Bird on a B (plus bananas and art)

Yes, I put a bird on it. But this bird is on a nice red B and it's winging its way to the next person in the collage swap I'm part of.  I have to say that there is something about a bird on a collage. I'm not quite sure what it is - the shape, the colours, or the fact that they naturally perch on things? Not sure, but, for now, I'm going with it.

I recently picked up Nick Bantock's The Trickster's Hat, which is full of great activities that help ones get over themselves and their fear of putting something on the page. (At least I hope so; it's been good so far! The subtitle is hopeful: A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity.) One of the exercises had you playing around with letters, which is when I realized the beauty of cutting letters in half. Be prepared for more of that.

Recently, I also did a few more grid collages for Karen over at Mail Me Some Art. I wasn't super happy with the way a couple of the ones I made turned out (I called them the Washi Wall of Shame #1 and #2, but I worried that the washi tape on a naked postcard wouldn't withstand the postal system) so I replaced them with these, which used up some of the gazillion stamps I have of Queen Liz:

I also received some nice mail art over the past few weeks. Here are a few pieces:

Thanks, Stacy. I don't get called adorable too often! 

A stunner from Richard Baudet of Marseilles.The envelope is made of wallpaper. 

And I keep meaning to do a post on Ex Postal Facto, but realize I didn't really capture it very well in pictures. I'll post a few things from time to time, but here is the custom cancellation from the event. (When in doubt, mail things to yourself.)

Finally, one of the things that mail artists get up to is to have slightly random (or not) calls for mail art around a particular theme. One that came up on the International Union of Mail Artists was a call for banana-themed mail art in time for International Banana Day (who knew?). So, I played along. So far, one of my envelopes has arrived at its destination. You can see if here on Rebecca Guyver's great blog, The Postal Ledger. Mine is the second image down on this post.

There's lots more to write about, including a few scores I found yesterday when, on a whim, I went to a postal stamp exhibit and show, but I'll spare you - oh, anonymous readers - for now.