Intersting mail

I love snail mail -- although this month it seemed to have gone from snail-like to downright sluggish. A major reason I enjoy the Swap-bot site is because I can very often go to my mail box and have something interesting and far more cheering than bills and assorted junk advertisements. In the last couple of weeks I've received a pair of unusual postcards that I'm keeping in sight at the moment and will find a permanent place for soon.

The postcard above is a fabric one. It has a feather, as you see, on a batik fabric and there are beads and sequins -- the later did not photograph well. And the new and amazing detail is, it has a large round hole at the base of the feather. The hole is finished like the edges with satin stitch [Machine done] but has a spider-web of woven threads in it and a couple of little sparkling beads. How clever is that! I've never seen anything like it. It arrived in a clear plastic envelop with small bubble wrap over the face of it. The creator is Nancy Thomas of Oakdale, CT.


The postcard below is unusual in that it is square but that's not what I love about it. I think this is the youngest looking self-portrait of Frida Khalo that I have ever seen. She hsa that looking-at-you gaze, and the earring is a hand which she wore in later paintings as well. Her hair is a wonderful combination, braided on the left, free and full on the right. And she has drawn a third-eye/bindi like pattern between the heavy eyebrows. She has also written her name on the broach at her throat. The drawing is full of careful details and promise of the woman she was to paint so many times in her life.