multiples.

i like things fitting into sets. as i've had this little bit of time to catch up on my work, i've also been catching up on my documentation and archiving. the image above is from my flickr account. i made a set for all the neck warmers i had crocheted and saw this whole grid of the 42 finished pieces today as i was busily sorting. last year, i hoped to make 100 but had to stop when i realized i was spending all my time crocheting and not getting other things done. it's hard to get out of the habit when one picks up the hook.

i also spent some time today trying to document the security envelopes buttons i have become so enthralled in making. after my big score of envelopes in st. louis, i have really had to rein in my desire to make more and more of these buttons. every once in a while, i allow myself to make 100 and just stare at them for a moment...or ten moments.

after some serious field studying last night, i am pretty confident in the identification of at least eighty different designs in a host of harmonizing colourways (do they plan this? or are the colours of security just inherently harmonious?)







i have been toying with notions of translating this unstoppable obsession from crafty goodness into larger more art-world installations. i get scared of 'big art' (well, making it, not viewing it) but think that i finally found a project that excites me and makes sense to my art-brain. to this end (ramping up and feeding my obsession to artistic ends), i am now willing to offer you some free gifts in exchange for used security envelopes. that's right, i will send you a set of security envelopes buttons in exchange for a contribution of old security envelopes from you. if anyone from overseas reads this, i am particularly interested in what wild foreign envelopes might be out there and especially implore you to send me some.

if this strikes your fancy, just email me for shipping info and we can get rolling!

it's a pretty good deal, eh? you send me garbage and i send you other non-garbage stuff.

some rules (for what is life without them?):
1. only used or otherwise unusable (ie. pre-addressed) envelopes. this is a project of reuse.
2. no logos or words. i have found some companies put their logo inside their envelopes. i have deemed these unacceptable for this project.

[edit: december 6, 2008: i have reached my 100 respondent limit and suspended this call for submissions. there is a collecting phase two coming, though. read more here.]

security envelopes: regrouping, reimagining and renewed effort.

above is a big collection of magnets used for the diwhy/ security envelope installation at the ontario crafts council. until this evening, these magnets were sitting in a bag with an equal number of big huge nails. but with the workroom window display coming back to my home shortly, it was time to get things squared up on the security front so that i can wake the project from its hibernation and get back to going through submission and cataloguing.

i should also say that during this fallow time i have come across a few new postal/security projects of note that i wish to share with the world...

1) signature security envelopes by the esteemed tara bursey.
obviously, tara would share obsessions with me - design, art, zines, mail, personal touches, collecting...just to name a few overlapping territories. her totally perfect self-made security envelopes really bring thoughts of safety and identity to the next level. and, as always, she does it with infinite grace and attention to detail.

2) insecurity envelopes by jk keller.
i actually stumbled into this project after being sent this by a friend (pretty amazing in its own right). this mr. keller fellow seems to be onto a great many interesting things. his entire online portfolio was worth the steadfast peruse i gave it. my other favorite project is the paulette ribbon typeface. you'll see. i really get a thrill when math and craft collide. and it's a plus when the results are pretty.

bride of security envelopes.

are you sick of this stuff yet? please let me know, dear reader, if you do become ill from my minute ramblings. i will take your feedback into account. although i may ignore it, at least i can progress to knowing ignorance. but i digress.

above is a collection of inside out security envelopes sent to me by laura. a few people reported doing this as a way of reusing all the junk envelopes they receive. they are awfully pretty, too. so pretty, in fact, that i am reluctant to cut them up and turn them into buttons. so far, i have only cut one up - the new pattern in the bunch which i have nicknamed 'edelweiss'. other than that, i am hoping i collect enough of the other patterns to be able to retain the remaining insideouters for future use. they seem like they take some amount of effort to make, too. i tried just turning and envelope inside out myself. this was misguided and i didn't get very far. upon closer inspection of laura's contributions, it seems clear that the envelopes must be loosened apart at the seams and then reglued back together inside out. another reason i don't want to cut them all up. this project of reuse, however, is something i plan to adopt into my future on a personal level - it seems to work especially well with all the 'reply to' envelopes that companies send out because their sticky part hasn't even been used yet. and if this project of mine grows to the place i am hoping, i think i can use many of laura's contributions (the patterns other have sent in) to package press releases. what could be better?

getting schooled.

this morning, i accompanied shannah to her school to do a guest artist visit with her sixth grade class. shannah is the art specialist at a school in st. louis that focuses on multiple intelligence education. it's pretty interesting stuff. for my part, i came in, talked about myself/my art, and took some questions. the first question was, "do we get to make buttons?"

