you've got mail …..

Happy New Year all my creative friends.  Hoping that this is a wonderful year for us all …

Last year I was privileged to take part in a delightful exchange project.  Each month of the year five of us in three different countries, made or decorated an envelope and made a small insert as a creative gift. These were then posted monthly, including one to ourselves, and each month we had the enormous pleasure of receiving this mail through the post.

I cannot convey the depth of pleasure this brought to each of us …. the anticipation of receiving 'art mail' in amongst all the drab letters that usually arrive (bills mostly!), the shaking of the hands with excitement as the envelope was carried away almost secretly to a quiet corner for fondling, turning this way and that and taking in all the external delights of the envelope marks and hints, then once a decision was made on how to open the envelope, the gasp of pleasure as the treasure inside was revealed.  Unwrapping this often meant unwrapping crisp layers of tissue, revealing the next layer which may be tied with glorious thread revealing yet another delight beneath, only to realise there was yet another something tucked away inside. Sigh!

I have been reliving all of this haptic and visual pleasure today, going through the bundles and examining each treasure again, taking photographs.  And so on.  Photographs in the end are merely photographs and cannot possibly explain all those emotions and the joy each month's mail released.

The project was year long, but the cherished friendships that have been made over the year will grow.  Five like minded creative souls who have formed a special link across the miles.  A little like pen pals of old who become so important to us, without ever having met the correspondent, is how this project became.  Strangers coming to know each other through sharing their creativity.  I think the success of this project is that those who were invited to join in the group had been singled out as being creatively like minded …. and of course, behind that artwork lay souls that were meant to forge links.

Although the project was totally delicious, the commitment was large and having reached our year's goal, it was decided that we would set it aside to make time for other work.  We all seem to have busy creative years ahead of us but I can say with certainty, that this has been something special.

Here are some photographs of the first six month's of mail …  the next instalment will follow soon.

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013