S is also for Series

This is the second S post after yesterday's Solar System. 

As promised, here is the follow up from letter N for naked mail art. Most of my mail art goes inside one of my homemade envelopes. And usually they are individual pieces. 

Although I rarely collage, I recently sent out a series of 6 collaged postcards with a vehicular theme.

To Adrienne, Thomas and William

To C. Mehrl Bennett, Keith and J.A.D. Media

Do you like to create collages? Would you make one from random stuff you find in your car/your purse/that messy drawer at home full of 'important' junk?

For bonus points, can you identify where all the pieces come from?

Solar system (II)

S is also for stamps. Not every mail artist cares about the postage stamps - for many they just serve the purpose of getting the art from A to B through the postal system. 

Since I got back into mail art I do try and think of creative ways to use postage stamps to enhance the mail art by theme, color, and sometimes even number.

The planets of your solar system set issued by the post office last year are very nicely done, and have afforded me the opportunity to make some fun envelopes.

Using old wall calendar pages to make the envelopes, here are the exchange envelopes I sent out for April.

Do you have a favorite stamp?

And if you're wondering why this post is titled Solar System (II), you can see my first Solar System blog post here.

I used all of the planets stamps on another piece of mail art here.

(PS: I have a bonus letter S that will show up on the blog tomorrow if you feel like checking back in.)

Reconnecting via repetition & variation

Remember under M is for MMSA? Here is the missing repetition & variation swap postcard.

Turns out it was a) delivered to the sender, and b) the sender was Jan H, who I used to exchange mail art with, but haven't since 2014. So it arrived quite a bit later than the other three cards.

Jan sent the returned card to me in this awesome painted envelope.

And she included this intriguing piece titled Blur.

Great to 'see you in my mailbox' Jan, even if it was through a postal misadventure.

When was the last time you reconnected with someone through the mail? Did you initiate it, or did they?

Quidditch to Eva

Ah, Q, one of the more difficult letters for A to Z.

Eva had lamented the lack of a Q on her postcards, so I decided to send her one in the mail inside this envelope. She tried to convince me to take part in the A to Z challenge, and at first I declined. Now we're at letter Q - you can see what an influence she is on me - and I'm using the card I sent to her for myself!

You can see what Eva did with the card on her post today (plus two bonus Qs).

Have you received anything in the mail that would work for the letter Q?

Paper bags

Every now and again I turn a paper bag into an envelope.

This year Eric has a mail art call to recycle paper bags into mail art.

You can see the ones he has sent and received on his blog.

Here are two more that I sent him recently.

And here are two very nice ones from him in return for ones I have previously sent. The one from the Body Shop has a wonderful stamp on it, and the one with the space-themed washi tape has a great personalized stamp Eric designed.

What's the strangest thing you've turned into an envelope?

Do you have paper bags that you think would make good envelopes?

An octopus named Hank

Technically Hank (from the film Finding Dory) is a septopus, not an octopus, because he only has seven tentacles. And as it turns out, he's orange.

I sent him to Eva and Heleen, using the new postcard stamps.

What animal would you like to receive on a piece of mail art?

Naked mail art

When it comes to mail art, naked usually means that the item in question is sent without a cover or envelope. This means that the piece travels through the mail stream with no protection, so it is always possible that something is added (usually postmarks, but sometimes other markings, dings etc) or even subtracted (bits going missing).

Dean, aka The Artist in Seine, always sends his work naked. And he is very creative about it, too. He also always makes sure the back and front are equally interesting (something I'm pretty bad at).

Here's some banana mail from him

And another piece (with a tiny banana) that has a piece of a computer attached to it!

And yet another one from Mr In Seine himself, featuring geocaching!

Although most of my mail art is sent in a handmade envelope, I sometimes send naked mail. More about that later in the alphabet. 
Have you ever sent or received an unusual item in the mail that wasn't packaged up? Did it make you or the recipient smile?