Another Kind of Desktop

Budapest

I can work almost anywhere -- which is good since my studio is still all torn up. I have a plan for setting up my Gelli block in my kitchen in Saturday and letting those paints fly...or drip..or whatever.
Here are some desktops where I've worked during the last year or so....
I like the way they look.

Portland, OR

A cappuccino or coffee is always nice to have on hand. And paper ephemera. Lots of ephemera.

Prague

I actually don't pack up much to bring with me on my travels about town (or far away). I like to tear paper rather than cut and mostly I bring glue sticks and double stick tape....and madly pick up stuff as I move through the day....

Santa Barbara

St Petersburg, Russia

There wasn't as much paper around to pick up in Russia...but what I did find was super cool since I loved the way the Cyrillic writing looked.

Portland

Istanbul, Turkey

The Turkish writing is very cool too. And so was writing while listening to the Call to Prayer coming in through the open windows.....

Washington, DC

Los Angeles, CA

Palma, Italy
Sitting and writing by the fireplace in Parma was wonderful until the bug bit me!

Boston, MA

New York City

Seattle, WA

Pasadena, CA

Milan, Italy

You can always get coffee in Italy --  Grazia Dio!

Budapest, Hungary

I like taking it on the road. Packing my mail art kit is a lot more fun than packing clothes. And I love picking up every scrap of ephemera I find and tearing it up and pasting it in to my travel journals, collages and postcards.
I love the look of a happily messy desktop while on the road.

Am I alone on this?
How many of you cut and paste while traveling?
Keep a travel journal?
Make mail art?
Set up a work table in every hotel room?
Anybody taking a trip?

Tell me what your desktops look like!

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

More Projects From My Work Table

Chinatown Book
Vintage Chinese booklet, vintage envelopes, joss papers, photographs
and hand dyed ribbon -- work in progress...

I thought I'd show you a few of the projects I have finished or that I'm working on.
I love wrapping them up in boxes or with ribbons. They feel like gifts to myself when I come across them on my shelves or tucked in the closet.

Chinatown handmade book project
I've been roaming around Chinatown for years (and years) taking photos, picking up firecracker wrappings and ephemera, hunting down vintage Chinese school booklets
and putting everything in books ....

Chinatown book
Crushed juice box, photos, vintage booklets...

Chinatown book
Here's a "green" page -- Happy Earth Day today.

Boston Journal,  handmade box, nature ephemera
(2001)

Travel journal with box and leaves, pods and acorns picked up in the Boston Garden...

The box has lovely layers -- fall leaves on the bottom, then the journal and on top lots of pods and  acorns....
Opening it up and looking at all this brings back so many memories..

Turkey/Italy  Travel Journal
I keep a travel journal of some sort on every trip I take. Big or small. And I usually collage inside the journal and on pieces of watercolor too...

Turkey/Italy Journal

Collage from the Zurich airport....

Origami Folder
Folder made from Istanbul map to hold all the excess business cards, postcards, menus etc that didn't fit inside the travel journal.
I may make a box for all this to go into or just tie the whole darn thing up with a ribbon.

According to this nifty Postal Chart sent to me by Kelly P -- these smallish Chinese flash cards ( a library book sale find) are not to small to send thru the mail.
I hope that's right....Off they went!

OUTGOING MAIL
There they go now -- some mail going out.

Outgoing Photo Collage Postcard
I made up some photo collage cards with one of my favorite subjects on it.

We all want mail art!

I'm not much for posting personal things on the blog, but as President Obama said in his speech the other night "It's been a rough week".
Watching the news about the events in Boston has been very painful.
My thoughts are with  everyone in the Boston area.
And I lost someone very special to me last week and a person whom I loved very much.
Make sure you tell the people you love that you love them.
I'm grateful I had that chance and would regret it if I didn't. You never really know what is going to happen in this world so don't go to bed mad -- or something to that effect.

So, you all take care of yourselves. make lots of art, send mail, hug people you love.
And thanks to all my friends who have sent me heartfelt wishes to feel better.

Istanbul: Large and Small

Haga Sophia
In Istanbul many buildings are on a very grand scale like this.

I just realized I never posted the third post about Istanbul post offices,
so here you go---

The Blue Mosque
And like this...

PTT
The Main Post Office is quite large too..

As is the PTT MUZESI
(Postal Museum)

I appreciated this sign being in both Turkish and English.

