Because I Really Felt It

VHS Tape letter

2012-02-28T11:35:00.001-08:00

Okay, so this is really similar to sending a letter in a cassette tape but I already sent something in the VHS case so now I needed to use the VHS tape. It has more space inside than the cassette tape does and you can reseal it since its held together by screws. The inside is still somewhat restrictive on the size/shape of your letter contents. And, you are left with two holes in the back of the tape once you remove everything that was originally inside. To solve that, I put packing tape over the holes.

The Blank Letter

2012-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

The plight of any modern day letter-writing enthusiast is the lack of shared passion that many of their correspondents have. I'm sure we've all had multiple penpals who are slow to respond, if at all. I've tried to get all of my friends interested in exchanging letters and most enjoy it. However, the exchange often becomes irregular. That's okay sometimes. It can be more enjoyable to not get an immediate response so that it is more surprising and exciting when you do.. But...in the case of one of my penpals...it has been almost two years since I've received a letter.

In an attempt to encourage them to write me once again, I sent a letter containing nothing but a SASE and a few blank sheets of stationary. At first glance, it almost seems rude. I hope that it wasn't received in that way. It was sent with the best of intentions - as a wordless gesture to show that I really love your letters and miss getting them. Also, it shows that I don't care what the envelope looks like because I've sent you a boring, plain envelope with my own rather boring stationary. I just want your words. A common reason people might keep from writing letters is that they are time-consuming when compared to electronic means of communication. I can understand how they feel. But here, I tried to take out some of the trouble in making or addressing an envelope and acquiring a stamp. Send me something, anything. I miss you.

P.S. Be careful if you take a letter to the PO to have postage attached to a letter. This envelope already had 15 cents so I needed 30 cents more in postage. The postal worked printed one of those postage stickers which happened to not fit in the white space, thus covering part of the name on the letter. I guess I assumed he would make up the rest of the postage in stamps since it was only 30 cents. But before I could say anything it was on its way. Don't let it happen to you!

The Rubberband Letter

2012-02-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

Rubberband Envelope = many rubberbands + relatively rigid cardboard.

Cut a piece of cardboard (try a cereal box or something similar) into a standard envelope size. Place the folded stationary against one side and secure with rubberbands crossing both ways until you are satisfied. Try not to use too many, because it will eventually bulge in thickness from the overlapping bands. Secure labels on the other side. I used sticker labels. I also tucked them under one or two rubberbands for good measure, although they seemed to stick well enough. I used a one dollar stamp which I'm certain is more than necesary. I figure it doesn't hurt to overpay in postage when sending something unconventional. Hopefully it will encourage postal workers to go along with the idea of helping it reach its destination safely. Also, the one dollar stamp was smaller than the 45 cent one I had...so it fit better in the small corner left uncovered by rubberbands.

January Mail Adventures

2012-02-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Recent mail adventures.....

Alphabet stencils, old stamps, typewriter rubber stamp, sticker scraps, excessive use of return address stickers, clear envelopes.

Playing card envelope made with broken down card box and lots of packing tape. Alphabet stencils plus bird stencil to carry stamp. Does anyone know the rules on writing on a stamp? I was nervous that the letter would be returned because of the talon I drew on the top of the stamp.

VHS Case Package

2012-01-26T19:57:00.000-08:00

I recently got a awesome, unexpected package from a friend. (Unexpected mail is always the best, isn't it?) One of the more surprising things about it was how my friend packaged it. He sent me a book sandwiched between cardboard from a soda pack with the edges stapled together.

I had to return the favor. So, I too sent him a book. This book just so happened to fit perfectly inside a VHS case. There was a bit of empty space at the bottom of the case, so I stuffed a piece of newspaper in there to help it keep its shape. Add a little packing tape over the opening and tack on a label and you have an interesting looking piece of mail. The good news is VHS tapes are super cheap. I bought this one and another one at a thrift store for 50 cents a piece. Cheap enough that I'm sure I'll do this again.

