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.

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

To M.

Celebrating Spring, the smell of citrus zest - the excitement of things greening and growing. A collage inspired by botanical prints, secret gardens, and magically appearing doorways:

Toile La La mail art collage

In the Citrus Grove collage envelope for M, from Toile La La

citrus zest

Found a way to recycle sushi-roll ornamental grass and citrus bags. I machine-stitched this pouch which contains citrus zest and sandalwood soap shavings. It is a scent to accompany the viewing of the collage.

From E.

Loads of wonderful mail, letter after letter - creating an impressive stack: 

Mail art from E

Hand-decorated envelopes, intriguing contents - old photos, stories written or typed on recycled vintage ephemera, magazine snippets.  My opinion - good mail far surpasses most TV and most cinema available today.  E pastes pictures to her correspondence, but is also an accomplished describer-of-things - and imaginative.  Some of her recent mail is so excellent, it needs to be shared.

"Today I saw the strangest sight! A couple around 70-ish parked at the bank - both in white,black,gray argyle sweaters - both with frizzy gray hair, both combing their hair on opposite sides of the car while using the windows for a mirror. They were mirror images of each other. It was an Alice in Wonderland kind of scene - I can't imagine what their story was!"

One snowy day, two sparrows collided with themselves reflected in E's (probably-very-clean) windows - she tells me how she came to their rescue:

"I held them in my hand until one flew away but the other showed no sign of flight, so I ran around the house looking for a box to put him in - to keep in the house while he recuperated... . I kept him in the box on my lap for a while then set the box outside - slightly open - and he eventually flew away"

Throughout our correspondence, E has sent me a treasure trove of beautiful vintage stamps from her own philatelic collection, vintage photos, and many many items of ephemera - particularly handwritten letters from the 40s, many of which she found in an abandoned house on her property... marvelous to hold and read.

Alongside one vintage photo of a little boy playing on an old-fashioned metal slide-and-swingset, E wrote a bit of Lord Byron's poem: "There is a Pleasure in the pathless Woods, There is a Rapture on the Shore. There is society where None...".

I sent E a collage and some old family photos after my mother sorted a stack - kept in our family for a very long time. Some were so old and unfamiliar, none of us knew the faces.  E returned to me some of these long lost family friends/acquaintances/relatives - with a few of her own, accompanied by short fictional biographies.

One of these has a very distinct family resemblance... but I'm not revealing which.
Next to photos of a little sister watching her mother sweetly holding a toddler's hands while he learns to walk, E wrote:

"These children had a happy childhood - not easy - hard work - but they were loved and had all they needed. This is the old homeplace - family cemetery is just down the road - lots of happy ghosts about. For them death is just another part of life - not to be feared or misunderstood. Simple acceptance."

In a wee envelope, E placed these ladies for me to admire:

I love seeing their look at that particular moment preserved. They are preened, groomed and fresh, and for the most part - happy, I believe.  On one photo - the fingerprint of the photo processor is visible. These old photos made my day! I just love the coiffures, the fashion, the look of the photography, the contrast... ahhh, delightful! And something about E's sisters/friends photo (lower,center) reminds me of the lady with the collar - who I sent to E... the one she said looked like "she has a lot of mischief behind those eyes".

More contents: a secret garden and antiquarian books - E found in magazines. She loves antiquarian books and very often seems to enjoy the jackets as much as the content.

garden E sent me from a magazine

antiquarian books E liked in a magazine

From E's letters, a few more favorites: John Everett Millais' little Victorian girl - in fancy dress, someone's library cut into the shape of a skirt, a lovely stamp featuring a black man with his hair smartly parted - wearing an exquisite pairing of high collar, fat tie, and jacket...so handsome, a lady in a pompon hat admiring cross-stitch patterns for gingham (love that idea - for spring!), and a lady wearing the same style of pompon hat - posing in a charming family photo with her nice-looking husband and little son. Oh, and look at that snippet of fabric with the blanket-stitching next to Mr. Stamp. I love the texture of the stitching and the grain of the linen/hand-loomed fabric.

someone's library E cut as the shape of a skirt

pompon hat, cross-stitched gingham

pompon hat

Putti Mail Art.

With access to lots of angels lately via vintage postcards and old art book colourplates, I decided to create a ceiling fresco envelope.  The image appears as the flaps are opened to reveal the envelope content.  These putti, amorini, and cupids came from various works, but the inspiration was Andrea Mantegna's ceiling oculus in the Camera degli Sposi of the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, Italy.