so we got down to it.

i have a great appreciation for what shannah does. trying to shove a lesson and project into 50 minutes is no small feat. we got into themes of found materials, beauty in the mundane, pattern, thinking small and the reframing of imagery. in the end, the kids ended up making a first wave of mostly garfield buttons (a theme which i a no stranger to), but then automatically got into their own drawings, slogans, and even abstracts of found materials.









in the afternoon, i had the bruce and shannah's whole house to myself. it was great. i made a big mess on the dining room table, making a new rubber stamp, stamping paper bags, folding up target bags, and sorting through the huge score of security envelopes that i got from bruce last night. i had to prepare the envelopes for future button making by cutting out the plastic windows and cutting them down to be more easily packable. this process reminded me of cleaning fish, something i used to be quite proficient at. cutting up these envelopes really does have similar rhythms.







it's hard for me to express the depths of joy that i got from picking through security envelopes. we decided that i had acquired at least 30 new patterns from bruce's collection. my first purple! waves! knots! we even took to naming some of the designs - the drunkard's weave, harlequin, riverbed. i have a larger personal application planned for all of these designs. but more on that when it materializes. until then, i have some project runway to yell at...

son of security envelopes.

pictured here are some of the envelopes sent in by jake. the zigzags are new to me but so is the envelope in the front, which is covered in overlapping numbers. such designs bring up an interesting (to me) dilemma. when i first set out on this project, i was drawn to the abstract nature of the designs inside envelopes and wanted to highlight their beauty. but patterns like this (or some beautiful ones that say 'air mail' in various languages, 'thank you' or other similar messages) challenge the parameters of the project in my mind. they are not disqualified for being corporate, and yet they present recognizable symbols which are at odds with my initial vision for the project. i do recognize this distinction as being purely aesthetic and not at all ideological, so it seems wrong to punish these plucky envelopes simply for being more populist. the solution i have come up with, is to retain these designs for a second, later release of sets with words and symbols on them. to me, this makes them an even more special, rarefied collection and will hopefully give this project and eventual second wind. thank you for suffering my struggles, folks.



but back to questions of corporate interference in artistic life...i have received more than a few envelopes with tiling logos inside them. not to say that i am ungrateful for the contributions i have received, they just find a way of slipping in. some have come in large contributions, masterfully camouflaging themselves in bulk; some sport logos so simple as to look abstract when tiled; and some just look cool to begin with (the uk passport office logo jumps to mind). but even more insidious (and something i have just decided to incorporate into my project) is colour branding. that orange in the stack above is associated with come british company; a certain courier service has its own purple (which i quite like); there is a burgundy associated with another company (which i can't remember - sorry, your branding is less effective. i remember the colour but not you). and i bet there are even more branded colours that i haven't noticed. it's pretty tricky stuff. and it worked. i really wanted this project to promote the idea of (mostly) nameless designers and their subtle effects on our lives. instead, some stock patterns have been given a new colour that was, in some instances, agreed upon by rooms upon rooms of people. i guess being a corporate shill is much more inescapable than i had originally understood. at least this sneaky corporate intervention has provided my project a wider colour palette. sigh.



in cheerier, more forward-moving news, you may notice a recipe box in this last photo. this is where i am housing my burgeoning security envelope swatch collection. i hope to use this to scan patterns for online dissemination, scrutinize new submissions against the current collection and maybe even do things i have yet to think of. the future is now.

security envelopes glut and reporting.

okay, it has become clear to me that this blog is going to have to spend a while documenting the contributions of envelopes that are currently pouring into my apartment from all over the world. when i got home on monday night, i was greeted by a veritable heap of care packages. i am now slowly going through the process of looking through the treasures and documenting them properly. the envelopes pictured above were sent in by jane ashby, a british illustrator/animator who confessed to amassing envelopes for years in the hopes that she would use them in her own work. she had yet to get around to using them and sent me a big stash, including (but not limited to) the new-to-me patterns pictured above. i am very happy to announce the first orange in my collection (but not the last; i have been doing some peeking through other contributions). i am also really excited by the basket weave and zig zags, which i had also never seen before. i'm going to be buttoning like mad in the coming weeks. thank you very much, jane, for parting with your collection.

oh man, does this mean i am going to be writing ninety posts about ninety contributors? i just feel so thankful and beholden to you all. i just hope to do your gifts justice.

crosshatches, stripes and points between.