Russian Doll Letter Version #2

2012-01-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a slight variation on the Russian Doll letter I posted a while ago. It seemed a bit wasteful to use multiple envelopes - one for every sheet of stationary - and it was a bit time-consuming to decorate each one. So, here is the same idea but with progressively smaller sheets of stationary acting as their own envelopes.

I started with an aerogram I bought at a coin and stamp shop. Then, I just cut the next three sheets of paper into the same shape so they have flaps to fold over and tape down.

Clear Envelope

2012-01-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, I stole this from a piece of mail art I saw in the wonderful book Good Mail Day by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler. The one I'm referring to is on page 11 if you have the book - and if you don't you should! It has a lot of great mail art inspiration.

Anyway...after I saw the picture, I realized I had a package with packing materials that could be used to make an envelope. It had some of those plastic air bubble packaging cushions and pieces of thin cardboard. I cut the cardboard into envelope size pieces to give the letter some sort of rigid shape. Then I cut the plastic air bubbles to fit around them. It allowed me to display the contents on two different sides....two little pockets of an envelope. I also tried to arrange the labels, stamps, and stickers in a way to tease the recipient....to let them see some of what was inside, but not quite everything.

Letter in a Cassette Tape

2012-01-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

In honor of the Letter Writer Alliance's 2000th member, I sent a letter in a cassette tape. I have half a dozen cassettes that I've been saving to use for something though I didn't quite know what. Instead of just recording a letter on the tape and mailing that, I wanted to find a way to put a paper letter inside the cassette. I pried the cassette open and took everything out from inside. I wrote a letter on one sheet of notepad paper and folded it up until it was small enough to fit in the center of the cassette. I found the two halves of the cassette do not easily go back together. I think it is mainly because there was glue holding them together before I pulled them apart. So, I tied some rubberbands around the edges to keep it together. Address was written on the cassette label and a one dollar stamp in the appropriate corner.

The main downside I can see to sending a letter in a cassette tape is that there is very little room inside. I can't imagine fitting more than three small sheets of paper, tops. One was snug enough.

Now the fun part will be finding out how to utilize the tape I removed in a mail project.....

Stick Letter

2011-12-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

Once again, thinking about what natural materials could be used for a letter, I wanted to use sticks or twigs to make an envelope. But sticks are thicker than leaves. To sandwich a letter between two layers of sticks would essentially turn it into a package. To avoid that, I thought of a way to make an envelope with only one layer or row of sticks.

The result is a row of sticks tied together on the ends with string with the folded letter woven through the middle of the sticks. I still needed a place for the address and stamp. To not completely wrap the sticks up in their own envelope, I cut a strop of paper that only covered the center of the sticks. This also keeps the letter from falling out. I apologize for the poor photo quality. I blame it on poor lighting, a less than great camera. But certainly not user error. I also forgot to take a photo before the address label was put on.

The letter arrived safely, but apparently a postal worker put rubberbands around it. Maybe to keep the address wrap flat?

P.S. Thank you to the Bruno Post Office for being supportive of this endeavor and all the other odd pieces of mail that came and went through your post office in my time in Minnesota.

The Art of Gift Giving

2011-12-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

It might be a little close to the Holidays now but I thought I'd include a post about some of the gifts I've given and received via the mail. I think in general, people appreciate handmade gifts more because they require more time and thought and effort than purchasing a gift card. I'm most proud of the handmade gifts I've given. People seem to be very appreciative of them. A gift doesn't have to be made by the giver to be good. As long as it is personally relevant. It would take far too much time to make every gift you have to give. If I have a hard time coming up with a gift idea, I will usually give someone something I like instead of something I know they would like. This sounds like a terrible idea but I think it works out well most of the time. I think of it as a form of sharing. For example, books are always a good fall back gift for me. I think of books I really enjoy or appreciate and I try to imagine which of those a particular person might like. I might even give them my own personal copy. It's a gift that says I care enough about you to share this thing that deeply affected me. If you ever give a book as a gift, I highly recommend the practice of writing a note on the inside cover.

The following are some gifts I've given and received.

