Old Paper Art

Brownie Drummer PFF #53

2011-12-30T04:37:00.000-08:00

This is my last post for the year 2011. The next time I get a chance to post we'll be into the new year. I leave Monday for Seattle to visit my brother Dan. Just Because.

Every good business needs a good drummer. I think this one has always fit the bill, even if he's always marched to his own beat. He was good. Really good - at both the first and second definition of drummer as the word is defined in Merriam-Webster. Besides that, the Baker's (Grandpa, Sonny & Pops) at the Breakfast Brownies Company really could use a good DRUMMER, second definition. Perhaps Dan will take the job.

This one has not been mailed yet. The reason it hasn't been mailed is that I want Dan to see it when he opens his mail box, and I want to be there with him when he does. So, I will launch it on Saturday. Just Because.

Make certain to stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, where Beth Niquette is the Hostess for Postcard Friendly Friday, and to see what other drummers are doing!

All the Best - To You & Yours - From Me & Mine - for the coming year. And Thanks to all of you who follow me, or who stop by for a peek via Google.

Breakfast Brownies for a Penny

2011-12-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

My sister Penny and her spouse Chuck Pefley produce a Christmas card every year, as they have since 1992. A collaboration - His image and Her verse, and it's always a welcome bit of Christmas Candy for your eyes.

And your heart.

Thank you to the both of you for making this Christmas so special to me.

The little critter in the upper left hand corner? His name is Do-Bee. That's Chuck on his Vespa. There's Bob on his sled, and Genie just pulled a gold Penny from his bag. I don't think that the little fellow witth his nose in a book is named Mark, but perhaps.

Meet the Bakers of Breakfast Brownies

2011-12-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

From left to right:

Pops. He's holding the spoon. Sonny. Over on the Right is Grandpa.

You've seen this piece before. The artist (I'm not calling him a rip-off artist just yet) hired by the Breakfast Brownies Cereal Company created two, two column advertising "cartoons" for them. You've seen them both, actually. At least in part. Of the images that I know of for newspaper advertising of this fabulous chocolate cereal, both the boy and girl are well done. The Brownies in the originals? Not quite. I tried working with the little "Brownies" the artist developed, but I kept having to fix them. They just didn't look right.

Then I rediscovered Palmer Cox, and decided I could become an advertising illustrator and come up with characters who could better represent the company.

The paper is not old. The same family friend that cleaned up the Palmer Cox Brownies used for my Christmas mail art was also able to clean up the original piece of Breakfast Brownies Company letterhead that I hold. I then had this recreated piece of letterhead printed on new paper. I'm also going to try using fifty year old toned paper to give the viewer the illusion that they are looking at a real document.

For now, this is a first go at creating a pair of documents to be displayed together, along with the continuing story of the Baker Family.

BROWNIES - The Breakfast Variety

2011-12-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

This one is special. My first stamp. My first multiple using a basic greeting card envelope format, although all of my mail art has taken this form. I created a template from a piece of clear plastic which is proportioned to make a large five+ by seven inch+ envelope from a standard sheet of paper. It also accepts a five by seven inch blank greeting card, available to those who want to create their own cards - like me.

Is there more to this story? Yes, there definitely is.

Lenna, this started with YOU! We exchanged mail art months ago, and you started something with your whimsical Brownies that was simply irresistible. Two years before, I'd been given the opportunity to examine and crudely copy some newspaper print blocks for a product that was packaged (and apparently sold) right here in Helena, called Breakfast Brownies Cereal. This was long before Cocoa Puffs and Sonny, the Cuckoo Bird. I mean, what kid can resist a cartoon character on their box of Chocolated Cereal?

The advertising images for Breakfast Brownies extolled the virtues of eating this product which even a puppy could not resist. Breakfast Brownies Cereal was stirred and served up by three Brownies. They weren't Palmer Cox Brownies, and although I could work with the Breakfast Brownies characters, I started looking into Vintage Brownies, and discovered Palmer Cox. He is the Father of all things Brownie. I'll name a few companies to which he licensed the characters : Ivory Soap, Nabisco (Brownie Biscuits), Lion Coffee (stand-up paper dolls offered as premiums) and the famous Kodak Brownie camera. These businesses were all licensed to allow them to use his characters. He also marketed games, toys and dolls on his own. And he had imitators. Lots of them. Including the unknown artist who developed the Breakfast Brownies characters. This artist wasn't alone. It is surmised that there were more unlicensed uses than there were of the licensed variety.

Palmer Cox, who began creating his whimsical little characters in the 1890's, developed quite a following among kids and parents alike. The best part was, he caught the eyes and minds of everyone for almost forty years, and wrote over twenty-five books about his characters.

I'll not reveal the images for the other Brownies Mail Art that I've done - until after Christmas. They're all personalized. And those who are getting them can simply wait until they arrive. I'm into surprises that arrive in the mail.

Brownies - The Palmer Cox Variety

2011-11-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

The day before yesterday I received a piece of what I took to be mail art. It had a little Brownie stamp on the front, made from a 13 Cent USPS stamp with the image replaced by one depicting two Brownies. That was more than enough to pique my curiosity, since I didn't recognize the name on the return address. Actually, it looked like the envelope had been made to fit a stiffener, so I carefully opened it to discover two pages from old children's books, both with wonderful illustrations by Palmer Cox, who originally created the Brownies in the 1880's. Both of the illustrations were by Palmer, and one of them was an illustrated one-page story. Both of them were Christmas related, one of them with Kriss Kringle taking top billing, but the Brownies weren't far behind.

I was stunned. That appeared to be all that was in the envelope until I had a friend stop by for coffee and scones. Homemade. Not what I'd call a Breakfast Brownie, but I like blueberries, and I make a mean scone.

After we'd sipped for a bit, he asked me what I was working on. I told him I was working on developing a Brownie envelope to use for mail art for my siblings. You know, the kind that are hard to gift. I showed him the pages that I'd received in the mail, and the envelope they came in. To me, it was like an early Christmas present from someone I'd never met. It is truly amazing where the path leads when you're generous and appreciative of other artists interests.

The reason I was so struck by the whole package was it was totally unexpected, coming just at the right moment as I tried to develop an envelope I could use for Brownie mail art. I really haven't let the cat out of the bag with this one because I intend to do something special with the Brownies for my siblings, but this really meant a great deal to me.

My friend picked up the envelope and examined both sides, and then looked in the envelope. He proceeded to shake a card out of it that I was unaware was still in the envelope. I read the wonderful note she's included, and suddenly it all came together. The pages that Beth Bynum gave to me meant a lot, but the fact she's a Nick Bantock fan as well sort of put the icing on the Brownies. Did I mention she has a blog? The fact that she'd taken a collage class from Lenna Young Andrews put another piece in the puzzle, as Lenna is a Brownie fan as well. Beth discovered I was a Brownie fan through Lenna, but what she didn't realize was that I like my Brownies for Breakfast.

The Breakfast Brownie Cereal is the real deal. Thank You, Beth. A wonderful Breakfast Treat!

Joni James - This one is for You!

2011-11-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

Joni James, the Calligram Queen, asked a question a couple of weeks ago. If you were able to choose an image, what would it be, and what words could be used to describe yourself. I follow her and am fascinated by her images consisting of words that tell the story of the image, so I decided to give her a couple of hints:

She ran with them.

Once I had seen what she had done, I decided to use my artistic license. She does calligrams, I do monograms. So - I put together a little mail art of my own to let her know how much it meant to me that she would gift me some of her work - and it's a piece I'm going to hang on the wall, matted and framed, and I'm in awe of what she does with words. Thank You, Joni. You made my day.

Last Chance for the Goodkind

2011-11-26T17:06:00.000-08:00

Last Chance for the Goodkind

Some history would be appropriate at this point.

Brothers Abraham L. and Edward I. Goodkind, and Meyer and Charles Wise operated a wholesale wine, liquor, and cigar business in Helena, Montana, from 1890 or 1891 until 1896 when the Wise brothers left the business. The Goodkind brothers continued their operation until Edward died on May 11, 1916. The preceding is directly from the Montana Historical Society Research Center.

This particular billhead is dated October 12, 1903. I have seen (and have in my possession) some Wise & Goodkind paper, but this piece was of particular interest to me because of the label.

I've had in my possession, albeit not for very long, two pieces of Goodkind Brothers billhead. I had the good fortune of finding a local patron who willingly sold me a piece of Goodkind paper, and then loaned me a small whiskey bottle that still had the label affixed. I took it home, shot photographs of it, and then returned the bottle. A week later, I completed the art work, showed it to him, and he purchased it. It never made it into a frame.

While at a brick and mortar antique shop in Chinook, Montana, several months ago, I was shown two original Goodkind Brothers labels. The shop owner was willing to make copies of both of the labels, but I had to commit to NOT sharing the copies with anyone, especially on the web. I returned home with the copies, and contacted the fellow who had the bottle I had already used, and he provided me with a pint bottle (a flask) that had a pewter screw-on cap. He also gifted me two other bottles, one in amber and the other a beautiful fluted shoulder bottle, both of them dug locally.

The studio process involved more than one step: I had to do some touch-up work on both of the labels, and I had to size them appropriate to the bottles. I finished and published the results of the Royal Club Rye Whiskey flask which you can see here, if you haven't seen it already.

The second was a bit more complicated. The provenance for both of these labels is impeccable, although I have no idea, nor does anyone else, if these labels were ever used. Bottle collectors, or even collectors of lithographic labels would probably be able to determine if there are any other copies of these labels out there in private hands. They both came from a printer's book which had numerous labels pasted into it. From the additional markings on the label, my guess is that the label was used, or at least printed.

I've tried to stay as true to the original label as I could, because I did want to give the viewer the impression that the label indeed is a real label on a real bottle.

This piece may be a keeper. I have one other piece of Wise & Goodkind paper, and I know where there is at least one other piece of Goodkind billhead that is the same size as this piece. I also know where there is a smaller piece of their paper with a vignette of their building on the corner of Sixth and Last Chance Gulch (now known as Main Street) here in Helena, and the building still stands. I have forty hours of work on this piece, and that's no joke - I kept track. Working on it was like working on one of my cacheted covers, but I also had to make it look like the real thing. The label really does tell the story of placer mining as it was done, and I wanted to make certain that it looked right. The artist that did this label knew what placer mining was about, and depicted it quite well. The background also looks like a local stream, which makes the whole thing seem to shout MONTANA. Enjoy. It was a labor of love.

Walkin' The Walk, Talkin' the Talk

2011-11-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the International Shoe Company? Neither had I, until I started doing some research on a bookmark I'd seen, while looking into a piece of brilliant advertising ephemera on Inherited Values. This site is dedicated to "Antiques and Vintage Collectibles, NOT by the book". I thought that Deanna Dahlsad, (the author of the article about bookmarks) actually had her tongue in her cheek, given the aforementioned tag line I found when I hit their Home page. She didn't have a lot to say about the bookmark she'd chosen to highlight in her article (actually an interview with a bookmark collector), but it was a Parrot. A Poll Parrot to be exact. More about the Poll Parrot bookmark later in this story.

Several weeks ago, I published a post about another bookmark fan by the name of Michael Popek. He has a blog called Forgotten Bookmarks. As he works in the family's Antiquarian Bookstore, he has ample opportunity to find what others leave behind in books of every stripe. A couple of weeks ago, he published a book, and I covered that in this post.

Long before Michael had decided to publish a book, he had posted a piece of billhead, and the top line item was Baby Ruth Candy Bars. That post is a good example of what I really enjoy about the people I meet on the way to acquiring my old paper. The receipt was dated 1934. It was used. It was high time it was recycled, and I was the guy to get that done. Michael gave it to me. For the asking. He got a Thank You.

Bookmarks are good. Good for books, and good for my art! How good? This post will give you some idea about books and bookmarks and how I find a steady source, helping me put my love of history and art together.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in The Parrot Confectionery, talking to the owner, Brian Ackerman. Brian let me have some billhead - both old and new, but unused. I like the kind that have served their purpose, whether the business owner used a typewrite or wrote it out in long hand, because it's still richer in history than a pristine piece of letterhead or billhead. Every piece of Parrot paper that I had previously received from him I'd put in new homes. I knew I wanted to do more of the Parrot that "Talks for Itself", so I asked Brian if he could let me have a few more pieces of the "old paper". He let me have some of it.

I was no sooner home and sitting at the computer looking for my old templates for the Parrot and doing a little bloghopping, when I came upon the Poll-Parrot bookmark. Which started my research journey - What do shoes that "Speak for Themselves" and Parrot Chocolate that "Talks for Itself" have in common? A lot.

In 1911, Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoes merged with the Peters Shoe Company and became the International Shoe Company with office in St. Louis, Missouri. Apparently, St. Louis was the home for more shoes than you can shake a walking stick at. About the same time that International was taking over shoes businesses (there were others), Paul Parrot was busy making shoes - in St. Louis - as well. In 1922, International bought Mr. Parrot's business, right down to the soles. Oh yes - they took at least one cue from Paul - he had a talking Parrot in his shoe store, and it was a very popular advertising "gimmick". There's currently all kinds of Poll Parrot ephemera floating around in the vintage collectibles market - anything from whistles and buttons to Radio Programs? For real. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention Howdy-Doody. Poll Parrot Shoes sponsored Howdy-Doody. Yup. I'm surprised International didn't convince Howdy to introduce his Poll Parrot friend. A Parrot Puppet. Someone to talk to, you know - Puppet to Puppet.

I digress.

The Parrot Confectionery began business in the same location in downtown Helena in 1922, the same year International began marketing Poll Parrot shoes. I don't know if Poll Parrots were sold in Helena, (we did have a Buster Brown), but we did have The Parrot. An old functioning soda fountain. Booths. A Wurlitzer jukebox. And Parrots. Lots of them. The also have the Avian equivalent of the Turtle - The Parrot. Oh Yes - A facebook page.

The Parrot I've placed on The Parrot billhead is slightly twice the size of the original bookmark - which I've seen and touched. The owner would not sell it. It was die cut (the curved line around the tail) so the only thing that would be sticking out of the book would be the Parrot's head. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet besides getting it matted and framed. The Parrot isn't talking.

Now & Then - Marlene & Marla Music PFF #52

2011-11-18T04:27:00.000-08:00

This is a special piece of mail art for a couple of very special people.

When I started putting my art on old paper, whenever and wherever we went in Montana, we visited the local brick & mortar antique shops. We even visited several antique malls, but the antique malls are a special kind of antique shop, and one that I like to avoid if at all possible. Why would I say such a thing? There's someone there running the business (read that, cash register), and they often do not know what the vendors specialize in, or if they specialize at all. For the most part, everything is already priced, and there is no room for bargaining.

I also took the advice of a couple of local patrons of my work, and I personally contacted antique shop owners whom they knew. In the case of Marlene Music, she was recommended to me.

My first visit to her shop, Now & Then in Great Falls, Montana, I was greeted not by Marlene, but a young fellow watching the shop for her. Since I was looking to meet Marlene and talk to her for a bit before looking for paper, I made my departure. My next visit was fruitful, although I didn't purchase any paper from her on that visit.

As a matter of fact, I've been back to see Marlene three times, and I have yet to look at any paper. My last visit, I was introduced to Marla, her daughter. I spent over an hour talking and sharing stories with them. History. The best part of what I'm doing, actually. Both Marlene and her daughter know what I'm looking for, and sooner or later I'll pay them a visit and I'll end up walking out the door with some paper I can enhance, and a story to go with it.

