This and That...

Ex Postal Facto passbook production line at SF Center for the Book on Saturday, February 1.
Yesterday the SF Correspondence Co-Op joined forces in cutting, folding, punching, sewing, dating and stamping the passports for the upcoming XPF.
And when we all get together it's always a lot of fun.

300 passports later.....and we're done...

No cookies this time -- we wouldn't want to smudge up those beautiful passports -- but we did get the opportunity to buy an XPF rubber stamp and see the cool postcard for the show.
And we got to preview the catalog/book for the mail art show.
You are going to want that catalog if you like mail art!

BOOT SALE
And outside the SFCB one of our members set up a trunk sale or a boot sale on the hood of her car. She was selling all postal memorabilia -- including typewriters, USPS lunch box, postal themed fabric, tiny UK metal PO Boxes......
Pretty cool sale, Anna! My wallet is lighter now.

I wanted this -- but I resisted. If anyone wants to send me one....

POST OFFICE GAME
I resisted this too. I surprise myself sometimes...

That was the fun stuff...now this is the not so fun stuff....I had to empty EVERYTHING out of my studio so we can paint it and sand the floor.
I am in total chaos, working out of boxes and feeling displaced.
All for a good cause though.

My husband set me up with a temporary work space in the studio kitchen. Bless him! But he knows it was for his own good -- I would be going absolutely crazy without a spot to work on my projects.
Like that ancient 50's metal sink?
It is nice to have a window to look at while working.

At least it was easy to move these from one room to another so my stamps and washi tape are
 close by.

Working on some more Stamp Head ATC's. I am getting the hang of it more now and they really are fun. But I am finding there are almost no stamps with children's faces on them and I need some.

MAIL ART KIT ZINE
One good thing that came out of emptying out my studio is that I finally found the envelope containing the submission for the call-for-entries I had way back on October 2011 for
What's In Your Mail Art Kit?
I have been looking for them for ages and found them behind a bookcase. I immediately got busy and made the zine.
The zine has been mailed out to those who submitted entries and there will be more about it -- and mail art kits -- in an upcoming post.

CHINATOWN
Next stop -- Chinatown for the Lunar New Year Flower Market (and lunch, of course).
Will be reporting on the paper shops there soon too. It isn't always so busy on Grant Avenue. The street was closed for the flower market (as it will be for the Parade).

There is always a lot to enjoy looking at in Chinatown -- especially at Lunar New Year.
And if you are coming to town for XPF - the famous Parade will be Saturday, February  15.
I'm just sayin'......

OUTGOING

I've been busy!! Helping out with the XPF passports, moving boxes, trying to find stuff in the studio, wandering through Chinatown, sending mail, making zines, having lunch...and there is Valentine's Day coming up too.

What are you all doing these days?

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL!!!

Mail Art Meet-up!

Things have been busy around here -- yesterday was our monthly mail art meeting of the
San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op.
And we had a job to do.....

We agreed to work on Tofu's Hide Art in a Book Project
and make small piece of art to send out into the world asking people to hide the art inside a book.
That's Tofu on the left-hand side in front. He comes up with the best ideas.

We all brought ideas and supplies and ephemera and got down to work.

No food or drink in this library conference room -- made it a little easier to concentrate -- but maybe not quite as much fun. We all like our snacks and treats.

A lovely surprise when Dori dropped in. She is visiting from Southern California and has been trading mail with GinaVisione in our group and commenting on my mail art FaceBook page so it was  really fun to meet her.
And I brought Millicent's fabulous hand sewn book ( a birthday present for me!) which Dori is holding -- and as it turn out, Dori and Millicent also trade mail art.
Small World!
Karen's Mail Me Art blog
is also something many of us have in common.

This wonderful work was made by Dori -- who just dropped in to the meeting with no idea of the project we were working on. I think she certainly caught on very quickly,
don't you?

Artistamps by Maureen and cool passport cover too.....

Maureen was busy pasting the stamps into our passports and signing and dating them.
This month's stamp was a beauty! Thanks, Maureen.

My supplies -- My idea for hiding art in book was to use some old library catalog cards and some of the "Due Date" stamps in collages....you know...book art....(thanks for the supplies Kelly P and Jennifer U).

Here are some of my little finished collages. I will put them in glassine envelopes and send them out and ask that they get put into books to be found later on.

Anyone want one? Leave me a comment if you do and I will send them out until I run out.
If you like what you see, you can make some mail to hide in a book too.

Sally W is one of my favorite artists and she brought one very large sheet of joss paper and worked on it....

Then she cut it up into small pieces for the project....
I love how everyone's work is completely different. We set our pieces out and all walked around the table to see what each other made and it was remarkable how different all the art work was.
I wish I could show you everything.

                                                    This Just In -- Update on Tofu's Blog

Besides the Co-Op meeting, there was also the SF Library Big Book sale and oops I did it again and bought more flash cards to play with as well as some books to (gasp) tear up for collage.
I can't help myself.

And then there was the birthday festival!
I may be just a little spoiled but we don't need to talk about that. I took photos of the projects I have been working on in my studio since I got back from my trip but this post about the co-op meeting ended up so long i think I will save them for another post.
I'll show you next time....
Now get busy and make some mail art!

Let me know if you want to hide some art in a book.