Mail Art Adds Another Dimension to Letter Writing

Back when I was in high school, quite a few years ago, I had many penpals from all over the world. In an effort to save on postage, many of us wrote our letters on super-thin and light-wright airmail paper, aka onion skin paper. We also often used traditional airmail envelopes.

But, I noticed that some of my penpals from Europe would make their own envelopes from magazine pages. They made the pile of mail quite interesting.

That was my first taste of "mail art," as simple as it was. Later in life, a co-worker who moved away mailed me letters in elaborate envelopes she decorated with rubber stamp images and colored pens and pencils.

Once I started this blog, I discovered the entire world of mail art. There's a great book about mail art, Good Mail Day. And several blogs on the topic (see the list I've made over in the column on the right side of this blog.

And, sometimes, bloggers who typically blog about other topics will champion mail art. For example, PostMuse often writes about the Orphaned Postcard project, but yesterday the focus was on mail art.

If you're not familiar with the concept of mail art, read up on and then try your hand at it. It's fun, and it makes the mail just a little more exciting.

So, there's another good reason to write letters...mail art!