VQR Postal Project

More contributions to the VQR Postal Project. Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands), Laura (the UK),  Raphael'L (the USA), Micu (Hungary) and Richard (France). I am waiting for yours!

Stamp

The theme for today in Sunday Stamps is archaeology/anthropology. I have not had the time to look closer to some stamps that maybe fit in this category. But I have I least one who is worth showing, from France:

Les alignements of Carnac (Carnac stones) are a dense collection of more of 3000 prehistoric standing stones. Alignments, dolmens, tumuli and single menhirs erected by the proto-Celtic people on Brittany (France). The stones date from 4500 BC.

I was there some years ago, and I think it is a very special place.

Paris!

It is always a pleasure to receive mail from París. This time I have received two postcards from Heleen:

One orange hello and the perfect image of happiness (for people whose one of main pleasures is breakfast...). Have you noticed the strange language in the newspaper?!?

But I received also an special mail art postcard, made by two mail artists who meet in Paris: Heleen from the Netherlands and Katerina from Greece. Isn't it amazing?

They managed to draw and add some things I really love:

Let me still show another card received from Paris. It is a folded postcard sent by Eric (France), with the documentation for his mail art project We are not alone. I was happy to learn that it was so successful: 39 artists from 11 countries sent 88 items! I am afraid the picture in the thank you card is a bit... worrying.

It arrived with perfectly matched stamps:

And also this postcard received from Catherine (France) I found a very original image of this city:

St. Dunstan's

Postcards sent by Laura (the UK).

It shows St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988). One of the many interesting facts about this church is that it has associations with Henry II and Sir Thomas More, whose head (!) lies in a vault beneath the Roper Chapel within the church (You can see below the Memorial Slab in the pavement of the chapel). I like specially receive postcards showing the inside and the outside of the same place.

More pictures here, in case you are interested.

Miracle

Last time I was in Spain I received this collage sent by Caroline (Spain). I like it of course, but most I consider like a miracle that it arrived.

It was sent to a two-years expired address. Id est, I have been living in Morocco since 2012, and nobody is currently living in our former rented house. But fortunately the postman of the village is still the same. And he was kind enough to resend it to a safe mail box... Even if my re-sending subscription had expired some months ago:

Post(wo)men are the best! I need to pay him a coffee if me met one day...

Collage

Collage received from Juan López de Ael (Spain).

Camel Inside (Again)

Wait... And why not going to Greece on holidays?
I heard that food is splendid there!

Altered postcard sent to Katerina (Greece). It was the answer to this camel which is still on the door of our fridge.

Have I told you I am longing for summer holidays?

By the Sea

Altered postcard sent to Bori (Hungary), for the Mail a Smile project. I added the little girl and the red octopus.

The theme this month is very inspiring: By the Ocean or the Beach. You can still participate. Do not feel like sending a blue smile by snail mail?

Flying Time

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). It shows Schiphol Airport, and it arrived with a wonderful matched stamp:

Summer is here! Don't you feel like to go in holidays? Of course, you can also go by car...

Postcard sent by John (the UK).

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written by the American author Stephen Chbosky. I read in in the Spanish version because a friend gave it to me as Christmas present. But the fact is that I had not thought of it as a mail book until I saw the title in a list of Books related to mail.

This blog is actually about mail and not about books. All I am going to say is that this book is delicious! The kind of book that tells a lot of sad things but makes you happy anyway. 

By the way: it arrived by snail mail.

(Here more serious comments; but don't blame me if you find some spoilers...). 

More British Icons

Postcard sent by John (the UK). It shows a Dual aperture George V letter box with a group of four K6 telephone kiosks in Cheltenham. The picture was taken by the sender.

More received red letter boxes, a postcard and a stamp belonging to the same series:

Number 10

Postcard sent by John (the UK).

10 Downing Street aka Number 10 is the official residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The sender told me that some years ago he wanderer around and photographed this door, probably one of the best known addresses in the world. But nowadays people can't go along this street because it is blocked off with armed police and barriers. I would like we have postcards like this in my country (but I guess we would have even more police).