that up there is the pattern used in the security envelopes that come from hydro quebec. i had never seen it before and was very excited when i got a whole stash from sarah in ottawa. although, i was informed that my brother-in-commonlaw must have an unopened stack of them somewhere in his montreal apartment. but that's another story, entirely.



these ones come from kara in california. i have found that at this point, going through north american submissions has been all about picking out subtle differences. i think all those patterns are new to me and yet they are similar to many i already have. it's picky work to look through them all for differences but i am excited about how these similar patterns might eventually look together en masse.

in other security roundup news, i have been meaning to share the work of henrietta swift, which i found through notcot. although her security project is only prototypical, she still demonstrates a particularly british respect for such subtle design work...and for envelopes.

issues of security in america's new dawn.

envelopes are still trickling in from collection phase one. it's nice. the pace is easier to keep up with and the security envelope project has gone back to being a loving process to me (i react poorly to being beholden).

above is the new pattern i found in a contribution from frank in indiana. i have seen this pattern before but never in red. i love it!

in a recent letter, my friend melissa brought up the idea that i should bring this project to the states, what with the connotations of security there these days. of course, i had considered these themes before but they were not central in my artistic motivations for this project. regardless of that, she's right; security seems to be on everyone's minds these days in one way or another (american or not). i like the notion that these scraps of paper could keep us all safe. i think it's working for me. there is a security in being focused on a project or goal. well, it's one of the best kinds of security i have come upon in my creative life, at any rate.

first snow, and what to do with it.

well, we have been away from home for almost six months and (other than a very light dusting last night) this is the first snow we have seen. it's hard to look back on our baking august in the arizona desert and imagine that we are now here in detroit with this sort of view out the window. it's not bad yet. i just hope the weather doesn't conspire against us in light of our return home tomorrow.



things here are not so bad, though. stephanie came over and we have been packing/crafting/chatting for most of the blustery day. we also got to talking (as does happen) about security envelopes. stephanie brought me over a collection she had been saving for my current project and shared with me the competitive desire to find something new for me. stephanie is not alone in this feeling. i have also been receiving emails to this affect and lish backed her up, too. i am coming to realize that i will have to really document my contributions and let people know the rarities they have found. i can't wait to see the heap of envelopes that await me at home!

home cooked food and crafts.

the above photos are from the downstairs foyer at my friend dory's place in brooklyn. the hallways there are clearly suffering from some horrible blights.

tonight we were invited over to dory's for dinner (which she cooked for us). pasta, cauliflower, salad. it was a delight! we drank beers from toronto and talked about all kinds of things - crafts, new york city, glass museums, envelopes. ah yes, while in brooklyn, dory has been feeding my gluttony for security envelopes. this evening she unearthed some old british specimens she had had tucked away. i am probably going to make them into buttons right away to cool my nerves.

after dinner, we all retired to the living room to make crafts. aitor was drawing note cards, dory was picking out fabrics for a new baby quilt and i was (unsuccessfully) trying to work on my hallowe'en costume. i might have given up on it. i'm not sure yet. my current state of brain fuzziness has made it a bit easier to give up on things...or, to not bother bothering...not just now, anyway.

regardless of any failures in decorating myself for the best day of the year, it was so great to have an evening that felt normal. homemade dinner and crafts on the living room floor? there is little i could find more comforting.

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.

snowmageddon!

for those outside of toronto, i should explain that snowmageddon is the name our local news media has given to the large yet normal snow storm that hit toronto today. for those outside of canada, i should also explain that toronto is constantly (and rightfully) ridiculed by the rest of the country for such hyperbolic treatments of winter weather.



these are the days when self-employment tastes extra sweet. we just looked out the window, watching the expressway and feeling very superior. sure, all those commuters have retirement funds, but we get to stay in all day. i did go out for all of twelve minutes to do my daily mail drop and counted three cars stuck in drifts. the mail box is two blocks away. this town is falling apart!

i used the snow day to waddle around making buttons and trying desperately to catch up on my bazillion projects. i made a bit of headway on sorting through security envelopes (i quietly broke 200 patterns last night). i really need to dedicate a lot of this weekend to getting through the envelopes backlog. to all of you who have contributed: i am very appreciative of your gifts but also very swamped. the guilt is all-consuming.



speaking of waddling, i will leave you today with a sneak peek at the brand newest commissioned artist button set, duck duck goose by alec thibodeau. i will have a chance to write a bit more about alec and his button set when i release them next week, but feel free to start squawking over his brilliance before then...

