JOURNAL
documenting
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discovering joyful things
Tiny letters
I've made something for you! Tiny handmade envelopes, created from the delicate, antique, tissue-paper that separated each of the old postcards I set free a few weeks ago.
I kept the tissue when I posted the 100-year-old cards, and traced, hand-cut and pasted each individual piece into a miniature envelope.
What better words to place inside a tiny envelope than a tiny poem, so I copied haikus and senryus onto tiny pieces of paper, then slipped one into each envelope, and sealed it with wax.
Would you like to receive your own tiny poem in a tiny envelope, handmade out of antique tissue, in the mail?
I made 54 tiny letters and I am happy to send them to you anywhere in the world. What will your poem say? Will it speak to something you know, an ah-ha moment that reminds you that you belong in this world? Will it trigger an old memory? A sweet memory? Bittersweet? Or maybe it will simply be a bold imagining, taking you somewhere, or some-when, you have never been.
If you'd like to receive a tiny letter in the mail with a mystery haiku, share your address using the form below and I'll post it to you straight away. As I promised with the postcards, I'm happy to send one to your friends and family too, if you want to send me their addresses.
The mail will be sent on a first-come-first-sent basis, and I'll update this blog post when I've run out of tiny letters.
Yours sincerely, Naomi xo
UPDATE: 10pm Melbourne time, 17 June 2016 Thank you to everyone who responded to this fun postal project, I'll send out your tiny envelopes in the next couple of days. I hope you like them! I've run out of tiny envelopes for now but to anyone who missed out, feel free to subscribe to my blog to be among the first notified of any future mail-projects, and hit me up for some free mail-art while you're at it. Have a wonderful weekend!
Mail art: four assorted
I only have four mail-art packages to share this week. The cylindrical one at the bottom was quite a challenge to create and paint, but a lot of fun as well. Selise told me she loved marigolds, so I was determined to give it my best effort. Want to know what was inside? Cereal boxes!
Wish you were here
How would you like to receive a 100-year-old postcard in the mail?
I found several books of antique souvenir postcards at a market stall on the weekend. I kind of want to keep them because they are quite beautiful, however, call me sentimental but I also kind of want to give them flight.
So I have decided to do just that.
Postcards have always been created to travel the world through the post, carrying messages of surprise and thoughtfulness and silly stories and "wish you were here." That's their destiny. They shouldn't be hidden away in boxes or drawers, and these particular postcards have waited an entire century to be free.
Would you like one? I have 60 postcards, and I'm happy to send them to anyone, anywhere in the world. I might tell you a little story, share a moment from my life, or write a snippet of a poem. It'll be a surprise and, like the postcards themselves, each message will be different.
If you'd like to receive one of these lovely, old postcards in your letterbox, simply give me your address and I'll get writing. You can either do-so in the comments, or, if you'd prefer to keep your address private, use the form I've created below. I'll choose the postcards randomly, and send them out on a first-come, first-served basis. I'm happy to write to your friends and family too, if you want to send me their addresses.
I'll update this blog post to let you know when I've run out of postcards.
Yours sincerely, Naomi xo
UPDATE 25 May, 10pm: As of just now I have run out of postcards, so I have disabled the form and am sitting down to write the ones I promised. If you missed out, I'm sorry! I promise to host another project like this as soon as I can find more vintage postcards, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, I still send mail-art to subscribers of this blog, so if that is something that interests you, you can find more information and request mail here.
Painting this botanical series (more 
Antique botanical mail-art
Ever since I created the wild strawberry mail-art for my Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt pen-pal, Corey, I've been majorly drawn to painting antique botanical-style mail-art. I had more fun with this series than I have had in a long time. The only problem being the photographs: it would appear that I had too much coffee the morning I took them, because some of these pictures are inexcusably blurry. I didn't even notice until I came to edit them and by that time, the letters were well on their journeys around the world, so there was no way of re-taking the photographs. Anyway if you can overlook the bad photography, here's the mail.
ps. If you'd like to see the contents of my mail to my secret pen-pal, she has created a beautiful blog-post about it here. (Oh my gosh I'm so embarrassed about that revolting black bag-of-horrors that before it left Melbourne contained pretty, pressed flowers from my garden. Note to self: don't send organics in the mail in summer).
ps. have you heard about my new letter-writing and mail-art e-course?
Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. Register your place or find out more information right here.
Mid-century mail-art
Maybe there was something in the pinot noir that week but I was really feeling a mid-century vibe when I painted up all these little packages. Polariods and UFOs. Weirdly-tinted poodles and monstera deliciosa. Vintage suitcases, 60s sitcom opening credits-style cartoons, and Liza Minnelli. I don't know. But I had a lot of fun, and I hope the recipients do, too!
I couldn't believe it when Eti (the plants and books) told me she had never received a personally-written piece of mail in her whole life. What even?!? I felt terrible for her, and so happy that I could rectify that situation. (Also embarrassed, because I felt like her first letter should be SO MUCH better than the one I had written).
The letter to Eduardo (the UFO) was for a snail-mail themed film project that is going right now. The filmmakers are collecting as many letters as they possibly can to be used in the film. If you want to add your mail to the mix, get in quick: it has to reach its UK destination by 21 March (that's one week!). All the details are here if this is up your alley.
ps. have you heard about my new letter-writing and mail-art e-course?
Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. Register your place or find out more information right here.
Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt: the big reveal!
Last month I took part in an annual event organised by Fab from Snail Mail Love called the Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt. The way it works is that each of us is assigned one (secret) pen-pal. Fab provides a big list of potential things to send and we are to choose five items from her list.
We all revealed what we had received on the one day, and it was pretty amazing to see. (It also made me feel a bit self-conscious about the package that I had put together for my secret pen-pal. I mean I tried really hard and spent AGES gathering everything together and making it all... but once I saw what everyone else had done... and once I received the truly beautiful and thoughtful package that MY pen pal created for ME, I felt pretty insecure. Nervous! I hope my pen pal likes it).
If you want to take a look at some of the lovely pen-pal packages, search the hashtag #spsh2016 on Instagram.
The package I received from my secret pen-pal, who turned out to be a super-sweet woman called Joey, was gorgeous. Each item was wrapped in lovely paper with vintage maps, and hand labelled. I had some very enthusiastic and inquisitive help when it came to unwrapping everything, too. You're curious, aren't you! Here's what was inside those packages...
City Explorers' Kit
∧∧ Cute little London-themed paper things
Something not square
∧∧ Fab pen! Lovely washi-tape! Terrible photography!
Something to use while travelling
∧∧ This is the BEST. Just fill with ink or water
Postal freak's kit
∧∧ All the beautiful snail-mail ephemera! I will have to make something for Joey from this and write back to her
A gift
∧∧ Joey added an extra little gift for me, a beautiful necklace that she said reminded her of the Earth. I loved it and so did Scout. Oh BOY so did Scout! This picture is blurry but I included it because will you just look at her face? That is the face of someone who, a nanosecond ago, spotted a sparkly necklace, and is now hoping against hope that maybe just maybe she might be allowed to keep it...
Something seasonal
∧∧ Yeah, these did not last long at ALL
Do you need a reason to write a letter?
Just popping back in for a moment to let you know about an exciting, not-for-profit campaign that's running right now, to inspire people to start writing more letters. It's called Write_On, and everyone who gets involved makes a promise to write 30 letters in 30 days, during the month of April. It's a fun kind of group event, with everyone supporting each other and swapping ideas and sharing inspiration.
The idea started with Tess Darrow, founder of letterpress company Egg Press. “As the owner of a greeting-card company, I wanted to experience, first-hand, the benefits of a regular practice of writing cards,” she told me. “Letter writing is something that I enjoy, but often forget to do.”
The timeline went something like this.
April 2014: Tess set herself the challenge of writing 30 letters in 30 days, and some of her colleagues at Egg Press and at another letterpress company Hello!Lucky decided to join her. They invited the broader community to take part, and in the end they gave away 2000 free "kits" of letterpress cards to help people get started
April 2015: Word spread about Write_On and thousands more people joined in. Also joined by Sakura of America (makers of the gelly roll pen!), Tess and her friends sent out more than 5000 free letter-writing kits
April 2016: It's almost time! This year, they plan to send out 10,000 free kits to help encourage another 10,000 people to write letters to the people they love (or like or appreciate), but they need our help to make it happen.
