Y is also for Yellow

Eva helped with my original Y post, and also sent me a postcard just in case I ended up having to use the default of Y is for yellow.

This postcard is by Harald Geisler, and he photographed the objects at their actual size.

I love this series - the posed keys are so clever and playful.

Here are links to the others Eva has sent me. Happy New Year, and Sent From My Phone.

Hopefully you have been following Eva's A-Z of postcards.

What was the last thing you received in the mail that made you smile?

Year of the Monkey

I know, I know, it's the Year of the Rooster, or as I like to call it, Year of the Chicken.

In 2016/17 I ran a mail art call for Year of the Monkey because I myself am a monkey.

You can see the wonderful contributions on the Year of the Monkey Mail Art blog.

As my good friend Eva wrote to me, 'Now you will always be getting monkeys'. I only half believed her, but I think she is right. (Another friend, Heleen, told me that Eva should always be believed - I'm finally on board, Heleen!) And thanks to Eva for helping me decide what Y is for.

Here's the evidence - a monkey on an envelope from Elena.

Is there something your friends/family associate you with, even though you feel you have moved beyond it?

Also, should I have another call for Year of the Earth Monkey in 2028?

Xanthophytes on XL mail

Yes, I really did receive xanthophytes on mail art. 

And the mail art was XL, as it didn't fit through the mail slot (or on the scanner). And it came with eXtra intelligent mail barcode labels - count them, they add up to half of X.

I recommend enlarging the picture of the whole envelope to appreciate the galaXy stripygoose sent me.

Remember the artistamps I showed here? The one on the envelope even got postmarked.

Well stripygoose sent me the most fantastic mail art back as a thank you - part 2 of Starling Wars!!

Front:

Back:

And standing up:

Here's the link to Starling Wars - The Birds Awaken she sent ages ago.

What's the largest piece of mail you ever received?

What's the coolest?

White Shapes

Here are the latest in my white shape mail art series.

XVI to Eric

XVII to Azzaro

The series came about as a way to recycle extra card stock that arrived when buying stamps online from the USPS store, and a set of white pens that I find horrible to use for writing.

What do you see when you look at the shapes?

Vodka to Ti Ar Raden

The third one of these I've sent out. (Previous ones here and here if you're interested).

It went in this envelope.

Do you like to create collages? Are yours more minimal, or maximal? Funny or artistic? Political or playful?

Unexpected

One of the things I love about the people who send me mail art is that they often do something really unexpected with a piece of mail art.

In this case, Heleen sent me a few postcards of birds that I like. She included an extra bird that I like very much, and wasn't expecting, a common or Eurasian Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).

And she sent it in an envelope that used stamps from 2009 that I think are amazing (Heleen - I get the feeling that you have quite a stash of stamps!). The translation of 'Laat kinder leren' is 'Let children learn'.

I love how Heleen turned some of the letters of my address into the little creatures from the stamps.

And even better, it includes my favorite of the bunch - the first one, which is 'Trying is always good'.

Here is a bit more information about these cool stamps. Thanks to Violet for the information.

There's also a great animated video about this set.

Do you have a favorite bird?

Teeth

Christophe has a project titled MailArTeeth. You can see all his tooth-related mail art here.

He sent me this nice envelope and card to wish me happy 2017.

I've been contributing every now and again for a while now. Here's my latest contribution - I hope it made it, as it was 12 x 12 inches!

(And a confession - I mailed it in a mailing box and it sort of got stuck a little bit, fairly far inside - I couldn't get it to fall all the way into the box, so hopefully that didn't annoy a postal worker).

Update - it arrived in France, slightly bent, and not even postmarked!

Here it is before it's travels.

What do you think about teeth as a mail art topic?

Would you be grossed out or entertained by receiving something like this through the mail?