fleas and friends in brooklyn.

yesterday we spent a great day at the big ol' brooklyn flea. i liked it there. the event has a good vibe, the vendors are nice, the passersby chatty and today the weather was sublime. after a number of hours sitting around, it seemed like none of the friends we had alerted to our visit were going to materialize. new yorkers do have busy lives, after all.

then out of the blue, some friends from atlanta show up - john and travis (pictured above) were there for some flea bargains and unflattering portraits. megan showed up in an act of total surprise (to us). and newly-transplanted canadian pal, dory, also came by to say hi and bring me some security envelopes in person! this makes her the first person to collect on my call for envelopes bargain (although i do have some tantalizing mail submissions coming in...) dory even brought me one i have never seen before!

we also got to spend the evening in the charming company of travis and john, sipping boozy apple cider, eating indian food and chatting.

then, when we got home, aitor had this waiting for him in his email box...

photo by michael dibugnara

...a contribution by one of the day's patrons of the arts who snapped up one of the specialty company's vintage framed limited edition prints. one can only get such gems from the misanthropes in person at fairs, in case you needed a reason to leave your home for some human contact.

it's nice to know we have left some good pieces of us in loving homes in new york.

security envelopes and general homecoming activity.

above are pictured the envelope contributions from paul paoletti. he was one of the magical beings who reported working a high-snail-mail day job at a law firm and sent me an absolute heap of stuff (don't worry undisclosed law firm, your stellar employee never told me who you were and removed all trace of your business from said contributions). pictured above are only the ones i didn't have yet. paul and i actually exchanged emails from only a few miles apart when i was staying with friends in philadelphia. we never did make it to the mutter museum, paul, and i can hardly believe it.

in more torontonian news, i went for my first walk along my little slice of queen street yesterday - all the way from my place to the workroom. i visited the good catch general store (which is now all stocked with neck warmers for your blustery toronto needs). the place is as amazing as ever and little leon is running around now. i also noticed that studio brilliantine has relocated to our end of queen. welcome to the edge of toronto, guys. it's okay here. the workroom is also still in great form with a whole new row of fabric shelving for those textile hounds among us. i was a bit exhausted when i got there and probably need to go back to peruse the bolts at my leisure but the new stuff looks great.



this evening, by contrast, was spent indoors. our friends jen and mike stopped by and even gave us welcome home gifts. maple cookies, canadian club whiskey, sweetie pie tea from tealish and some pipes and junk for aitor. i felt fully welcomed home by this evening.

i also got t fulfill my dream of getting jen to 'make threes' (picking sets of three from the multitudes of security envelope patterns). jen has a knack for/obsession with matching so i knew she'd do a good job. mostly, it was just nice to be back home and working on the living room floor again.

security concerns.

well, after some city of crafting and recovering, i am finally diving back into my flood of envelopes. actually, today's update is a cheat since i collected so many envelopes at this past saturday's festivities. they all came home with me in a big mishmash so i felt i needed to sort them right away before the apartment consumed them.

the one on the top up there is from anahi and comes from one of the basque political parties in spain. the ones on the bottom and left are from kim and the one on the right is a new variation on the 'british bricks' that serena brought me. of these, i think i got most excited by the bottom one. it reminds me of some kind of 1970's lost-wax sculpture.



i also got a big collection of envelopes from my mother, anne. she had been travelling in europe and picking up garbage for me (don't worry, picking up garbage is one of her favorite things to do). all three envelopes above are from france and all present subtle variations on themes i have seen before. but they are also all new. i found it particularly interesting and odd that the one on the far right had lines - as if address lines - inside it.

my mother deserves extra props for running my table most of the day on saturday and this only hours after getting off a plane from vancouver. props also go to emma for giving me an hour off at the end of the day to peruse the vendor's tables at a more leisurely pace. i still don't think i saw everything.

i do feel like mentioning, though, that when i set up my master collection at home again after having it installed at city of craft i was three buttons short. as if you thought i wouldn't notice. this is a good way to drive someone like me totally mad. and although i prefer to presume the best in people, if you decided to help yourself to three buttons out of my installation at the show, you know who you are. i wish a hex upon your heart and a pox upon your house. how's that for bad hoodoo? you may not feel guilt now, but you will soon and steadily be devoured by unstoppable evil forces. sorry about that. but you have none to blame but yourself and you own wicked ways.

gifts from afar.