The Activity Book

Not long after leaving a temporary job in Vermont, it was the birthday of a friend I met there. I made her an activity book which was completely hand drawn. It included a word search, crosswords, a matching game, a maze, a word scrambler, etc. All the games were in some way related to our friendship or Vermont and the people we knew there and the experience we had. For example, the matching game included drawings of our mutual friends from Vermont who had to be matched with an object commonly associated with them.

The Audio Zine

I've made two versions of the audio zine. It is essentially a CD with a mixture of audio material, mostly made by me. The first one I made was for my friend, Tiffany. It was the first audio letter I made. I wanted to send her an audio letter but all I had was a small digital voice recorder, so it seemed to make the most sense to put the audio file on a CD. And I didn't want to put just one file on the CD because it would have a lot of unused space. So while driving home from college for Thanksgiving break, I made the first audio letter. While at home, I recorded a few introductions to other audio segments which were mainly conversations I had recorded between friends. I also included recordings of me playing the piano and "Intermissions" of actual songs by professional musicians. The final piece was a second audio letter recorded on the drive back to school.

The second audio zine I made was a half regular song mix and half conversation with a friend. This was for my friend Alisha. We were both doing work with a Conservation Corps. Hers was in Seattle and mine in Minnesota. But, it turned out that our crew leaders had worked together the previous year in Seattle and were friends. So, I recorded a conversation with my crew leader, Andrew, where I tried to get him to talk about Seattle, the Corps he worked for there, and stories related to my friend's crew leader, Anya.

Journal Exchange

One of the best gifts I ever received came to me in a package placed underneath my car while I visited Tallahassee. TIffany told me she had something to give me. I told her what my car looked like and where it was parked. When I had returned to my car after celebrating at a friend's apartment, I had to get on my hands and knees to find and reach the box underneath the front of my car. Inside I found many things including:

A VHS copy of the film Serendipity. I had never seen this movie but Tiffany told me that it reminded her of us. Books by Jeffrey Brown. I introduced Tiffany to Jeffrey Brown's books but I hadn't yet read any other than Clumsy. She sent me those to borrow and send back when finished.

An audio letter. After my first audio zine, Tiffany made this audio letter on a mini-cassette recorder. I had to send the recorder back but I kept the tape.

A blank mini-moleskin journal. This was the best part of the gift. Tiffany bought one journal for me, and one for herself. She explained the gift in her letter. It was to be "filled with miscellaneous moments from our private lives....Just as long as they are honest thoughts and moments in our everyday lives. Once both our books are filled, we mail them to each other. They're small and we can carry them around everywhere, so I'm fairly confident that this plan will actually work out."

The cover of the finished journal before I returned it to Tiffany

Farewell Letter

2011-12-04T12:12:00.001-08:00

In the past 2 years I've lived in five different states where I lived with, worked with, and got to know people for a few months before having to part ways. It felt only proper to leave them with something physical to remember me by, some parting gift. In addition to any personally relevant gift I might be able to come up with, I'd always leave them with a copy of one of my zines. More than the actual zine, I enjoyed writing a short note on the inside cover. These notes included sappy expressions of gratitude, appreciation, and admiration. They were things that felt important to say but somehow more appropriate in the written word.

I am now less than two weeks from parting with the state of Minnesota and all who I've met here. I've already given my zines to some people here and others I simply don't feel would enjoy them. So, in order to not lose the ability to write a farewell note, I'm writing farewell letters separate from zine inscriptions. As a farewell letter, I have a lot of freedom in how I can deliver it since I am in relatively close proximity to the recipients. I could mail it, hand deliver it, attach it to a balloon, scrawl it in the snow, etc. I've decided I will most likely hand deliver these letters when I say my final face-to-face goodbyes.

Isn't it interesting, though, how a letter can be a more comforable and honest way of expressing yourself? It feels great to share those feelings. And you don't have to be leaving a place to write such a letter. Maybe you have a friend who did some small, kind gesture that made you remember all the reasons you love them. Why not share that?