The reason why I sent them the card "under cover"? Just because.

And to see more Eye Candy, make sure you visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, as she hosts Postcard Friendly Friday.

Not to be forgotten

2011-11-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's correct. This place will not be forgotten, at least by me. I'm not certain how the other artists fared during the exhibit, but I really can't say enough about the Custer County Art & Heritage Center.

A big thank you to Kevin Layton and his entire staff (including the volunteers) that make this venue such an attraction for artists like myself. Miles City is not exactly the center of Western Civilization, but it certainly does have one site that caters to a vibrant art community. And a wonderful collection of L. A. Huffman photographs that are to die for. I'd go back in a heartbeat, and I hope I get an invite.

Thank You For being Patrons

2011-11-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to thank the entire staff at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana, for asking me to participate in their recent exhibition. There were five artists in the portion of the show entitled Inside Out: A landscape exhibit, and myself with Old Paper New Art. The opening was held on Sunday, October 9th in the afternoon, with demonstrations and gallery talks. It was fabulous. I really couldn't have wished for a more splendid venue.

I didn't have a chance to do much demonstrating, although I did try to finish a Thank You for a piece of art I'd finished the week before, but I spent most of my time on the gallery talk, and answering questions as they were asked.

Kevin and Marie purchased "Have Duster, Will Travel", which I posted way back in November of 2010. It was a fun piece to do, but now I have to come up with an even better eye-catcher to hang on the wall.

Kathy purchased "Startup With a Coke", which I completed in June of 2009. A back story that was simply too good to be true, and both my wife and I will find it hard to replace it on our wall.

Bess purchased "Ming Trout Flies", which I completed in 2010. I did not post this piece when I completed it, primarily because I needed to get it to the framers before the Western Heritage Show. I've now sold every piece of (trout) fly paper I could put my hands on.

Dustin & Erin purchased "Five Feet In the Air", which I completed earlier this year. Here again, I don't know how long it will be before I see another piece of Brown Shoe Company paper, but I sure wish I could find some. Buster & Tige are still popular after all these years.

As is my rule, I will not put addresses on any of the mail art I put up here without prior approval. These four pieces will go in the mail in the AM.

The Four Tops and 11/11/11

2011-11-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

I had meant to make this a Veterans Day post - for a very good reason. During my research for Veterans Day information a year ago, I found out that Montana led the nation in Selective Service draftees for military service during The Great War. An error in census data accounted for a disproportionate number of young men being drafted from Montana. For those who don't know, The Great War was the First World War, or WWI.

Montana is rural state with a population density of wildlife per square mile that exceeds the number of human inhabitants. I don't know what it is now, but you can bet than even back in 1917, the critters outnumbered us.

Because this piece of paper listed TOPS as the top line item, I got to thinking about who these tops would have been purchased for - probably as Christmas presents, since this is indeed THE holiday order (at least from Zernitz) for C. W. Rank & Company in Virginia City, Montana. If a young boy born in Virginia City in the early 1890's would have received a top, could he have gone on to serve in WWI? Perhaps. I haven't gotten skilled enough at searching the military records available through the Montana Historical Society, but I will - sooner or later.

I'd also like to point out that Teresa N. Fischer, whose work I truly admire, was kind enough to supply me with the most excellent photographs of three antique tops that she holds in her collection of old toys. Although the red one at the top is the only example in the color of the ones she has, the lighting was such that I could use whatever color I wanted to use for my tops. So, thank you, Teresa.

I also want to say a little something about the title - The Four Tops were at the heart of what came to be called the Motown Sound. I listened to them - on Armed Forces Radio while parked in the jungle of South Vietnam. I'm still here to talk about it, too. So Veterans Day is to honor all those who are veterans of our military, all branches. I greet all Marine Veterans that I meet with this: Semper Fi. For those who know, the greeting means everything. For those who don't, it is short for ALWAYS Faithful.

I will not be able to post on Veterans Day this coming Friday, so I'm posting today. God Bless.

Forgotten Bookmarks - Thank You PFF #51

2011-11-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I won a number of books in Michael Popek's Friday Book Giveaway. You see, Michael works in the family Antiquarian bookstore, and comes across unusual items used as bookmarks. He has been posting them on his blog, but the blog is now so popular, he has decided to expand his (and our) horizons. He just recently published a book that contains images of the bookmarks that he's found, and includes an image of the books they were discovered in. If you're interested in stories, these bookmarks are story-tellers.

I couldn't resist using an Author stamp (Hemingway), and a Bread Wagon stamp, since I hope this book is his land-locked version of his ship coming in. Thank You, Michael. For the second time you've given me a gift, and I'm all for re-gifting.

Don't forget to visit Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more delectable candy that's been through the mail.

TOPS - The Spinning Wooden Kind 4

2011-11-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth and last of the series of tops for the billhead.

Is there more to the story? Yes, there is, but I now have to go find a scanner that's large enough to scan the complete document. I'll keep you posted!

TOPS - The Spinning Wooden Kind 3

2011-11-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is the third in my series of tops on a turn of the century billhead.

When I first started doing the research for the John D. Zernitz & Company, I had no idea where the trail would lead. There is scant information to be gleaned from public records available on the web. I do know however that a Mr. Charles M. Henn was in the employee of the Zernitz Company as a cashier in 1884. Mr. Henn filed a patent for a mechanical bank on September 29, 1882 and it was issued January 23, 1883.

The name of the bank was "Eagle Feeding Her Young". I find it extremely interesting that Mr. Henn would work at a place that sold toys, but so he did.

There's always more to the story.

TOPS - The Spinning Wooden Kind 2

2011-11-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

The story continues. This is the second of four tops that I'm putting on this billhead.

This was a Holiday Season order back when you weren't shopping for Christmas until you should be shopping for Christmas. Among the items ordered were Watches, Sad Irons, Dishes, Paints, Candles (by the box), Kitchen Sets and other items I'll cover in subsequent posts. I found it interesting that Tops were at the top of the list. These are the kind that you wrapped a cord around, and "threw" at the ground. There was a knack to launching them so that they would properly spin. Mine are suspended in motion.

TOPS - The Spinning Wooden Kind 1

2011-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

I've been busy making art that involves a story. This is the first of four tops that I've placed on a billhead from the John D. Zernitz & Company, dealer in Toys Fancy Goods and Druggists' Sundries, 210 & 212 East Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois.. It's addressed to C. W. Rank & Co., Virginia City, Montana, and dated November 3, 1900. The Turn of the Century had just occurred eleven months earlier.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

The Pulse - Seth Apter

2011-10-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, Seth Apter host of The Altered Page Blog invited me to participate in a survey (which he entitled The Pulse) of over 140 artists. It was an honor for me to be included among them because it gave me the opportunity to not only be recognized in a larger art blog community, but it also offered all of us the chance to see (and visit) art blogs which wouldn't be available if we just rested on our own artistic benches on Art Street.

When I first began my new artistic journey in early 2009, I began looking for other artists on the web who were doing something 'different'. Because I have always used colored pencils as a tool, I was comfortable creating two dimensional art - and making it look three dimensional. There are so many artists using textures and layers of color in their work, and Seth's survey gave me a new outlook on mixed media. I found myself spending more and more time looking at what I call "Eye Candy", created by artists who were willing to explore their approach to art, and they were way outside my comfort zone.

I've also continued to search out artists who were telling short stories, and I've found more than a few. Make certain that you stop by Seth's blog, for he's a large voice willing to go the extra mile for all of us. I also wanted to include here another artist that I didn't find through Seth, but I found while exploring other art sites.

The above is a mail art Thank You to a lady who inspired my Marble piece which I posted back in June. Her name is Teresa N. Fischer She has a web site HERE, and also hosts a blog HERE, which oftentimes I find as interesting as her web site. The reason? She often includes a little narrative about the subject of the painting as part of her post. I asked her about a month ago if she'd ever done any antique wooden tops, only to discover that she hadn't. She did have some tops however, and volunteered to take photographs of them for me, which I thought was really neat. So - she got a Thank You. She'll get another when I finally put the Four Tops to the old paper I have. Got any tops?

Goodkind Brothers Whiskey Bottle

2011-10-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

In November of 2009, I posted an image of a piece of Goodkind paper upon which I had depicted a small bottle with a Goodkind Brothers label still affixed. Usually with bottles this old which had paper labels on them, the labels don't survive.

I have in my possession scanned images of two different Goodkind Brothers labels. The provenance for these labels is unquestionable, but to say that they were ever used on whiskey bottles is an entirely different story. They came from a sample book of a lithographer who not only produced labels of this type, but also labels for various other products as well.

This bottle should probably be called a flask. It does not stand on it's own all that well. It's a 'dug' bottle which was recovered locally. The owner graciously allowed me to borrow this bottle and the pewter cap, and he also gifted me two other larger bottles upon which I'm going to place the second of the Goodkind Brothers labels. Just like this one, I'll fill it with Ancient Age whiskey, take photographs of it to use for models, and then I'll post the image of the finished product.

Oscar Holden - Seattle Jazz Legend - PFF#50

2011-10-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

In March of this year while I was frantically preparing for the Western Heritage Artists show, I had to obtain the American Jazz stamps and get them canceled. I knew what I wanted to do for the art work, and it was pretty much settled by the time I had arrived back home. However - other art projects got in the way.

Three weeks ago I started putting it together. Since every one of my covers is hand-drawn and "painted", I had to do a template I could slip into the twenty-three blank envelopes that already had stamps and cancels. I use that template on my light table, using a pencil to produce the design on the envelope. I then move to my drawing board and using colored pencils and a Rapidiograph pen, I produce the cover.

I began that exercise with a design for a cover I'd done some years ago, and it is the same basic as the one I posted in February of 2009. That cover was an Event cover which I'd franked with a pair of Duke Ellington stamps. I did not use gold leaf on these covers, as I wanted to stick with the color scheme of the Jazz Forever stamps. The black piano keys were a what I wanted to highlight on this one.

Although I knew nothing of Oscar Holden until late January of this year, after reading the fabulous book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, I was pretty much looking for anything I could find about him. It didn't take me long to find out he played the piano. I included his name and the title of Jazz Legend, although he is known as the Patriarch of the Seattle Jazz scene.

Make certain that you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday, hosted by Beth Niquette for more colorful Mail Art from around the world.

Ball Blue Fruit Jar paper

2011-10-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

You may recall that I posted an image of a Ball Jar I called The Odd Ball several weeks ago. My art on the old piece of Ball Brothers letterhead was not just an accident. Larry Munson, who lives South & East of where I grew up in Northern Montana, gifted me that piece of paper. I have been waiting for the proper stamps to arrive, after purchasing a sheet of the American Glass stamp issue, Scott #3325-3328 from a seller on eBay. The stamps arrived today, although I had finished this cover several days ago. I will add the address to this cover and get it into the mail to him today.

The other fellow in this equation, Bruce Schank, who has a fabulous web site and collection of Ball Fruit jars (including the Odd Ball) will be getting a similar Thank You from me with a slight delay in it being posted. I have a show opening at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana this coming Sunday. I have been asked to do a live demonstration of my art, and I intend to complete Bruce's cover during the opening reception.

Did I mention that I owe a debt of gratitude to both of these gentlemen? They've been very gracious in sharing with me not only their time, but gifting me the paper and taking numerous photographs for me. I'd like to thank them properly, and perhaps one of these days I will - in person.

The other person I'd like to thank is Marianne Dow. She put us all together in one way or the other.

Star Play - PFF #49

2011-09-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is a commissioned First Day Cover for Scott #855, Baseball Centennial issued in Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The owner asked me to put art work on the cover from a Cigar box label, and I had several images to choose from. I thought it particularly pertinent as we leave September and enter October, leading up to the World Series. We just may see a few star plays, although since we don't watch television, I'll have to see highlights on the web.

My love of baseball goes back to a sand lot on which we played as youngsters, but I'm also a fan of old ball parks. In particular, Fenway Park in Boston. I had the pleasure of seeing a game more than several years ago between the Sox and the Athletics. It wasn't really much of a game, but I brought home a Sox cap that I break out about this time of the season. You never know!

Make sure you visit Beth Niquette's wonderful blog The Best Hearts Are Crunchy as she hosts another edition of Postcard Friendly Friday!

Indian Motocycle - Contact Point

2011-09-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

I paid a visit to my sister Judy several weeks ago. She lives in Shelby, Montana, which is where we grew up. My younger brother Dan was visiting from Puyallap, Washington, and I spent the day with them. Judy started the day off right with homemade Caramel Rolls, always a treat for breakfast. My brother-in-law, Tom, restores old Indian Motocycles and recently came upon a virtual horde of Indian Motocycle paper and related ephemera. We had a few minutes to look at some of it, and he gifted me several pieces that immediately caught my eye.

The piece that you see here is one that I gifted back to him. It was sent to Indian dealers by the factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, on what looks to be a weekly basis. This piece is dated October 6th, 1947. I also have several more just like it, although Tom is holding on to a number of them that are stapled together, as many of them were more than one page. THANK YOU, Indian TOM!

Ball Blue Fruit Jars - The Odd Ball

2011-09-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

In February of this year I put up a post for a Ball Brothers fruit jar that was amber in color. That piece became the highlight of my room during the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana in March. I sent Thank You notes to Larry Munson who gifted me the paper, and Bruce Schank, who allowed me to use his photograph as a model for the Amber Quart.

A week after sending the Thank You to Larry, I received a manila envelope in the mail that contained several pieces of paper, one of them being the piece that you see here. There's more to the story.

Through further emails with Bruce, I learned that he had a Ball jar that he had obtained from Larry, and consequently he took several photographs of what he called the ODD BALL. I don't know how well I portrayed its oddness, but there are several visual clues that there is something not quite right about this jar, and I think they're worthy of mention.

Quality Control must have been sleeping when this jar was produced. There is a seam line running down the jar, and a huge glob of glass at the base of the seam on the inside of the jar. I tried as best I could to make a Cinderella of a Cinder Girl, and I think I succeeded at least in some small measure.

So a big THANK YOU to both Larry Munson for gifting me the Ball Brothers paper, and to Bruce Schank for sharing Odd Ball photographs with me, allowing me to put a Larry Munson jar on a Larry Munson piece of paper.

Owney - Postal Mascot PFF #48

2011-09-09T08:32:00.000-07:00


Owney gets his dog tags

The United States Postal Service issued a Forever stamp on July 27th honoring a dog who 'adopted' Railway Mail Service mail bags - as his home - beginning in Albany, New York, in 1888. If you are interested in learning more about Owney, and how he came to acquiring so many tags that he had to have a special vest constructed by order of the Postmaster General, you can visit the official USPS Beyond The Perf site for the entire story.

The short version is he rode in Railroad Post Office cars all over the country and became the Railway Mail Service clerks unofficial mascot, and now has a home in the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.

Several months ago I received an invitation to submit a First Day Cover of the Owney stamp to be included in their permanent collection centered around Owney. I have been to Washington, D.C., but I didn't have a chance to visit the museum, so I can't tell you much about it.

In 1995 I created a First Day Cover for the POW/MIA issue. A pair of dog tags were pictured on the stamp and I chose a Montana man named Lee Nordahl as my theme, and I pictured his dog tags on a bamboo cross over a map of North and South Vietnam.