hey, look what i got from my friend missy and raoul at racho cocoa in athens, georgia. actually, that is just a sampling on the generous care package missy put together for me. there are postcards, missy's note pads, foreign candies, never-ending eight-hour shift zines (who wrote that?), a wooden tofu baby pendant, a triangular pouch and (our shared loved) a squished penny! the cup of tea was not in the package, but i'm sure if missy could find a way it would have been. there was also a vintage shirt (now in the wash) and a pile of security envelopes.

this package was waiting for me when i got back from vancouver and so was another surprise package from our little leah in berlin.





apparently the flea markets there are pretty amazing. i wish i could teleport to germany and spend a week wandering around with leah. she also included some brilliantly creepy glass jars with the names of chemical compounds taped to them (just our style around here) and a metal pin of a local folk hero. leah will have to explain the latter further, as history confuses me. i really love the washe bag, by the way and am just thinking about how to properly display/use it.

even though i currently feel overwhelmed with stuff, i was so nice to come home to care package from some far reaches and favorite people. thank you guys. what's in toronto that you babes want? all dressed chips? kit kat bars? codeine?

actually, i can't remember what chocolate bars are specific to canada. coffee crisp? who knows? but i remember those ones with puffed rice in them being strictly american.

monday, monday.

in spite of the restful looking photos, today was full of sweetie pie activity. on top of talking to my cat and digressing into piecing fabrics together, i finally went back to the paper place to show them the new artists series. i am happy to say that they bought me out of jesjit's buttons and sampled a few of the security envelopes, emma's cowboy life set and tara's cheap dates. so if you are looking for some sets in toronto, go see them. but watch out, that place is full of tempting stuff. i almost got entirely sucked in to a very nice shelf there shared by dujoo, bookhoo design and le petit pig.

also, i got my hair cut, so act like you noticed.

turning japanese.

...i know, i know. it's a rude song. i am just running out of clever entry titles.

pictured above is a new batch of buttons made from the impressive collection of chiogami papers at the paper place in toronto. because i always feel less proprietorial about buttons made from such found materials (except, oddly, the security envelopes which are an exceptionally ubiquitous material), i am usually happy to share my sources. you should totally buy papers from the paper place. i'm sure i have said that enough here. but they truly are outstanding at what they do and are staffed by some of the most knowledgeable and pleasant people going. their new online shop has also opened their stuff up to a far wider audience than before. trust me, the quality is great. okay, i am starting to feel like a shill so i will move on.

this little batch here was mostly made to restock shana logic after the holidays. shana's shop was one of my first online retailers and we have watched one another's business grow together over the years. well, things seem to be absolutely exploding over at shana logic, and it's well deserved. she was hyping handmade before many others and (to play on the saying) probably help to build the bandwagon. shana's interesting eye for techy, kawaii, asian-inspired, cute and useful handmade items really sets her apart aesthetically. she also carries a bunch of my other button sets including both of missy kulik's artist sets, my new toofs set, japanese lacquer paper, and all other manner of smudge, dot, and patterns.

if you are looking for any of these things in a bricks and mortar shop near you, why not call you local retailer? get out of the house. you can't stay in all winter.

sweet nothings.

i am now five days away from delivering my first edition of awards for nothing to cortney in milwaukee and more than halfway to my total of 100. the latest additions include materials like security envelopes, sheet music, handmade paper, doilies, nozzle checks, tissue paper, chopstick wrappers, seam binding, bias tape, thread, leather, rick rack and more!

while staying outside of st. louis, award making has benefited greatly from space to work in bruce and shannah's living room and material acquistions from shannah, bruce, the upcycle exchange and cranky yellow. autumn at upcycle was particularuly helpful is getting me the ribbons and sewing notions i have been short on. if you are in st. louis, you should totally check out the exchange. you should totally not check out cranky yellow because it is currently closed.

the experience of trying to do such a picky, scrappy project on the road has been a challenge to say the least. as much as i love the road, i am yearning for home and my studio.

breakage.

one of the most heartbreaking elements of the awards for nothing project is breakage. the experimental nature of the project lends itself to disaster and yet every piece consumes completely one-of-a-kind materials. with so much unknown jamming into my machines, i feel like a potter waiting for the kiln to fire. it's never entirely clear what will emerge. i'm always nervous the result will come out busted.

i like to think these broken pieces pierced their own mylar coatings to maintain their ephemeral natures.

i might leave them in public places.

it's also worth noting that those broken awards are lodged on a stack of new security envelopes given to me by the great bruce burton (no web presence at this time). sorting and slicing through them last night really made me want to revive the project.