Ikebana Bird.

Bird, flowers, blue shadow. Floral arrangement and all photos Toile La La.

Mail Art: Altered Postcard.

Collage Mail Art - altered postcard, Toile La La.

June 2015 Mail Art - To and From.

E's altered vintage image I used to decorate 2 envelopes

Mail art from E

E's "Typewriter Heaven" - vintage typewriter image

E's mail art to me includes lots of excellent vintage stamps

my mail art to E, toile la la art and image

Toile La La mail art altered hat with veil image

Number One asleep in a too-small cubbyhole

Surprise! Number One tests her balance in a game of peekaboo.

I am a prolific mail art correspondent. Mail art is a great way to channel, combine, and share my interests in art, fashion, history, collage, and journaling.  The main recipients are my friend E - with whom I've shared correspondence off and on for many many years - and my daughter M.  I've found E particularly loves historical items of all sorts, fonts, stamps, embossed seals, and texture.  I discovered her love for texture when I incorporated stitching in a letter to E.  M likes new, different - modern, and she notices (of all things) the sound of the paper! 

In the past two years of exchange, E and I have become more elaborate in our mail creations - incorporating many found items, vintage clippings and ephemera.  Lately we've even been recycling each other's artwork.  You can see an example in the top 2 envelopes above.  

I added a monocle and chain to the eyes of a vintage man illustration E sent in a letter to me.  She made him pants of text - which I thought looked very dapper!  As he looked so elegant, I thought her man belonged on the outside of an envelope.  I created two envelopes using each half of him - and then gave him a focal point.  A vintage woman in a foundation garment is the focal point I chose for E's letter, but for M's letter I created some modern art for him to view.

Often E writes her letters to me on vintage magazine pages or other paper ephemera.  From one of those pages I clipped a woman in a 30s/40s visor hat - and to indulge my millinery inclinations, I added a red veil and a cluster of flowers.  Then I sent her back to E via envelope.

My constant companion during these creative pursuits is Number One - who distracts me by balancing on the stair rail and contributes her fur to tape, glue, paint, and paste.

Apparitions Shadows Reflections

Haunted furniture... certainly not what I sought in a secondhand bookstore, perusing the pages of an enormous book picturing over 5000 antiques.  The heavy book balanced on my knee, I paused in the "looking-glass" section.  So many of the mirrors reflected views of old-fashioned interiors - the first thing to capture my attention, but they also exuded a certain atmosphere - which perfectly clean, but inwardly dusty crackled and speckly mirrors will do.  Some mirrors seem to reflect something about to happen - or happening just out of the realm of vision... a swishing of skirts, parting of curtains, a hand reaching for books or luggage, an inspection of one's appearance.  Here, you can see them too:

Snail Mail Art from E

You've seen here frequently snail mail correspondence to and from my friend E. Ours is a never-ending quest to reveal small wonders, forgotten histories, and artistic surprises. These two letters from E are especially fantastic... I believe her Best Ever! She decorated some existing artwork and a photograph - coloring with marker, adding stitching, embossing, adding metallics - then tucked her snail mail art and her cheerful conversations into equally creative envelopes.  Have a look!

snail mail art from E, photo toile la la

snail mail

E's snail mail envelope art with metallic stamping and vintage postage

mail art photo decorated by E, toile la la blog image

vintage lady decorated by E, toile la la photo

E's mail art, toile la la blog image

E-colorized Degas print, snail mail image

Historic Moments in Knitwear: Proud Creations ad copy

knitwear of the past

For the tactile knitwear enthusiast looking for the perfect ensemble to magnify her size instantly, we offer you "Blue Lagoon" and "Throw Rug and Cheese Grater".

"Blue Lagoon":
Stunning, thick-enough-to-add-10 pounds-instantly!, tactile!... By the end of your special evening on-the-town, Blue Lagoon will have stretched its heavy yarns to pool around your slippers - living up to its name.  But that's not all!  Wait till you hand-wash it and wait weeks and weeks and weeks for it to dry...what a surprise.

"Throw Rug and Cheese Grater":
Won't your main squeeze love to cuddle you in this get-up! TRCG features both bulk and scratchy irritation in a single ensemble.  What a treat!

Nature's True Wunderkammer

"What's this under the cabinet?", He said as he tied his cravat. She clipped over gingerly in pointed little slippers, "Looks like roots". They didn't know what to do with the thing. It went well with the decor and was a Serrurier-Bovy, but One can't just allow a piece of furnishing to take up roots and go to seed.

They placed it in the woods where it thrived, flourished... from its arcs and angles foliage grew and its feet planted firmly in the earth. One day, They visited it - a picnic under its shade and noticed monarchs springing forth - up and out of its glass doors - and into the blue sky air. Another day, as She glanced into the forest, a swirling soaring shifting murmuration of birds appeared like a mirage from - She was most positive - its direction.

Nature's true Wunderkammer.

"Nature's True Wunderkammer", Toile La La quick fiction and collage artwork images

 

Subterranean Folly

Directions:  Up the hill stand directly at center beneath the dome of the folly. Jump lightly 10 times to activate the door. Enjoy your stay and make yourself at home. The stairway is low-light illuminated. Please, if you would kindly feed and water the fox as well as the tree. The cactus only requires a light misting.

"Subterranean Folly", quick fiction and collage images by Toile La La

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