The use of dog tags to serve as identification of soldiers predates Owney, and the use of metal tags as we know them today dates back to the Second World War. You can read a short history of dog tags at this official site.

The POW/MIA issue dog tags immediately came to mind when I received the invitation from the National Postal Museum to submit a First Day cover honoring Owney. I know he didn't have a set of dog tags like the pair I wore, so I decided to create a pair just for him. Rather than include the city name of Albany, I substituted the serial number which would ordinarily be included on the tags with the Zip Code for Albany, NY, Owney's "home".

Make sure you stop by Beth Niquette's "home" The Best Hearts Are Crunchy to view more more wonderful pieces of mail art on Postcard Friendly Friday.

Breakfast Brownie Doughgirl

2011-09-07T06:25:00.000-07:00


Breakfast Brownie Doughgirl


Original newsprint advertisement

Luckily, the newsprint advertisement print block that I used as a model for this piece didn't go to the dogs!

There is little known about the Breakfast Brownies Company, and not a whole lot more about the Brownie Baking Company, except that they were not one and the same. The Breakfast Brownies Company was incorporated in 1919 in Montana, and although the officers were not all in or from Helena, the cereal was milled in Minneapolis and packaged here in Helena. Just exactly where in Helena I cannot determine, although I do know where their office was located.

I have seen a cardboard case for the cereal, a stock certificate, as well as one sample box and a dozen metal plates for newspaper print advertising. One of the plate images is the source for my Brownie Doughgirl.

I acquired several pieces of letterhead for the Brownie Baking Company, whose bakery was in Spokane, Washington. I do know that the Brownie Baking Company was once the Tru-Blu Biscuit Company, because I have seen five real photo postcards of the factory, and the message side of the card has the Tru Blu logo printed on it. Research on the web reveals very little about the company, other than the fact the factory bakery building is still in use – not as a bakery, but it's now artist studio space.

If you are interested in seeing my earlier version depicting the Brownie Doughboy which I completed in September of 2010, you can see it HERE. The Doughboy image was also taken from a newsprint print block.

I decided to put the Breakfast Brownies Doughgirl on this piece of Brownie Baking Company letterhead because the companies had one thing in common – they both used the images of Brownies to sell their products. Note the Brownie in the lower left corner of their letterhead. I've never done this sort of thing before, but my chances of ever finding a piece of Breakfast Brownies paper are slim and next to none.

The name is Hyatt - I'm Single.

2011-09-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

In 1869, John Wesley Hyatt patented the process to turn nitrocellulose and camphor into billiard balls. The process was dangerous and the end product was just as dangerous as the balls were purported to explode on heavy impact.

I can find no information about the company whose letterhead this happens to be, but the most important information is contained at the top - They sold Hyatt composition billiard balls. They also imported IVORY GOODS, which up to the turn of the century would have included pool and billiard balls made of Ivory.
Since acquiring this piece of old paper in March of this year, I've spent countless hours on the web searching for images of a single stripe and double striped number 9 Hyatt composition pool ball with little success. Photographs tend to be too small of the balls in their box, and I simply couldn't locate anybody that had a set of double stripe Hyatts. Those I could locate were pricey - nobody but nobody wanted to sell a single number 9, and I could not afford an entire set. Way out of my league.

I visited the source for the paper (actually, in search of MORE paper), and I mentioned to him that I would like to find someone willing to take a photograph of a number 9 Hyatt, and he drew his breath in and went to the basement of his shop. What he came back with was a box of Hyatt pool balls, including a set of Snooker balls. He entrusted the number 9 to me, so I brought it home with me. Two days ago I visited the local billiard supply store, Paper and Felt Billiard Supply, with the ball and camera in hand, and took photographs of the ball on an antique pool table with green felt. One of the owners, Becky Zapata, turned the lights over the table on, and let me take some photographs.

Armed with the photographs, I came home and proceeded to try various sizes of the ball on my light table to come up with an image that would not only stand on its own, but also reveal enough of the text of the letter to make some sense of what this piece of old paper is all about. I will probably never find another piece of paper quite like this, and I simply couldn't wait to "rack it up."
The contents of the letter itself are interesting. Hubbell & Grote have sent a note to Bateman-Switzer Company of Great Falls, Montana, requesting clarification of their order. --- "...You have neglected to state whether you want the number 9 ball to fill in a set of single or double stripe balls." Could the number 9 ball have exploded? After all, he was single.

BURIED TREASURE '11 - Jamie Ford, Oscar Holden & The Alley Cat Strut

2011-07-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Henry and Keiko's record

Mail Art Thank You to Jamie Ford

Seth Apter of The Altered Page has once again invited blog artists to post a bit of Buried Treasure from their archives. In the previous two editions, I posted MY favorites. This time, I'm posting one that has has been a favorite of readers - music lovers, and Jazz buffs in particular. Well... First of all, Oscar Holden is the only 'real' character in a book which I'll call a love story and historical fiction. The traffic to my blog for this particular post has more than tripled the overall page views, but strangely enough - visitors are here looking for MUSIC, and one song in particular - "The Alley Cat Strut".

The title for the post I've chosen to spotlight was the following:

Jamie Ford, Oscar Holden and The Alley Cat Strut

Google rapidly moved my post up into the top two places for any combination of author, musician and song title. Combining them together was an even bigger boost. If you don't believe me, try putting any combination of the words from my post title into Google search. There's not much art involved in this endeavor, but it did take my art to a different level. How many more records (or rather record labels) can I actually create that people will enjoy?

Back on January 24th of this year, my brother-in-law Chuck Pefley put up a post about the Panama Hotel. Chuck generally posts a neat photograph that he's taken in and around Seattle on an almost daily basis. I follow him not only because he's my brother-in-law, but because he's an excellent photographer and a source for models for a number of my pieces of art. I don't know whether he discovered the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet first and the hotel later or the other way around. It really doesn't matter to me whether the chicken or the egg came first. There's a fascinating story to be told about the real Panama, and Chuck discovered it long before I did. I was initially taken in by the gold leaf sign on the doors in his photograph, so I followed up on it. I was hooked.

In late January of this year, my wife and daughter and I were planning on being in Seattle. I managed to follow the link Chuck had given to the Author Jamie Ford's blog, quickly skimmed it and discovered a small but very meaningful connection which I planned on exploring - after returning home from Seattle. We arrived in Seattle to an empty house - Chuck was at work, and my sister was in Tacoma with my brother Dan, doing what she does best. After unloading the car, I was ready to sit down and take a nap (at my age, it's almost a necessity). I can nap anywhere and in my short trek to the couch, I spotted Jamie's book on my sister's desk, picked it up, and quickly fell in love. No nap. I had discovered a BOOK. A GOOD book. Over the next twenty-four hours I read it. It came very near to being a Sleepless in Seattle moment. I'm a history nut. This book should be read by everyone who wants an understanding of the social upheaval caused by the Second World War in these United States, and the West Coast in particular.

Chuck took us to the Tea Room of the Panama Hotel that evening for a cup of Rooibos tea, and I was able to experience first hand the basement of the Panama Hotel. The story had taken me right in. After returning to Chuck and Penny's that evening, I read the Author's notes at the back of the book. They're there for a reason: *** Jamie lives in Montana *** As a matter of fact, he lives ninety miles up the road from me.

To tell you why the book was so interesting I have to revisit my childhood, or rather that of my father. As a teenager, my father had spent time at Fort Lincoln, south of Bismarck, North Dakota. My grandfather was an Immigration officer charged with guarding German, Italian and Japanese 'prisoners' at Fort Lincoln during WWII. My father also met my mother while attending St. Mary's Catholic High School in Bismarck, so I knew some of the story of the internments.

The love story Jamie has written is about a young Chinese boy of 12 (Henry) and a Japanese girl (Keiko) of the same age, who both attend an almost exclusively white school in Seattle, and the story begins shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A key element in the love story is a 78 recording of a Seattle Jazz legend by the name of Oscar Holden. I will not reveal the significance of the recording. If you haven't read the book, get a copy. Suffice it to say it is a key element in Henry and Keiko's life, and in the belongings of thirty-seven Japanese families in the basement of the Panama Hotel - and the belongs are still there, unclaimed.

Upon returning from Seattle, I had it in my mind to do something special for Jamie Ford. I started my artistic journey by searching the local second hand stores and thrift shops for old 78 records - with sleeves. I purchased a stack of them at a Veteran's thrift store, brought them home and selected one that was in fairly good shape, although the paper sleeve was unusable for my purposes. I also spent a great deal of time on the web, looking for a record label for a recording studio that would have existed in Seattle during the 1940's. I then soaked and removed the label from the vintage 78 and spent several hours creating one of my own with all the 'right stuff' on it. I also took a Ben Franklin brown paper bag and created a paper sleeve for the record. I was assured by Jamie that although Oscar Holden was a very real Jazz musician, the song is a fictional creation of Jamie's. His book is still on the New York Times Best Seller list, and if you haven't read it, you should. But of course I told you that already, didn't I?

I created the record label for a recording that does not exist, but because Jamie had brought some of my childhood family memories back to me, I gave him something tangible the end of March that existed only in his creative 'storyland'. What I received from Jamie in return was a signed First Edition of his wonderful novel of love lost - and found - in the grooves of a 78 record. Thank You Jamie. You did my spirit good. There's more songs yet to be sung.

And just so you can be sure that the piece of mail art I've included above did indeed go through the mail, check out the post he put up on his blog after he received it. He hadn't yet taken the removable label off of it, but you'll get the picture.

It's A Duck! PFF#47

2011-07-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well --- Not really. It's a Goose. A White-fronted Goose in fact. This is my first of about twenty First Day Federal Duck Stamp covers that I have to do for subscribers. I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out as well.

If you get a chance, try to visit Hostess Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, for this week's version of Postcard Friendly Friday. More really great postcards and mail art!

Vintage Marbles

2011-06-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Some explanation is necessary for this piece of old paper.

Let's begin with some information I gleaned from that fabulous resource tool, the web. The following portion is from the Newberry Library in Chicago, and is a synopsis of the business that generated this piece of paper. Although formatted as if it were a ledger, it is actually a billhead that measures eight and one half inches wide by twelve inches high. I have more than one piece of this old paper that contain line items sold by them to C. W. Rank & Company Drug Store and Mercantile in Virginia City, Montana.

History of the A.C. McClurg & Co.

Chicago publishing house and wholesaler and retailer of books and merchandise.

A.C. McClurg & Co. traces its origins to Chicago’s oldest book and stationery store which was founded in 1844. The young Alexander C. McClurg went to work for the company, then known as S. C. Griggs, in 1859. McClurg resumed working for Griggs after returning from the Civil War with the rank of general. S.C. Griggs lost all its contents in a fire in 1868. But when the store was completely destroyed by the great Chicago Fire of 1871, Griggs decided to sell his share of the company to E. L. Jansen, A. C. McClurg and F. B. Smith. Jansen, McClurg & Co. was established in 1872. The business flourished and in 1873 published its first title, Landscape Architecture by H. W. S. Cleveland. By 1880 McClurg’s ranked as one of the country’s largest book distributors. In addition to its wholesale book business, McClurg supplied to small-town retailers throughout the West and Midwest a variety of merchandise, including “blank books and tablets, stationery, typewriter paper and supplies, hair and tooth brushes, druggists’ sundries, pocketbooks, pipes, pocket cutlery, etc.”

Although the book distribution component of the company was more successful than its publishing side, General McClurg felt secure enough to start publishing the monthly literary magazine the Dial in 1880 and continued to do so until 1892. It was during this period that George Millard created the rare book section that became known as the “Saints and Sinners Corner.” In 1886 the company changed its name to A.C. McClurg & Co.

When the firm’s premises were destroyed by fire in 1899, General McClurg decided to reorganize as a corporation with shares sold to employees. He died soon thereafter in 1901. Little publishing took place until 1914 when the firm negotiated what turned out to be its most profitable publication, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. McClurg & Co. went on to publish 10 more Tarzan titles. Eventually Burroughs set up his own company to deal with all iterations of his famous character.

In 1923 A. C. McClurg chose to focus its entire efforts on wholesale work by selling its bookstore located at 218 South Wabash Street in Chicago to Brentano’s. The remainder of the company was finally liquidated in 1962.

Strangely enough, toys (rubber balls, dolls, iron toys, Sad Irons, games, and in this case MARBLES) are not mentioned among the number of items that they provided to C. W. Rank.

History of the C. W. Rank & Company, Drug Store and Mercantile

I don't believe you can purchase any marbles in this business today, but oddly enough - it's still a going concern. The building was purchased from the original owner in 1889, the year Montana became a state, and it still in business today. For a little more history of the business, you can visit their web site HERE.

The Marbles

When I first decided to put marbles on this piece of paper, I began looking for marble images on the web - by name, since I knew that McClurg would have to have imported the marbles they sold, and most probably from Germany. Although clay marbles were first produced in the United States around 1890, it wasn't until Martin Frederick Christensen of Akron, Ohio, perfected, patented and produced glass marbles by machine. Up to that time, most glass marbles were produced using a long cylinder of hot glass, cut by a metal 'scissors' which had a cup of the proper size as part of the blade for the marble to be produced. The clay marbles as well as the older glass marbles are highly collectible. The Christensen company began producing glass marbles in 1903, and produced them through 1917.

In early May I contacted Joe Street from JoeMarbles about using some of the images on his site for models for this paper. He agreed to allow me to use any of his photographs, provided that I link to his site and send him a link to the finished image. Although I didn't use any of his photographs and finally learned how to outsmart my digital camera, I'm providing the link to his site because you can easily get lost if you're interested in finding some of your own lost marbles. Over the past twenty years or so, I've gathered some marbles that I enjoy looking at while they sit on the window ledge in natural sunlight. Indeed, to me some of them look like little planets. Some of the cobalt blue ones are very old and have been used repeatedly to the point that they look like a cratered moon. Even battered and pitted, they never lose their appeal - at least to me they don't.

Marbles Day 3

2011-06-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

My son got married. He may have lost his marbles - but I seriously doubt it.

I'm back at my drawing table, and it's looking like I've at least another day of serious work left to do on my marbles - which I found. The photograph is one of three I'm using as models. Your views of my marbles may vary.

Marbles Day 2

2011-06-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

After two days of trial and error, and a successful photo shoot, I'm going to post this now, because Day 3 is at least four days out. I've a wedding to attend.

This piece of old billhead paper is dated March 17, 1892. From A. C. McClurg & Company of Chicago, Illinois. It is an order for the C. W. Rank & Company Mercantile in Virginia City, Montana.

There are line items which call, by name, for at least four different varieties of MARBLES. What you see is what you're going to get. Except for Marbles #31 - #61. "We are at present out of Marbles #31 - #61".

More next week...

Buster Brown Reprise

2011-06-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

In 1902 successful Sunday Cartoonist Richard Outcault, who developed the comic strip character The Yellow Kid, came up with a new character - his name was Buster, a little rich kid with a pompadour haircut and a (talking) dog named Tige. Bottom line is that Tige is believed to be the first talking animal in the comic strips, and it largely went unnoticed. Buster had no last name - until 1904. That year at the St. Louis Exposition, Outcault sold the licensing rights to Buster to the Brown Shoe Company. Buster had initially been introduced in Outcault's The Yellow Kid strip, and reaction from fans was one of reasons Buster developed a following of his own.

