Nicole Eippers (29)

Wonderful envelope from Nicole Eippers, tmo the Queen of Collage mail art!
The mail arrived despite of the location of the postmark :-)



Enclosed this great Mole shown above, and ATC's: of a Tardigrade, Chameleon, Lyrebird and a Sea Slug. And of course Nicole's famous Flying Piggy.

Katerina Nikoltsou (31)

An impressive animal swam to my place: a Whale!

Sent by Katerina from Greece, and she added a clue to the 'what or whom is she staring at?' card:



Indeed, apples, onions and.. more impressive animals: Dinosaurs!



Along with some orange:



And this lovely Goldfish:



And some money, to check whether I am bribable or not:



Thank you very much, Katerina!

FinnBadger (7)

Received these familiar Fish a week ago or two or so. The movie Finding Nemo was released in 2003 and I loved and still love to see it (being a fan of Crush' wise words, too). And recently we saw Finding Dory in cinema.

I was wondering who the sender would be. At first sight I couldn's open it, and I thought it had to be like that: both sides glued together.

However, tonight I did a new try to open it. And I succeeded. And oh, ay... Not only familiar Fish but also a familiar mail artist!..
I should have recognized the handwriting!



On the back side great matching (new) stamps showing Shell-Fish / Sea Snails.
And the Octopus.

So there was an inside, and inside I found this card, with at the back side a kind message.



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Ruth Giles

Ruth Giles created a variety of animals in a variety of ways. The Comb Jelly she drew on black paper, which has an effect as amazing as the real illuminating animal must have (this scanned picture shows less than half of the bright light her drawing has).

Meanwhile this Right Whale has been drawn in a different way, and he or she swims in an interesting environment.



And look at this rubberstamp printed Crow!



And the wonderful Cavias (Guinea Pigs), of which I'm wondering how she stamped these.



The envelope shows more interesting and well-known animals, on both rubberstamps and postage stamps.



Thank you very much, Ruth!

Pufflingspaintings

"Sqoxes are surprisingly good at snorkeling. They hide their best nuts in ziplock bags under rocks as no one ever finds them there (often this includes themselves as they are terribly forgetful)."

I am a big fan of Pufflingspaintings' paintings. I learned to know the painter via Instagram. You can find her also on Twitter and Etsy. Every time her illustrations of the adventures of Sqox and Unicorn succeed to cause a big smile on my face.


"Just having a little lunch."

Some time ago, after a conversation we had on instagram about nuts, I decided to send her my version of Sqox, accompanied by some delicious chestnuts.
And some time later she surprised me with these great illustrations.



Some summer views of Unicorn.



Thank you very much, Pufflingspaintings!

Eva (15)

Sometimes you can find mail art in tiny edges of the post. In the Year of the Sheep Eva drew me this beautiful sweet Mail Sheep in a corner of the back side of her envelope.

Inside the envelope she sent two sheep postcards. Among them this great postcard from Estonia, showing Sheep, pictured by Estonian photographer Mihkel Valdma.

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!!

Mail Art Martha (5)

Mail Art Martha surprised me, not only with a new version of her wonderful envelopes showing a horse stamp and postman Kevin. But also with a nice booklet. Great beach sketches!
With some great animals among these, too. The Sea Duck, the Pigeon, a and several Human beings.






Thank you very much, Martha!

GX Jupitter-Larsen

Obviously not meant for this Real Weird Animals site, but thanks to the animal shown on the postage stamp - the Sea Cucumber! - and thanks to the fact that I thought this a clever use of someone else's envelope (I don't think it would be named 'recycled art', do you?), the work of art is posted here.
Mail art from the mysterious GX Jupitter-Larsen, or also - that is, the front of the cover - by Ruud Janssen, as I had received the envelope (you see the original below on the left) from Ruud before :-)

Sea cucumbers are funny animals. In Dutch we have the same name: zeekomkommer (komkommer = cucumber), but the animal looks even more complicated than a green cucumber.



GX added some notes on waves (see above on the right, click to enlarge). Very inspiring to add some waves to. But where to send to?

And the back of the envelope is a delight, too. Interesting writing, great rubber stamp prints and beautiful postage stamps. Thank you very much, GX!

Katerina Nikoltsou (12)

Usually Fish need to be afraid of nets. This time the Fish is the net!

Thank you very much, Katerina, for this original animal!

Erni Bär (3)

Mail Art from the great collage mail artist Erni Bär from Germany.
When I got the envelope in hands, I first thought he had sent me a Hippopotamus. But it appeared to be a Single Ant.
As I like all animals, this cute - very, very tiny in this mail art, in fact almost invisible - animal is most welcome, too!



Around the Single Ant we can see lots of humans, and also fish, so no-one needs to be single nor lonely.



And even a Cow! We know Paula-the-yellow-with-brown-spots-cow in the Netherlands, too.
Weird that this cow seems to eat from pudding made by her own milk, but I'm not the first witness of adult cows eating dairy products made from selfproduced milk.



And three strong men are supporting the Mail Artist himself.
The other artist is Kurt Schwitters (whose first name contains the two letters of his sonate), his portrait is pictured as a great rubber stamp print, which doesn't need any support (?).



Thank you very much, vielen Dank, Erni!