3D mail

 this fun bottle full of boxes arrived in my mailbox. it's from penpal, Candy in oregon. she has a blog and features work that involves a variety of things including a lot of folding. these are out of paste paper. i haven't decided what i will do with the little boxes. they are so cute.

thanks, candy.

years ago, i wrote a letter on lined paper, then cut each line apart and taped it together into one very long strip and stuffed it into a bottle and mailed it. and i imagine you can find other examples on line of things to mail in a plastic bottle. i guess i should have done that as a thank you to candy. dang. i'll have to think of something else, unexpected....

here is a pinterest board with a bunch of fun ideas

https://www.pinterest.com/dperky/mailing-fun-things/

stamp placement

annie asked about the non-conforming positioning of stamps on mail art.
she asked if i take them in for a hand cancel or just drop them in the mail box and hope for the best.
i prefer to drop them in the mail box.
a few postal workers can be very unfriendly when they see non-conforming decorated envelopes.
the friendlier postal workers who understand mail art are not bothered by non-conforming stamp placement.
if you want to send a one-ounce envelope that conforms to the standards of size and thickness,
and you do not want to pay extra
it is my understanding that the address needs to be horizontal on the envelope
in landscape orientation.
and
the essential information is the street address and the zip code
i like to make that information very clear, towards the bottom, of the envelope.
also
i like to keep the bottom 1/2 inch of the envelope clear.
i saw a video of mail traveling through the postal system and when the mail is sorted, it is sent along a little track, which obscures the bottom 1/2 inch.
if the machine can't read the address
then it sends the envelope along the track where it is read by a human being
who types in the address which is converted to that bar code
which imprints on the envelope or on a sticker on the envelope
and that bar code helps the envelope reach its destination.
i actually know someone who had the job of sitting in front of the track and deciphering the addresses that were not machine-legible, usually because of poor penmanship.
she was always happy to see some lovely mail art.
but...the bottom line is that if you pay that first class rate
and have the address clearly written, in landscape orientation
the position of the stamp is not critical.
i don't know if they will ever attempt to enforce the upper-right corner as the only acceptable position.
i understand that canada has tried to impose some strict rules about addressing envelopes.
maybe some of the canadian readers will comment.
if our PO starts to enforce stamp placement, i will comply.
but i hope they don't.
i think they have more important issues at this time.
so, we can be zany with our stamps,
legible with our addresses
and
the only consequence to non-compliant position
will be that it takes the envelope a little longer to arrive at its destination
because it has to take time to travel along the track to the human being.

this is a bonus post today. check the post below this one to see the envelope for today.

a big nib at a rest stop near iowa city. i need to post all the photos and tell the story.

postal oops

yup. this one was returned to me with the rubber stamp message *return for postage* my postman, dave, did not return it to me. he crossed out the message and put in the words and arrows and sent it back. it arrived at jackie's and then one day, jackie returned a whole pile of mail to me. someday i will return the returned mail.

john no. 4 (of 10)

no, the address does not have to go at the bottom. if you have all the information on horizontal lines in a landscape orientation, it will get to its destination. it might take a day or two longer. the idea to fill the envelope with horizontal lines of words came from the rows of names on the memorial.

kathy no 8

while most of the envelopes in the kathy series are addressed to kathy at 430 east ohio in ames iowa, a few have other addresses. this one has a much longer address that was fairly close to her actual address at the time. it was a long address and since this set of envelopes was hand delivered, it did not matter if the addresses were correct, hence, the east ohio, ames, iowa address. i would not expect the postal workers to deliver an envelope that looks like this. however, it would be fine to address it this way and then have a little

envelope No. 6

the *kathy* series of envelopes was done for fun. i did not use any guide lines, i rarely did a practice run. i simply took markers and whipped out the first idea that came to me after i looked at the stamp. in other words, this is a layout. what i see that is working pretty well is the flourishing. i like the intersections and all the major stems seem to be pretty parallel. what i was not focusing on and what suffered as a consequence was each letter in the name. the *c* in schneider is too big and the *d* is way too small. we could find many