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Margarete Miller Creating art from vintage sources

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Art journal pages on index cards

Mail art – Incoming and outgoing

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February 12, 2019 By //  by Margarete Miller 8 Comments

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I get so much good mail these days but I have to admit that I work pretty hard at sending good mail out too. It goes both ways – give good mail, get good mail. Right? I wanted to share some photos of incoming and outgoing mail art that has been crossing my desk lately. I haven’t included everything, and I’m sorry if I’ve left some great mail out of what I’m sharing here. It’s not intentional.

Incoming

Once you’ve set aside some great contents to put in a letter, it takes extra effort to decorate the envelope. I don’t always take the time to do it, so I definitely appreciate it when someone else does it. I got some lovely mail from Alice in Italy that included some book pages and a zine. I think my favorite was the envelope, though.

an envelope with its contents lying on top of it

Here’s another great envelope from my friend Val. There’s so much to find interesting.

an envelope collaged with papers and stamps

Inside, she included a treasure trove of vintage papers in little pockets on the pages of an accordion folio. So cool!

pattern paper folded like an accordion, with pockets of ephemera

I couldn’t take a picture of the whole thing. It was so long. Also, there are pockets on both sides, on the back where you can’t see in the picture. I want to make one of these. 

From Australia came an extra long envelope from Melanie with zines, postcards, and bookmarks from her local library. I immediately started adding postage stamps to one of the postcards. The colors are just so inspiring.

an envelope and contents, including some zines, on display

Now here’s an interesting envelope. Can you believe this came through the mail? It came from my friend Yvete who stuffed it full of papers and then after she zipped it closed, she put some packing tape over the zipper so that it wouldn’t open. It worked because I received it just fine. There was another label of paid postage, but it was torn so I had to pull it off.

a large postal envelope that was made from a zipper pouch

Here is some of what was inside. I’m going to enjoy working with these tags and forms. Also, the receipts are fabulous! So grungy and smudged.

A bunch of old postal forms and tags

From my friend Pamela I got these beauties. I love them one and all. 

5 ATCs done in a vintage style of collage art

Outgoing

With all this good mail coming in, I’ve been busy creating things to mail back. This collage has been sent to a penpal in Russia. I wanted to experiment using paper from mid century, and this is what I came up with. Of course, the highlight is the row of 1970s postage stamps in honor of postal workers. Those are classics.

A collage made up of mid-century papers including a set of vintage postage stamps about postal workers

Next, I too, worked on making a lovely decorated envelope. I took a page from my vintage stamp catalogue and put a beautiful floral on top of it. That, and some pretty washi tape and a postmark stamp or two, and you’re all set. 

an envelope is decorated with a vintage book page and a floral image

I had a small stack of letters that I mailed out at the beginning of the week.

a stack of decorated staggered letters

I’ve been saving my energy for going through 200+ mail art postcards from the January swap. Our theme was “love” and boy, participants did not disappoint! More on that, with plenty of pictures, coming soon! I can’t resist sharing just one picture though.

a huge pile of pink and red colored "love" postcards

 

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Filed Under: collage art, mail art Tagged With: correspondence art, mail art

Previous Post: «two ATCs created with flower illustrations, postage stamps, and registered mail stickers. A Week’s worth of projects
Next Post: Zine swap – due by end of March 2019 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. PamelaArtsinSF

    February 12, 2019 at 11:52 am

    I am happy to see some of my mail to you in the mix. I loved the typewriter pouch mail. I’ve done that same thing with some of those Blue Q pouches and one made it to the Netherlands. Fun mail. Love both the incoming and outgoing.

    Reply
    • Margarete Miller

      February 12, 2019 at 2:23 pm

      I wouldn’t be brave enough to try sending one of those pouches overseas. Good for you! They’re so awesome.

      Reply
  2. Yvete

    February 12, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    Lots of inspiration in this post! I’m glad the Blue Q pouch arrived intact. The postal clerks gathered to see it since it was a first for them, too!

    Reply
    • Margarete Miller

      February 13, 2019 at 3:45 pm

      So cool! We need to get the postal clerks more used to this kind of thing 😉

      Reply
  3. Dawn C.

    February 13, 2019 at 10:11 am

    Just beautiful! I also like that pocket accordion portfolio. What a wonderful idea to include in happy mail.

    Reply
    • Margarete Miller

      February 13, 2019 at 3:46 pm

      I totally agree. It’s a fun piece and not that difficult to create.

      Reply
  4. Grace Ng

    February 14, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    Hi I love your Instagram and blog! On the topic of the zip bag, it’s such a lovely idea. I have a Japanese pen pal who never uses paper envelopes, she will use shopping bags that are made of plastic and fold them in half, tape the opening shut. They are just regular shopping plastic bags.

    Reply
    • Margarete Miller

      February 19, 2019 at 7:03 pm

      So interesting, Grace. I guess that goes to show you that there are so many possibilities outside of the traditional paper envelope. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply

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