These days more often than not you send something as part of a swap, and as my mum would put it, don't even get "a brass wazoo" in return. You rarely hear if people get your parcels or not, and I fear there's a pile of my work lying in a damp dark corner of a mailroom somewhere. But, even so, I keep being lured back by the excitement and prospect of more swaps. The concept is such a great thing, such lovely karma. I just can't resist the opportunity to surprise someone in a nice way.
Last week I was asked to participate in the International Art Exchange. Kind of like a big chain of art, where you send one piece of art, and are suppose to get (in theory) up to 36 pieces in return from all over the place. I knew that it was extremely unlikely to get 36 pieces, but I actually even doubted that I'd get one. Still I excitedly sent off my parcel > > >
But yesterday I was both delighted and a little astounded to receive a piece myself!
Not only that, I feel like it's a customized piece especially for me. It's a mail-art collage from Punwit in New Hampshire USA. He wrote that he'd seen some of my work in the flesh at Artstream, an his favourite was my Tigerhug drawing. How sweet!
See he's put a tiger in there for me, and a stamp from New South Wales (my state). Along with lots of other elements that warm the very cockles of me' ol' heart. Yes, definitely personalised.
Anyway, It's so great. I'm so thrilled and remarkably appeased.
Thanks Punwit! It's brilliant. 100 good karma swap points for you!
(Punwit, or Larry Reynolds, is part of the Scrapiteria group.)
5 comments:
That is top stuff hon! I too am a fan of tiger hug .. I hope you get all 36 please keep us posted...
I did a swap once. ONCE I tell you, for a reason. I never heard anything back from the receiver. I felt so bummed. I put in a lot of time, effort and LOVE - I embroidered a pillowcase and it was pretty. Not even so much as a thank you. RUDE!
Anyway, I love what you've received and that there's so much put into it. That is the spirit! LOVE it.
Do you remember the cards you sent me to pop in people's mail boxes to say what pretty gardens they have? i still have them and I think about them all the time. I love them. I am only just now working up the courage to pop them into people's mail boxes who I think are deserving of them. xxx
The worst swap I ever did was an "Advent" swap. You were supposed to put together 24 gifts and a big one for Christmas. I put so much time and money into mine to personalize it, and the box cost something like $50 US to ship to England because it was so big and heavy. My partner loved it. The partner that sent to me (different person) sent me a package the size of a shoebox, filled with stuff from the dollar bins at IKEA and a craft store. I was SO disappointed. I definitely don't swap as much as I used to - much more selective now, but I still love it. You win some you lose some I guess! The art is cool (people from New Hampshire are cool :)
I'm with PMM - not liking the rudeness... I did a swap - I was late with mine because I was very sick and it was basically quite a full-on time for me. My intended recipient contacted the organiser to dob on me for being late and I then got these "please explain" type emails... nice.
Then, when I sent off what I thought was a quite decent package that I had put in a lot of effort producing - not one single thank you. It pissed me off. Big time.
Anyway - very long comment to say, I like your swap parcel - and I also really like the look of that collage group Scrapiteria...
And, maybe I, too, will be lured back into swapsie land one day...,because I do love the karmic concept of it too.
x
I'd like to thank Flossy-P for her most flattering praise, and you fellow readers for your kind words too. Knowing that smiles were delivered into someone's day is what MailArt is all about; I can't imagine life without it. (Want to see more? Check out the new book Good Mail Day by Jennie Hinchcliff & Carolee Gilligan Wheeler)
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