The Joy of a Stitched Postcard

I'm a sucker for a sewn piece of mail art and this from Gerda is a real gem. My first stitched piece came from Bris Chris when I was doing Mailart 365, so it must have been 2013. Chris was sending out 'flood art' - from the terrible floods in Australia. She sewed on a piece of a photo sort of saved from the flood. LIke Gerda's, it was special and is here in my archive.

Andy Geezer continues to hostmailart 365 at a new site: https://www.mailart365.com/  I have just checked and my pieces are still archived at the original site.  I made all 365 pieces! I can't even imagine now! http://mailart365.blogspot.com/search/label/Rebecca

But back to this beautiful piece! What a sunset! And the characters are so wonderfully whimsical, I am enchanted.   

 

'When no one is Looking'

 

Gerda sent me this exquisite unsolicited paper gift!  I am not sure which direction I shoud be 'reading' it but this way up I want to swim through watery caves.

Hope Gerda's foot is better and suspect the upside to the wild weather is you have time to make and the garden is at bay! As you can see, I have had this mailart for a long time. Apologies.  So many reasons, too boring to tell. 

Again, not sure about direction.  This one feels like a page of an atlas with the key in boxes on the right, but equally it is a landscape when turned 90 degrees. Both evoke water and have a calm beauty I admire. Also, zoom in and look at the marks, etched over the paint.

Thank you Gerda for my envie of lovelies..  I will reply, eventually!
 

Calla Calla Calla

 What would your chant be if you wanted to drive away harsh winter?  I’m not saying that was Gerda’s intention, but repeat the name of most flowers three times and  if you are anything like me you will begin to feel hopeful. 

I love those stamps and the image of the snow or plaster or dried paint that feels like an arial view,  it’s a great contrast and you have two sides of the seasons, for sure! And the light of the image that evokes deepest winter is reflective and refractive, so beautiful and encouraging for me. 

Thank you Gerda, sending you virtual greetings from a flight from the UK to the US!   I keep meaning to send you something FEMAIL. 

Give me the roses and I'll bake the bread.

These exquisite paint and ink pieces are two sides of one gift in this mailing. They are haptic, ethereal, just absolute beauties. They are both worthy of a frame… I will place them around my studio for inspiration before putting them in my archive.  Thank you Gerda! I'm sorry it's taken me a while to blog this.

I am a sucker for a handmade envelope  and I notice the femail stamp. I am slow.  I am sorry. 

And then, to cap it all off, a boekie. for Internationl Women's Day. What were you doing on that day?  In the past I have gone to a party (helped serve food) thrown by Suffolk refugees.  I wondered if it were on. Lots of music and women dancing together.Instead I was here, painting and fitting house chores in between. 

 Thank you Gerda.  A wonderful envelope full of beauty, surprises and inspiration!

FE mail art

Great to hear from Gerda Osteneck with exciting plans a new movement is afoot in the mail art network… the FeMailArt movement! 

Who knows how long ago Gerda sent this or how long it has languished in my 'current' mail art file. I look forward to a new collaboration soon.

 

Everything has a purpose

Pelican postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Gerda Osteneck and I exchanged years ago when I was active at IUOMA. It's great to see her again in the post. Sticker Dude sent Gerda some of my stuff, I think.  Sticker dude has sent me some of Gerda's mail art for the Guyver archive. 

Gerda plays with photos in this mailing.  She has hand-coloured (in photoshop) the pelicans above. In the chicken below, Gerda has scratched into her photo to enhance the chicken's tail to make it haptic and jauntier. 

 Tail Feather postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

List  postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Do you ever see discarded list on the ground in the supermarket. I have and I would collect them and send them to our trashpo queen, DK. These days I look longingly at lists but trashpo just isn't the same in the time of Covid. It's great to see Gerda's beautiful trashpo list collage.

Everything has a purpose  postcard 2021 by G Osteneek

And this piece feels related to the list. the colour, the movement the use of scraps to make a coherant whole.

Swan atamps with personal message on back!

Thanks Gerda! Hopefully I will send you something (directly) soon!