In June of 2009 I published a post of a piece of letterhead from the Brown Shoe Company upon which I had placed an image of a piece of sheet music for which Richard Outcault had drawn his version of the song title: the Buster One Step That was a letterhead. This is the same image on another piece of Brown Shoe company paper. I have several smaller billheads, but the Buster and Tige images are really popular.

Now if I could only take some decent marble pictures for models, I'd be putting old marbles on old paper!

HELP! PFF #46

2011-06-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

I need help with this one, since I think I saw this image somewhere, although I didn't copy it. Anyone remember seeing something like this in the late 60's? I had no web access and very little reading material, so if I saw it somewhere - possibly an album cover? Regardless. I made it mine, somehow. In South Vietnam. While staying awake. Enjoy. And let me know if you recognize the basics in this image. I'd surely give credit where credit is due.

Make certain you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for more EYE CANDY that's been sent through the mail!

Chocolate Heart and Candy Rose PFF #45

2011-06-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

I did this cover in 1999 for the United States Postal Service Love Stamp issue, and I had a friend living in Fort Collins who was willing to make the thirty minute trip to Loveland, Colorado, to cancel my covers for me.

Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy is once again hosting Postcard Friendship Friday. I would suggest that you pay her a visit for more delicious eye Candy!

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Memorial Day 2011 PFF #44

2011-05-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lt. William "Muf" Mufich

Lt. Mufich was stationed with VF-18 (the Fighting 18^th) F6F-3 Hellcat Squadron aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in 1944. Lt. Mufich often flew as wingman for the third highest Ace in terms of confirmed shootdowns, Lt. Cecil E. Harris. Lt. Harris scored a total of 23 Japanese planes destroyed in air-to-air combat during the war in the Pacific.

I examined the charred and water-damaged flight log of Lt. Mufich in early May of 2005, and I noted four ‘Rising Sun’ stamps in his log, and a ‘possible’. Hellcat pilots were scrupulous about claiming shootdowns – unless the plane was observed as destroyed in the air or splashing into the sea, the plane was not claimed.

I was able to find a photograph of one of the Hellcats from VF-18, and I’ve placed the Squadron emblem (a + symbol) in its proper place on the tail of the plane in my artwork.

Number 14 was a Squadron plane that Lt. Mufich often flew, though it must be noted that Hellcat pilots were not assigned individual aircraft because of the way that the planes were maintained and readied for missions on the hangar deck.

Lt. Mufich autographed the covers in May 2005 during my visit to his home. He died peacefully in Kalispell, Montana, at the age of ninety years of age in 2010. I don't read the newspapers very often, so I missed his obituary last year. I'm trying to make up for that fact. I found it to be an honor to meet and talk with an American war hero intimate with this particular aircraft whose valiant service to our country proves him to be an Ace extraordinaire.

The U.S.S. Intrepid was struck by two Kamikaze planes on November 28^th, 1944, the second of which penetrated the flight deck and went into the hangar deck below. The bomb the second Kamikaze was carrying did not go off until after it entered the Intrepid. When it did detonate, it set off a chain reaction of devastating explosions involving countless torpedo and bomb laden American aircraft waiting for launch within the hanger deck. These explosions disabled the fighting effectiveness of the ship until repairs could be made. Sixty-nine sailors and pilots lost their lives in the attack. Lt. Mufich was on the flight deck when the Kamikaze hit occurred, and escaped injury.

He not only made a trip to visit the U.S.S. Intrepid (it's now a floating museum) in New York Harbor in 2006, but he also had his photograph taken in the Ready Room aboard his ship, holding my cover and standing next to a photograph of himself and his squadron taken in 1944. He was wearing a smile.

This may be long winded, but I wanted to take the opportunity to urge everyone who has a father, mother, uncle, aunt or even a neighbor who's a WWII vet to take a few minutes to watch THIS VIDEO if you haven't already. I've also included a link to a group called the Honor Flight Network. If you've never heard of it and YOUR WWII veteran has not visited his or her memorial in DC, you should take five minutes to watch the video. We are losing OUR WWII veterans at the rate of a thousand a day. Remember them and remember the reason they gave of themselves.

Be sure you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy where the hostess Beth Niquette presents another session of Postcard Friendly Friday!

Indian Motocycle Logo #2

2011-05-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

As depicted on the billhead, the logo is taken from the 1912 Indian Motocycle Catalog. I found this via my brother-in-law Tom-Tom Benson. He pointed me to a site called the Vintage Motorcyle Library, and the catalog is listed as one of the Indian related items that can be purchased on the site.

From the Indian Chief Motorcycle site: The original Indian motorcycle company was founded in 1901 in Springfield Massachusetts USA, by bicycle racer George Hendee and Swedish immigrant Oscar Hedstrom. Some people wonder why it was called the Indian Motocycle Company instead of Indian Motorcycle Company. In Italy, all motorcycles have names beginning with "moto" e.g. Moto-Guzzi, Moto-Ducati, Moto-Laverda, so perhaps Hedstrom was familiar with that. The earliest models looked like mopeds (bicycles with small single cylinder engines) and only 3 were made in 1901. Interestingly, Triumph began production the next year (1902) and Harley-Davidson the year after (1903). So the order was Indian, Triumph, Harley. Indian made 143 motorcycles in 1902.

The "Big Three" are no longer still around. The Indian was produced in the United States through 1953, but is no more.

Although it says on the logo that they have been built since 1901, what it fails to mention is that the Indian Motocycle was THE FIRST motorcycle produced in America.

I purchased two more pieces of this same paper in March and I still intend to put an Indian 4 on a piece of this paper, even if it really isn't historically accurate. The Indian 4 was first available in 1928 to Indian riders.

Michael Curnow opened a bicycle shop in Butte, Montana, at 205 South Montana Street in late 1908. I know that because the 1908 Polk's City Directory for Butte has no listing for him, whereas the 1909 directory does have a single line listing for him. In 1911 he became the Indian Motocycle dealer, and by 1913 he must have had a fairly decent business because he purchased a quarter page advertisement in the directory. I would dearly love to find a photograph of him, but so far I've come up empty.

This piece will soon be on its way out the door, as someone who saw the first piece that I did (which was pictured in the 2011 Western Heritage Artists Show program) asked me to do another.

More FREE Mail PFF #43

2011-05-20T04:42:00.000-07:00

Free Frog!

This is old paper as well. Since I've been posting images of my envelopes sent to my wife (then my fiancée) while I was in South Vietnam over forty years ago, I think it's old enough.

This is another envelope that does not really meet the criteria for being sent free through the mail system, but I broke the rules back then instead of just gently bending them like I do today. I was asked by the military liaison at the Holter Museum here in Helena, Liann Meyer, to participate in an exhibition for current military and veterans during Military Appreciation Month. It officially ends on the 30th of May, but there is going to be a reception for all the artists (seventeen of us) and our families this Saturday afternoon, which is Armed Forces Day here in the United States. After getting a sneak peek earlier this week so that I could take photographs, I can't wait until tomorrow to meet the other artists.

This is one that I didn't include in the exhibit. I have put fifteen of them in a single frame, and included the First Day Cover that I did for Lee Nordahl in another smaller frame. I haven't counted the ones that are still in the album, but I've more than a few left to share.

Make certain that you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more eye candy on Postcard Friendly Friday, hosted by Beth Niquette.

More FREE Mail PFF #42

2011-05-06T03:35:00.000-07:00

A ZIPPY Butterfly

We're doing an Antique show this weekend, so I thought it would be okay to post another of the envelopes I did for my wife over forty years ago. For more on the whys and wherefores of these love letter covers, visit my First post about them HERE. Also, if you follow the label links for Vietnam, there about another 10 of them that I've posted over the last couple of years. This one got a little wet around the edges somewhere along the mail stream, but not enough to make it unreadable. Make sure that you visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more Postcard Friendly Friday cards that are always worth looking at!

Flash Gordon and Atlas Rocket Chalk

2011-05-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this one since the beginning of February. After seeing a painting by Teresa N. Fischer in late February I altered the layout a bit and included the box of Rocket Chalk. Matter of fact, you might want to look at some of the rest of her work because I'm thoroughly hooked on her approach to vintage toys in a big way.

I learned a lot about including something other that a fruit jar, although I'm still stuck on glass. I'm going to tackle some old paper in the coming months as I prepare for a one-man show in Eastern Montana because the focus of that show is OLD PAPER, and specifically it will include some pieces from the area. For now, I'm satisfied with the way this one turned out, and I'm back to working on First Day Covers for a while.

Butterflies Are FREE Mail Art PFF #41

2011-04-22T09:10:00.000-07:00


Badly faded Butterfly - still FREE

We recently received an invitation from the Holter Museum here in Helena, Montana, to display OUR envelope art. The reason I say OUR is because I created these envelopes over forty years ago for the woman who would become my wife upon my return from Vietnam. They belong to her. This is one that didn't go to the Holter.
The last four months I was in Vietnam I was stationed at the 1st Medical Battalion field hospital north and a bit west of Danang. I chose to take what was called 'Graveyard', which was the night shift from eleven until seven. It was fairly easy duty, as the ward I was assigned was a surgical ward. Marines who had come in after three in the afternoon for minor surgery (something requiring sutures) would have to remain overnight, as some could not be returned to their units after five PM - the gates were closed.

My wife, then my fiancé, had been sending me Flair tip pens and a Rapidiograph to feed my creative habit, and I had occasionally been drawing on the envelopes for the love letters I sent to her. As I did last year, I will occasionally post one of these envelopes. They helped me maintain some level of sanity in what was a pretty ugly environment.

Be sure to visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy as she hosts another Postacrd Friendly Friday.

Neon Cupcake PFF #40

2011-04-15T10:38:00.000-07:00


A tasty celebration

For the past week, I've been alternating between doing First Day Covers, my first of the year, and a new fruit jar that I've been working on since the first of the year. I can't seem to stay away from it, although I know I need to be doing the covers just to support my old paper habit if nothing else.

I worked on a neon sign for the new Neon Celebrate Forever stamp, but to do the neon proper, it really takes a stark, very dark background to properly display it in all of its brilliance - fully lit. After four days of struggling with it, I came up with what you see. A small little celebration with neon sprinkles, which I promptly ate after I took a few photographs. Yum.

Be sure you stop by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more delectable delights of the Eye Candy variety. You won't be disappointed as she hosts another Postcard Friendly Friday.

Today's Your Birthday, Happy Birthday to You!

2011-04-12T00:39:00.000-07:00


The unopened stash of Rooibos Tea


A Full Flyer

Malone, New York. April 12th, 1949. The world welcomed Penny. I don't know if she cried, and I wasn't quite old enough to understand what the fuss was all about, since exactly one year earlier, in the same hospital, I was born.

My fascination with mail art really didn't begin until sometime in 1953 when my folks took us (by then there were three of us, just like in the photograph on the envelope above) to the opening of the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. We'd moved to Shelby, Montana, by that time, so I don't remember anything about New York or my first two years. I do have one brief memory of the actual move when we were forced to spend a night in Wolf Point, Montana, on account of the road being closed because of a blizzard. I do believe that the photograph itself was taken in about 1953, although neither Penny nor myself are really certain about the year.

Many years later, I was given the Nick Bantock trilogy, Griffin and Sabine, by Penny and my youngest sister Judy. Although I was doing what I considered envelope art all along (some of it I've posted here and will be labeled as mail art if you're interested), that was really a turning point in the mail art that got exchanged between Penny and myself. She's now become adept at finding the right little pieces that make mail art a very FINE art!

I can't think of a better way to get a smile out of someone, even if you can't see it when it happens, than by sending them a piece of mail art. Nothing fancy required. Some of what I do comes easy to me, especially since I've played this game for over fifty years. You would actually be surprised at how your small act of kindness never goes unrewarded, and it always starts with the satisfaction gained from brightening the day for someone.

We lit up the smiles for each other a little early this year. Matters not, we enjoy the giving just as much as the receiving. And by the way, that's our brother Dan in the middle, and me sitting on the edge of the wagon.

Art Show Success PFF#39 Contest

2011-03-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Western Heritage Art Show was a success for me. It opened Wednesday the 16th at 7:00 PM with awards for the Lobby Show in which all sixty-two of us were allowed to enter one piece. I put the Pinned Ball Wizard in the lobby show, and hindsight tells me that I shouldn't second guess jurors, and I won't - next year. It wasn't a piece of Old Paper Art and probably should have been.

The rooms opened at the same time, and after being opened for ten minutes, I'd sold a piece. The same thing happened last year, when I sold a piece that I had included in my ad in the program.

Thursday was just as good, and in fact the piece that I completed for the Quick Finish event (a piece of mail art) in the evening sold for more than it sold for last year. The gentleman who purchased the piece brought it up to my room after the event and returned it to me. Charlie Russell's birthday was Saturday, and since I got my start by looking at his mail art over fifty years ago, I took it to the Russell Post Office on Saturday morning and had it canceled and then shipped it to its new home in Idaho.

Friday was another successful day in the room with two more pieces selling, and the piece I did for the Paint-Around in the evening sold for more than I thought it would. The event involved working with six other pieces and six other artists, with 10 minutes at the end of an hour to complete (or repair) your piece and frame it. Below is a photo of me holding the completed piece before it was auctioned. I came in a disguise.

Fwench Awtist

Saturday was a big day for me. Two more pieces sold, but the highlight of the day was a visit from the author Jamie Ford that I posted about on Monday.

With the room open only from eleven until four on Sunday, I still managed to sell one piece. We were tired after being there until 10:00 PM every day, but I was wearing a big smile.

Now for the contest.

The images at the top above are Thank You's for six of the pieces I sold. I've posted about all of them, but not all of them are recent. Add a comment to this post naming the titles of the blog posts for which these Thank You's were created. The first one to post the titles (or the dates they were posted) gets a piece of mail art. Happy Hunting! And make certain that you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy where Beth Niquette hosts Postcard Friendly Friday. I'm sure you'll enjoy more postcard eye candy both old and new!

Jamie Ford, Oscar Holden and The Alley Cat Strut

2011-03-22T09:18:00.000-07:00


Henry and Keiko's record

It's in the mail

Back on January 24th of this year, my brother-in-law Chuck Pefley put up a post about the Panama Hotel. Chuck generally posts a neat photograph that he's taken in and around Seattle on almost a daily basis. I follow him not only because he's my brother-in-law, but because he's an excellent photographer and a source for models for a number of my pieces of art. I don't know whether he discovered the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet first and the hotel later or the other way around. It really doesn't matter to me whether the chicken or the egg came first. There's a fascinating story to be told about the Panama, and Chuck discovered it long before I did. Because the photograph he'd posted involved a gold leaf sign, I was hooked.

My wife and daughter and I were going to go to Seattle in a few days, but I managed to follow the link Chuck had given to the Author Jamie Ford's blog, quickly skimmed it and discovered a small but very meaningful connection which I planned on exploring - after returning home from Seattle. We arrived in Seattle to an empty house - Chuck was at work, and my sister was in Tacoma with my brother Dan, doing what she does best. After unloading the car, I was ready to sit down and take a nap (at my age, it's almost a necessity). I can nap anywhere and in my short trek to the couch, I spotted Jamie's book on my sister's desk, picked it up, and quickly fell in love. No nap. Book. GOOD book. Over the next two days I read it. I'm a history nut. This had some really good meat in a very soft shell.

