The returns are coming in fast:

On Wednesday, i received Dr Arcane’s artistic license.

On Thursday, a mailbox full! Cascadia Artpost’s celebration of the past year’s creations, Carla Cryptic’s observation of dual anniversaries, Pine Cone Island’s collection, and Peggy’s card.

And On Friday, postcards from Inka Isles and Ballynafae!

(Reports so far that mine have been received by Isle of Rand and Arnoldia/Pondidia.)

On Monday, I received a wonderful shipment of yarn and roving from Brown Sheep Wool Company via Eliza of Modern Gypsy. I’ll get the yarn logged in the yarn palette sooner or later: three bundles of washable wool in some natural colors that i can make critter dolls out of for drooly babies. And the incredibly soft wonderful dreamy roving (wow, i can understand the spinning addiction now) is to stuff the dolls.

Yesterday, i received a return on the collage packs: Penster made two red and black ATC in response. She mailed them in a fun decorated envelope — hmm, little grey kitties? And “Proudly Made in Canada” — and a neat ATC envelope. I’m not sure what template she used, but this one looks useful.

I bet cereal bag liners would make good material for such envelopes!

Diddling

On Saturday i ended up making a candle from candle ends (which had been sitting around my desk for well over a year). I used a soda bottle as a mold, and it worked out nicely. There are the odd feet to consider , but they’re fine for my purposes. (I’ll probably keep this candle in the hearth.)

Yesterday I came home to a Levenger catalog and noted again the little 3×5 card file folders. More than a dollar each. I cut down a purple file folder to two 3×5 file folders. I have a corner rounder, but the diameter of the rounder is a little large. While i was using the cutter, i finished cutting down the 8×5 cards to more 3×5 s.

That meant i had a stack of 2×5 left over. I decided to perforate the tops of the cards with the cutter and bind them into little notebooks, using the left over file folder material as the cover.

I could swear i’d linked to a perfect binding tutorial, but i can’t find it this morning. Last night i didn’t consult the tutorial but my memory of it. I used inappropriate glue, too. I don’t think i could sell or give these away, knowing that the glue will likely not hold up under wear. It serves to keep the strips around in a convenient form. An experiment. We’ll see where it leads.

Mail Art

I did get my 7th anniversary artistamp mailing out the door on the right day, after almost forgetting. Sixteen out of the twenty MA2006.02.01.xx have been posted. I made extra to send to other mail artists or friends and faily, and i’ll continue with that. I continue to be appalled i forgot to give the stamps a denomination, and that i had such a terrible misspelling. Argh.

Dear Mailart Friends,
This Grey Cat has been [making] artistamps for not quite a year now. Last summer I surprised myself with the joy of creating, and I haven’t stopped since. I find I am often a lurker in online venues, and I do tend to spread myself a little thin. I am unlikely to make a name for myself in any “circle” because I often wander off and try something new. At the turn of the year, i became delighted with crochet, and now I’m about to venture into the digital mapping world to learn GIS and how to use a GPS. And, oh, yes, I became a streamkeeper in October!
This coming Artistamp year brings a great deal of uncertainty: the company I work for is merging with a much larger one and I will be out, sometime. It’s likely I’ll be there through the end of 2006, but what will I be doing for AML anniversary number eight?

The trifolds have a hand doodled and scanned design, augmented with images of GreyBeard and Mr M that have been used on artistamps. I’ve made a set of cork leaf stamps to add color to a doodled tree, and i made a cancel stamp from a champaign cork, a circled 7. I’ll print out an additional set of meyer lemon stamps for the “bonus” ATC, and i wrote a brief letter.

I suppose I’ll be addressing them over the week — and I made a few additional to send out to a few mail artists to whom i “owe” mail.

* “LAUGHING & SMILING FOR PEACE” …Free size and medium as usual…. Deadline is April Fools Day 2007…. Guido Vermeulen, Vincottestreet 81, B-1030 Brussels, BELGIUM. In IUOMA@yahoogroups, 2006-06-06.

* Just Imagine…(a world without Cancer), fundraiser, All received postcards will be displayed on this website and viewed by approximately 3,000 visitors during the 2006 Deer Trail Studio Tour weekend. (September 30th &
October 1st, 2006). In IUOMA@yahoogroups 2006-06-12.

* Swap box round robin LJ 2006-06-18, sent email indicating interest.

√ 7th Anniversary of Artistamp Mailing List (AML). Post the fourty or so mailings on June 5. These went out as MA2006.02.

* Flash fiction at 365 Tomorrows. From their site.

