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

Mail Out!

OUTGOING MAIL

OUTGOING
I didn't get to make Halloween cards this year because of the LA & NYC travel but this was
 close -- Cinderella in a pumpkin!

OUTGOING
A peek-a-boo envelope -- a bit hard to see but there is a big cut-out there under the mailing label and a map of Canada tucked inside (to show through) - going off to Canada, of course!

OUTGOING

OUTGOING
Gotta do something with those college yearbooks. I was inspired to make a rather naughty zine for a certain someone in Australia.

OUTGOING
Some guys from Japan peeking through the vellum envelope.....going on a long trip....Japan to San Francisco to Australia?

OUTGOING

OUTGOING

OUTGOING
I love a nice batch of good mail, don't you?

OUTGOING
Another little project -- a little NYC booklet make from paper ephemera picked up in the Big Apple.
And why do they call it the Big Apple? I have no idea.

Some stickers added to add notes or lists....

A little treat for a pal going off to NYC herself...

OUTGOING
Tucked inside a vellum envelope and off to the UK.
I have noticed the old vellum envelopes I got at SCRAP are a little brittle and sometimes crack at the seams so I have been reenforcing them with clear tape.
We want the mail to go through!

OUTGOING
I should have stamped a little harder but I still like it.

OUTGOING
I guess you could say I am into vellum this week! I just love how you can see through to what is inside. I bought a pad of cool see-thru tracing paper at the art store this week. It will be fun to play with that.
And I had a major haul at SCRAP this week -- big fun! Did I mention I am doing my Xmas shopping at Scrap? And the Cavallini sale?

STATIONERY SHOP
(photo by Fred Lyon -- vintage San Francisco)

What a beauty! Wouldn't you just love to step back in time and go inside that shop? I know I would. For a little while there actually was a shop on Grant Avenue in Chinatown that was the oldest stationery shop and the owner was cleaning out the basement and putting the most amazing paper goods out on the sidewalk for sale. I made a lot of major  scores there -- onion skin paper, vintage cards and postcards, old erasers and rulers, boxes of vintage stationery, old Xmas tags......it was heaven while it lasted but the basement is now emptied and the shop sells scarves from China, not stationery.But I have a stash of stuff to sell on ETSY if I ever get my act together and open up an ETSY shop.

Things are busy around my studio -- working on a Thanksgiving card, finishing up the NYC collages and books, doing some painting and I signed up for a collage workshop next Saturday.
I'll keep you all posted.

Anybody making Thanksgiving cards?
Working on Xmas projects?
I have a few tricks up my sleeve.  

SEND GOOD MAIL & GET GOOD MAIL

Making Stuff

Oh yes, I've been busy. Besides exploring my friend's studios and going a little crazy at the Vintage Paper Fair, I am always making stuff.
These tri-fold pockets were inspired by one my mail art pal Dori Singh made for me.
They are so fun to make (and to receive). I like to fill them up with little surprises or letters.

Thank-you folder for j

Here is the folder opened up and filled with small surprises.....

....easy to do -- just either use double-sided paper or put two sheets together -- and do a tri-fold.
Then, fold up the bottom part way to make a pocket.
You can either sew the pocket closed or (as I do) use some double stick tape
and punch a hole on the front, thread some ribbon through and
fill 'er up!
Thanks for the inspiration, Dori.

Outgoing to the UK -- vellum envelope with airmail folder tucked inside.
This one did NOT make it to Alex in the UK.
I wonder what happened to it. I took it to the PO to be sure the correct postage was on it and had it hand cancelled.Very frustrating.

Little rubber stamped zine -- an edition of only six! 

But -- you can all take a look inside!

I spent one chilly, foggy SF summer day making loads of envelopes -- very fun!
The kangaroo is for Vizma in Australia (of course). I bet she's seen a real kangaroo or two.
Now she'll get a mail art one.

Support Your Local Cow -- do I have to say any more?
(to KSP)

Some summer farmers market inspired envelopes -- the giant tomato goes to
Miss Millicent.
The only thing about making loads of decorated envelopes is that you've got to actually FILL them up.
I'm working on it.

I got out the watercolors and started splashing and dripping and dabbing (and then stamping) on papers......that was fun. A lot of fun!
But waiting for everything to dry is hard on an Aries...

Allan Bealy/Pamela Gerard
Took a little time out to collaborate with AB on a collage postcard. 

Remember the postcards I was working on in the Collage post? Well, here they are all finished and going out to Jon Foster and Stan Askew....

A couple more envelopes ready to be finished up, filled and sent off into the world....
This week was all about farmers markets, summer produce and vintage kid's books...

An Empire State of Mind -- outgoing to SW

Playing with paint...
I have been having so much fun just fooling around with paints, inks and rubber stamps.
Getting your hands dirty is really fun.
And my motto is
Why Send It Plain when You Can Send It Fancy?
These sheets of lined paper just needed a little something...

It was quite entertaining to flick paint around and dribble and stamp some distress ink and generally make a (beautiful) mess. I am really getting into this...

After the paint comes the rubber stamping -- now I'm ready to write some letters to fill up all those envelopes I've been making!

A couple more envelopes....coffee inspired....

And some postcards.......Avocado cards and  a postcard I made while fooling around with paints and stencils...

Now I'm just sitting around waiting for different paints to dry.....gathering up my nerves after a 3:32AM wake-up call in the form of a 6. earthquake.
I really can live without those suckers.
We are fine here in SF except for jangled nerves but I really feel for those folks up there in Napa who really took the hit.
I guess earthquakes are the price we pay for living in one of the most wonderful places in the world.

I am happy today to be safe and work in my studio. Thanks to all of you who contacted me to ask if I was OK. Such a lovely, international mail art community.

SEND GOOD MAIL --- GET GOOD MAIL
So, what are all of you working on this week? Envelopes? Collages?Letters?
Do tell.