Chuck took us to the Tea Room of the Panama Hotel for an evening cup of Rooibos tea, and I was able to experience first hand the basement of the Panama. More meat. The story sucked me right in. After returning to Chuck and Penny's that evening, I read the Author's notes at the back of the book. They're there for a reason. Jamie lives in Montana.

As a young man, my father had spent time at Fort Lincoln, south of Bismarck, North Dakota. My grandfather was an Immigration officer charged with guarding German, Italian and Japanese 'prisoners' at Fort Lincoln during WWII. My father also met my mother while attending Catholic High School in Bismarck, so I knew some of the story of the internments.

A key element in the love story which Jamie has written is a 78 recording of a Seattle Jazz legend by the name of Oscar Holden. I will not reveal the significance of the recording. Suffice it to say it is a key element in Henry's life, and in the belongings of thirty-seven Japanese families in the basement of the Panama Hotel.

I created the record label for a recording that does not exist, but because Jamie had brought some of my childhood family memories back to me, I gave him something tangible last Saturday that existed only in his creative 'storyland'. What I received from Jamie was a signed First Edition of his wonderful novel of love lost - and found - in the grooves of a 78 record. Thank You Jamie. You did my spirit good. There's more songs yet to be sung.

Western Heritage Artists Show

2011-03-09T04:58:00.000-08:00

The Western Heritage Art Show begins on Wednesday, March 16th at the Holiday Inn in Great Falls, Montana. It's only my second year as a member, but it's the 30th Anniversary for this show, and I'm honored to be the Featured Artist this year. Hope Good, our Advertising Chairperson has put together a fantastic program again for us this year, and the first image above is of the centerfold page.

I met Christy Daniels at the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction in 2009, and we participated in our very first Quick Finish at that event. You have to see her sculpture to believe how well she captures her vision in three dimensions. I shared a page in the program last year with her, and I think it brought us good luck. At least I came out a winner, and it was primarily due to two images - my lobby piece which caught the attention of art fans as soon as they walked into the Holiday Inn, and the major piece in my little quarter page in the program was sold as soon as I hung it on the wall.

I'm hoping for the same results this year. The second image above is of my piece for the lobby show. The title is "He's A Pinned Ball Wizard". I wish I could have displayed a bit more white space in the online image, but the fact of the matter is - the image just barely fit on my large flat bed scanner. The jar came from my mother in law, as did the antique wooden clothes pins. It's the largest piece that I've done in at least thirty years. I'm so happy with the results, I've decided to start tackling some larger pieces to augment my Old Paper habit.

The Ball jar in the ad above will be hanging in the same spot that the ad piece hung in last year. And just in case you can't read the room number in the program above, my wife and I will be in Room 219 just to your left at the top of the stairs above the lobby. We met a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones last year, and you can view a lot of good art (besides my own) in the process if you stop by this year. We also are going to participate in a new event this year called the Paint Around, which happens Friday Evening poolside at the Holiday Inn, beginning at 7:00 PM. I'm not going to reveal what I'm doing for that event, but I am doing another piece of mail art for the Quick Finish on Thursday, since my piece last year was a real hit. We hope to see you there!

Baby Ruth Flies Again

2011-03-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Back in August of last year, I put up a post of a billhead which referred to a sale of Baby Ruth Candy Bars which I obtained from a Michael Popek of Forgotten Bookmarks via SusanE at This Old Paper. It was great fun to put together that post (and the image), primarily because I was to learn a great deal about the way that the candy was merchandised across the country.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States. The second image I've posted above is from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, newspaper advertisement announcing a Candy Drop over that city.

Even more interesting than the Baby Ruth Flying Circus is the story of Paul Tibbits, who garnered a ride in Davis' Waco to serve as the bombadier for one of the Candy Drops in Florida in 1927.

Paul Tibbets was born in 1915 to Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets in Quincy, Illinois. In 1924, the Tibbets family moved to Florida. Paul was nine. On a warm summer day in 1927, barnstorming pilot Doug Davis, let twelve-year old Paul ride in his Waco 9 airplane and toss Baby Ruth candy bars to the crowds at Hialeah racetrack and Miami Beach. Tibbets always traced his interest in aviation to that day.

Do you recognize the name of Paul's mother? Sixty-five years ago last August, Paul Tibbits flew the B-29 Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, and will be forever remembered in history books, as will his mother.

I acquired the Curtiss Candy Company billhead several months ago, and I decided to do something about putting another Baby Ruth airplane on it. My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

Humpty Dumpty Doll Hospital

2011-02-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

This is a piece of old paper I found on eBay some months ago. I had no idea how well-known the Dean of Doctors was when I first examined the lot, although I did do a little searching before I decided to bid on it. The Dean is even more well-known than the Head Surgeon. I also don't know if he just performed head surgery or if he did some of the stitching on the bodies and extremities.

According to Gwendolyn's Dolls, Emma Clear was the very first doll artist in the United States. She began her practice in the 1890's building clothespin dolls for children's hospitals. She founded the Humpty Dumpty Doll Hospital in Buffalo, New York, in 1908, moving to Cleveland in 1914, and finally moving to Redondo Beach, California in 1917.

There are many examples of Emma's artistry available on the market, most of them with clay heads, natural and human hair, some with painted eyes and others with glass eyes which she obtained from Europe.

I decided to do these well recognized characters rather than trying to put an Emma Clear doll on the piece of her letterhead. I think she'd be more than willing to perform some minor surgery don't you?

Old Faithful in Winter PFF #38

2011-02-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

This is a First Day Cover I created in January of 2009. The stamp was released with little fanfare, and since the lodge was closed for the Winter, there was no ceremony for this stamp. I made the almost two hundred mile trip to West Yellowstone, which is as close as I could get to Old Faithful without riding a snowcoach and still get the cancel I wanted on the First Day. Was there snow on the ground? I could not see out of the parking lot when I finally found the Post Office. I could see the flag flying on the flag staff out in front, which was a big help in locating the building as it was.

Make certain to stop by Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more eye candy that was meant to be sent through the mail!

BALL Amber Quart Fruit Jar

2011-02-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

My circle of Jar friends just keeps growing, but to get the story right I have to back up a couple of years.

Two years ago this Spring, I made a trip to my hometown of Shelby, Montana, to visit my youngest sister and make a side visit to Larry Munson. Larry has a collection of fruit jars, or should I say HUGE collection of fruit jars. He has a five room house that is filled with fruit jars, and that house isn't even the one he lives in. I spent an entire afternoon taking photographs of fruit jars, and I came away with some good photos of the specific jar that I made the trip to see: The Kilner Jar. I also took photos of the Everlasting Jar while I was at it, and I'm glad I did since you don't get an opportunity to see the variety of glass that Larry has very often.

And how can I forget the Amethyst Economy jar? Another jar from Larry's arsenal.

I'm not out of paper yet, nor am I out of story, either.

Through Larry, I met a woman on the web by the name of Marianne Dow. Larry told me that Marianne was a very personable woman who had a keen interest in antiques and a real love of glass. She's steered me to other folks who've been more than happy to feed my glass habit in one way or another. Marianne had a Putnam Lightning jar to hand when I needed a good photograph, and went so far as to provide a YouTube video of her opening and closing the jar so I could see how the wire bale operated.

Several weeks ago, I received an email from a fellow by the name of Bruce Schank. Bruce has a collection of Ball jars and a web site to go with it. He introduced himself by telling me that Marianne had suggested that he contact me. He told me that I really ought to look at what was on his web site, and as long as I gave him credit, I could use any of the photos he had out there. After exchanging several emails and a phone call, Bruce simply sent me some higher quality photos of a Ball Amber Quart jar that was proper for the Ball Brothers letterhead that I had obtained from Larry - two years ago.

So there you have it. I'm now out of the BALL game, since I have no more Old Ball Paper, but I'm always looking for glass paper of any kind suitable for framing. Marianne tagged me a couple of weeks ago with a new title: JArtist. I love it. And Larry and Bruce - you have mail!

Lenna the Brownie Queen

2011-02-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I sent a piece of mail art to Lenna Young Andrews who has a blog called Creative Lenna. I was inspired to send her a piece because she was using some elements on her mail art that I was really interested in, and I had missed a mail art challenge which she had sponsored by days. I found Lenna through Mary Green, who really kicked my game up a notch when I discovered she was a Nick Bantock fan. It would appear from some of the elements on this envelope that Lenna also knows where Nick Bantock lives.

Lenna sent me a VERY interesting piece of mail art which I received yesterday in my mail box. I have to ask a couple of questions which will probably lead to my spending more money, but I have to know - Are all the Brownies on this envelope, both front and back from stamps, or did this start out as a piece of paper with Brownies all over it? And are you using some type of thermal transfer? I've not seen anything like this except for a couple of cachetmakers who use thermal transfer for their basic design and add watercolor to them. And - then you throw in some of my favorite kinds of PAPER! Bonus!

Lenna, Mary, Hope Wallace Karney and Lisa McIlvain are currently involved in an online workshop called Artful Pages which gives students the opportunity to gain the expertise of all four of these artists in their areas of expertise. Give it a look!

My Valentine

2011-02-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

I made a trip to the post office this morning, asked for a clean cancel and hand back sevice - which anyone can do. She'll be surprised when she finds it in the mailbox. Or at least I hope she is! And then we'll drink Rooibos Tea and eat Dark Chocolate Wedges from Trader Joe's in Seattle. Who knows? ;o) And I made the card as well, but I don't know if I'll get that posted today or not.

Sleeping in Seattle PFF#37

2011-02-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

The last week in January my wife and daughter took turns being backseat drivers while I drove the wagon to Seattle for a couple of reasons:

My daughter met her birth mom and they attended a musical Sci-Fi convention, her birth mom coming from Flippin, Arkansas, by plane. I wanted to spend some time in a couple of antique shops looking for old paper as well. We also got to spend time with my brother Dan who lives in Puyallup, and my sister Penny and brother-in-law Chuck who were more than gracious hosts and tour guides.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up with an empty house the morning after we arrived, and I spied a book sitting on my sister's desk in the living room. That really isn't where the story begins however, so I'll take you back via a link:

On the 24th of January, Chuck posted his Almost One A Day photo of the Panama Hotel. I follow Chuck's blog regularly, and not only because he just happens to be related - he's also an incredible photographer. In the post he linked to an author who had written a book entitled "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet". I read Chuck's blog post, and then followed the link to the author Jamie Ford's blog. I was intrigued enough to read them both, but because I was headed to Seattle at the time, I put the book on the back burner.

Now we're back to the book on the desk. I picked it up and started reading it. I don't think we went anywhere, because I couldn't get my nose out of the book, however we were in Seattle for some good reasons so I didn't finish it for a couple of days. In the meantime, Chuck and I had the chance to talk about not only the book, but the circumstances surrounding the subject of the book, and how the Panama Hotel was involved in a real historical event.

By the way, this is a shameless plug for Jamie Ford and his book, and a shameless plug for Chuck and his photography. The love of their art shines BIG in my eyes.

We got to visit the Panama Hotel, and we drank tea in the Tea Room. Memorialized with a great photo by Chuck as we sat at the table. It was also one of the highlights of our trip, being the historical nut that I am.

After our return home, I put together a Thank You for Chuck and Penny, and sent it on it's way. I did not scan it before I sent it. I've not done that with the last bunch of mail art that I've done. I should have checked some spelling however, because I made a mistake on the last line I added. Chuck posted it on his blog yesterday - and he corrected it in the title of his post. Well - he fixed it with Photoshop, and sent me the corrected version. Not bad for a SEATTLEITE!!!

Please stop by Beth Niquette's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy and enjoy more eye candy from some real mail art fans!

Chuck - Seattle's Best Photo Guy PFF #36

2011-01-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

It works both ways, Chuck. This all started about two years ago this Spring when I started doing what I always wanted to do - ART - as a second career. The full story behind the art work included on this piece of mail art is covered in my post in June of 2009 called First Cup Of Fascination. Chuck also covered it pretty well this AM on his blog - One A Day - Mostly Seattle.

I paid a visit to Seattle in late January two years ago to make a trip North into Canada to spend an afternoon with Author and Artist Extraordinaire, Nick Bantock. How it came to pass that I would spend an afternoon in his studio is a story in itself but not the subject of this post. The subject of this post is an artist with a camera lens who just happens to be my brother-in-law.

One of the first (if not the first) piece of old paper that I acquired was a 'book' of sheet music that contained four pieces of music for the Pianoforte - the forerunner of the Piano. Contained in the book were four songs about Venice, Italy, the first of which was entitled 'Dawn'. I knew that Chuck had made a trip to Italy several years ago and had taken many photographs of Venice. When I asked him if he had any photographs of Venice, he pointed me to his web site so that I could look at what he had available. I found a photograph which I knew would be perfect for a model - a cup of coffee.

As I mentioned earlier, Chuck posted a scan of this piece of mail art this AM on his blog. As a matter of fact, I grabbed the image from his post because this is the first time I've been able to show you what a piece actually looks like after it's traveled through the mail system.

I also would like to thank Jennie Hinchcliff, one of the co-authors of Good Mail Day for the idea of using an unthreaded sewing machine to create perforations for stamps of my own design.

I'm off next week for another trip to Seattle to: see Chuck and his wife (my sister) and to shop for old paper. And of course, I'll have to sip some coffee from Seattle's Best (AKA Photo Guy) and Starbucks while I'm there. And oh yes - I'll be looking at photographs for models for more mail and Old Paper Art while I'm there.

And please stop by Beth Niquette's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, view some of the other participants blogs, and thank her for once again hosting Postcard Friendly Friday.

Buster Brown & Tige

2011-01-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

In 1902 successful Sunday Cartoonist Richard Outcault, who developed the comic strip character The Yellow Kid, came up with a new character - his name was Buster, a little rich kid with a pompadour haircut and a (talking) dog named Tige. Bottom line is that Tige is believed to be the first talking animal in the comic strips, and it largely went unnoticed. Buster had no last name - until 1904. That year at the St. Louis Exposition, Outcault sold the licensing rights to Buster to the Brown Shoe Company.

In June of 2009 I published a post of a piece of letterhead from the Brown Shoe Company upon which I had placed an image of a piece of sheet music for which Richard Outcault had drawn his version of the song title: the Buster One Step That was a letterhead.

This billhead is dated August 22, 1907. The Brown Shoe Company was not yet incorporating Buster into their marketing, but Outcault was making Buster more human, better to appeal to people as just another kid. The Company virtually adopted Buster and gave him a last name. They then sent kids out across the country with bulldogs, dressed just like Buster and Tige appear here. They made guest appearances at Brown Company shoe stores all over the U.S.

Good Mail Day Thank You's PFF #35

2011-01-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in the recent past in Seth Apter's Studioscapes Project, I found a reference on one of the featured artist's blogs to a Mail Art Tribute contest for Nick Bantock. I jumped at the chance and I'm glad I did when I did, because there were only two days left for submitting mail art when I discovered the contest and read the rules.

Several months ago (see my post of September 2nd, PFF #27), Seth had also presented a Freebie contest for those folks who commented on one of his posts. The post was called the Book Guild and was a listing of favorite books of over 150 artists, myself included. The prize was a signed copy of a book called Good Mail Day, by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan-Wheeler, plus a piece of Mail Art by Jennie herself. A most excellent book judging by the title, and I would have dearly loved to have acquired an autographed copy for my slim library, which includes every book that Nick has authored except for one - the Capolan Artbox. I was a bit down in the dumps when I discovered I hadn't won the book (Have YOU ever won anything?), and I put the book purchase on the back burner.