Russian Doll Letter

2011-11-19T14:28:00.001-08:00

You know how exciting it can be to open a personal letter? What if it wasn't opened after you opened it? What if the excitement just kept coming!? In this letter, you have to open four successively smaller envelopes before you get to the letter. I didn't want each envelope to contain only another envelope, so there is a small trinket/gift included in each one. Another way to do this would be to include one page of the letter in each envelope so you have to keep opening to keep reading. Just for fun, the smaller envelopes include mailing labels and cancelled stamps.

The four envelopes and their respective contents

The first two envelopes are some of my first attempts at collage-like mail art

Scroll Letter

2011-11-19T13:08:00.001-08:00

I have yet to hear about the fate of this letter but the idea is still worth sharing. I thought it'd be fun to write a letter on a scroll. With my first attempt at this I realized the scroll would have to be flattened when put in an envelope. So how could I send a scroll unflattened? To solve this and to make the scroll more interesting than just a rolled up sheet of paper, I built this box for it.

The box is made from the sides of a case of beer with a slit cut in the top. The scroll is wrapped around and taped to a piece of a straw. The straw has thread tied around the ends to keep it in place. In order to read the scroll, it has to be pulled. But to re-roll it the straw can be used. Unfortunately, I still had to send the letter in a package. It might not be the most practical letter to send but it should be more exciting to read. I wonder what other ways a letter could be made "interactive" in this way...

Organic Letter

2011-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

While I'm at work, I sometimes try to think of new letter ideas. And since I work outside right now, I've been thinking of how to use natural materials. This time, instead of writing the letter on leaves, I used leaves to make the envelope. I gathered a bunch of leaves and arranged them into two relatively equal sized rectangles. I taped the leaves in each rectangle together. To attach the two sides of the envelope, I rolled up pieces of tape and stuck them around the edges of one of the leaf rectangles and then attached the second one to it with the letter sandwiched inside.

I also used the bark from a Paper Birch tree as stationary. The bark from this tree doesn't grow back when peeled off so I made sure to take it from a fallen tree.

To see some of the bark stationary and how the envelope looked once it reached its destination, you can view this photo from the LWA Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16sparrows/6324487629/in/pool-lwa

Not too bad...but the brittle, untaped edges appear to have broken off in transit.

Thanks for the photo Kathy!

Random Acts of Letters / Travel On

2011-11-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

As of late, I've been going to the coffee shop in Moose Lake to write letters, read, and drink coffee. Something about the jittery energy I get from drinking their coffee and sitting still makes me burn with ideas and the desire to execute them. One such idea was inspired by a barista with striking eyes. I felt the all too familiar feeling of appreciating something small in a stranger - their smile, the way they say hello, or the cadence of their laugh. These feelings usually go unexpressed. I considered simply complimenting her outright but the appropriate opportunity has yet to arise in the few times I've seen her there. Instead, I decided it'd be great to be able to write anonymous notes to strangers. These aren't letters in that they are incredibly brief and they do not go through the postal service. But is length and delivery what defines a letter?

Just as I would for a normal letter, I considered the words, the materials, and the delivery that would have the most desirable effect. As I was about to leave, I brought my empty cup to the counter with the sugars and creamers. I wrote the following on a napkin:

To the barista with the shorter hair,

                        You have lovely eyes.

                                                   Sincerely,

                                             A satisfied customer

I folded the napkin so part of the text would be visible. I placed it underneath my cup in the dirty dish bin. Not knowing her name, I had to address her in some way as to make sure she couldn't be mistaken for any other employee. I wanted to write the note on something relevant to the location. Sugar packets were too small. Napkins were the next best thing. I made sure to keep it anonymous because it is not important who I am. The conditions were not ideal. The establishment was virtually empty when I left and my cup was the only one in the dirty dish bin. It will be easy for them to figure out who wrote the note. This obscures my goal a bit in that I wanted the note to stand alone - to not carry with it the possibility of an ulterior motive. I don't want her to think I expect anything in return, like a date. It is simply to be an unprovoked compliment to a stranger. I didn't leave her my number. It is not about that. It would have been better if this were a place I was stopping in while traveling - a place I never expected to return to. Since I am somewhat of a regular now, it might be awkward when I return. Regardless, I consider it a success if it makes her smile in the slightest.

