The Kingdom of Heaven reopens for mail

[gurdonark]

The folks at www.postcardx.net are back up and running again. Postcardx is arguably the simplest of the mail art related services. One logs in one's address into a random name generator. When one goes on the site, the name generator generates a new name and address to whom to mail. Then one mails an art work, a poem, a letter or any other creative thing. Talent is not the key--it's all about the Light Within. I see that some 200odd hardy souls are signed back on the service. I'm there--they call me "Gurdonark".

If one is more interested in "mail art calls", by the way, those requests for mail art on a particular theme, for use in a "mail art show', then one might check out www.crosses.net, where the forums include a message board for mail art calls. Mail art involves no awards, no returns of what you send, no juries, few "rules", no hassle, but documentation of the event is generally sent to "all" who participate.

One mail art call really interests me right now. It's a request for chess sets for a show in Europe. I wish to participate, but I'm trying to think how to make a chess set without any particular arts and crafts skills. I have some good ideas, but I wonder who might suggest ways for an artless person to make an art-oriented chess set?

Comments

lemme think

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

hmmmm let me think about that a bit.

had a few questions for you though, or maybe food for thought... Robert, sounds like you know a lot about "cyberspace" and obviously it really interests you, wondering if you ever thought of writing a non-fiction guide, or tour book of it, or maybe you have.

Secondarily, i read once you mentioned you've written a lot of reviews for Amazon, am i remembering that right? How would i find a listing of your written reviews? I'm curious to read them.

i'll give it more thought but right now a chess set made of fruit comes to mind... would that work, i dunno what the requirements are. maybe i should look at the requirements. anyway the geometric shapes of pieces of fruit for like a fruit salad, seem attractive, as do the colors, and i'm thinking they can be attached in interesting ways with toothpicks. the textures are cool too.. and a variety of things can be done to prevent discoloration. i dunno how the mail art call thing works, but i was thinking of a lego like schematic, showing pictorally how to build the chess set, how much of what kinds of fruit would be needed, how many toothpicks, etc, and photos, polaroids even, of the individual pieces. what do you think? or am i really off the mark. let me know chess sets interest me too, and obviously, so does food !

Re: lemme think

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Fruit, either shellacked or may just wax fruit, that's an idea. Legos is another idea, which I had thought about. I also think that just bolts and wing nuts would work.

But thanks for fruit. I had not thought of fruit.

I do review books or CDs on amazon from time to time. My handle there is "Gurdonark", and I believe that one can most easily find my reviews by looking under "Gurdonark" in the people search engine. I've done 100 and some odd, on a variety of different books and musics. One or two (a Bonhoeffer book) I reall like (also a Residents book), a few I can barely read. But it's fun to stretch oneself!

Re: lemme think

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

pfffffft ok. so i gather then that you have to mail the completed project. lol mail art is definitely not something i could do then i never mail anything on time. lolol.

waxed fruit - never saw that much variety in it on a small scale, only big pieces and even then it just seems that it might be difficult to apprehend enough pieces, particularly economically. beads, wire, combination thereof, maybe with feathers too, for the important pieces, i'm thinking. marbles, hair barettes, bath beads, maybe use kids bubble bath figurines for the king and queen i dunno i'm thinking outloud ok i'll stop. oh what about spices? salt, pepper, oregano, etc. if you like that idea i know of some good cheap containers.

what about party favors? maybe find a particular party favor, and sometimes matching pieces -- or pieces of the same theme-- of various sizes are available for cake decorating. lol for some reason i'm thinking of baby shower party favors, pink and blue, so you already have the two competing sides. lol. you know you go to a party supply store and they have miniaturized versions of all kinds of things.

too bad real fruit isnt a viable option, thin slices of oranges well any citrus i guess can be twisted to create some really neat results, i was thinking of something indicating collars, and using grapes or cherries to suggest heads where applicable. for some reason seeing diagrams of those pieces, like i mentioned before, in lego format would make me laugh.

of course liking birds i would want to use figurines of those somehow, but matchbox cars, sounds cool too. ok asked and answered huh lolol.

ok i went to that mail art call website and maybe its my mood but i didnt want to navigate through all those pieces to find something interesting, but i guess its ok since i'm not the kind to mail anything on time. i had looked for you under gurdonark in amazon i must be doing something wrong because i couldnt find you... but i'll look again, thanks for the reassurance :) .

good luck with the mail art - will be interesting to hear what you end up doing

Re: lemme think

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

op couldnt stop thinking,,, what about jello jigglers? only semi semi perishable, if you use little water and lots of gelatin you can make pretty stiff jello and use cookie cutters or knifes to shape the forms, use simple suggestive code, like simple cubes for pawns, horse or horse head for knight, flag for rook, cross for either bishop or king or both using different crosses, etc. use two different colors jello. ok i will endeavor to stop thinking about this lol but it is fun huh? .

Re: lemme think

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You're really creative! Good suggestions! You should enter this show!

One way to find my reviews is to enter under books "bonhoeffer" and "prison", which should get Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison. You can also key into a few of my reviews by running gurdonark through google.

I am going to spend my day thinking of jello chessmen.

Re: lemme think

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

yeah i got smart and searched gurdonark in google, got all the backstory on ya ;)

Re: lemme think

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

btw, just returned from toy shopping for nephew, and i saw harry potter toy chess set lol got my mind going all over again. lol.

also though i saw, maybe you are aware of this but i thought of you... there were two sets, one the abominable snowman and rudolph and his friends, and then an entire set of figurines from the island of misfit toys !

[rose-queen.livejournal.com]

We have a childrens 'learning' store here that sells small scale animals. I don't know if you could find one in TX, but they have everything you could imagine.
You could make an african safari set, or one with different breeds of dogs, cats, birds, insects, dinosaurs.

A nice chess board with a moon and star pattern, and planets for the chessmen.

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

What about a chess set of salt and pepper shakers? Or teapots? Or cooking pots? Or drinking glasses? Or dolls? Or dollhouses?

Almost anything that is made could become a chess set with a little fantasy.

[texastornado-91.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I was just fixing to ask you what to do about postcardx since I just received my first random postcard in the mail. I didn't know if I was supposed to send one back or what? LOL. And crosses.net...I'll be there soon!