While Christmas can always be considered a Good Mail Day, in my case, my oldest sister (Penny) and youngest (Judy) collaborated (and probably conspired as well) to purchase a copy for me as a Christmas gift. I devoured it. Plenty of really neat ideas, some labels and cards to be used, and at least one really helpful hint for me which I had not considered using - a sewing machine with no thread in it to be used to create perforations for your own stamps. Up to this point, I'd been making due with an Xacto blade, which doesn't result in the same type of perforation, and I'd never really been happy with this method.

To see the results of my Tribute Entry, visit A Tribute to Nick Bantock Mail Art. My piece garnered third place, page three in the book to be published, and a copy of the book to put in my library. The piece displayed on the web site doesn't include the removable label which was hiding the number that needed to be included as one of the criteria for valid entries to the contest. The piece is not entirely my own art work, but I did do Nick's initials in Gold Leaf, I used several pieces of ephemera I'd obtained from Mary Green, a chop I'd made myself from an eraser, and a couple of stamps. I also used a reprint of a piece of old paper that I'd put a parrot on (The Parrot Confectionery), and a not-so-old playing card which I'd found on the street - all perfect elements for a piece of Nick Bantock Mail Art.

I don't know where the mail art avenue is going to lead me. Mail art is primarily exchanged artist to artist, although I've been selling some of mine along the way. My envelope art was selling off the wall in a local gallery over twenty years ago, and although I'm no longer associated with a gallery, I continue to mat and frame some of it because people want it and enjoy it. I am going to do another piece of mail art for the Quick Finish event at the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls in March, but that's the subject of future posts as we get closer to showtime.

If you like the view here, take the time to visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more inspiring, colorful, witty, wacky mail art and postcard images for Postcard Friendly Friday!

Postcard Greetings PFF #34

2010-12-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

This idea first came to me while looking at an image on the Tattered and Lost Ephemera blog yesterday. To paraphrase, her resolution was to get up earlier so she at least got a decent seat on public transportation in the New Year. Or perhaps a GREEN seat. Or perhaps a seat at all. I grow old and my short term memory is headed out into the bitter cold. As soon as I saw the image I remembered I had a card sort of like the one she displayed, but at least the passengers on her ride were dressed appropriately. A couple of Mine? Not so much. Anyway, the image and message made me laugh.

My first visit this morning was to the Pieces of the Past blog, where the Funoldhag (aka, Carol) posted an image of four piglets with a tale to tell in their tails. I had to laugh again, since while looking through my meager supply of old postcards for the Hopi Unlimited transportation card, I found a Contented Family. Okay. I really don't know what struck me about this card, but there's something about the eyes on the piglets and the smile on her face that makes me wonder if her left hand isn't holding a tranquilizer gun.

And now - let's talk about health. Brian at the Paper Sponge posted an image of an old German embossed card depicting a couple of bearded gentlemen with - bags of money and packages??? One of them with feet firmly on terra firma, but the other was riding a crescent moon. Once again, I went back to my slim pile of cards because I remembered one with polar bears and the new year babe riding - a cork. Is that really healthy transportation? This message doesn't bode well for global warming, either.

So - may all of the folks who found this blog worthy of a read now and then visit again in the New Year. I have new mail art to post and some good news to announce, but for now - you get postcards from my swipe file. Best wishes to everyone for a happy, healthy, prosperous and blessed New Year.

Visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more of what postcards are really all about!

Drummer Boy! PFF#33

2010-12-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

Although I'm not keeping with the theme chosen by hostess Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, I'm putting up the First Day Cover that I did last year for my brother. Not only is he a drummer, but he just happens to collect Drummer Boys year round.

In the process of researching Drummer Boys for the art work, I discovered that there is a rich history behind the nutcrackers here in the United States. Although immigrants from Europe new them well, soldiers brought many of them back to our country after WWII.

In 2008, the USPS commissioned a fellow by the name of Glenn Crider to build four nutcrackers for the Holiday stamp issue. Although each nutcracker he builds is unique, he also builds one of each for his own collection. There's probably a lesson to be learned from that, since I've done many covers over the past twenty years, and have very few of them in my own collection.

While browsing early, I found that FunOldHag aka Carol, at Pieces of the Past had posted a cute postcard of a young drummer under the Christmas tree, probably waking up his folks from their long Winter nap. It woke me up to my entry for today's Postcard Friendly Friday.

Hubley Indian Motocycle PFF #32

2010-12-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

I've done a couple of posts on Indian Motocycles, including a piece of old paper that involved a lot of phone calls and a trip to the Montana Historical Society. I also included in that post the First Day Cover that I had done which depicted an Indian Scout with my brother-in-law aboard.

A site that I have been following for well over a year, Tattered and Lost Ephemera, posted a wonderful story and included a print advertisement for a Hubley Indian Motocycle yesterday. As she usually does with the ephemera that she posts, she included links to the Hubley Toy Company and the Indian Motocycle Company as well.

In 2002 when the USPS announced that they would be issuing a block of four Antique Toy stamps, I decided that I would use an antique toy motorcycle for my art work, and I knew where to go as a source for the model - my brother-in-law, Tom Benson, restores old Indian motorcycles, and his living room is a virtual museum of old Indian memorabilia. He does not have any Hubley Indian motorcycles, but he knew where to find some excellent photographs of one - and promptly sent me a couple to choose from.

The advertisement that was posted on the Tattered and Lost Ephemera site is a prime example of marketing, and you really ought to give it a read. Hubley not only knew how to make toys, but they also knew how to sell them. I've recently come across some old paper that includes the sale of Tin toys and dolls, and I'll be putting some of those pieces up as I work toward my next major show in March of next year. But for now, my memory was jogged into action (I could hear the 'realistic' motor running) when I read the advertisement for the Hubley Indian.

To get your motor running, make sure you visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more visual treats on Postcard Friendly Friday!

Nick Bantock Tribute PFF #31

2010-12-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

While visiting Seth Apter's Studioscapes post last Sunday, I discovered a MAIL ART contest whose main theme was a tribute to the artist Nick Bantock. I should mention that Studioscapes was a project that Seth promoted in which he asked over 150 artists to let the viewers get a better idea of the creative spaces we use as artists and the way we use that space.

One of the participants named Michele Jackson, whose studio space was featured last Sunday had posted an image of a piece of mail art that she had created for a Nick Bantock tribute. I followed up the link that she had included in the post, read the rules for the contest and discovered I had very little time to create a piece of mail art with a Nick Bantock look to it (the deadline was the 1st of December).

I'd created a piece of mail art for Nick almost two years ago, and it was actually meant as a mail introduction prior to my visit to his studio on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia in early 2009. I've included that image today, along with the piece I created for the tribute.

Be sure to check out Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more delectable goodies in the mail art tradition for Postcard Friendship Friday.

I almost forgot to mention that one of the rules for the contest stated that a large number had to be included on the piece. I placed that element under the removable address label, so you'll have to check back with the contest site to find out just how large the number really is!

Have (Ostrich) Duster, Will Travel

2010-11-27T20:15:00.000-08:00

Over the past several months, I've acquired a couple of pieces of billhead which refer to Ostrich feather dusters as either part of the business information in the header or as line items. While I was looking for Ostrich images, I happened upon an image of an Ostrich race. This intrigued me, since I had no idea that an ostrich could be ridden, much less raced. After having found one image, I went looking for more, and found a potential source for the Ostrich Feather Dusters sold by the Phoenix Brush Company, Inc. - the Cawston Ostrich Farm in California. The old linen postcards pictured on this site are almost surreal, and I couldn't pass up using at least one of them as a source for my art work on the Phoenix Brush Company billhead.

A couple of weeks ago, Brian Carlisle from the Paper Sponge put up a post called Bits of Bird Life from an article published in an 1897 issue of the Youth Companion. Fascinating to say the least. If you are interested in ephemera like I am, you really ought to give the Paper Sponge a look. I had no idea Ostrich Farming was such a money-making proposition at the turn of the Century. Brian's article nudged my brain and I decided to tackle the Ostrich while it was still standing still.

The gentleman aboard this male ostrich is apparently well acquainted with the bird, since I see no evidence of saddle or bridle. Perhaps he just waited until the bird stuck his head in the sand as the ostrich is doing in the image above. Later I hope to post another piece depicting a young lady riding one side-saddle.

Penny & Olive PFF #30

2010-11-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

The top image is one of about twenty covers I produced as a printed issue for the Motorcycle stamps which were released during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2006 in Sturgis, SD. I asked the owners of the four different motorcycles which were depicted on the stamps to autograph the cover with 'their' stamp on it. Although I had intended to sell these to offset the expense of attending the First Day Ceremony and obtaining Unofficial cancels for my hand-drawn and painted issue, I was not allowed to sell them in Sturgis. Penny Nickerson's cycle (which she called 'Olive') is a 1918 Cleveland. She rides it, and has a mechanic who travels with her to make certain that it continues to run as it is supposed to.

The second cover is the hand drawn issue which I did for my subscribers and portrays my brother-in-law on his Indian Scout. I think I've posted this one before, but I wanted to get a post up, even if it isn't Old Paper Art. The reason I was anxious to put something up today is because yesterday a lady by the name of Debbie sent me a great email.

Debbie Overton has a new site called Fresh Approach, and she published a wonderful interview that she did with yours truly. We did the interview several weeks ago. Of the images that are included with the interview, five of them have found new homes. THANK YOU, Debbie!!!

Also, Beth Niquette is hosting Postcard Friendly Friday at her site The Best Hearts Are Crunchy , and she has posted a great Lincoln postcard which you have to see to believe. Visit and peruse the list of other bloggers participating in Postcard Friendly Friday.

Marianne's Putnam Lightning

2010-10-15T09:22:00.001-07:00

This billhead was purchased on eBay at auction on September 26th. Someone else besides me wanted it, so although they attempted to Snipe it once I had put in a bid, I went back and bumped my maximum bid up to what I thought would be adequate to cover any snipes. Although I have all kinds of paper waiting in my binder to be worked on, I knew I was going to put a fruit jar on it as soon as I saw this piece of paper come up for auction.

From the Pick Your Own website, "In 1882, Henry William Putnam of Bennington, Vermont, invented a fruit jar that used a glass lid and a metal clamp to hold the lid in place. These "Lightning jars" became popular because no metal (which could rust, breaking the seal or contaminating the food) contacted the food and the metal clamps made the lids themselves easier to seal and remove (hence the "Lightning" name) . There were many similar glass lid and wire-clamp jars produced for home canning all the way into the 1960s. Many can still be seen in garage sales, flea markets and on specialty food jars today."

Marianne Dow, a wonderful cyberfriend, has posted at least one article about my glass images, and fruit jars in particular, as the webmaster for the Findlay Antique Bottle Club, in Findlay, Ohio. When I visited Larry Munson of Devon, Montana, over a year ago I took no photographs of Putnam jars. Consequently when it came time to come up with photographs that I could use for reference and as a model, I asked Marianne if she would help me out. And she did - in a very big way.

I think this Lightning fruit jar is my best glass image yet. I would have liked to have portrayed one of the oddly colored Lightning jars as they can be found in a wonderful array of colors, but trying to put yellow or amber glass on a piece of blue paper would have required a lot of preparation work on a piece of paper that I felt needed to be kept the way it came to me. Marianne had a large Putnam Lightning jar in Cornflower Blue, so I chose to use that color as the base color for my jar.

So Marianne, I gave you a Ball jar in July of last year, so this time Lightning strikes for the first time. I hope it strikes again in the future! It's headed to the framers to be matted and framed and put behind archival glass as soon as I'm through posting this article.

The Parrot - Talks for Itself

2010-10-08T05:37:00.001-07:00

When I went searching for old paper over a year ago this past January, The Parrot Confectionery was one of the first places I stopped. Brian and Kelly Ackerman had purchased the business from the Duensing family, and were in the process of learning what they needed to know about the chocolate business. I inquired about old letterhead or billhead, but was discouraged to hear that the Duensings had no letterhead, and the billhead was destroyed to eliminate information such as credit card numbers to protect the privacy of their customers. The business itself is one of only two businesses on Last Chance Gulch here in downtown Helena that are still in operation in the same location since 1922.

Walking into this candy store is like walking back in time. There is a Wurlitzer juke box, booths and a real soda fountain. They make all of their own chocolate and it is all displayed in five foot high glass cases.

During my first brief visit with Brian I offered to design a piece of vintage letterhead that they could use for special occasions in exchange for several of them that I could put my art work on.
Brian agreed to look at whatever I came up with, and he finally settled on the lettering that you see on their web site. I did not do the parrot, but the design outfit that created their logo did, since the one that I had done was not in color.

In going through the old papers in the office, Brian discovered several pieces of old billhead from the fountain, and he gave them to me. This is the last piece that I have, as the other two have since gone to new homes.

BIG SKY Greetings PFF #29

2010-09-23T20:28:00.001-07:00

The stamp issue was called Greetings from America, and each state had a ceremony in their capital city on April 4th, 2002. Each stamp was actually meant to look like what were called 'Large Letter' postcards. I have seen a number of different types of these cards, most of them linen and very colorful. Scenes from the city or state which were the subject of the cards were portrayed in each of the large letters across the card.

I took the theme of the background from the stamp and although Montana is seven letters, it was already on the stamp, so I chose to use the nickname for Montana.

Be sure to check out The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for more Mail Art Images!

Studioscapes!

2010-09-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

I was asked by Seth Apter to participate in an online 'gathering' of artists called 'The Pulse' less than a year ago. As part of the experience, we were asked to supply a vignette of our studio space for a the third portion of The Pulse which he called Studioscapes. This past Sunday, my little creative corner was included along with four or five other artists.

So as not to give the impression that my studio looks like my desk, I've decided to let you look at one of the walls! Three of the framed pieces hanging on this wall have found new homes since I took the photograph.

Recent Sales Mail Art PFF#28

2010-09-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Two pieces left us this past weekend at an Antique show where I set up a booth, complete with flower arrangements by my beautiful wife of forty years. I wear a tie and I leave the hat in the car.

Buster Brown and Tige which I posted last year as Five Feet in the Air, and the Tru Blu Biscuit Company van (We Deliver!) both found new homes. As I promise each of the folks that purchase one of my pieces of old paper, I sent them a piece of mail art as a thank you. As I do with each of the pieces of mail art, I've left the removable labels off of the image I post. Removable labels are the greatest invention since Post-It notes.

Make sure you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for a stein full of other great mail art images!

Breakfast Brownies Doughboy

2010-09-15T06:06:00.001-07:00

Pillsbury has their doughboy, so I think Breakfast Brownies Cereal can have theirs too!

There is little known about the Breakfast Brownies Company, and not a whole lot more about the Brownie Baking Company, except that they were not one and the same. The Breakfast Brownies Company was incorporated in 1919 in Montana, and although the officers were not all in or from Helena, the cereal was milled in Minneapolis and packaged here in Helena. Just exactly where in Helena I cannot determine, although I do know where their office was located.

I have seen a cardboard case for the cereal, a stock certificate, as well as one sample box and a dozen metal plates for print advertising. One of the plate images is the source for my Brownie Doughboy.