Imagine the possibilities in this. How cool would it be to slip a similar note into the purse or even the pocket of someone covertly so that they don't read it until they get home? It's about finding unexpected notes in unexpected places from unexpected people.

* * *

In addition to writing letters, I write a zine printed at irregular intervals that probably average something like one new issue every 8 months. I first started this zine, Travel On, when I moved from Florida. The name might suggest that the zine is all about traveling and my experiences with it but that is actually just a very loose frame I built it around. It's honestly just a place for me to print anything I write. Travel On #1 contains two fictional stories, some non-fiction ramblings, a conversation with a friend, and two of my favorite letters I've written. In Travel On #2 I tried to make it more specifc to my time in Vermont so there are three letters I wrote while I was there that in some way tell about my experience. It also includes one fictional story and some more non-fiction ramblings. These are the only two I have printed thus far but a 3rd is in the early formatting stages, and will likely consist primarily of letters.

I've only ever given these zines to people I knew personally. Traveling as I have been, I've made a lot of brief connections. It is sometimes nice to give these people I meet something to remember me by. So, I feel weird asking for money for them. But if you'd like a copy of either Travel On #1 or Travel On #2 or both I'd ask that you send two stamps for each zine or the equivalent in cash plus two dollars per zine. I only ask for money to help cover costs in printing the next one. It won't cover much of the costs but every bit would help.

If you're interested, email me at dcs577@gmail.com and I'll give you an address where you can send the money. Also, feel free to write me a personal letter! I promise to write back.

Letter in Someone Else's Hand

2011-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

My dear friend, Tiffany, and I have had a unique friendship that has revolved around long distance correspondence. At one point, while both of us were attending FSU, we maintained a drop spot in the campus library. The drop spot was a page in one of the National Geographic books in the periodicals section of the library. The drop spot started when I sent her a regular letter that was nothing but a short note detailing a call number and location of a particular book in the library. This book had another location to go to in the library and so on until she ended up at the proper NatGeo book. In it was a handmade booklet I made for her including things such as a play, a poem, a to do list, and other things written for her. We started leaving our letters to each other in the library to avoid having to use the postal service and thereby save money on postage and time on delivery.

I graduated nearly two years ago now and Tiffany is a senior at FSU. Since graduation, I have traveled to several different states, putting an ever increasing physical distance between us. The drop spot was effectively laid to rest once I graduated and moved away. In an effort to send Tiffany a letter in a new and surprising way, I decided to revive the old drop spot, from Minnesota.

I typed a letter to Tiffany and sent the digital copy to one of my other friends who still lives in Tallahassee and goes to FSU. This friend, Chanel, wrote the letter out by hand, put it in an evelope, and put it in the NatGeo section of the library.

Placement of letter in library

Next, she wrote a note with the specific location and folded it up into a lovely flower and attached it to another piece of paper which was placed within Tiffany's mailbox.

Unfolded flower note

The first thing Tiffany saw and read when she opened her mailbox.

Receiving a letter in this way achieves an element of surprise not only because it is outside the confines of the postal service but because of it's perceived impossibilty due to our physical distance. Also, because of the feminine handwriting, the true author of the letter is disguised until the valediction. I think this gives the whole concept of receiving a letter a fresh level of excitement. I consider it a success since I was told by Tiffany that it made her day. That is ultimately the goal and hope of any letter I send.

P.S. Thanks to Chanel for taking the photos. And of course for writing and delivering my letter.

This odd piece of mail was part of the Initiative Response Program over at the Letter Writer's Alliance:

http://16sparrows.com/LWA/index.html

Bicycle

2011-10-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about playing cards is their versatility. They can be used in magical card effects displaying sleight of hand, they can be used to display endless fancy flourishes, to create large, elegant, free-standing structures, and to throw fast enough to split a banana in half or pierce the skin of a watermelon and far enough to cover over 200 ft.

