Good Things from the Mail Box

Don't you just LOVE getting mail?
I know I do. It is often a highlight of my day. But when there is NO mail.....well.....let's just say I get very crabby.
Lately my mail box hasn't been as happy as it sometimes is....
BUT
I have gotten a few beauties to share with you.

From the lovely MISS MILLICENT this cool envelope arrived recently. A red security envelope folded inside out and stitched together -- oh!
And some roses sewn on to complete whole postal beauty.

See that stitching? Miss Millicent is a whiz with a sewing machine....

DORI SINGH MAIL
Anything I get from Dori I love.....two terrific envelopes with Rolo cards inside....

DORI SINGH MAIL
These two came in another envelope.....The colors on them are more beautiful than in the photo.
My Rolodex fie is getting fat and happy.
Everything Dori makes is wonderful. Thanks, pal!

Susanna Lakner  (Planet Susannia)-- wonderful collage artist from Germany added these two beauties to my Rolodex Art Project. And a rumor has it I just might be meeting her here in San Francisco next month.

Susanna Lakner
The flip side of them....

Margarete Minar
A new member of the SF Correspondence co-op and new pal sent me three Rolodex cards tucked inside this charming little pocket....

And, these two from Margarete have stamps on them -- of course! You can check out her blog on my sidebar.

Barcode Barb
Another co-op member sent me these two Rolo cards -- with a money theme -- so cool.
Barb has been into making books and various themes with a money/banking theme and when I saw those coin stamps at ScrapSF I knew I had to get them for her...

Erica Lang
Now this was fun -- Erica contacted me and asked if I would do a swap of Rolodex Art with her -- why not? And she sent me these three lovelies for the trade.
I love the couch with the stamp "paintings" above it and the real feather glued on --
thank you Erica!

Delwen Tatton
And just today -- from Australia -- this lovely mail arrived and I got to squeeze in one last photo to show you. I love those cartoon woman with the mail comments....and those great Aussie postmarks.

I have had some pretty pathetic no mail days but when I do get mail it is
GOOD MAIL
so thanks to all of you lovelies who keep sending me such delightful mail and cheer up my mail box -- because I am kinda like those kids at the top of the post waiting to see what the mail man will bring.

I have other things to report on. Stamp bundles. Library Book Sale. Co-op meeting. Altered Passport Project.

But that's for another time.

Get any good mail lately?

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And then the sun came out

The sun came out in SF and guess what happened?
Sun prints!
Some people call them sun prints but they are really called cyanotypes. You need sun and that isn't always easy to come by in San Francisco in the summer.  I know, the tourists don't believe that either and thats why they all have to buy sweatshirts that say they love San Francisco -- because they are freezing. But I digress....

You can make cyanotypes with all sorts of things, flowers and leaves have been popular for  many, many years -- google Anna Atkins if you don't believe me.
But a lot of artists, like Linda Clark Johnson are trying out new ideas and making the old process new. Check out Linda's work on her web site and FB page and Instagram and you'll see what I mean.
Linda came down from Sacramento to give us -- Monica, Leslie, Dorothy & me -- a workshop.
When you get a group of artists together, you get art.
If you live near Sacramento, you can take a class from Linda -- highly recommended.

See that fern?

Here it is on a piece of cyanotype paper with the sun doing it's thing.
The process is a pretty simple one, coat watercolor paper with cyanotype chemicals and press between two pieces of glass or plexi, expose 10-15-20 minutes till the paper turns kinda brown, wash in water and dip in a peroxide bath and hang to dry......
That's the simple version. You can look it up if you're interested in learning more.

This is how the paper looks after exposure to the sun.

And this is how it looks after the wash.

We all tried different ideas out to get an idea of what worked and what didn't...

There was a lunch break (of course!)

A bit of hanging out in my studio and then back to work/play......

We look like we were having fun, don't we?

The next day, we trooped over to Leslie's studio and we tried out toning the cyanotypes.

We cut our least favorite prints into ATC size and we tried out a variety of different toners.

Green tea, black tea, red wine, onion skin, beets and Borax.

Look at some of the results! Pretty interesting...

So, here I am, back in the studio with my prints. What should I do with them?

