Archive for the ‘Postcards’ Category

The Year In Postcards

Sunday, December 9th, 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 🙂

The Lost Cards

Monday, September 3rd, 2018

Exactly three months ago today we were in Glasgow, and as usual I wrote and sent postcards from that fair city. Some of those cards featured these stamps:

These are commonly sold in tourist stores around the UK and I’ve used them before (including from many locations in England a couple of years ago). But I have since learned that these stamps are not issued by the Royal Mail (England’s official postal service) and are instead owned by a third party who has a dubious reputation when it comes to actually delivering stamped items.

If you use these stamps, apparently the items (which you put into a normal post box) are not delivered by the mail service, but are instead sent to a clearing house ran by the company that issues these stamps. They then send the collected mail in large quantities to another country with cheaper international rates, and mail it from there. According to what I’ve read these countries are usually in SE Asia, and there are significant delays as a result.

As far as I know only one Glasgow postcard using these stamps (and I believe I sent 10) has arrived – to my parents in Oz. The rest of us are waiting, but since it’s been three months I’m starting to wonder if we’ll wait forever…

I once sent my parents a card from Scarborough, England that took over 6 months to arrive but that used Royal Mail. I fear these Glaswegian cards are forgotten in a box somewhere, or perhaps experienced a grimmer fate.

The lesson is: in the UK, no matter how pretty the alternative, only use Royal Mail stamps (look for the queens head on the stamp). Even if your cards do arrive using these imposter stamps, they will likely be long-delayed!

We Did It Again

Wednesday, May 23rd, 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?

More Masterpieces

Sunday, May 13th, 2018

Most of you have received cards or postcards from me that feature my ‘unique’ art skills. Some of you have even responded in-kind, and it’s always a treat to see your talents on display. But I never expected I’d receive anything like these cards my friend JK has sent me these past six months:

That’s a pencil sketch! Santa Claus with my drink of choice (Mt Dew!) done in a classic style. Talent beyond my dreams.

This is a flabbergasting pen sketch of Yossie, based on this photo I had tweeted:

And then recently came this one:

Believe it or not this is a watercolour! A masterpiece created using $2 paints from Walmart and children’s brushes! I had actually bought the paints myself to try painting myself but my scribblings were as nothing compared to this!

Jessica thought I could do better though and I decided to try! I bought new paints ($4 this time) and a new brush ($2) and with a special piece of thick stock paper she provided set out to reproduce this classic:

It took a while, and pushed my abilities to their very limits, but I think I mostly succeeded:

Don’t you?

Jokes aside isn’t Jessica’s talent astonishing? I could only dream of the postcards you’d all be receiving if I even had a tenth of her skills 🙂

Meanwhile, At Work

Saturday, April 21st, 2018

Some quick shots from my office…

Only two of the above we’re provided by me. The rest came from colleagues, friends or students. In time this was noticed, and other students thought it was a good idea…

So it spread! I put the four Australian ones on the side there, but again most were from others. As were…

Israel, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, Austria, Norway! So many places I haven’t been (as well as some I have). Where will I get cards from in the future?