My favorite putti of all time are those sketched in so many of Bebe Berard's fashion and theatre artwork.  Bebe's usually consist of winged heads - so I added one of those just for Bebe.  

The moon was full earlier this week, so perhaps that was a bit of inspiration for the oculus.  The moon so mesmerized me with its glowing brightness, I ventured outside in freezing weather to snap its portrait.

Putti envelope - Toile La La

Mantegna, Berard, and moon inspiration - Toile La La

Photo portrait of February 2015 moon - Toile La La

Artsy Correspondence - Origami Envelopes.

Write a letter, then fold it here and there to envelop itself... a 2-in-1 deal - like shampoo with conditioner or rain jackets that fold into their own hood. I love practical things of this sort. Generally, in snail-mailing - I decorate mainly the envelope. Sometimes I stitch it, sometimes I collage it, sometimes I paint it... but this is the first time I've tried something like this. 

Recently, before leaving for a trip with my husband, I mailed a bundle of 3 letters to my friend E - and I decorated them as mentioned above - you can see them:

Mail Art - Toile La La... correspondence to E.

During our trip, we stopped by two other friends' house - and serendipitously... while the men discussed track and field events, my friend J (who is a school teacher) decided to teach me some envelope techniques - to my delight!  Having taught school for so many years - and having that special talent it takes to spot what brings out the best in a student, J must have seen something shining from within me which announced, "I love art and I love mail and love combining the two!" I have never discussed mail with J. How did she know... . For me, this was extremely fun. J taught me 2 envelope techniques and also a box-folding technique. I photographed the steps for the envelopes, but my mental circuitry began to overload during box-folding - and even though I completed a wee box, it was too much to fold and photograph simultaneously - so I just photographed J's box. It's made from paper she recycled from a newsletter or something. She had pack-ratted some wonderful paper and had a big roll of paper which was metallic on one side and tan on the reverse.  And she gave me some recycled piece of blue paper with a maze, which I turned into an envelope for her, stitching my way through the maze.  

Upon returning from the trip, I was in mail-lover's heaven!  Waiting for me were 3 letters from friend E, and also a collage kit package I ordered from Kathleen Sawyer's the back of the boat shop at Etsy.  Kathleen tucked several vintage postcards into the collage kit.  I used one from Musee du Luxembourg to create a collage for E.  But, below you will see just a tiny snippet from another vintage postcard - which I pasted into a collage for friend J to use as a bookmark.  You'll notice 3 little people, who until last night, were stuck in time - in a world of faded paper printed in sepia tone - viewing the facade of the Chateau de Versailles.  I transported them to a lush green landscape and a blue sky with fresh air.  You can see the other collage postcard - for E - here at Art Fashion Creation, and there's a link to Sawyer's the back of the boat there too.

Here, we just took plain 8.5x11 sheets of paper and folded them - without measuring.  You'll see in the third and fourth photos our envelopes side by side and they aren't exactly alike.  You just eyeball the folding.  The most important thing is that the little point be left to tuck over, which secures the envelope, and to which you stick the stamp.  If you decide to try this, remember you can write your letter on the same piece of paper! Also, it's a bit of a puzzle - and exercise - for your brain to follow these photos... keep in mind there is some flipping and rotating of the paper that I did not photograph.

Then, J showed me this nice, lightweight box she made from recycled paper - and it's a football crowd scene... something I would never ever (really, ever!) imagine to be a thing of beauty, but this box is truly pretty: )

J's box with a crowd scene that looks like pointillisme.

Here are J's hands showing me how to magically produce a square envelope using 4 circles:

I am going to recycle a cereal box or something and create a template for this envelope.

The tan paper above has a silver metallic flip side. Using the metallic envelope I made with J, I lined another envelope.  However, this is the type of envelope also - which offers a surface for writing AND can also envelop itself.  Following, you'll see that I stitched the a blue envelope to the metallic one.  The outer edges of the circles fold inward to form flaps, which are then sealed with a bit of tape or sticker or address label.  You'll also see the collage bookmark I made for J - using snippets culled from various magazines and brochures, and the people transported from the postcard I purchased at Kathleen Sawyer's the back of the boat Etsy shop. 

Photo and stitched envelope, Toile La La.

Toile La La collage bookmark for J.

Zoom - in, Toile La La collage bookmark.