Dragon Mail

A little known fact about me, and a dumb one at that, is that I don't actually like decorating envelopes. I know, I know. I started a mail art blog, I send an absurd amount of mail, I have all the stuff to make great envelopes every time. Hell, I have nearly 40 envelopes hand cut from awesome books made up and ready to go. Yet somehow sending "mail art" envelopes intimidates me. 

Partly it's seeing people complain about "overuse of stickers" (is that even possible?!) or certain themes, or too much or too little white space. Partly it's wondering "what is mail art?!" Can washi tape alone make mail art? Is adding a few rubber stamps mail art? What if I carved those stamps myself?  

Most of all though, when I first started getting into mail I was a lone wolf. I was armed with the book "good mail day" an LWA membership and a lot of free time. I did not get into trading mail art through online forums for a few years. I didn't even realize there was a sect of people trading mail without pen-paling out there! 

These were my wild rogue days of mail art. The stick plenty of postage on and abandon it in a blue drop box sans return address so they "have" to deliver it. Cans of cat food, disassembled cassette tapes with letters tucked inside and tied shut, little theater boxes of candy, wax seals, stencils and dragons. Lots and lots of dragons.

These guys! Circa 2011.

As much as I like having a mail art "tribe" now and the convenience of swapping and all that, sometimes I miss the simplicity and not feeling like I had to do anything a certain way. Everyone I wrote was happy just to hear from me, even with my huge sloppy strips of scotch tape holding everything together and handwriting that was "like trying to read Shakespeare's original manuscripts". Anyone that wasn't didn't keep writing. Simple. 

Since I have a little pile of penpal letters to reply to, and a big box of security envelopes, I decided to go back to my roots and draw some dragons. 

Ignoring the disgustingly mixed media backdrop that is my desk, I decided to go with ballpoint pen and watercolor pencils. Even though I don't have a picture of the original dragon envelopes colored, I know they got that same treatment. 

Besides, watching water magically transform my scribbles will never not feel magical. 

I love that my dragon style has changed so much. The original ones were influenced greatly by medieval style dragons while the newer ones take after the beardie I had for a few years. 

For good measure I did a few snakes as well.

And this inquisitive little beardie. 

This spazzy guy is my favorite. 

Finally I did a little throwback to my old dragon. Trying to mimic my old style and design was not super successful but I like his smug little face anyway. 

 I also happily remembered that I had some dragon faux postage leftover that will look nice glued on.

and the stamp I carved of the late Pancake monster should add a nice finishing touch to the envelopes. I might even have some of the lizard postage stamps leftover to use on these. 

This is my finished pile for today. I'm pretty pleased with them and it was nice to take a step back and do some unobligated mail art. or whatever. I still don't actually understand what even constitutes mail art and probably never will. But these are kinder to my postage budget than cans of catfood are, so I'll call it a win.