Pencil Pals Correspondence Club

 The Griffin and Sabine stories are a series of beautiful epistolary novels written and illustrated by Nick Bantock. They are a story told through the correspondence of two individuals, Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem, who have never met but who share an otherworldly connection. The design of the books is ingenious, with one side of the page containing the front side of the envelope or postcard and the other containing either the postcard's message or the back of the envelope with its flap open so that the reader can remove the letter contained within. One notable aspect of the series is how the artistic style of the two characters remains so distinct even though all the illustrations were made by the same person, giving a true sense of a back-and-forth written conversation. Though fictional, the lush designs of the correspondence is a great source of inspiration for anyone interested in the medium of mail art. The initial series consists of three books, Griffin and Sabine, Sabine...

 Pencil Pal Sara sent me this article yesterday- a very timely publication indeed! I included one of Gorey's envelope illustrations in a previous post, but this book looks like an excellent collection of both the visual and written portions of his correspondence.  https://www.nyrb.com/products/from-ted-to-tom-the-illustrated-envelopes-of-edward-gorey

 Here's a cool idea for a hand painted envelope made from an unexpected material from Kiera Coffee at Kid Made Modern    https://kidmademodern.com/blogs/posts/color-blur-canvas-envelope-diy

 Now that the club is in full swing, I thought I might share a some ideas and inspiration for different kinds of creative communications. This selection is from one of my childhood books, Zena Flax's Make Your Own Cards from 1976. It has a lot of mixed-media suggestions including collage, printmaking, pop-up and more

 I made a mini zine with info about the club. It's at the printers now, so I should have copies soon. If you'd like to print some of your own to share with folks who might enjoy getting in on the mail art scene, shoot me an email and I can send you a PDF. http://overherezinefest.org/uncategorized/top-ten-things-you-need-to-make-a-zine/

  Now is the time to submit your mailing address to be included in the Pencil Pals Correspondence Club database. I’ve set up a dedicated email account for the club so that I can keep Pencil Pals stuff separate from my personal electronic correspondence. If you would like to participate, just send an email with the address where you’d like to receive your mail, and you’ll be included in the monthly  penpal pairings. Share with anyone you think might be interested- the more the merrier!   pencilpalsmail@gmail.com