They've launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise the money to do this, and so much more. Depending on how much money they raise, here are the very exciting goals (in ascending order):
* with $15,000 raised, they'll send out all 10,000 kits, shipped internationally if needed * with $20,000 raised, they'll also support and equip 20 retailers around the US to host letter-writing events * with $40,000 raised, they'll do all of the above, plus bring Write_On to five schools to inspire the next generation, including supplying writing materials, and * with $60,000 raised, they'll reach more schools, keep things running all year round, and even go global!
As with all these sorts of crowd-funding campaigns, there are perks for every level of support. That's everything from stationery to tote bags and, because the organisers are talented letterpress artists, everything is super beautiful. Personally I am going a little bit crazy for the letter-writing-prompts calendar I've shared below. It is such an amazing idea!
Today I ordered groceries online and then they got knocked back because there wasn't enough money in our account, which is not only embarrassing but also annoying because I really wanted to make Lebanese bread pizzas tonight. My point being I can't afford to donate yet BUT there are three days left of this fundraiser (people! only three days left!!) and assuming the pay comes in on time, I am definitely going to support this wonderful campaign that is inspiring people all over the world to pick up a pen and write to someone.
"By donating, you're contributing to our goal of shifting Write_On from a passion project to a cultural movement" they say on the campaign page.
Which is rather special, don't you think?
Image credit: all images from the Write_On Indiegogo campaign page
Mail art - 9 new ones
So far none of these packages have come back to me, so fingers crossed they made it to their destinations!
I especially enjoyed making the mail for Emmy. She is in her first year away at college and her mother asked me to write to her - Emmy's mother said the two of them read my blog, and that was just the nicest thing to hear. Such a lovely mental picture it gave me! Hugs to you Emmy, and Emmy's mum!
Lauren's and Akira's mail-art envelopes were experiments in leaving more white space (or in this case brown space) in the pictures. I kind of like them, but then there is something about covering the whole envelope with paint and incorporating the address more fully into the illustration that I do enjoy.
I actually think the mail for Barbara, that last one, is my favourite, even though no matter how hard I try, I can never draw hands. Despite the wonky hands I still feel like I got the "comfort factor" I was going for right.
Spent last night making more zines and envelopes at the Snail Mail Social Club, so I'll be making and sending more mail soon!
ps. have you heard about my new letter-writing and mail-art e-course?
Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. Register your place or find out more information right here.
Mail art - a lot of cat stamps and other lessons in mail-art
A lesson I learned over the New Year* was that when making mail, measure each package up before wrapping it in kraft paper... because if it is even a just couple of millimetres over the standard size, the price goes up. A LOT. Thankfully I had several sheets of 70c cat stamps left over from when I purchased stamps for my father's birthday invitation mail-art (because I am not the brightest and purchased enough for every person invited rather than every household. Duh).
You can't see them in these pictures, but the backs of these parcels are literally covered in cat stamps. Here is a picture that Elaine shared on her Instagram, of all the cat stamps on the back.
For only the second time ever, I had a couple of the parcels in this set returned. The castle above came back, with notes from the postie written on the left to the tune of "ADDRESS UNCLEAR. WHAT COUNTRY?" This made me groan slightly, since, if you live in Australia, an address in North Gosford, NSW, is quite evidently also in Australia. But then to be fair, I had run out of Airmail stickers when I photographed these, and later put all the stickers on at the post office. Because this was the only local letter, I also accidentally put an Airmail sticker on it too, so I guess that could have caused some confusion.
Look how pretty and clean the letter looked (above) when I first sent it to Melina! And this is what it looked like when I popped it back into the mail last week...
Then a few days later the letter to Ashley also came back. There were no marks on the envelope and the stamps hadn't been cancelled, so I don't know what was going on there. I thought maybe they didn't see the country so I drew a box around "United States" to draw attention to it, and slipped it back into the box. Time will tell if Ashley gets her mail!
Meanwhile, when I ran out of cat stamps, I busted out all the other leftover stamps I could find and made the "building blocks" mail-art below, which I think is one of my favourites, ever.
*Actually I think I might have "learned" that lesson before, and even shared it on here, but clearly nothing much sinks in. Is there a moratorium on how long you can blame "baby brain" for just being really absent-minded?
ps. have you heard about my new letter-writing and mail-art e-course?
Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. Register your place or find out more information right here.