I want to show you some related mail (also sent by John). Or it seems to me, as it shows more British symbols. Like the stamp and the postcard with the Union Jack...

...And a letter sent by Laura (the UK), more London!

I Can't Believe I'm Going to Morocco!

Collage sent by Gina (UK).

I was not sure if this is a portrait or landscape collage (update: it was made as landscape, tough). But this stony bluecheesy woman caught my eye before the Reykjavik houses. And about the back... What do you think about this Postally Little Red Riding Hood (or not so little)?

She could not believe that she was flying to Morocco... And I can hardly believe that she has arrived safe and sound!

This is an amazing collage full of things I like. I was happy to find this stamp I was eager to receive, and even a cow...

Overlap

Advice: always stick the stamps before writing the postcard!

Circus & Fun Fairs

Today the theme for Sunday Stamps is Circus, clowns of fun fairs, interpreted broadly. I am one of those who suggested the theme. Not that I have a lot of stamps about circus, but I like this subject specially and I hoped to see a lot of stamps. I guess Viridian added "interpreted broadly" because it is a bit difficult. I hope it isn't too much!

These two are from the Netherlands, issued on 2002 to take part in the EUROPA Competition. Here you can see all the stamps.

And the third one, more about fun fairs than exactly circus, from Germany. It is one favourite, and somehow reminds me the circus as well. It was issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest. (You can see here a better picture of the stamp and appreciate how many details it shows.)

One Half of the World Does Not Understand Soccer

Envelope sent to John (the UK). Made of a page of a magazine about vintage soccer. Inside the envelope I put two postcards of two famous stadiums.

There are some themes I had never thought in making mail art about, had it not been for my fellow mail artists or pen friends, and their (sometimes) crazy projects. Like platypus, or cats and shoes, or solitude, or teeth, or onions, or zombies, or poppies, or frogs, or horns... Some of these themes were completely unknown for me before I started to make the mail art. So I am obliged to learn a little about. For instance, I should look for a platypus picture on the net (Gods save the net!) before attempting to draw it, and even a poppy one. Yes: I am afraid I am not able to make original drawings: I always copy them. And I still don't know anything about soccer, by the way.

I wonder why I feel attracted by some themes and why other mail art calls let me indifferent. But I guess you have not the answer...

I also wonder why people like platypus, and why people wish to get mail about teeth, or stones, or Shakespeare, or... But I suppose they feel exactly the same surprise when I ask them to send me laughing cows or postcards related to Oz. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other (Jane Austen dixit).

Anyway: I am terrible grateful to people able to come up freak themes for mail art or odd places to live in (and buy stamps in), because they let me learn a lot of new and amazing things.

Platypus Mail

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands) for her mail art project Weird Existing Animals. This is my first attempt to draw a platypus, and I even needed to search in Internet how it looks like. But what else could you do if you have a friend really fond of platypus? (And tapir, okapi, echidna, mole, axolotl... OMG).

Also published here with more details.

Oz Postcard Project

I'm glad to share my new mail art project: Oz Postcard Project. You can read the call here. Briefly: it is about sending a postcard with the Oz theme. Broadly interpreted: the author - L. Frank Baum, quotations, illustrations, book covers, the films, Kansas, maps...

You can buy the postcard or make it. And, of course, the answer is assured!

I'm waiting for your contributions. Please, visit the new blog of the project and tell me how do you like it!

I'm Lucky (3)

And I still won another giveaway. Can you believe it? It was hold by Tessa (the Netherlands), the runner of the recommendable blog You have mail from me. I had to guess the number of washi tapes she had, which happen to be... 160! I am sure that now she have even more.

These are the amazing content of the little parcel she sent to me (some time ago):

I'm Lucky (2)

And this was sent by Fab (Italy), from the beautiful blog Wreck This Girl's Mailbox. Because of another giveaway. I was really lucky, don't you thing so?