Mailart 365 has moved

Since I've been in Hanoi, I've been rather paranoid about post not arriving at it's destination as I've heard lots of stories about post going missing. However, we've been quite lucky and all of the post that we've sent since we got to Vietnam has arrived at it's destination, albeit slowly.

Because of the distance and the fragile nature of some of our pieces, we've taken to sending a lot of our post in envelopes. Whenever I put a piece in an envelope however, I always feel that there's something taken away, and I've taken to illustrating the envelopes too. I was particularly pleased with my last piece as the combination of envelope and contents really matched well, so I wanted to do another envelope/contents matchup.

This time, the piece inside was made a LONG time ago. I can actually pinpoint exactly when it was made, December 11, 2010 right at the start of the mailart 365 project! This piece, Zen Pond, was meant to go out with a quilled flower by Elena.


However, Elena and I wondered how we were going to post the 3D water lily flower and ended up not sending it at all. It remained on the outbox pile for years and we ended up having to pack it in our suitcase to bring it to Vietnam with us in order to finish it. The waterlilly stayed at home.

I needed a suitable envelope as the pond is tissue paper and paint, so I got out my trusty Sharpie markers and set about making one and the envelope is todays mailart.

It's actually changed it's destination as well, as I had already written the address when I started drawing.


Here are the envelope and contents side by side

Created for a watercolor doodle postcard swap.

I didn't start out painting fish, I swear!

Created for a watercolor doodle postcard swap.

I didn't start out painting fish, I swear!

Created for a watercolor doodle postcard swap.

I didn't start out painting fish, I swear!

This one went off to Punwit because I was soooo behind in answering his card. Dontcha figure, he's already replied...now I'm still behind!

Acrylic painted cereal box, fish and tankard from discarded magazines, instructions from a chinese food take-out container.

Created for the everyday ephemera swap on swapbot. I didn't really have a plan until I spotted a magazine ad with a tree...Voila! Inspiration!

I had to make it big to use a bunch of receipts as background. The tree is Prismacolor marker and the ephemeral leaves are from food packaging, losing lottery tickets, take-out menus, claim forms from work, and junk mail.

Via Flickr:
Created for a swapbot swap for the Cut+Paste group of bits and pieces.

An UNO card box, vintage dictionary page, awesome crocodile wrapping paper, 1940's encyclopedia, ocean book page, paper napkin, and of course, fish cut from a discarded aquarium book.

Yes, all of those bits were sitting right on top of my workspace...

Via Flickr:
Created for a mailart swap on swapbot of decorated envelopes.

Dictionary page, map bit, clipart hand, crocodile wrapping paper, paper napkin, stamp selvedge, vintage stamps, bit of notepaper, starfish from a discarded ocean life book.

Via Flickr:
Created for a mailart swap on swapbot of decorated envelopes.

Vintage book pages, deli number, fortune, paper napkin, fish from a discarded ocean life book.

Via Flickr:
My "under the sea" envelope for a mailart group swap on swapbot.

Via Flickr:
My "under the sea" envelope for a mailart group swap on swapbot.

Made from the usual selection of magazine cuttings and some odd bits and pieces lying around, e.g. customs label, fish stamp, Musee de la Poste ticket from Paris, stamp book remnants, cat rubber stamp, so like Team GB, one day you will.....

a) win a gold medal
b) finish this 365 challenge
c) become a famous mailart celebrity!

Answers on a postcard to....!

Via Flickr:
This was my 10th and last Round Robin Zine to work in. It has taken us over a year, but the swap is finally winding down.

The prompt for this one was "an animal and a quote". My favorite fish quote is "Only Dead Fish Swim with The Current".

Vintage dictionary page, my quote in the sand printed on sticker stock..and a fish.. :)

#2 out of 8 pieces made in Paris, only 20 to go in the main 365 count!