* http://www.geocities.com/lpmcdg/atc.html: 10 artistamps or ATC, saw in artistamp@yahoogroup 2006-01-08

* http://www.geocities.com/beinanhai2003/projectrolodex.html: rolodex project, saw in artistamp@yahoogroup 2006-01-08

* Positively Postal UK: mail art please! saw in IUOMA@yahoogroup 2006-01-30

* Carla Cryptic, Jenny Hunter Groat, and Ben Mahmoud because of continued heartfelt and thoughtful correspondence in artistamp@yahoogroup around 2006-01-30

* 9 Artistamp ATC monthly swap: Sponsored by Renmeleon, register by the 1st of the month, postmark by the 10th of the month, include three 39 cent US postage stamps or $2.00 in with your cards for returns. In non_cents 2006-02-03

* CD Postcards: sponsored by Serendipityart. Ongoing. In IUOMA@yahoogroups 2006-02-17.

* photocopychunky: sponsored by Nicci. RSS feed 2006-02-13. I did a little work with this, but was too busy around the deadline.

* “Petroleum” theme Stamp Art show: Sponsored by South Seattle Community College. Entries must arrive by May 1, 2006 “Since petroleum is of central concern to the global economy and environment, we have attracted entries worldwide. Catalogue to all participants in June 2006. In Artistamp@yahoogroups 2006-02-04 ) (Andrei Molodkin works in crude oil)

* Pet Stamp Swap, by cynthia of artistamps.com via . Sign up by February 7, 2006. Send a stamp to each participant by 1 March. Saw in artistamp@yahoogroup 2006-01-10 Too many commitments

* 39 Cents and Rising: What is the Mail Worth to You?, from LJ user ruined_map in LJ community mailart. Postcards accepted by 1 May.

I also keep track of calls separately last year. This made sense as a way to keep on top of responsibilities. I’ll do the same this year. There will be a project ID if the call is for something other than a coded project and it requires a commitment to participate (Most nervousness projects will be ID’ed).

Mail Art

This year, all mail art will be catalogued with “MA2006.[Code].[Sequence].[Edition]”

“Code” will be used occasionally for particular projects, particularly multi-month projects or themed development that may go through different formats. Code is not required.

“Sequence” enumerates projects in the year unless otherwise defined by the presence of a “Code.”

“Edition” is a alphabetic mark to distinguish replicated versions and may be also noted as a proof.

I’m not sure how to track image elements that become aspects of other works or small works that then get folded into other works. I think about the colorfly combination i came up with late last summer: The postcard required a artistamp that then was used elsewhere. I used variations of the image duplicated on different media for ATC and greeting notes. Would i have had the sense to code all of the pieces colorfly at the beginning? Maybe.

Mail Art Coded Projects

BayATC: revisit of the series i clumsily started in 2004 with a digital photo of the Stevens Creek transition zone and notes about observations of the creek area. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the date in “yy-mm-dd” form.

CBTI: See Chunky Books Monthly Tip-In Swap & this blog entry. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the three letter standard abbreviation for the month, and “edition” will number 1-5 of the unique pages.

MCM: photo series. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the date in “yy-mm-dd” form. There may be edition numbers.

OAP: See Omnibus Artistamps Project at Yahoo Groups. & this blog entry. [Update: 2006-04-15 The project organizer has had some misfortune and is not able to continue work at this time.] Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the three letter standard abbreviation for the month, and “edition” will number any variations of use of the image with the first edition the one submitted to the omnibus project. I can’t imagine having any more time for any other commemorative stamp designs this year, but i may do another set of definitives in the summer and retire the Mr M series.

Other Mail Art Projects

MA2006.01: photocopychunky: sponsored by Nicci. RSS feed 2006-02-13. Never committed to participation although i did do a little starting work.
MA2006.02: 7th Anniversary of Artistamp Mailing List (AML). Post the fourty or so mailings on June 5. Signed up with eepy on 2006-04-29
MA2006.03: Artist Stamp Deco for Rebecca at Nervousness 2006-04-30 “The deco is going out MONDAY MAY 1, 2006.” Eraserquee first. 2006-04-30
MA2006.04: Américas Altered Datebook

Crochet

CR2006.01: bag
CR2006.02: viscose scarf for Christine
CR2006.03: cat afghan
CR2006.04: baby blanket burp cloth
CR2006.05: baby blanket
CR2006.06: plastic bag tote
CR2006.07: Pauline, an Amigurumi Dude.
CR2006.07: rag rug