« September 2011 | Main | November 2011 »
Kathy saw this ink over on Missive Maven's blog and we had to try it out. I used it on black paper where it is completely invisible until you shine the black light on it. How great is this for Halloween? How great is it period? It's called Noodler's Blue Ghost and is an "invisible" ink for fountain pens. It is like magic. No, it IS magic. I got mine, as well as a tiny, clip-on black light from the Goulet Pen company.
Happy Halloween everybody! Write more letters,
As seen over on Brain Pickings, there is a new book called Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer. In addition to being a book of correspondence featuring "everything from metaphysics to pancake recipes", the book also shows Gorey's illustrated envelopes.
Maria Popova's review said it best,"Floating Worlds is as much a powerful personal memoir of an unusual friendship as it is a priceless cultural treasure containing the spirit and legacy of one of the twentieth-century’s most unique, influential and prolific creators."
Let me try to tell you how much I love this. First, I'd have to explain how Edward Gorey is one of my biggest influences and heroes. Then, I'd have to convince you of how much I love mail (which I attempt to do here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Finally, you'd have to combine those things. That is how much I love this.
The awesome Mr. Cheyenne Morrison created this download for the LWA! He painstakingly reproduced a vintage airmail sticker in plenty so we can all have our fun with this well-designed label.
Members, login to print a batch up for yourself!
Thanks Mr. Morrison!
Only 6 more days til All Hallows Eve! Here's an oldie, but a goodie from the mer mag blog. We all love security envelope patterns, yes we do; so here's a neat project for the upcoming batty holiday. She used her cut outs as toothpick toppers, but I can see there being a whole string of bats to fly about the house or a bat mobile {not a Batmobile} or decorating some sweetly spooky Halloween cards.
Our friend and fellow letter-lover, Shaun Usher, the curator behind the phenomenal Letters of Note has a book proposal for you all. He wants to take his wonderful website and translate into a tangible form for us to enjoy. This is his plan:
A large coffee-table volume of 400 pages, with 200 letters, each of them reproduced in facsimile with an introduction by me and a transcript of the text. Unbound’s plan is to produce a physical object of great loveliness: cloth bound, using thick, uncoated paper: something that gives you the experience of holding and reading the actual letters themselves. As well as being a good read, it will make a lovely gift. It’s being printed in Germany where they understand these things.
Many of the letters will have appeared on the site but I'm holding some of the best back. The main thing is that it will be an eclectic mix of the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up our lives. Here’s a random selection of what I hope you’ll find inside:
And more hopefully! You can help support Shaun's endeavour through Unbound. There are various levels and at the 75£ level, you get a Letter Writers Alliance membership in addition to a bunch of other awesome stuff. We're proud to be involved with this project and we hope you'll consider it as well.
{Creative Commons image from the Flickr stream of Patrick Q}
Today is my birthday and I'd really appreciate it if you all pitched in a bought me an old post office and then renovated it. I know, I don't really ask for much. It can be done. I have evidence! Observe {and be envious} of the home of Dr. Sarah Belhasen.
From This Old House.Com: "Inside, though, the building she purchased for $162,000 was drab. Many of the rooms were painted top to bottom in post-office blue. Hideous linoleum or tough rubber padding was glued to most of the floors. But it retained enough period details --including terra-cotta floor tiles, marble baseboards and pink granite wall slabs-- that Belhasen decided to take the rehab project on. She preserved many of these details in the former lobby, which now serves as an entry parlor and formal living area." There's a whole slide show of the beautiful home over on MSN Real Estate.
{Thanks to The Stamp Collecting Round-Up for the tip}
{Creative Commons image on Flickr from ManoRegejimas}
It came down the wires yesterday that postal rates in the U.S. are due to increase in 2012. Here's the skinny from the Postal Reporter at the Postal News Blog:
"Prices for most Postal Service mailing services will change on January 22, 2012. Mailing services includes First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals, Package Services and Extra Services. Prices for shipping services will also change on January 22. We will provide customers the new shipping services prices later this fall.
While actual percentage price increases for various products and services varies, the overall average price increase across all mailing services is capped by law at 2.1 percent, the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
FIRST-CLASS MAIL HIGHLIGHTS:
ADDITIONAL PRICE ADJUSTMENT HIGHLIGHTS:
The new prices were filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission on Oct. 18, 2011. The Commission has 45 days to review the prices to verify they comply with the overall 2.1 percent price cap for each class of mail. The new prices will go into effect on Jan. 22, 2012."
The extra penny makes me shrug. I am A-OK with an extra penny. The additional 3 cents for postcards and additional 7 cents for international {other than Canada and Mexico} is a bit more painful. However, I am prepared to make these truly minute adjustments to keep sending and receiving my letters. How about you?
{It's not that far really card set from RARRAR PRESS}
I like school projects that involve kids getting mail. Heck, I like anything that involves getting and giving mail, but there is a special section for children. I want them all to love mail, deeply and sincerely.
My penpal Margaurite sent me a letter from seven-year-old Brynn Basko recently. Brynn is attempting to collect postcards from every state! I sent one in from South Carolina because, strangely, I have no Illinois postcards and asked if I could help out by posting the call here too. Specifically, they still need postcards from
The first letter to start off the pen pal relationship.
