Category: Art

The Year In Postcards

  • December 9, 2018

I traveled a lot this year and sent many postcards. Happily I received many as well, from all over the world!

As you know I have a particularly love of strange postcards, and happily sent and received many of them as well:

These are just a sample of course. I always send KLS/myself lots of cards when I travel, and between them and the ones you sent me I reckon there must have been nearly 100 arriving this year! ?

That’s a wooden card, which made it intact from Australia when I was there in January. Interestingly it only cost the same as a normal card to mail.

Speaking of stamps:

You may have not noticed, but I put a lot of effort into the stamps I put on cards. Specifically I try not to repeat stamps where possible. Watch for this the next you get cards from me. This past year it meant a massive variety of stamps and as usual Australia didn’t disappoint with their pretty and varied selection.

Of course in the name of fun I’ll sometimes repeat stamps:

This year I also took my postcard art to a new level, especially during the days in Hawaii where the hurricane shut everything down:

Many of you received original art this year as well. I hope you treasure it 🙂

Of course some of you reciprocated demonstrating talent that frankly shames mine:

Or created ‘modern art’ using other means:

No summary of 2018 in postcards could be complete without mentioning the dozen or so different Nessie’s I painted on cards sent from Scotland. It took ages but I was very happy with what I achieved…

In a few weeks I’ll be in Oz again, and then very shortly thereafter in Japan. In other words next years cards aren’t too far away. Look forward to them 🙂

  • Posted in Art
  • Robert

Tattoo Time!

  • August 4, 2018

I bought a few packs of these for 25 cents each:

Considering they’re from 1989, I’d say they didn’t retain value! The gum inside is of course inedible, but the tattoo sheets are fine and look like this:

(Yes I’d removed one…)

This is the old 1980s technology; where the tattoos are just food dye printed onto paper. Get them wet and they (are supposed to) transfer. Let’s try one:

Putting aside for now the fact I resemble a snuffleupagus in the photo, licking my hand to administer just enough moisture to apply the tattoo was a trip down memory lane to say the least! These sorts of things were common in our youth, and I particularly remember them being packaged on lolly/ice-cream wrappers. I’d always be putting them on myself, and I seem to recall having fun applying them to bread (!) and even ice-cream (!!) as well.

However… these didn’t work too well:

Maybe the ‘lick the hand’ technique was at fault? Let’s try water:

Yeah… terrible. I can’t imagine much would have happened to the tattoo in the intervening 30 years, but it’s hard to believe they were sold if they worked this poorly?

I will say though that they last a while! It’s been 12 hours now and they haven’t faded at all, and even survived several handwashings! Maybe these ancient tattoos were engineered for strength as opposed to beauty 🙂

I’ve got a couple of packs left if you want one. Let me know.

  • Posted in Art
  • Robert

We Did It Again

  • May 23, 2018

Remember the postcard contest from last year? We did it again! Basically the same rules, only now we were more about overall style than just cramming stickers on.

But then Bernard instantly said “rules-be-damned” and sent three cards as his entry! He didn’t reveal this, so it ended up being his three versus my one. I’ll present them here; you can judge for yourself who won…

Bernard’s three:

The Gudetama card! The simplicity belies the obvious time that went into the design and implementation.

A card that celebrates the diversity of marine life, endlessly circling a sleeping egg. Had Bernard named this, I think he would have called it ‘Albumen Depths‘.

And finally a card dedicated to Yeri from Red Velvet. Gude reclines on a rasher as he ponders the inclusion of the grapes in the central image.

Three cards therefore. A strong collective entry. But was it strong enough? Although I didn’t know the extent of my opposition, I humbly present my knockout entry:

I call this one ‘Planet Gudetama‘ and put my very soul into it. The letter placement! The sticker choices! The hours I spent creating it! This was my magnus opus, at least until the next contest!

Incidentally the Gudetama theme was coincidence. But Bernard and I have been on a ‘lazy egg’ bender for a while so it wasn’t surprising. After all anything is better with a Gudetama sticker!

So what do you think? Did I win?