So, what happened here? This little post office is a tiny bit pitiful. I feel sorry for the guy cooped up inside there all day long.

MEKTUP -- LETTER
This is more like it!
Just after I took this shot a guard came running up saying "No Photos".
What is it about post offices and no photos?
Wouldn't you think they'd want people to enjoy seeing the beauty of these buildings?

These old wooden cubbies are great for filling out forms or writing postcards.
And speaking of postcards, the PO was giving away delightful free postcards of Istanbul rooftops and a cup of tea. I took a few. OK, more than a few.

INSIDE THE POSTAL MUSEUM
Another very sneaky shot. This time there was a sign saying "No Photos" and a guard who had my husband's passport.
But I couldn't resist. (Maybe it's the newspaper photographer in me). This is what we call a "grab shot". In other words, not real great. I wish you could see the collection of fabulous vintage Turkish
mailboxes they had there. I especially loved the one with the Arabic writing.
At least they could have sold postcards.
I'm just glad I didn't end up in a Turkish prison... and neither did my husband...

Don't buy your stamps at the postcard shop. Go directly to the source and check out  a post office. You'll be happy you did.
I found packs of vintage Turkish stamps at a market too...

Then you can go have some lunch. Turkish soups are wonderful...
in fact, all the Turkish food we had was wonderful.
I came home and go about ten Turkish cookbooks from the library.
Bring on the meze and raki.

I really, really miss Baklava

This wraps up the travel posts (for now, anyway). Now I am back to working on my mail art projects -- Lunar New Year cards, Valentines and joss paper posts and projects. What are you working on?

Have a great weekend, you all!

                             
                                 

Temptation in Turkey

Cappuccino in Istanbul -- this does NOT look like cappuccino to me. And I am an expert
on Cappuccino....

That could be because tea is very popular in Turkey...I loved seeing those charming little tea cups everywhere...

There was pick up and delivery tea service everywhere we went. and the spice market was filled with teas. I tried pomegranate tea, rose tea, flowering jasmine and apple...
delicious! I will never give up cappuccino but an afternoon tea is quite nice too.

For me, a lot of fun of travel is just walking all over and looking at ordinary things, away from the tourist circuit...like these stationery shops.

I found some delightful notecards....

and bookmarks that look like little Turkish rugs and of course the ever-watchful
evil eye charms.

Turkish mailboxes for sale?

I believe so....and now I am wondering why I didn't buy one..
Oh yes-because I can only fit so much into my suitcase.

This looks like an Italian mailbox. In fact, it IS Italian but there is was in Istanbul, sitting proudly outside a Turkish cafe.

SPECIAL DELIVERY
I had a mail art assignment to take care of. Mail artist and SF Correspondence Co-Op member
Alice S. made a set of wonderful zines from her recent trip to
Istanbul. This guy was featured and my job was to deliver. As you can see, he was
absolutely delighted with the zines...

and the photos of himself inside. I have no Turkish and he had no English but mail art  needs no translation.

My friend Alice is a rubber stamp fanatic opps I mean fan and he made stamping motions with his hand to show he remembered Alice and her love for rubber stamps, especially this big one.
It wasn't for sale but he whipped open the door to this cabinet and --

all these were for sale. Of course I had to follow in Alice's footsteps and buy a few rubber stamps too.
That was really a fun delivery.

OK, some of you (and you know who you are) have been saying "What? No food photos??"
So, here are just a few of the many I took...don't encourage me or I may have to do a FOOD only post.
Women sitting in restaurant windows making fresh flatbreads was quite common.

So, of course, I had to try some of the bread, which just happened to be filled with two kinds of cheese and grilled...and served with the delicious manti (small Turkish ravioli).
This was really too delicious.

And did I mention the Pudding Shops? Something we don't have here in the USA.
Shops with tea and coffee and all kinds of puddings and baklava. Yes, I believe I will stop in every afternoon for a treat.

This is JUST what I need to see after all that tempting Turkish food -- I think I'll skip this.
Maybe I could just user it to weigh my mail? Or my suitcase?

I hope you aren't getting tired of the travel posts. I have been so busy trying to catch up on all my mail that I haven't even had time to photograph everything I've been sending out.
And I've been sending out A LOT.

I have one more Turkish post and then on to OUTGOING mail, incoming mail and
wouldn't you know, holiday mail. And the travel journal, photo album project and travel collages.
And more!

What are you all up to?

SEND A LETTER -- GET A LETTER