Hot mail

In June I participated in another mail art exchange organised by Sylvie Bargain at Carnets de... vie.

The chosen theme, "Hot",was not exactly the most inspirational, but I still wanted to participate. These exchanges are a lot of fun.

Maybe it was because we had a pretty bleak and chilly month of June, but the fact is that the only hot thing I could think of at the time was the beach.

So I decided to shape my mail art as a flip flop on one side and a beach scene reflected on sunglasses on the inside of the "envelope".

Here is what it looks like closed (before I added the address and stamp):

And here it is open:

This mail art is now in Turkey.

I hope the recipient liked it as much as I liked the one I received. This cool chicken sent by Corinne from Belgium was a very welcome and fun surprise.

       

Belgians can be so creative and funny! I laughed at Corinne's interpretation of the theme. I would never had thought of that. And I will definitely try the recipe one day.

Here is the post where Sylvie lists all the mail arts from this exchange. It is always very interesting to see people's different interpretations around the same theme.

Mailing animals

I'm participating to another mail art exchange organised by Sylvie Bargain at Carnets de... vie.

The chosen theme is "Animalerie", which I interpreted as meaning animals in general.

I chose to work with the fox. For one thing because I found a cute stamp with a fox on it and for another because of the Luxembourgish literary figure of de Renert, who is a fox.

It was a bit of a last minute work, though I hope it is not too obvious.

I folded my fox head to turn it into an envelope. This is what it looks like closed.

front

back

My fox is far from domesticated and likes to gobble up chicks in the nearby farms. But fear not! You can save them by opening and unfolding the envelope.

March mail art

This month's mail art exchange is organised by Atelier "Carnet à Spirale" again, and after teasing us with a few Amélie Poulain references to garden gnomes, the subject was revealed: les nains posteurs (posting dwarves ?).

The thing with this subject is that it can be seen as a pun on the word imposteur (impostor), so for a while I tried to come up with something original and witty... and failed miserably, haha.

So I decided to take the litteral route, which gave me this result:

Yes, it is a dwarf and he's posting a letter. Litterally.

This time, I didn't want to stick to the traditional illustration and tried some collage instead. Let's just hope that everything will stay safely stuck!

There's a slit in the paper as well, and when you open the letter, you can see an envelope inside.

Here is the back side.

The text is a reference to the name of the mail art exchange (Krok & Post).

Can't wait to get my nain posteur! :)

--------------------------------

UPDATE (25.3.2014)

I found this little guy in my mailbox yesterday. He was sent by Emmanuelle Desachy and came straight from Savoie, France.

A Portuguese guitar and a traffic light

A few weeks ago I agreed to exchange custom-made postcards with an Italian sketcher, Alessandro Melillo.

I saw on his Facebook profile that he played the guitar, so I thought that a drawing of a Portuguese guitar would suit him.

It turns out he also plays this instrument, so as the French say: chance does things well, haha.

I love the shape and sound of this instrument

In return, I received this pretty traffic light. 

Italian traffic light.

I never thought of drawing one, but I think I might give it a try sometime.

February mail art

This month's mail art exchange was organised by Sylvie, aka Bigoudène, again on her blog Carnets de... vie.

The subject is RAIN and here is my submission.

Little girl under the rain, standing in front of a puddle

I was inspired by this video of a toddler experiencing her very first rain. Check it out, it will make you smile.

This time I didn't glue the envelope and instead made a drawing on the inside as well. It's a concept a participant of another mail art exchange used and I liked it. This way the story continues.

My little girl is older than the one on the video and can't resist jumping into the puddle.

Happy childhood memories :)

UPDATE: It has just rained fish on my mailbox! :)

Such a creative and fun idea! I love it!

Front view

Back view

And Corinne included a little message inside the envelope. I didn't know there would be a gathering in Sète in June. Who knows, I might be able to go :)

January mail art

The topic of this month's mail art exchange organised by Atelier "Carnet à Spirale" is the colour green.

I have to say I wasn't very inspired for a while.

Or rather I had too many ideas to choose one.

Until this little frog jumped into my mind.

It's waiting for a princess to drop her gold ball in the water

Now it will be hopping its way to Belgium.

UPDATE: Check out the compilation of all the mail arts sent during this exchange. They all look great!

UPDATE 2: Here's the lovely envelope I received from Claire from France

I've always wanted to see a jungle :D

Surprise mail art exchange

After the last mail art exchange, one of the organisers asked me if I wanted to do an "unofficial" exchange with her, which I happily agreed to.

This time it went to Belgium, and I thought I'd send a nice poinsettia, or Christmas Star, per mail.

I thought it was fitting for the season.

Like last time, I cut the shape of  the envelope in watercolour paper, which I folded once the drawing was done.

The only thing I was unable to control was the stamp.

They don't seem to have a lot of sensitivity for creative envelopes at the post office here: the woman just pasted the first stamp she got her hands on without even showing me first.

I think there was a football player on it; not very fitting.

I'm just glad she put an actual stamp on it, even if I had to insist to get it.

My creation arrived today appartently, so now I can show it here.

The front of the envelope

The back side

December mail art exchange

Here is my second attempt at mail art. This time the exchange was organized by Urban Sketchers Belgium.

I took some inspiration from the beautiful letter I received in the previous exchange.

The subject was "Decemberrrrr", so I was looking for something that would fit.

Luckily the temperature yesterday was mild and I was able to sketch a small part of the Christmas market on the Place de la Constitution. I added the colour later.

The whole time there were tourists waiting for a bus ; it was funny to have a big group of what I assume were Chinese people around me, taking pictures of the market and not really curious about what I was doing.

This is what the envelope looks like once it's closed.

And this is what it looked like before I folded it.

UPDATE: Here are the works of all the participants on the blog of Atelier "Carnet à Spirale".

Mail art exchange

I recently stumbled upon Sylvie Bargain's blog where I found out that she was organising a mail art exchange.

I had never heard of mail art before and it sounded like fun, so I decided to join.

Plus I love to get mail!

Here is my contribution. It should have arrived at its destination in France by now.

Quite predictably, I decided on a Christmas themed sketch. I was hoping to sketch outside, but it's really been too cold and after a few less than inspiring attempts, I figured it would be best to sketch some Christmas lights I have at home.

My armchair is very friendly!

I inserted a small invitation on the back of the envelope.

And a glimpse of Luxembourg inside: the view from my office, some Luxembourgish newspapers and a couple of brochures. I'm hoping to attract some visitors, ho ho ho!

This has indeed been fun and I'm looking forward to getting mine!

Next mail art exchange will be at the end of December, this time organised by Urban Sketchers Belgium.

UPDATE: Here is the beautiful mail art I received from Sandy from France. I think I'll take inspiration from it for future exchanges.

Absolutely wonderful. I still have a lot to learn...