I cut this print up into Rolodex cards for my Rolodex art project. Kind of nice. You can cut the prints up for ATC's or rolodex cards or collage or if you really like one, you can frame it.
I'm thinking of some pages for my altered book.
So, there you have it. Two days of cyanotypes and yesterday was the Vintage Paper Fair.
Life is good.

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Art in the Afternoon

Yesterday was a meeting of my wonderful mail art group, The SF Correspondence Co-Op.
I packed up the Rolodex Art project and took it on the road.....or should I say to the library where we had our meeting?
I put out a bunch of paper ephemera on the tables and everyone brought a glue stick and I asked my mail artist pals to make me some cards for the Rolodex Project.

They sure did! Everyone jumped and and torn and cut and pasted and made  some wonderful art cards. I love how every single card is different and has the stamp of it's maker. What a creative bunch of people.

See what I mean? They are all so different and all so great.
Thanks to all of you who made me cards -- much appreciated. 

But, you can't have all work and no play. (OK, making those cards is pretty playful but you know what I mean). We had a giant SWAP table. Since I have cleaned out my studio I had a whole lot of stuff to share...and others brought things as well...

....no one left empty-handed....

This was my haul. Ok, I know...I am not supposed to be bringing stuff  back to my studio.....but who could possibly resist old stamps in yellowed glassine envelopes? Dennison seals? Old postcards?
Well...I couldn't...

Some co-op members brought interesting things to play with, like the giant numbering stamp James brought....He brought a Ray Johnson Bunny rubber stamp too. I stamped my passport and a bunch of postcards with it...

Gregg brought the Bad Rooster, who is sitting at his table filled with tiny airmail envelopes.

And Barb made this -- it is a doll without a head...ok, she left the head at home...but I think the coolest part are all those folded security envelopes. I love the way that looks and I'd like to have a stack of them just folded and tied with string sitting on a shelf...

JU brought this -- it is a case intended for jewelry -- but....

.....she filled it with art supplies. Pretty fun.

Stamps, cookies, friends, glue sticks, Rolodex cards, swap table, artistamps....
really, what better way to spend an afternoon?
I can't think of one.
And, we get to do it all over again next month.

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And One Thing Leads to Another

Rubber Stamps from SF Scrap. Somebody stop me!

I admit it...I have a rubber stamp problem and Scrap isn't helping...

The $1book sales aren't helping my studio space either. I have SWORN OFF going. But I was at the farmers market and ...well...I had to walk by on my way to the streetcar and I just took a little look.....ok, I bought ONE book but only one and I went right home and tore it right up. Now I have 25 beautiful Chinese drawings which are perfect to use in my Chinatown Altered Book project.
One thing leads to another...

The World of Stamps is a page for my altered book .....

My pal Dori needs more pages for the book I made for her and she likes joss papers so I played around a bit one night...

And, here is what I ended up with -- like it? I hope Dori does. I actually liked it and wanted to keep it for my book. But good behavior won.

Chinese inspired book pages made me think of Chinese food....and if you like it, SF is the place to be (unless you're in China).

The clouds parted one day and I tried out a little cyanotype printing. I have some ideas for that too....if we get summer sunshine any time soon. It was 55 degrees here the other day. In July.
We really are different here in SF.

Card for my pal The Artful ReCrafter. She recently got a beautiful old six burner (yes, gas) stove and this ad made me think of her. I'm sure she'll want to make that lovely hot dog casserole.

Re-purposed card made by mail art friend Judi K. She cut up and re-worked an envelope I sent to her and sent back this card to me. I love it, especially how she cut that slit in the mail slot and stuck the little card in it. This was such fun to receive.

The Rolodex Project
The cards are coming in and I am loving each and every one. These two from the talented Connie Rose. 

HEADS
For some reason I am obsessed with cutting out all these heads from my old French and Spanish dictionaries. I can't stop. I have an Altoid tin stuffed with heads.
Why? I don't know but I am quite sure I will think of something to do with them.
Any ideas? What would you do?
I've been clearing -- and cleaning -- my studio. It was time. Those $1 books really add up. I put boxes of books out front on the sidewalk but i still have enough to fill up a brand new bookcase my sweetie installed for me.
Then, I started cleaning out the closet. 
Right now you'd never know how hard I've been working but things often get worse before they get better, right?
I hope so.
I'm getting tired of cleaning and I want to play.

When I'm done you can all come on over and we'll have an art party!

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