Has it really been two months since I posted some art mail? I've been working on some Christmas ones while I have the abundance of free time, so I guess it just feels like I'm sending them out constantly.
Haven't gotten any more handmade replies, but we did get a postcard (with a really cool scratch-off red star over the written message) from Hannes' friends who spent 6 weeks backpacking in China, and Takako sent me one while on vacation in Thailand:
Guess it makes sense that I feel like I'm doing more than I am; I always have too many projects going at once, and have never had a very high completion rate.
When we were kids my friend Erin made cute little plush toys from old fabric, and because she always had numerous small dogs as well, "Sir Frogalot" ended up being, like, Sir Frogalot VII. For whatever reason I decided to reference that warm, fuzzy, nostalgic memory, and put it in space.
I also included another letter, chocolate maple candies, and Sailormoon Crystal gummies.
Oh, and sealed with a purple dinosaur.
These fun Korean space stickers glow in the dark!
This one here will be the third one I've sent to my mom, and this collage just kind of came together all of a sudden for no reason, but I like how it turned out.
I was also very proud of once again achieving a cohesive colour scheme, at least for this side. That happy sea turtle postcard is from the marine park in Miura.
The other side was more autumnal. I included a packet of the chestnuts I've been snacking on because they're cheap, basically flat and the same size as the envelope, and something we don't have back home (along with, you know, the actual season of autumn itself).
Sealed with owl tape
My 90-something-year-old great aunt was nice enough to remember my birthday, so while we were at Haneda waiting for our flight I spotted a pretty card to send her in reply, as well as a postcard for Hannes' parents.
Sticking these animals to the tower doesn't really qualify as having made something, but they want to start exchanging things that will help them practice English and help me practice some German, so there you go.
Finally, the big one: a Halloween birthday packet that's admittedly going to arrive a few days late but that I'm very happy with, for one of my best friends.
We've spent a number of great Halloweens together: the unfortunately completely photoless one in 2006 where we dressed as Ukrainian gypsy punks and she carried around a ghetto blaster on her shoulder, with Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike on repeat all night as we danced to it in the streets; the last one I did anything for in the States in 2011, where she went as a Sofia Loren with such a convincing, sultry air that even people who I was sure would have no idea who she was got it immediately.
I love and miss you, Ale!
I found this little figure in a 100円 shop and painted it, but kept the tag on because the Engrish is cute.
I included inexpensive but hopefully interesting flat things; a letter, a sheet of 1950's ad-style stickers, salty lychee gummies, an aromatic face mask, and this freaking amazing Rummy chocolate, which is very strongly-flavoured and has about as much alcohol in it as a beer.
I could've made it more offensive but decided to err on the side of good taste instead
And here it is, starting with three different concert flyers and one from an art museum, love and a robot foetus in a post-nuclear desert wasteland.
If that doesn't say "happy birthday", I don't know what does!
