Things I Made

It is a cold, dark and rainy day in the new year now (which I love) and Santa has delivered all his presents -- and mine too -- so I can show you some things I made for  some pals (other than those altered Altoid tins).
I got some great Cavallini paper at the sale and I especially loved the typewriter keys paper.
(You know how I love typewriters)
So, I folded some of my large origami six pocket folders and then I "lined" the unprinted parts of the folder with pages from the Gregg Typing book.

A whole lot of my special mail art pals also like typewriters so I decided to whip out a few....they are so handy to have with six pockets for stashing papers and ephemera.

In the same theme, a little Gregg shorthand/typing HS class collage  went in to one of those pockets of one of the folders.

Pages for Dori's Altered Book
I got busy and made some more pages for my pal Dori to add to the altered book I made her last  year....and I had to put them in something so they slipped perfectly into the pockets of an origami folder...

I used a vintage envelope to make a pocket on this page and put in a stamp collaged postcard.

I also scored sheets of postage stamp papers at Cavallini and made a few stamp folders too.
You KNOW my friends like stamps.
And, I used pages from an old stamp album as liners over the plain paper sections....
You can never have too many postage stamps!

Here's an open folder -- what treasures did I tuck inside? Vintage stationery? Vintage cards?

A typewriter origami folder with a sheet of vintage Photography stamps tucked inside for Monica the Artful Recrafter (who, in another life, was and still is a professional photographer).

A Mail Art Pouch for my pal The Artful Recrafter! An oversize, heavy canvas one  -- pretty cool.
Before you ask, I found it on Amazon....it is larger than it looks in this photo...

These six pocket folders are so fun to make -- and so useful.If you don't have access to the wonderful Cavallini sale to get the papers cheap, you can use large maps or maybe brown, heavy Kraft paper that you rubber stamp....
Where there's a will there's a way.
I sure hope my friends liked the presents.

So, there you have it -- Altoid Altoid tins (previous post), large origami folders, mail art pouches, vintage postage....I love a handmade Christmas....
and my friends do too. I received some of the most wonderful and amazing handmade Holiday gifts from my incredibly talented friends. I'll show you some in a post soon.
I love a Handmade Holiday.
What did you make this year? I could use some more ideas of things to make for next year so do tell.

I am starting off the New Year in my studio -- I started the 2017 Rolodex Card a Day project and I've been working on my planners and having a good time tearing and pasting...
Hope you are able to do some of the same.
Happy 2017!!!! SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL!!!!

Oh Hell Ya!

You get invited to an all day art field trip and what are you going to say?
Hell ya!

San Francisco-to-Sacramento
Chico-to-Sacramento
Davis/Sacramento-to-Sacramento

Cars of artists all arriving at the same place at the same time. Yes, you can count me in.
This group of women have been meeting once a year for years and many are old friends who went to school together.
I was honored to be invited along.
Thanks to all the lovely women I met who made me feel welcome even though it was my first time with the group.
I hope it won't be the last.

RAFT
First stop - RAFT in Sacramento (Resource Area for Teaching)

My first visit to RAFT. A little like our beloved SF Scrap. A resource for teachers (and a few artists thrown into the mix too).
I managed to find a few things. Mailing envelopes are certainly always useful.

Teachers like stickers.

Lots to look at with thoughts of creative reuse.

PANAMA FACTORY GALLERY
Next stop - Grand opening of the Panama Factory Gallery.
Artist studios in a fabulous old pottery making building which still has a giant (walk-in size) kiln.
Panama Pottery
4421 24th Street, Sacramento CA
I recommend a stop if you are in the area. Very interesting place to explore.

Inside Panama Pottery -- lots to see!

LUNCH
Next Stop - lunch! Of course when you get about twenty artists together you've got to have lunch.
And amazingly we found a restaurant with a big enough table to all sit together.

AFTER LUNCH
After lunch there was an afternoon of talking, snacking, sharing, show & tell and art demos.
My pal Monica is on the left and she is showing an assortment of little books she makes in her workshops.

All sorts of origami folded booklets and envelopes......everyone wanted to sign up for a workshop from her.

Another artist, Linda Clark Johnson, brought a box of her beautiful cards and let everyone take one. Kim brought her wonderful BE KIND stickers.
Read about her Be Kind Project by clicking here.

Cyanotypes in the making.....
At lunchtime we also saw a show of wonderful cyanotype collages by
linda clark johnson
You can see some by clicking he link above. Linda showed us all how to make ATC sized cyanotypes by laying leaves on the coated paper and leaving them out in the sun.

Here she is washing the them after they are finished being exposed to the light.

I love the blue color and now I am excited to get busy making some cyanotypes of my own.
But I wonder if we actually have enough sun here in SF to do it...better not try it on a foggy day.

There was also a demo on painting tee shirts....

I missed out on that one but the tee shirts sure came out cool....

More show-and-tell -- origami this time.

The whole afternoon just flew by!

There was still time for a piece of cheesecake before everyone hit the road.
Two hours home to SF and two hours to Chico.
Sacramento was a great place to all meet up and share some art and fun.
What a wonderful tradition this is -- friends and artists meeting once a year for a day dedicated to
looking at, talking about, showing
ART.
I wish they would all make a trip to San Francisco sometime!

Special thanks to Monica, for inviting me and Melissa for hosting everyone in her house.

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.

A Quick One!

SWEET!
Outgoing for The Elevated Envelope swap.
I had fun doing this swap - making envelopes from vintage cookbook pages
of sweets.

Check out Tara's blog for info about the swap--
The Elevated Envelope

This is the second time I've done this and it is a whole lot of fun.

Tucking little surprises inside......can't tell you everything or I will ruin the surprise.

OUTGOING
Lemon meringue pie, ice cream floats, cookies and jello envelopes going out....

OUTGOING
Some more outgoing, including the hamburger cookies to the kids at The Beam Camp
in New Hampshire.
Hope those cookies didn't melt in that heat you have going on back there..

Wrapped Presents
These aren't mail art but given my love of paper and cleverness
and great things to look at I thought I'd show you these lovely presents wrapped by J.U.
in in SF.
These are so pretty I'd hate to unwrap them (but I would!)

Envelope Cookies!
All that work on the Sweet Swap makes me think of cookies.
Sally and Kirsten's cookies...

Library Pocket
Made a few library pockets to tuck small things into like Jennifer's artistamps

Origami
My son made a bunch of these two-toned little origami folders. His idea was to
put stamps inside but they are a bit small for that.
We'll think of something!

Antiques
Summer is such a great time to travel around the Bay Area and browse...
maybe pick up some paper ephemera to play with....

Speaking of that, this coming weekend, August 4&5 is the Vintage Paper Fair here
in San Francisco -- maybe I will see you there!

And be sure to check out the Felt and Wire blog on Friday
for a post about the
SF CORRESPONDENCE CO-OP!
With some photos by me.

See you.