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 They Said It Couldn't Be Done.....

I wondered if I'd ever see the top of my work table again......

Things have been pretty messy here in my studio. Trips to the $1 library book sales and to Scrap have left me with stacks of books piled up on the floor and boxes of rubber stamps...
but really, enough was enough...
This is where the books were stacked up on the floor...

And look at them now! I sorted and tossed,  put boxes of books out front on the sidewalk where they were scooped by by passers-by. And I still have all these beauties -- loads of French dictionaries, lots of Atlases, typing manuals, Chinese and Japanese dictionaries and books, medical books, books in Russian and all kinds of other languages....
I think I still have plenty to play with -- and now they are all lovely and organized.

Finally got a nice spot to put my beautiful Japanese boxes. They are filled with paper treasures.

Vintage Japanese calligraphy

I am really enjoying being in my studio more now that I've picked it up and organized things.
And, my friends can come over now too.
You know who you are.
You're all invited to come and play. Type on the typewriters, stamp with rubber stamps....
I love company.

I even found things I forgot I had - like this old, blue metal box - perfect for my collection of vintage daters and some paints.

I still have some stacks of things...

The Rolodex Files

Two of the (Five) Typewriters

I even tackled the big closet! It is looking pretty good, don't you think?
I have been thinking of opening my own Esty shop but I see a lot of folks sell directly on Instagram and I am thinking that might be a lot easier..

My foreign language flasg card collection from all those library book sales...

Come on over and I'll make you a cappuccino and you can read....

The other room....yup...my studio is big! This is the room in the back and I cleaned that one up too.
How good am I?

Cappuccino Break
I think I deserved a cappuccino break after all that cleaning. I'm not even finished but I have the worst of it over with. Unfortunately I did fill up a cardboard box with STUFF I didn't know what to do with and now I have to figure that out. And I have two giant shopping bags filled up with free stuff for the SF Correspondence Co-Op swap table this coming Sunday.

Now I can get back to the art business -- I have so many projects going on -- altered books, travel journal prep, altered passports...on and on....and mail art....
is it any wonder things can get messy?

The Vintage Paper Fair is coming right up. Need I say more? You KNOW there will be vintage paper showing up here in the studio.....the only question is how much?

So, I'm back to work and I'd love to hear from all of you out there. Hope you enjoyed the cyber-visit and I also hope some of you will come over for a real visit soon.
We can make things and have show-and-tell and drink cappuccino. It's only 61' in SF and if you want to cool off, come over!

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MAKE THINGS!

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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Let's Make an Origami Wallet

ORIGAMI WALLETS
(NYC City Bakery flyer with NYC ephemera tucked inside)

Origami wallets are so fast and easy to make -- and fun to fill up and mail.
It really takes only four easy steps to make a wallet and I can whip them out in a minute.
Want to see?

STEP ONE
Take a sheet of double sided paper (maps, pages torn from an Atlas, magazine pages, menu, flyers).
Look it over and place the side you want on the outside of the wallet  FACE UP.

Fold the TOP of the paper down about 3/4-1" like this.
AND FLIP THE PAPER OVER
with the folded part on the top face down (as seen below)

STEP TWO
Then, fold each of the (short sides) about 3/4" like this. Press them down with a bone folder.

Now your paper looks like this (only with the sides pressed down)

STEP THREE
Now (fun part) fold the top down a bit less than halfway like this.(That very first fold you made at the top will be showing).  This will become the top sleeve in your wallet.

STEP FOUR

Now you will fold the paper up from the bottom to make the bottom sleeve like this.
You want to tuck that top corner right in to that bottom corner there on the right side....and then tuck it the same way on the left side, which will create the bottom sleeve.

DETAIL (Photo MONICA LEE)

See? Tuck the TOP (blue) into the bottom (Black)

DETAIL (PHOTO MONICA LEE)
**I hope this doesn't confuse you -- the wallet is flipped in these two photos. Remember you are tucking the TOP corners into the bottom...the black is the bottom here and see who the top corner is getting tucked in to it?)**

And there you are -- see the two sleeves? If you do it wrong you won't have two sleeves so just try it again.

Now your wallet looks like this.....
Fold it in half and you are done.

Origami wallet
It looks harder here than it actually is. Once you get it, you will be making them so fast you won't believe it....

By now you all know I can't leave things alone so I had to add some washi tape and dots and a cut-out from an old dictionary.....

And, of course, you can't send someone an empty wallet, can you?

Wallet from a flyer I picked up at the library around San Francisco...

Atlas page wallets

You can make origami wallets when you travel and tuck in business cards and souvenirs  from your trip. Make one with a flyer from your home town for a friend who is coming to visit...or use menus or atlas  pages or anything else you might think up...
it's fun and it is creative re-use.

I have had this ready for a long time but didn't post it since I couldn't be sure the instructions were clear enough. They seem clear to me but I already know how to make the origami wallets so what do I know? Let me know if you figure it it (I hope so!). They are really fun.
Hope you all (in the USA) enjoyed your holiday yesterday -- BBQ and fireworks and heat. It was a chilly 60 degrees here in SF.

Speaking of that, check out my favorite creative re-user, Monica at
The ArtFul ReCrafter
to see what origami tutorial she has for you!

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