Dear Everyone ~
I’ve written a couple of posts recently about lovely
emails I’ve received from customers far and wide.
Today, I’d like to share with you some Real Mail
that has been delivered to my desk at the shop.
As you browse through these, note how many different
styles (of artistic technique, of handwriting, of stamp choice)
are represented! May you be a bit inspired!
Julie Wildman is a calligrapher, lettering artist,
and long-time Bari Zaki Studio instructor.
She painted with Sumi-e ink on a sheet of heavy
Japanese mulberry paper, and then cut it down to postcard size.
(That’s how she was able to swoosh right off the edges.)
Of course, I admire her stylized JW tchop. On the message side,
Julie ultra-coordinated “bari zaki studio” with the lovely love stamp.
I [heart] that!
* * * * *
Barbara is a newish customer. She “discovered” me thanks
to a slightly-less-new-acquaintance who works at Paper Source.
When Barbara placed her first order, the shop was already in shutdown
mode, but it turns out that she lives quite close to me. So, I offered
to bring her items home with me … and Barbara was able to walk
over and retrieve them. After she placed a second order earlier this week,
we repeated our “stationery for the socially stationary” protocol!
Between her two orders, Barbara mailed me a petite envelope
bearing a hugely charmola card she’d made from a piece
of heavy handmade paper. The bird illustration is a vintage clipping.
Because Barbara has tiny, tidy handwriting, she managed to fit
several lovely sentences on her card, notably:
“ Thank you so much for my beautiful package...
I slowly and carefully opened each dear little package and
have managed to save all the paper strips, stamps, and stickers
to be used again. Someone else will be able to enjoy your beautiful things. ”
* * * * *
Patricia is a customer I’ve never met.
She lives in Arizona and recently sent Greetings
in an envelope she’d franked with the perfect postage.
(Apparently, she has a source! Brava!) The cacti at
upper left are rubber-stamped and then hand-coloured.
Succulent!
* * * * *
Judi is a local long-time customer.
She loves to come in and buy, amongst other things, postcards.
She bought this one from me probably five years ago …
and recently decided to send me some love. Judi herself has
short red hair, so I just adore her personalization of the illustration.
Apropos of her hand-embellishment: Even if you don’t consider
yourself an artist, adding anything at all to an image adds
immeasurably to its charm. It can be a decorative postage stamp,
or a discreet rubber stamp, or simply an element that you hand colour.
* * * * *
Becky, also a local long-time customer,
recently mailed me her trio of très tasty beets.
She has taken calligraphy classes at Bari Zaki Studio
with both Julie W. & Becka B. I’m so besotted with her lettering.
She bought one pencil cup the moment we announced they were
online, and then proceeded to order three more, for a total of four
so far! Her fabulously flowing Copperplate hand makes my heart swell:
“ Dear Bari, I love, love, love my new pencil cups!
They brighten the studio as well as my mood.
Thank you! Becky. ”
* * * * *
Brian is a local artist and book lover/collector.
We met last year via instagram and immediately connected.
I love receiving mail from Brian, who usually doodles
or draws on a vintage book page, which he inscribes
For Bari. I find this heartwarming.
I’m showing the back of Brian’s envelope in
admiration for his use & placement of washi tape.
Janet is another long-time customer.
She is also a student of bookbinding, drawing,
and envelope-making. I love that she drew so whimsically
on the outside of the envelope. And her enclosures had me
in full swoon two minutes after Will handed me the envelope,
which he did with great ceremony. I decanted with delight.
Janet’s bonanza included a little painting on a vintage book page,
a loose lily-of-the-valley sticker & a teeny collage.
* * * * *
Emmy Kennett included me in a “30 letters to 30 friends challenge”,
and, as she writes, she expanded the rules to include postcards.
She also says:
“ ... that I’ve enclosed some “silly” things for you,
maybe silly is the wrong word. More like trifling.
Nothing great unfortunately – trying times, indeed. ”
Emmy's enclosures were neither silly nor trifling,
and I consider myself fortunate to have received them.
Emmy also mentions taking more walks along the beach
and seeing “a whole scoop of pelicans hanging on the beach
the other day.” I am jubilant about sending her an envelope
featuring the fabulous 8¢ pelican stamp!
* * * * *
I don’t think that it is better to give than to receive,
but I definitely pride myself on the energy I put into
preparing mail. Here is a glamour shot of a recent outgoing batch
that included pieces I had been working on sporadically for weeks.
P.S.
My most recent stamp purchase is a triumph of humour
over design. John Oliver, zany host of “Last Week Tonight,”
has designed a quartet of postage stamps in support of the USPS.
You can see and buy them here … until mid-June, if supplies last.
I can barely wait to send mail with a stamp that says:
And now … a stamp.