More paper -- This time It's Asian....

Wow! You guys really like paper, don't you? So many delightful comments on my last post (about the Vintage Paper Fair).
Thanks to all of you who comment.
My whole studio looks a little bit like the VPF -- I do seem to collect old paper ephemera.
This is a little bundle of vintage Chinese paper -- calligraphy books, old booklets, a small book of Chinatown photos, odd bits and pieces -- all tied up with a red ribbon -- like a present for me.

Vintage Chinese Booklet
I have been lucky enough to have found a number of quite old booklets  -- they have lovely drawings and I love looking at the characters and wondering what they say.
I am lucky enough to have a number of Chinese friends who translate them for me.

Chinatown/Lunar New Year Zine

I love this time of year here in SF. The Lunar New Year is well celebrated here, especially in Chinatown. There is a wonderful outdoor flower market and the streets are filled with good-luck citrus and flowering plum or cherry blossoms.
I love seeing all the flowers and the big piles of orange and yellow citrus -- tangerines, pomolos, Buddha's Hands....a great time to visit SF for all you folks back east who are about to get buried in snow!
I made a little zine to celebrate.
Too bad each one can't come with a tangerine!

I always like to personalize a zine but adding rubber stamps and tape and stickers or whatever I can think of to make each copy a little unique.

Most of these Asian rubber stamps I picked up at the free table at the SF Correspondence Co-op -- lucky me!
But I did buy the take-out container stamp and the hand with chopsticks.

Some vintage greeting cards....

I also made some cards with photos I've taken (that is one at the bottom). And I picked up a stack of free postcards at the Asian Art Museum and folded them in half to make little booklets for the Year of the Ram too. (top right).

Some envelopes ready to finish up -- top one is vellum and bottom has a see-thru panel -- I love peek-a-boo envelopes, don't you?

Pink/Red Chinese enevlopes
I love using these envelopes too but I did find out the hard way I have to really tape them up because they tend to break open in transit.
Wouldn't want my zines to fall out, would I?

I also made some cards using old photos and watercoloring the card stock and envelopes...

Vintage Chinese Booklet (cover)

Collage
A pal just returned from a trip to Vietnam and brought me back a bunch of paper ephemera she found there.
My friends sure know what I like.

So, my work table is covered in reds and golds and joss paper. Zines are getting folded. Envelopes are getting labeled and stamped. The 2015 Lunar New Year stamp is about to be issued here in SF.
I have had a horrible cold for over a week and really didn't accomplish nearly as much as I wanted to but I am working on all this.

And, guess what?
I just noticed the is my 300th post! 
That is a lot of blogging. 

So, to say thanks -- or xie xie -- to you guys I will pull one name out of a hat 
and send a Lunar New Year mailing out to the lucky winner in about a week.
Leave a comment if you're interested......and I'll put your name into the hat.

Send Good Mail -- Get Good Mail

If You like Paper.....

Opps -- I did it again!
The Vintage Paper Fair rolled into Golden Gate Park this weekend and, of course, I didn't miss it!

Boxes of SNAPS for .25-cents each.

I planted myself right here and didn't leave for about two and a half hours. See that little sign in the back?
Boxes and boxes of cool postcards for only .25 cents each. Yes!

A well attended event -- lots of vintage paper lovers out there!

A whole box of first day covers from Japan. I really wanted these but they were quite a bit more than .25 cents.

Beautiful pages from old books for sale...

Vintage matchbooks

Foreign and out-of-date currency....

You can really get a lot of bang for your buck at the VPF -- they have all the high end, very collectable things you would imagine but they are loads of affordable things to amuse you as well.
This time I kept my buying to .25 cent postcards.
I was very good.
I even bought a few for pals of mine.

After all that intense browsing I had to take a break and take myself out to lunch. There are loads of great restaurants right in the same area. I went to Manna -- my favorite Korean spot -- to relax and look over my purchases.

Hummmmmm
You can see the next date for the Vintage Paper fair in San Francisco is the weekend of August 1 & 2, 2015.  Now, aren't some of you thinking of a summer vacation?
This might be a good plan.

Sometimes the backs of the postcards are as cool as the fronts.

Beautiful handwriting and lovely stamps.

 Next step is to figure out what I want to do with the postcards I bought. I have a stack of vintage LA linen cards that I will bring on my next LA trip and send out. And, some to gift, to my friends.
They are little little works of art to me.
Real photo postcards? Hand tinted cards? Exotic locations?
All that and more.
Hope you enjoy a look -- and hope I see some of you in SF at the next VPF.
Let's have lunch together!

And -- I would really enjoy hearing from you about what kinds of postcards you might be interested in collecting? I love to hear about collections people have.
My postcard collections include -- old post office cards, vintage French fantasy cards, anything with a postal theme and the cards with flowers/roses.
Plus, if I think I am going to visit a certain city or country I like to look for vintage cards from the place to either send out while traveling or use in my travel journal.
So, what do you collect?

Mail Art Meet-Up

First mail art meet-up of the new year and a brand new artistamp in my passport!

Nothing beats a nice Sunday afternoon hanging out with the mail art crowd -- doing some cutting & pasting, some  (ok, a lot) socializing and seeing some fabulous show & tell.

The fabulous Miss Red Letter Day created the atristamp and was very dedicated in sticking them in all our passports.
I'm sure you all know about her blog but just in case someone out there reading this hasn't seen it, be sure to click that link.  She is the best! She posts when her upcoming classes are
and the SF Correspondence dates -- I'm just sayin' -- in case you are going to make a trip to SF -- you are welcome to join in the mail art fun.

We like to bring some Show and Tell to each meeting for eye candy and inspiration -- Tofu brought this fabulous piece made by Tough City Writer Adrienne Mason.
The fabulous book of collages was passed around the room and appreciated by all.
The photo doesn't do it justice. An accordion book with collages on each page -- beautiful!

Another incredible piece of work by JW of San Francisco -- an entire book of hand-stamped pages -- was a gift for one of our co-op members, SW.
Now THAT is what I'd call a birthday gift. Really wonderful. 

GinaVisione brought her pen case and let us test out her very fun (cheap) fountain pen collection.
Of course I found one I want. She also told us about the website
Jet Pens
where she buys them. Check it out -- a great resource for cheap fountains.

Of course, I brought my supplies -- address book, datebook, etc -- it is hard for me to sit still without doing anything.....

We had a special guest -- a woman who works at a post office -- she is one of the good postal workers! She answered some questions for us and brought a whole stack of the USPS templates for figuring out postage. I have been asking for one of these for years.
What a treat.

I managed to make a couple of collage postcards while I was hanging out....there is always something I can find to tear up.
I was so relaxed I forgot to take photos of the swap table and the snack table! But I did partake of both.
Of course, you know me.

And in December (doesn't that seem like a long time ago?) the SF Correspondence Co-Op had our Holiday Party -- a good time was had by all.

We all brought a few pieces of mail art received and hung them up for a pop-up mail art show.

And of course, we made things. This year we made holiday cards for  kids. We are going to make valentines too....

Russian Mailman

So, a mail art meet-up is a great way to end the year and start the year -- Portland is getting it's very own mail art group. Why don't you all think about starting up a group in your town?
Trust me -- it is a whole lot of fun and you meet lovely people.
I'm hoping to get up to PDX sometime before too long to check out the group of there.
And maybe I'll see some of you at a San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op meeting in 2015.
I don't know what the Russian mailman has to do with any of this but I just like him.
*************
I'm working on a couple of zines and playing catch-up with all the mail I owe and plotting my outing to the Vintage Paper Fair next weekend.
What's going on in your mail art work?

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL