Kobb Laboratories - Newsletter

Another fascinating issue of Lab Findings produced by Dr. Bill at Kobb Laboratories in FLA USA. The usual mail art, book and tacky video reviews .

Hal Studholme - Postcard

Hal sent this from Chapel Hill NC, USA recently . On the reverse it reads "Greetings from North Carolina, cheers Hal".

Cracker Jack Kid - Postcard

Postcard made from papier mache - a project involving sending a plaster cast of your belly button. Cracker Jack then made it into a postcard and sent it back complete with navel fluff. Mid 1980's. He has written - "Party at J.P. Jacob's place in NYC this week and will be visiting? many navels."

More about Crackerjack HERE.

Vortice Argentina - Envelope/Posters/ 'Zines etc.

Bumper package from Vortice Argentina from around 1998. Mail art 'zines and posters, flyers, postcard etc. with contributions by Robin Crozier, Joe Decie, Alan Turner, Arto Posto, Sticker Dude etc.

Find them HERE.

PLG - Postcard

Postcard dated 03-03-12 from PLG in Germany to Hazel. On the reverse is written - "Went thru the workshops oven & now returns....(partly)"

Hazel Jones/ A.1. - Collaged Flyers

Open publication - Free publishing - More collage

Old collaged flyers turned into ebook at Issuu. We did about three of these at the time- usually when we were in Walsall , at Hazel's parents when we were first "courting". A shared sense of the absurd is very useful and a love of mail art ofcourse, which was very strong at the time. We photo copied these and with added rubber stamps and writing they were duly dispatched into the Mailstrom.

Erni Bar - Postcard

Postcard via Grigori Antonin today.

Grigori Antonin - Envelope/Flyer

Grigori in Minneapolis sent this flyer and a Erni Bar postcard today.

Rudi Rubberoid - Envelope/Enclosures

Rudi Rubberoid (John Calvert Palmer) 1927 - 2012


Letter with image from A.1. Waste paper Co. that has been copied and coloured in by Rudi. 1994.

Rudi Rubberoid - Envelope/Enclosures

Rudi Rubberoid (John Calvert Palmer) 1927 - 2012

John Calvert Palmer ( Rudi Rubberoid et al ) 1927 - 2012

Sad news of Rudi's passing. He will be greatly missed by all who were lucky enough to know him or to get his wonderful decorated envelopes and enclosures. His rubber stamp 'zines like Nomo The Zine and others were always a treat to take part in and to recieve. A most generous correspondent who always filled his envelopes with all manner of stickers, stamps and gew-gaws. His letters were fun too. When I first got in touch I imagined a much younger man and was shocked to find out that he was well over 50 at the time.

Here's an interview he did with Ruud Janssen HERE.

Roger Radio/Jilly Jargon/ A.1. - Collaborative Booklet

Open publication - Free publishing - More collage

PLG - Postcard

From PLG in Germany to Hazel. On the reverse it reads "Hi & Hi-er, What is an 18 + 9 key good for? Greetings to them 2 other metal workers. Don't rust in, keep busy...."

Phil Mead - Envelope/Flyer

Phil sent this flyer advertising his show of paintings in Somerset.

Michael Scott - Remembered

Open publication - Free publishing - More 11th hour

One of the greatest mail artists ever who sadly died over twenty years ago. We were lucky enough to exchange mail with him for a few year during the 80's.

A Classic Pair/A.1.Waste - 'zine/booklet

Open publication - Free publishing - More collage

A collaborative booklet from the 90's made by me and A Classic Pair.

Susanna Lakner = Assembling Book/Postcard/Artists Book

Susanna's assembling book/zine is the 22nd of one called "22" so a fine number to reach and we hope for many more! Also included in this bumper package - a limited edition book by Susanna by Tonerworks and a postcard. You can reach Susanna at www.susannia.de and planetsusannia.blogspot.com

20 Years In The Mail

Open publication - Free publishing - More collage

Small 20 page publication from 2000. Originally from Weirdorama show that Hazel Jones and I did at walsall Art Gallery in 1995 and amended for Postcard Exchange project and 2000 mail art distribution ( with new cover ).

Peace In The World Or The World In Pieces 1984

Open publication - Free publishing - More 1984

I have been having fun trying to figure out how to transfer old 'zines and catalogues to Issuu - a site for publishing online documents of all kinds. The pdf files give me a lot of trouble - also working with Word which refuses to do anything I want it to! How do I get rid of those big borders round the edges of pages for a start? Ill figure it out eventually I expect after tearing my hair out and ranting at the PC screen for hours!

I proposed the idea of a mini mail art show on an 8 foot long pinboard for the Whitechapel Open back in 1984 and to my amazement I was accepted and the board with help from my old chum Dick Turpin was duly installed in the warehouse the Whitechapel was using that year to show the work as the main gallery was closed for some reason. I didn't have a grant of any kind to had to bare the expense of materials and postage myself which wasn't easy on the dole!
The invites sent out I waited for all the mail on the theme of war and peace (or 1984 ) to come rolling in - which it did and during the exhibition , which was about a month long, I religiously took the daily mail along to the exhibition space to pin the participants work up onto the board. You can read inside the catalogue just how many and from which countries etc.

Dick's cousin or Uncle , I forget which, kindly donated the catalogue, which was litho printed in the East End of London or Barking? Anyway, totally over ambitious and a big headache at the time but I look back with fond memories of putting it all together and as I leaf through this slim volume I wonder what happened to all these people I used to correspond with?

Art Nahpro - Envelope/Enclosures

Art (Paul Jackson ) sent this in 1985. His daughter Sara sent a small scribbled letter too.