The artistamp is showing Ruud himself and has been designed by Domenico Ferrara Foria, in honour of the 35th anniversary of the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA), which takes place this year! Ruud is the founder of this great network.

The artistamp arrived in this envelope, which is an alibi to post the mail art here: there are animals on it!



Funny detail might be the fact that the snail mail snail and Year of the Dog stamp have been designed by me :-) Always nice to see them travel.
I've sent the original stamps to Ruud Janssen, because he also is curating the TAM rubberstamp archive.


Also in this envelope this bright work of art arrived:



Created by Ruud Janssen. I guess it is named bits and bytes, or some other name?!?

Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Ruud!

Katerina Nikoltsou (30)

A beautiful Bird stamp appeared on the envelope Katerina had sent me from Greece. Thanks to her post in the 'Lapoused'/ 'Birds' group I learned that this Bird is from the Byzantine Museum.

In the envelope a lot of other mail art.
Like this Orange and Onions mail, with wonderful artistamps - among them the fish you've seen here before recently!



Banana, more orange, and pumpkin (Halloween) mail:





A contribution to my 'What or whom is she staring at?' mail art project:



Thank you very much, Katerina!

Stripygoose (12)

I love bird stamps, and Stripygoose was so kind to send me two: one in front (see above) and one on the back of a pretty mail art card!



Thank you very much, Stripygoose!

Caroline

On instagram there are many mail lovers who share postcards, stamps and do enjoyable 'chaincard' projects.
Via instagram I met Caroline from Hong Kong. She not only shares nice stamps and postcards by her instagram account, but she also appears to be a wonderful stamp carver.
Caroline was so kind to send me some of her stamp prints, and I love to share these here with you. They are amazing!

Part of the 'making of' of the Gryffindor Lion you can see here, and you can see also the Owl, and the young woman.



Thank you very much, Caroline!

Margit

The Sloth is an amazing animal. Fortunately I am not the only one who is fascinated by this slowly moving animal. Margit created a great rubberstamp, and she was so kind to send me a print of it. Alas the card never arrived, and seems to have been lost in the mail. But she printed an other one, and I was so happy to receive it!

Update: this card appears to be the first and only one! Amazing how the Sloth has traveled as slow as no human is able to do.
Margit told me yesterday that the card has been sent on 29th of February. The Sloth must have thought it a big journey, as he first rested in the Post Office or Briefzentrum before he finally had the energy to cross the border to the neighbouring country (mine). After getting not a 29 February postmark but a 21st of October one!

Thank you very much, herzlichen Dank, Margit!

Katerina Nikoltsou (22)

Always a pleasure to receive Katerina Nikoltsou's original works of art and to add it to this 'real weird animals' mail art collectiom. The Snail Mail Snail I recognized immediately, but for my records I'm happy that she wrote the names of the unidentified animals: 'Strange Critters'.

On the back artistamps, among them the Fish dada artistamp by Keith S. Chambers, and Katerina's selfie by "E":



The postage stamp on the envelope is issued in honour of the 'Greece in Russia' year:



And on the back Katerina's (and Athena's) famous wise Owl on a stamp print:



Thank you very much, ευχαριστώ, Katerina!

Fiona Bearclaw

An envelope plenty full of Animal rubberstamps!



And a tree,



And mushrooms,



And some unidentified animal,



Created and sent by Fiona Bearclaw from the USA.



Thank you very much, Fiona!

Katerina Nikoltsou (19)

I love the way Katerina Nikoltsou re-uses envelopes: by simply using the reverse side!



Several animals are to be seen: a Dog, an Elephant, Greek Owls, Human Beings on the stamps, and on the inside Butterflies.



I am not sure if the content was meant for me or for Erni. Anyway, the message is clear (I must confess I hadn't take the time to do so in the past year): we should send mail art - dada or whatever kind of art - to Erni.



Good idea, and thank you very much, Katerina!

Kate Klyuenkova

These wonderful rubberstamps have been carved by Kate Klyuenkova.



Along with the stamp prints came a very kind letter and more, all traveling in this beautiful envelope, with matching Bird stamps. You can notice calligraphy in the stamps!



So kind of yours, thank you very much, Kate!

FinnBadger (5)

This year is the Year of the Monkey, and, already at the start of this Chinese New Year, I received this cheerful Monkey from FinnBadger.

On the back there was this perfect matching postmark, along with a postage stamp themed 'Year of the Monkey':



It took me some time to find the Monkey on the stamp, but here she or he is:



The Monkeys came in this larger envelope. I am not sure if FinnBadger has surrounded the Monkeys by this envelope, or that USPS was so kind to protect the Monkey postmark against more ink. Anyway: thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Otto Sherman (4)

New great mail art from Otto Sherman from the USA.
Originally sent to - and posted at - Our Solitudes, these great Rats and Humans are welcomed to join the Real Weird Animals here, too.

Tonipoet

Crows are clever birds. I love to see them, so I am happy to welcome Tonipoet's collage, which shows a crow (and a human being, clearly a mammal).



Both on the outside and the inside of the envelope Toni added matching and funny stamps.



And on the outside of the envelope the Postal company had added some address label, as if it was an attempt to shut the imaged lady's mouth!



Thank you very much, Toni!

Borderline Grafix (2), Samantha Althoff (1), Jan Hodgman (2)

Some months ago I sent out a Soccer Field Aad-And-Pass to Samantha Althoff in the USA. To my surprise not only she, but also Jan Hodgman and Borderline Grafix have added to it, before returning it to me (which was a surprise to me also, as returning to me wasn't 'obligatory').

Above you see the wonderful result. No soccer players, but amazing Animals and other beautiful additions.



The AAP came in an envelope, with the Mink (Minxus) stamp you see above, and with an interesting photo from Borderline Grafix.



Thank you very much, Samantha, Jan and Borderline G.!

Tammy Riggins

Great mail art envelope, created and sent from the USA by Tammy Riggins.

The Fox and Dog of course lead me to add her mail art to this blog.



Inside there's this collage you see above. At first thought I'm seeing a face in it (humans are animals too, aren't they?!). However, with a less closer look, watching through the eyelashes and/or with some fantasy, you can see some feathered flying friends in it, too!



Thank you very much, Tammy!

Katerina Nikoltsou (17)

Great Owl and Cat! Who else could have been sending this pretty mail art?!?...
Katerina Nikoltsou, of course, from Greece!






I've enjoyed summer, and now I think I am craving for chocolate. How come? :-) Thank you very much, Katerina!