I acquired several pieces of letterhead for the Brownie Baking Company, whose bakery was in Spokane, Washington. I do know that the Brownie Baking Company was once the Tru-Blu Biscuit Company, because I have seen five real photo postcards of the factory, and the message side of the card has the Tru Blu logo printed on it. Research on the web reveals very little about the company, other than the fact the factory bakery building is still in use – not as a bakery, but it's now artist studio space.

I decided to put the Breakfast Brownies Doughboy on this piece of Brownie Baking Company letterhead because they had one thing in common – they both used the images of Brownies to sell their products. Note the Brownie in the lower left corner of their letterhead. I've never done this sort of thing before, but my chances of ever finding a piece of Breakfast Brownies paper are slim and next to none.

Well? Do you think this piece of advertising art would fly up against the Cocoa Puffs of the cereal world?

Mail Me Art! PFF#27

2010-09-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

This was my only entry for a mail art contest that ended shortly after the first of this year. Which leads me to the reason I'm posting this today: I tried to tell a little story with this one, but I really don't think that was the main impetus for doing it. After more than fifty years of putting my art on envelopes. via the amazing resource of the web, I discovered there were others like myself who truly enjoy making art that goes through the mail.

Seth Apter at The Altered Page has been sponsoring an ongoing series of posts called The Book Guild, the most recent being Chapter 21 this past Sunday. One of the books which was suggested by a couple of the more than 150 artists that he had asked to participate in the fourth edition of The Pulse(an online survey of nearly 150 artists) was a book entitled Good Mail Day, authored by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler. Not only that, but he sweetened the pot by offering to give away two copies of this book via a drawing of all those who left comments on the post itself.

Shortly after he made the offer one of the authors, Jennie Hinchcliff, offered to create a piece of original mail art to 'go-with' the book. Now, my chances are pretty slim of winning one of these books, so I'm pinching pennies and not making my usual purchases of old paper on eBay so that just in case I'm not a winner, I'll be able to afford to add this one to my very slim library of art books.

I'm a big fan of mail art and have been since I was a little five-year-old kid standing in front of a glass case looking at the mail art of C. M. Russell. When I heard from a fellow blogger about a mail art contest called Mail Me Art, I decided to create an envelope and send it in. Unfortunately, I didn't hear about the contest until it was too late to enter more than once, but I'm ready the next time it opens up for entries.

In the meantime, I'm anxious to see (1) if I win one of these books, and (2) actually purchase one of them if I don't!

Be sure to stop by Beth Niquette's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more Back-to-School mail art images!

This one opened the Ball PFF #26

2010-08-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

In 1990 I was working for Montana's Fish, Wildlife & Parks agency. There was a high volume of mail coming into the mail room in early April as nonresidents and residents alike submitted their applications for special permits to hunt big game.

One morning a fellow employee brought me an envelope with THIS stamp on it, and asked me if I could tell her what was wrong with it. I immediately spotted the lack of a cancel, and also the lack of any lettering or numbers on the stamp. I told her that yes, I knew what was wrong with it. She allowed me to take the name, address & phone number off of the application, and I went about the task of contacting the person who had put this error stamp on the envelope.

To make a rather long story short, the wife purchased the booklet of stamps and mailed the application for her husband, so when it came time to ask about purchasing the rest of the stamps from the booklet, I had to bargain with her - which I did. I purchased the balance of the booklet for $450, and also threw in one of these covers for her to keep. She accepted my offer.

I created a total of nine of these covers and sent them to Kansas City to get them canceled with the First Day of Issue cancellation. I sold ALL of them. In other words, I have none of them left. I also gave a dozen roses and $50 to the young lady who found the error stamp to begin with, and she thought that was more than the greatest thing she'd ever heard of - paying so much money for simple postage stamps.
And for those of you interested in more mail art, either on envelopes or cards, make sure you visit The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more 'Eye Candy'!

No Quacks on the Radio - PFF #25

2010-08-21T08:31:00.001-07:00

I know I'm late, but I'm tossing this one in here because it's a bird and although I didn't hear it on the radio, if it looks like a Duck - it is.

This is the first of twenty-two of these American Wigeons that I have to do, making them look all the same as best that I can. I like doing the ducks, and this is my twentieth issue of the Waterfowl stamps that I've done. In order to make them 'First Day' covers, I needed to get the stamps (at $15 a piece), affix a regular First Class stamp, and cancel them - neatly.

I was awarded Honorable Mention in the Duck category of the American First Day Cover Society's annual Cachetmaker's Contest for 2009. I did a 'portrait' of the Longtail duck, and this award is the eighth time I've received an award since 1990 in the Duck category.

Visit Beth at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more sounds and images for Postcard Friendly Friday!

No Address Required

2010-08-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my wife's Birthday, so I created a card for her, and of course an envelope to put it in. It's her monogram. You should be able to read it, although I probably ignored all the rules for creating one.

I took it to the Post Office and asked for hand-back service, meaning I didn't have to toss it in the outgoing mail slot, I just got it back after the clerk canceled it. No mailing labels necessary. The third time was a charm as far as getting a date on it. For some reason, the dates are not showing up on some of the devices no matter how hard the clerk stamps it. Maybe some of you Stamper people have a good solution for that.

She could read it - can you?

Thank You's On The Way PFF #24

2010-08-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Rather than pick some of my more conventional 'envelope art' for this edition of PFF, I'm going to let you see the Thank You notes that went out after our successful trip to Bozeman, Montana, for the Little Bear Antique Show, held on the same weekend as the Sweet Pea Festival. Artists set up their booths in Lindley Park, and although I consider myself an artist, I believe my work is more attractive to those interested in all things VINTAGE.

I did not include the mailing address labels for any of them, as some of these folks wouldn't want their mailing address available in this venue. The last one, for Pat, is because she was a very gracious hostess who invited us to spend Saturday evening with them and share her table and some wonderful conversation with those of us who have an enduring interest in Old Paper.

If you are interested in more postcard images for Postcard Friendly Friday, please visit Best Hearts are Crunchy, as you'll enjoy a number of other images from old to new which have gone through the mail. Since today is Southpaw Day, I think I fit right in!

Model T Town Car, Helena Cab Company

2010-08-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Research, research, research. Helena had a cab company very early, but for the early years, no records exist. I'm assuming that they used horse-drawn carriages for their upscale passengers, but I can't tell you for certain of that. I have seen many real photo cards and photographs of early Helena, and they did have cabs such as the Model T depicted on the billhead, but what I was looking for was something a little bit more snappy than what Mr. Ford offered.

I browsed Google images for several days, and finally found a photograph of a 1915 Model T Town Car, which I've rendered on this billhead. The sign on the door is 'right'. The license plate - 'right'. The only problem I had was that I couldn't locate an image of a Helena Cab of that vintage, so I used my Artistic License.

I visited the Montana Historical Society and found the archived records for vehicle registration and ownership, and began narrowing my search to locating a proper plate number for a Helena Cab in 1915. What you see is the result of my effort.

Plates were assigned as they were registered with the Secretary of State, but the records are in bound volumes, meaning I had to search line by line for an entry for 1915 for Helena. I had no idea there were over 12,000 vehicles registered in Montana in 1915, and that they also registered motorcycles.

The line item entries are as follows: July 12, 1 N.P. for 50 cents, July 22, 1 N.P. for 50 cents, and July 25, 1 G.N. for 50 cents.

NP is for Northern Pacific, GN is for Great Northern, and both railroads had terminals here in Helena. So, Mr. Nolan paid $1.50 for three trips by cab to the stations.

Any business with an office in the Placer Hotel deserved to own a cab like this one.

Lab RATIN

2010-07-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I included an image of this piece of paper before I touched it.

I touched it. For about sixteen hours.

There is not much to give you in the way of history as far as Ratin Laboratories. I can't find one single reference to this company anywhere, and believe me, I looked - hard.

I was very lucky and found an image of this bottle on an Antique Bottle site called Antique Bottle Mysteries. The reason the image was included there was because it is a perfect example of what is called Cold Mold Ripple, and is sometimes referred to as "Whittled" or "Hammered" glass. The effect is caused by the mold in which the glass was produced, and in particular, when the mold is made of Iron. Impurities in the iron caused the glass to cool at differing temperatures, and hence caused the glass to vary in thickness. It is a wonderful sight to see when you hold one of these bottles (most produced in the late 1920's) as the light passing through the bottle and what you can see beyond the bottle is distorted - in a good way!

My spouse suggested a rat - in the bottle, but I thought that it was more important that the bottle be seen for what it is - beautiful, even if it contained poison.

Ratin Bottle, No. 2

2010-07-27T13:49:00.001-07:00

Guess what I found on eBay? A piece of paper from the RATIN Corporation which discusses the breakage of a bottle of Ratin. Oh yes, by the way - Ratin is Rat Poison.

I've done the bottle once before, and now that I've found a piece of Ratin paper, I'm going to do it again. Actually, the Ratin bottle that I did was the very first piece of old paper that I posted here, and rather than look back at that post (for which I got zero comments), I'm posting the image of the finished piece that found a new home during the Western Heritage Artists show in March of this year.

The bottle is an example of what is called 'whittled' glass. The color is spectacular, and I'm headed to my desk to work on it.

Baby Ruth From Above

2010-07-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Way back in December, I got a very nice email from Susan E at This Old Paper. Actually, the email was a note telling me that I ought to look at her current post, which I quickly did. It was a HUGE Welcome to Me, combining our mutual fascination with old paper with a fresh idea for some art work on a 'bookmark' of sorts. She provided a link to the Forgotten Bookmarks site, which I had already been following on an almost daily basis. Her suggestion was that it would be really neat if I combined an old ad for Baby Ruth with the old billhead that Michael Popek at Forgotten Bookmarks had found in "The Quarterly Illustrator, Vol. 1 No.4" published in 1893. The line items listed were for one box (120) of Baby Ruth and one box (120) of Butterfinger candy bars. The title for his post on this special find was Someone's Got the Munchies.

To come to the point, I contacted Michael at Forgotten Bookmarks and although I offered to pay for it, he told me he would GIVE me the billhead - and he did.

That was over six months ago. I pulled the piece out of my ever-bulging binder several weeks ago, and although I tried every conceivable layout for the ad that Susan E had suggested, there was just no way I was going to fit that ad on this piece of old paper. So...

I started doing more than just a little research.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States.

But I digress. I started looking for images that could be of use to me for a piece of paper about half the size of a regular piece of letterhead. I've include the image of an advertisement for a store in Milwaukee promoting a Rain of Baby Ruth candy bars. I knew I was close, but the image was just not clean enough to do the paper up right, so I continued looking for Baby Ruth airplanes until I found one I could use. What you see is what you get! My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

Buried Treasure 2010 - The "Kilner" Jar

2010-07-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Seth Apter of The Altered Page is once again hosting a revisit of ancient posts - by invitation!

I've only been blogging for a little over a year and a half, but I had to look back and find one that I thought would be worthy of sharing. This one is particularly pleasing to me because it opened the door for me for some wide-spread interest in old paper - the way I like it.

The piece of Old Paper Art I'm sharing this time I actually covered in three separate posts, and I'm including the text from the finished product - but for the mat and frame. I sold this piece as soon as I hung it at the Western Heritage Art Show in March of this year. It had hung in a local gallery (where I had it matted and framed), but it didn't sell. I think it's a matter of exposure, really. The more people see how unique the art is, the more people are intrigued by what I've done with it. Unlike collage art or 'ledger' art, mine has to have something to do with the paper itself. These pieces of true ephemera are a tiny snapshot of business as it used to be. Business owners hired excellent artists to portray to the buying public the best image they could, for if the print advertising and packaging did not sell the product, it usually did not sell.

I like using original art work for most of my old paper as often as possible, but oftentimes I have to resort to utilizing the old advertising or packaging art. I particularly enjoy using glass as the subject for a couple of really good reasons: It is transparent. If it is colored glass, it tends to glow and reflect light, as well as project it. Because it is transparent the text can be seen through the image of the glass, which gives the impression to the viewer that the glass is 'in front' of the text, hence I've killed two birds with one stone without breaking the glass!

I also include a short narrative with each piece that I complete, giving viewers a word snapshot of why I chose it, and the history of the company and subject if possible.

In an earlier post here (Kilner paper) and HERE, I gave you a glimpse at what’s involved in getting my art onto a piece of old paper, and it always starts with – the paper. I purchased this piece on eBay from a gentleman named Tom Caniff after finding out that although there were no glass fruit jars listed as line items on this billhead, the primary business of the Kilner Brothers was to make jars for the preservation of food of one kind or another. Mr. Caniff also sent me a picture of a Kilner jar, but it was simply not detailed enough to use as a model.

The company had been doing business since 1857, and a Kilner (John) was making glass storage containers beginning in the year 1792. When John died in 1857, his sons took over the business. They continued to make glass containers until at least the turn of the century when many small glass firms were merged to create the United Glass Bottle company and the patents held by the Kilners were purchased.

With the help of a long time collector of canning jars, Larry Munson of Devon, Montana, I was able to portray the “Kilner” jar they produced. My last Paper Treasure Hunt and Photo Expedition involved a trip to Larry's for an afternoon of filling my camera with photos of over seventy varieties of fruit jars including the photo I took of the Kilner jar in the previous post that I used as a model for this piece.

Indian Motocycle and the Logo

2010-07-10T08:25:00.001-07:00

From the Indian Chief Motorcycle site: The original Indian motorcycle company was founded in 1901 in Springfield Massachusetts USA, by bicycle racer George Hendee and Swedish immigrant Oscar Hedstrom. Some people wonder why it was called the Indian Motocycle Company instead of Indian Motorcycle Company. In Italy, all motorcycles have names beginning with "moto" e.g. Moto-Guzzi, Moto-Ducati, Moto-Laverda, so perhaps Hedstrom was familiar with that. The earliest models looked like mopeds (bicycles with small single cylinder engines) and only 3 were made in 1901. Interestingly, Triumph began production the next year (1902) and Harley-Davidson the year after (1903). So the order was Indian, Triumph, Harley. This "Big Three" are still around a century later, while many other brands which started later died off years ago. Indian made 143 motorcycles in 1902.

Although it says on the logo that they have been built since 1901, what it fails to mention is that the Indian Motocycle was THE FIRST motorcycle produced in America.

I have more than one piece of Indian paper, but I intend to put motorcycles on them, much like I did in 2006, when my wife and I made the trip (in our SUV) to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the First Day Ceremony for the Motorcycle stamp issue. I've included the image of the finished cover for the issue, which pictures my brother-in-law, Tom Benson of Shelby, Montana. He restores Indian Motorcycles, and it was a perfect match as far as relevant art work for the stamps.

I know absolutely nothing about Curnow the Indian. I do know for certain that this piece of paper became irrelevant in 1913, when the company was renamed as the Indian Motorcycle Company. It will be interesting to see if there are any images from Butte, Montana, that include Curnow, or any of his customers!

Old Paper - Finally!

2010-06-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

After a couple of months of devoting desk time to First Day Covers, I decided to do a piece of OLD PAPER ART, and this is the result of a week's worth of pencil-pushing.

A little bit about both of the companies involved with this nice piece of old paper:

The South Bend Toy Company was incorporated December 22, 1882, after being established in 1874. Frederick Badet, a grocery clerk, and John Teel, a woodworker, originally started the company, making croquet sets and other wooden toys. Croquet was that the time, the only acceptable game for women and children to play. About the turn of the century they began to build children's wagons and doll carriages.