As someone who uses playing cards for all of these reasons - not to mention to play card games - I accummulate a lot of decks. I try to come up with ways to make use of all my old decks instead of just wastefully tossing them out. I've built gift boxes with them and used them to practice more destructive sleights and flourishes, and now I've been trying to incorporate them into artistic endeavors such as letter writing.

Here I've turned a handful of cards into an envelope. I arranged them on a flat surface using an existing large envelope for a template. I then taped the cards where they overlap. I made two of these and then stapled them together along three edges and taped over the staples. The staples made the envelope a bit tight and also reduced the amount of space inside. In the future, I'd rather just use tape.

Fall in Florida

2011-10-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

One year ago, I was living and working in New Hampshire. I got to experience a true Fall for the first time with leaves changing on a massive scale. Being from Florida, I just hadn't ever seen every tree in a shade of orange, yellow, or red....or every leaf falling to the ground until it replaced the grass. It is more of a here and there leaf changing phenomenon in Florida. My friend Amanda, a fellow Floridian, had asked me to send her some Fall leaves from up North. I found one of each color and mailed them with a letter so that she might in some way share in this season foreign to Florida.

This year, I am in Minnesota where the Fall is just as grand. I wanted to preemptively send Amanda some Fall leaves....unfortunately, it was a little early in the season so I had to scrounge for different colored leaves as best I could, which means I included some green ones too. Instead of wasting paper to write a letter on to send with the leaves, I turned the leaves into the paper and wrote the letter on them. The leaves were thin and delicate so I wrote slowly and lightly using a fine point marker after having flattened them in a book for several days.

This odd piece of mail was part of the Initiative Response Program over at the Letter Writer's Alliance:

http://16sparrows.com/LWA/index.html

Secret Compartment

2011-10-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

When thinking of possible envelope substitutes, I came up with the idea to hollow out a book much like those secret faux books that are actually safes for small precious items. I bought a relatively small, hardcover book from an antique store. Small and hardcover seemed like the most practical and durable for mailing. I cut each page individually with an xacto knife by measuring it out and then using the first page as a stencil for the rest. I included a small cut out shape for a stamp to encourage a reply/encourage more letter writing. I considered glueing each page together but instead settled on tying them together. I poked three holes through all the pages and the bottom cover with push pins and then tied them off with some thread. To mail it, I taped the book shut along the edges.

10,000 Lakes

2011-09-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

The first post office I went to acted dumbfounded at what I brought in, telling me that because of the sharp edges it had to be wrapped. "So, if it didn't have sharp edges it would be fine?" I asked. "I don't know because I've never seen anything like this come through," she said. At the second post office, the man acted as though I were an idiot. Of course you can't send a license plate through the mail without an envelope. But at the third post office, the postal worker actually made a phone call to double check as to whether it were possible for me to send the license plate unwrapped. She basically sent me away recommending I wrap it but saying that if I tried another post office I might be able to find someone willing to take it. She weighed it and told me the proper postage. When I turned it over to explain the back of the plate had a letter on it she said, "Now, that's cool."

I knew that sending a license plate without an envelope would technically be against the policy of the post office so I wasn't really surprised by the reluctance of most postal workers. Once I had the item weighed I just affixed the appropriate 6 stamps and put it in the blue mailbox outside of the third post office I went to. I'm proud to say that it has since been confirmed to have arrived at it's proper location. Shannon left me a voicemail saying that all the general store/post office people were talking about it. It's nice to be able to send something through the mail that not only sparks the interest of the recipient but of all the workers involved in making it reach it's destination.

The license plate was purchased at an antique store. I typed out a brief letter, printed it out, and then cut it up into strips. I arranged them I wanted on the back of the license plate. I then taped them down with packing tape. If I did it again, I'd probably use paper of a color other than gray or white to stand out more against the metallic surface. The label on the front was also tacked down with packing tape. I purposefully left off a return address in the hopes that this would leave the postal workers no choice but to send it on it's way.

