temari

Lynn Berkowitz sent this card of colorful temari made by Janice Arrowsmith.

a surprise altered card

JoAnn Castagna sent this cool card, which she found in a grab bag of postcards she bought from ShopGoodwill.com. She altered it with colored pens from American Science and Surplus. Thanks for the surprise and for taking part.

new pots by willi singleton

Willi Singleton is holding an open house today and tomorrow at his Pine Creek Pottery in Kempton, Pennsylvania. New pots from the fall firing are featured. It's snowing today and it should be lovely out Willi's way, which is near Hawk Mountain.

the influence of a teacher

I'm looking forward to this show at the Hunterdon Art Museum, featuring four artists who studied with famed ceramic artist Toshiko Takaezu while she was teaching at Princeton University.

native peoples of taiwan

Another clever card, this one from a postcrosser in Taiwan. Spin the wheel and you see the names and typical textiles of the various tribes indigenous to Taiwan. Interesting that this card and the one below arrived together.

sun yat-sen university

This postcard, sent by a Chinese postcrosser who studies at Sun Yat-Sen University (shown), had three perforated edges. When I tore them off, the card opened up. The top half, printed with New Year's greetings, had space for a message, while the bottom half showed a picture of school motto chiseled into stone. Very clever!

silver surfer

A Canadian postcrosser, pleading no 'creative juice', sent this Marvel postcard instead with an invitation for me to alter it. Who am I to mess with the Silver Surfer?

wanderlust

Wanderlust is the name of this card, altered by a German postcrosser who says she lives in a small town and owns a small car but tries to use her bike as much as possible. Alas, she is sometimes lazy. Even though she can walk everywhere in town, she says that she still uses her car too much. This card is a message to herself not to be lazy. Good luck!

new year stamp

An early New Year's stamp from China. Nice composition.

mary callinack

Years ago Priscilla gave me a collection of postcards from Fantasy in the Industrial Revolution, from a show of dolls and toys at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. This pedlar doll is one of my favorites. It's based on Mary Callinack, a hawker and walker who in 1851, at age 85, walked from Cornwall to London for the Great Exhibition.

lovesickness

An 18-year-old postcrosser in China sent this great card titled West Chamber 12. Lovesickness. Many thanks to him for sending a card that conjured up so many images for me.

a bevy of stamps

These stamps--some old, some new--were on a packet that arrived yesteday. Why would you use anything but stamps on mail?

holli schorno: collecting samples

Holli Schorno: Collecting Samples is on at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, until the 29th. I was at the museum last week to review its Knitted, Knotted, Netted show and my two-hour parking space ran out before I got to see anything else. I do, however, like this postcard.

thinking of you

The first Christmas card of the year arrived today, from a German postcrosser who chose a sweet mail theme for her greetings.

new narratives

Friend Sandy Sapienza has a fabric book in this show, on until December 10 at the Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College. For information: cpmona@aacc.edu.

recent ad cards

I don't know why people dislike ad cards so much. Two of these, the one at top from the Civic Theatre and the one at bottom from the USPS, came in the mail. The one in the middle I picked up while at the cinema to see Where the Wild Things Are. All of them have been effective. Last Saturday I happened to pass the place where the new postal service has opened. It's in a rather unprepossessing location and I would never have noticed it if not for the card.

just my cuppa

A Russian postcrosser who loves drawing took some time from her hectic student life to send this cup of tea. (Well, it could be coffee but in the ideal world it's tea.) I also enjoyed her exuberant message which covered all of the back of the card. Cheers to Katherine S!

stamps

Here's that archived stamp from Russia mentioned yesterday.

Also, a fetching trio from Taiwan.

one more

Thanks to the Russian postcrosser who sent this lovely card from Sergiev Posad, about 72 kilometers from Moscow. She also sent a whale stamp (stay tuned) from her "private collection".

straight cards with a view--or not

The photo shown in this card from a Dutch postcrosser was taken by a friend who lives in a mill.

A Taiwanese postcrosser sent this card of JiJi Station in Taiwan. She's familiar with the station because it leads to a popular bicycling place.

Another Taiwanese postcrosser sent this beautiful fern card, with a note that Taiwan has more than 7,000 varieties of ferns.


A Finnish postcrosser now in her final year of high school sent this card with one of her favorite photography themes: hands.


Lynn Berkowitz sent this evocative Jacob Lawrence painting called Paper Boats.