A few weeks ago I got an interesting letter from LWA member David Solomon. He wrote to us about how he became pen pals with a friend of a friend, who he didn't know, and how it turned into an amazing pen pal relationship.
At first, they mailed letters conventionally through USPS, but then David thought of another way to deliver letters to his new pen pal Tiffany.
Voice recorder with an audio letter tape & the box it came in that Tiffany left under David's car
Drop locations, scavenger hunts, audio letters - without even thinking about it, they were expanding what their personal correspondence could be. Here is an excerpt from David's letter explaining how this started:
She was also a student at FSU. In the Fall, I sent her a short letter telling her to go to the campus library and go to a certain floor and look for a certain book and flip to a certain page. In this book was another book she was to go to. And so on until she ended up at the National Geographic section of the library to find a handmade booklet made for her including random things such as a play I wrote for her, a to-do list, recommended reading, a poem, etc. This started our new correspondence via a drop spot in the library.
We walked the same paths, but never saw each other, which added some excitement and intimacy to our relationship. Two years later and we are still friends. In fact, I consider her my best friend...and yet, we have spent no time in the other's presence.
- Personal correspondence with David Solomon
A photo Tiffany took of herself reading the zine David made her, which was the final object of the scavenger hunt he sent her on in the library. She's reading it right where she found it.
I think this speaks volumes of how intimate letter writing and the pen pal relationship can be. This also is a great example of how letter writing can be expanded upon, outside of the realm of envelopes, or even paper. Perhaps this will give Initiative Response participants some ideas for their "Out of the Box" tasks?
Thank you to David and Tiffany for allowing me to share their story with fellow LWAers.
-Kathy
P.S. David has been recording his astounding outgoing mail on his blog Because I Really Felt It. I was extra impressed by his "Book as Envelope" mailing.
-Donovan
Tomorrow and the next day see the releases of the 2011 Holiday stamp issues.
The U.S. Postal Service’s cheery Holiday stamps for 2011 feature four colorful ornaments sure to add to the joys of the season. Linda Fountain, an illustrator located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, created the ornaments shown in the stamp art. Drawing on styles popular during the 1950s, she first sketched the ornaments then rendered them using cut paper. These renderings were scanned and turned into digital files. The actual art objects are slightly larger than a sheet of typing paper.
The Christmas stamp for 2011 features a detail from a work by the Italian master Raphael, entitled Madonna of the Candelabra. This tondo (circular painting), oil on panel, dates to around 1513 and is now in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Virgin and Child project the grace and serenity typical of Raphael’s work. As a recognized master, Raphael ran a large and active workshop. Assistants certainly painted the angels (not shown on the stamp) flanking the central figures of Mary and the infant Jesus, and possibly other parts.
The stamp art is a detail of the painting, as the original photograph was cropped to fit the stamp format.
With this colorful new stamp design, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates Kwanzaa, a non-religious holiday that takes place over seven days beginning each year on December 26 and ending January 1. Kwanzaa draws on African traditions and takes its name from the phrase for "first fruits" in Swahili, a widely spoken African language. Stamp artist Daniel Minter created a festive and highly symbolic design to illustrate a Kwanzaa holiday celebration.
The bold colors in the stamp art represent the colors of the Kwanzaa flag-- green for growth, red for blood, and black for the African people. These same colors are repeated in the candles that are lighted each night of the holiday. Minter’s focus is the family unit celebrating the holiday at home, an important element of Kwanzaa. The design was carved into a linoleum block, and then scanned into a computer where it was colorized.
This is the fourth stamp design issued by the U.S. Postal Service in celebration of Kwanzaa. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997. New designs were also issued in 2004 and 2009.
Finally, the U.S. Postal Service commemorates Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. The stamp art was created by graphic designer Suzanne Kleinwaks of Falls Church, Virginia. Bright colors express the joyful spirit of the holiday, and the eight shapes behind the letters spelling out "Hanukkah" symbolize the eight days and nights of the celebration. The second "k" appears on the silhouette of a dreidel, a spinning top that children traditionally play with at Hanukkah. Each of the letters in this design is subtly tilted to mimic the movement of the dreidel as it twirls.
This stamp design is the fourth U.S. issuance to commemorate Hanukkah. The Postal Service issued its first Hanukkah stamp, a stylized illustration of a menorah, in 1996. A design featuring an ornate dreidel followed in 2004, and a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles was released in 2009.
{Info from Beyond the Perf}
Except the beatific Madonna and her slightly sinister* looking baby Jesus, these are some really playful designs. I don't think I like the Hanukkah one very much but the Kwanzaa one and ornaments really speak to me. I think the Hanukkah stamp is a little blah. *I think this might just be because of the zoom.
P.S. And you could use these stamps at our letter-writing even tomorrow at GREER at 7PM! We'd love to write letters with you.
First class letters
1 ounce: 46¢
2 ounces: 66¢
3 ounces: 86¢
3.5 ounces: $1.06
postcard: 33¢
square env.: add 20¢
International Letter Rates
Canada & Mexico
(up to 2oz) $1.10
Other countries
(up to 1oz) $1.10
Copy and paste the code to add the LWA button to your website or blog.
