security update.

image courtesy kristi dominelli

i would first like to say that the response to my security envelope button project and related call to arms for envelope rescuers has been overwhelming. i owe a big thanks to all the bloggers who have been so central in getting the word out - the toronto craft alert, something's hiding in here, notcot.org, make something, and many more. i hope i managed to find all the links. i am little if not a record keeper.

through the beginnings of this project, i have also been directed towards previous postal obsessions of other artists. tara sent me links to kristiina lahde's meticulous security envelope cuts and spheres; dory told me about the postal hijinks of harriet russell (look under books/envelopes). and i even discovered this flickr pool that catalogues the patterns worldwide. it seems a bit inactive, but i am considering scanning my collection and submitting to it for the greater good (as if i need to add any more steps to my already weirdly codified processes). mostly, though, i just scanned through the pool hoping some of those patterns were in the mail and on their way to my grubby mitts.

speaking of offer-taker, the number of respondents is now topping eighty, from places as far-flung as singapore, the united kingdom, germany, south africa, new zealand, australia, lithuania and indonesia, to name a few. i think i may have to cap reward send-outs at 100 sets so that me, aitor and the cat don't have to spend the winter in a cardboard box, but i'm pretty hooked on the publicness this project has taken on. i have gotten emails about people's penchants for mundane design, compulsive hoardings, mysterious collections and more than a couple had said they had never before looked inside the envelopes their bills came in. i have even gotten a couple of replies from people who work in accounts receivable or mail rooms promising huge stashes of foreign design. i feel like a glutton.

i am sure i will be parceling out updates as contributions arrive, in which i will get to talk a bit more about the people contributing and what they do. but for now, i just look forward to monday's return home (after almost six months) and the packages of other people's beautiful trash that sit there awaiting my love and affections.