This odd piece of mail was part of the Initiative Response Program over at the Letter Writer's Alliance:

http://16sparrows.com/LWA/index.html

In my attempt to find out how feasible this would be, I found this interesting article about an experiment some guys did to test the limits of the postal service. They attempted to send things like an inflated helium balloon, a street sign, a coconut, a ski, a water bottle, a brick, dead fish, etc. You'll have to read it to see which ones actually made it.

http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/postal-6-4.html

This site was also helpful in coming up with ideas. She's sent an unwrapped flip flop through the mail among other things.

http://www.giverslog.com/?tag=happy-mail

It's For The Best

2011-09-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to write a letter to someone for the first time, particularly if they are someone who doesn't get many personal letters. Trips to the mailbox need all the brightening up they can get.

This letter is written in a card/booklet. The front and back covers are made from a piece of cardstock cut in half. The pages of the letter are regular sheets of gray printer paper also cut in half. I bound it with twisty ties. On the front, I drew a true but funny interpretation of the conservation work I do since the recipient is also involved in the Environmental field and has even helped me with obtaining my past few jobs.

Exit From The Womb

2011-09-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

The best birthday present I've yet to receive was a box underneath the front of my car. My first birthday after graduating college, I went back to Tallahassee to celebrate with some college friends. My car was parked at my friend Daniel's apartment complex. He drove us to his girlfriend Sarah's place for the festivities. While there, I exchanged text messages with my letter friend Tiffany. She had a present for me, so I told her where my car was parked. When I got back to Daniel's apartment, I got down on both my knees in order to feel around for this package. Searching through it back at Sarah's, I couldn't stop smiling at all the wonderful things inside. Some were of a personal significance between Tiffany and I, like the VHS copy of Serendipity or the books by Jeffrey Brown. Other notable items include the tape recorder with an audio letter and the blank moleskin journal to be filled out and mailed back to Tiffany, who would do the same.

Below are photos of the package and the audio letter. Being someone I haven't verbally interacted with very much, hearing an audio letter - which I equate to a long voicemail - of Tiffany's voice speaking directly to me was a wonderful new intimate thing to experience. I kept the tape and mailed her the recorder back. I only wish I had the appropriate type of recorder to be able to play it again.

What is the interest or significance of an audio letter? Like I said above, it can be a more intimate form of communication than a regular letter. But why not just talk on the phone? The difference, the novelty of the audio letter is that it is a one way conversation, like a letter. It is a long self-directed rambling of one person's thoughts and feelings without interruption. I can't think of any other situation where someone has the freedom to speak verbally to another person in that way.

Water like Walter

2011-09-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Last year, while working in Ver-hampshire, I got to see some wonderful Fall foliage that just doesn't exist in my native homeland of Florida. A friend of mine, Amanda, had requested I take some photos and/or send her some leaves. I tried to do both.

For this letter, I wrote the actual letter on the envelope - much like a postcard except longer. Stolen from Tiffany's folded Nat Geo page idea, I took a coloring book page, colored it, folded it in half, and taped it with packing tape. Inside, were three Fall leaves (Sugar Maple I believe) of three different colors.

Cheet

2011-09-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I will be posting creative letters that I both send and receive to show the artistic beauty and potential of this so-called "lost" or "dead" form of communication.

To kick it off, this is the envelope for the first letter I received from my best friend, Tiffany. Our entire relationship in itself is a good story, but to make it short, I met her by randomly writing her a letter while she was working at camp for the summer. I used the code name Cheet in the first letter. I wasn't sure if I was going to ever hear from her but when I least expected it, I saw this curious and exciting envelope in my box at school. I couldn't wait to open it. Letters aren't just what we say. The packaging of the letter - the envelope or box or whatever - can really add to the initial enjoyment and excitement of receiving the letter.

The envelope is simply a page from a National Geographic magazine folded in half and then covered in packing tape. It is incredibly simple but far more decorative and unique than a plain white envelope. Inside, she included goodies such as two maps of where she was working and a feather she found there. It was a great start to a long a beautiful correspondence. It ignited my passion for letters and pushing their creative bounds.