The Studebaker Company was founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the the name of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. The company built wagons for farmers, miners and the military. Their factory was located in in South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker asked the South Bend Toy Company to build a number of small replicas of their full-sized wagons to place in dealer showrooms. The only problem they encountered was that the dealers couldn't keep them in the showroom, and Studebaker quickly realized that a smaller wagon for children would be a sales leader. South Bend produced the smaller wagons, and Studebaker sold them through their dealers. South Bend Toy also sold the wagons through the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

Included now in this post is a scan of the Sears & Roebuck catalog page from 1924 advertising the Studebaker Junior. The advertisement was provided to me by Gordon Westover, who builds upscale wagons and restores antique wagons, doing business on eBay as WagonMasterCoaster. If you have a moment and are interested, stop by his eBay store.

I have seen a number of real photo postcards picturing this wagon being pulled by a goat, and apparently photographers used the Studebaker Junior as a standard prop for children's photos.

I recently saw one of these wagons (not restored) at auction, and it sold for $3,300.

Ride on!

Memorial Day & the Flag - PFF #23

2010-05-28T07:02:00.001-07:00

Forty years ago today I was where I didn't want to be. Twenty years ago when I created this cover, I was where I wanted to be, and just beginning to feel like I could become WHO I wanted to be. Following along with the theme for Postcard Friendly Friday, hosted by Beth Niquette at the Best Hearts are Crunchy, I decided to remember not only my flag, but also a man who symbolizes the greatness of our country under the worst of conditions. Be sure to stop by and see what others are posting for Postcard Friendly Friday.

For all those who gave their all,
Eternal Rest Grant unto them, O Lord,
And let Eternal Light shine upon them.
May they Rest in Peace. Amen.

Please take a moment to remember why we have a Memorial Day.

Monarch Butterfly - PFF #22

2010-05-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

From Names on the Face of Montana by Roberta Carkeek Cheney - "Monarch (Cascade County) is an almost deserted mining town in the mountains at the junction where two gulches meet Belt Creek".

In 1889 when the settlement of Monarch was granted a post office with Charles Martin as postmaster, there were three mining claims being actively worked in the immediate vicinity with the names of 'King', 'Czar' and 'Emperor'. This may account for the name of the town, but the specifics are lost in the past. There was a railroad (Great Northern) which terminated in Monarch, and then it went further to the mining town of Niehart with passenger service on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday according to Opal Mayte, whom I spoke to for quite awhile this Monday past.

Opal was the postmaster in Monarch for thirty years, then her son became postmaster, at which time he fired his wife Grace as she had been a postal clerk for Opal previously.

Monarch literally came alive on Monday at about 11:30 when a brief ceremony was held for the issuance of the new Monarch Butterfly postage stamp. Without going into a lot of details on the marvelous job the current postmaster Kally Permann did to make the occasion so memorable, it was one of the nicest First Day Ceremonies I've ever had the pleasure of attending.

I designed the cancel for the postmaster, and she had prepared two hundred cacheted envelopes. She had ordered a thousand stamps, which amounted to fifty panes of twenty stamps to a pane. All of the stamps were gone by noon. The cacheted envelopes were also gone. They had mail requests from Europe as well as all over the United States already, and I'm certain that with the mention of the pictorial postmark in Linn's Stamp News the previous week, she'll be getting a lot more of them.

I am making the covers as I did with the Montana State Flag issue, so once I was through placing the stamps on the paper and canceling them, I was asked to sign my name under the cancel on the cacheted covers for those folks who purchased them when they bought the stamps, which meant I signed about two hundred covers as well.

Quite a day!

If you are interested in what others may be doing for Postcard Friendly Friday, hop on over to The Best Hearts Are Crunchy to see any number of posters with the theme this week of the Power of One Voice!

Flag Waving - PFF#21

2010-04-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last Friday the USPS put the fourth in a series of six Flags of Our Nation stamps on sale. Montana is among the states to get a stamp in this series, and the post office asked me to design a cancel for them. I was honored. I decided to combine my love of map envelopes (read that MAIL ART) with my cachet business, and I was really happy to get the opportunity to offer my subscribers a nice cover to add to their collections.

I used a territorial map of Montana to create the envelopes from archival #70 paper, and then utilize the image from the Great Seal and flag of Montana to produce these little pieces of art.

The history part of how the flag came to be goes back to the Spanish American War when a unit of the Montana National Guard carried this flag into battle - not as it appears today, but the seal and flag were developed from the unit flag itself. The seal reflects the heritage of this great state - a pick and shovel (mining), a plow (agriculture), the Great Falls of the Missouri (first recorded by Lewis & Clark in 1805), and the majestic mountains for which Montana was named. The words on the scroll, ORO -Y-PLATA , mean Gold and Silver.

Oh yes, and Beth Niquette over at The Best Hearts are Crunchy is hosting Postcard Friendship Friday, if you're interested in looking at more great 'mail art'!

The Tom Mix Circus

2010-04-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

What have I been doing for the past month??? I have to feed my Old Paper habit by continuing to produce First Day Covers, and also I've been asked to design two First Day Cancels for the Postal Service within the past month as well. The cancel are a lot of fun, and I will post the one I produced for the Montana Flag stamp (which came out yesterday) for next week's Postcard Friendly Friday. But just so you know...

The USPS released its Cowboys of the Silver Screen issue on Saturday, and I deliberately avoided the more common themes for the art work. Not only that, but I also purchased and canceled the stamps in the little berg of Ringling, Montana, named for one of the Ringling Brothers who at one time not only had a rail spur built to accommodate the railroad cars for his traveling circus, but also he heavily invested in the cattle market and owned a great deal of property surrounding the town.

Tom Mix made numerous movies, but documenting them all is a difficult task at best, since most of them have long since deteriorated to the point that they are not viewable.

His Circus involvement is easily documented, and he worked for not only some rather large Wild West shows, but circus and rodeo performances were also a big thing with Tom. He had a Wild West show as early as 1909, but he did not have his own circus until 1935, when he purchased the Sam Dill Circus and renamed it. He employed 150, and kept 75 trucks on the road for 3 years.

After posting on Saturday, I received a nice email from a lady by the name of Marianne Dow. I don't know what she doesn't collect, but I know both of the images, the one of what appears to be a comic book cover and the other a board game, come from her personal collection.

This one was pure fun!

ORIGINAL - Christ Lived in Anaconda in '31

2010-03-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

The most recent old paper and the very first piece of old paper I purchased. Did you know that Christ lived in Anaconda in 1931 and got his perfume from LA?

I am going to be showing this and every piece I have not sold at the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana, during Western Art Week. This is going to be a huge opportunity for me to obtain some exposure that I'd not be able to get any other way. I'll have a gallery/room at the Holiday Inn from Wednesday the 17th, through Sunday the 21st. I'm also participating in the Quick Finish on Thursday evening, and I'll be doing a piece of mail art complete with a hand-drawn card that can be used in the envelope. I'll also be doing mail art in my room and taking orders for old paper and mail art as well. My first love is the old paper, however, and I think I've got that base pretty well covered.

We Deliver!!!

2010-02-27T12:56:00.000-08:00

The Tru-Blu Biscuit Company was a local Spokane, Washington company that also sold Krause Candies. I spent many hours looking for some of their packaging, and in the process of searching and making inquiries of historical society sites - found little information about them.

I have in my possession a number of high school 'quarterly' yearbooks from the North Central High School in Spokane, which included advertising for a lot of local businesses, including Tru-Blu Biscuits. I brought these back from Seattle, Washington, and they'd been in the possession of my brother-in-law, Chuck Pefley. Chuck grew up in Spokane, and had more than several boxes of EPHEMERA that had come from the attic of his parents, some of it including some from his grand-parents as well. Chuck allowed me to go through what he had, and to take whatever I wanted. The yearbooks, from 1913 to 1916, are filled with 'good art' and perhaps I'll share some of it in the future, but for now -

I liked the Tru-Blu logo and color scheme. In early Spring my wife and I were on a trip to Havre, Montana to visit her family. We took a tour of Havre Underground, and on that tour I saw a tin about a foot square on one of the General Store shelves, and I took a picture of it. On that very same trip, I made a stop at one of my sources for old paper, and I found more than one piece of Tru-Blu Biscuit Company bill head. Further looking on the web led me to a photograph of employees standing beside a Tru-Blu delivery van. I did my level best to search out more photos of their vehicles, but this was the best I could do. I questioned old truck fans to try to determine from the photograph I had what type of truck it was. I drew blanks. I did the next best thing - I used another delivery van as a model. I wanted to get this piece ready for the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana on the 17th of March. So for now, this is a Tru-Blu delivery van, and that's all there is to it!

1928 Chevy Truck, Like A Rock #2

2010-02-18T06:20:00.001-08:00

This is the second piece of Highway Garage bill head that I've done with a similar truck depicted. I posted that one back in early July and then donated it to the Marias Museum of History & Art in Shelby, Montana, my hometown. This one is going to go with me to the Western Heritage Artists show the middle of March. I thought that the Highway Garage was in Oilmont, but apparently it was also in Sunburst, since the name has been crossed out at the top of the billhead, and Oilmont is written in. The company for which the service was performed was the Hardrock Oil Company. I have no idea if they ever owned a 1928 Chevy with a tank and auxiliary engine on it, but I used my Artistic License on this one.

I'm going to be working on another piece of territorial (trout) FLY PAPER, which I'll post as soon as I get that one done. It's also going to go with me to the show with as many more new pieces as I can get done between now and the 17th of March.

GLORIA, PFF #20

2010-02-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

Join Marie, The French Factrice for more interesting and colorful examples of art that travels the mailstream and is definitely not on a leash.

Gloria is my sister-in-law. She sent my camera back to me months ago, after I'd left it on the ranch while visiting. So - I not only owe her a THANK YOU that's long overdue, but I also owe her MONEY, something which poor, starving artists have very little of.

There's a little colored dot that I inked onto this cover, between the O in Gloria, and the R in River, and it indicates the spot where she lives on Beaver Creek. The map was made long before there was a town called Havre. It was once called Bullhook Bottoms, but Founding Fathers didn't think that name quite fitting for the location. The farm (and ranch, since she deals with the cattle) is about ten miles South of Havre. Ft. Assiniboine is about four miles South and West of the present city of Havre, and about three miles North of the farm.

It was my mother-in-law's homestead, established in the early Teens.

It is beautiful country, and Gloria's a wonderful lady. I shouldn't have delayed as long as I did in paying her back or in doing a nice Thank You. I hope she forgives me.

Flying Pig Lunch PFF #18

2010-01-21T14:25:00.001-08:00

I eat Flying Pigs for lunch. Not really. The postage stamp on this cover is celebrating the Year of the Tiger not the Pig, but I couldn't resist. I just got my machine back from the mechanic and wanted to make sure that everything worked properly.

Be sure to stop by Marie's little corner of the blogosphere for MORE Flying Pig Posts!

Winchester Model 1892 44-40 DeluxeTakedown Rifle

2010-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is a piece of paper that I found while looking through a large box of about 4,000 documents, and rightfully did not belong in the box. For the most part, when I began looking for paper to put my art work on, I was buying left-overs and the less-expensive pieces that I could not only afford, but could do something with. I set this piece aside in the keeper pile, and once I'd finished with the box, I had a rather 'short stack' to be considered for pricing.

When the shop owner started going through my selections, he came upon this and said "WHERE did you find THIS"? I explained that it was 'in the box'. His response was to tell me he really ought not to be selling it to me, because this kind of paper is very valuable to those who collect firearms and related ephemera. I bought it. It was expensive, but I knew I wanted it and I knew what I wanted to put on it. The rifle depicted is a very collectible firearm, and probably would sell for about $30,000 on today's market.

I can't wait for a gun collector to see it.

They're on their WAY

2009-12-31T11:53:00.001-08:00

Back in mid-December, Susan - of This Old Paper welcomed me to their little community of links, and what a welcome it was. She 'discovered' a billhead for Baby Ruth and Butterfingers (by the box) on another site that I also follow called Forgotten Bookmarks. The billhead had been used for a bookmark, so I contacted Forgotten Bookmarks about obtaining the paper to use for my art, just as Susan suggested. The answer was YES, he still had it and would send it to me.

As a big THANK YOU to both of them for playing my game, I sent notes to both. I haven't decided YET what kind of Baby Ruth advertising I'm going to use on the billhead, but rest assured, when I do complete it, I'll be posting it here, linking to both of their fabulous sites, and framing the results for some other chocolate lover to hang on their wall.

By way of explanation, I've left the ground addresses off of the images. I use removable labels on my mail art now so that the recipients can have the envelopes to do with as they will, and I can post the images without revealing any addresses that are better left unrevealed.

My sisters Penny & Judy gave me a wonderful book of illustrated letters called "Your Friend, C. M. Russell". With the book came a bookmark that gave the history of Charlies use of the buffalo skull as part of every piece of art that he signed after 1906. The verse on the bottom was penned by Charlie in 1917, as a sort-of tribute to wordsmiths (he wasn't bad at telling a story with a pen either) whom he felt certain would tell the story of the West as he did with his brush.

I sent the bookmark to Forgotten Bookmarks as a bonus to him, since he had sent me the billhead. Along with the bookmark came a vintage Christmas postcard which had probably also come to him as a bookmark, so I passed that on to Susan. They should each receive their Thank You Mail Art by January 4th.

Penny & Judy also received Thank You's similar to the one I sent to Forgotten Bookmarks.

I hope everyone has a Blessed and Prosperous New Year.

What They Received

2009-12-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas is now in the past. This year I did art work for my brother, sisters and wife. A couple of pieces of mail art, two that went through the mail (under cover), and one that moved across the room.

My wife of thirty-nine years received a Parrot Confectionery box, and the Parrots (similar to a Turtle) came in a separate box because I made a shadow box of the original. I couldn't scan the box since all that I could see that wasn't in deep shadow was the top. My son, who bought himself a new Blackberry, took the photograph for me.

Judy, my youngest sister, is the quilter. She received a pattern for a tea cozy that looks like the cat on the envelope, besides the envelope that she can hang on the wall if she wants to do that.

Jenny likes Carousel Horses, so she got a piece of mail art she can put on the wall. Oh yes, and her favorite color is blue.

Dan, my brother, is the drummer and long-time collector of Drummer Boys. He also reads a lot, so he got three bookmarks that I made, laminated and added gold threaded tassels.

Penny, my oldest sister, acquired FIVE pieces of Cline Piano Company paper for me from our good friend Mary Patterson in Seattle. Since she found the paper for me, I thought I should make certain that the piano player in the family got a piece of piano paper to hang over her Wurlitzer.

I didn't get a stocking this year. ;o( But what I did get from sisters Penny and Judy was a book that contains Charley Russell's illustrated letters from the Museum collection, called Your Friend, Charley Russell. I have most of the books by or about him, but this one is special, because my folks took me to see this collection in 1953, and started me on the path of mail art that I'm still doing, even today.

Madonna & Child PFF #17

2009-12-17T05:46:00.001-08:00

This one is special. I was asked by the American First Day Cover Society in 2006 to design the Christmas issue for them called the Court of Honor Cover. Each year the Society asks one cachetmaker to produce the Christmas issue cover, and it is sold as a fund raiser for the society.

When I was asked, I looked back at all the Court of Honor covers from the past and I realized there had never been a religious theme for the art. I decided to do a Madonna and Child, and I knew where to find a good model.

The church we will be attending on Christmas Eve, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Black Eagle, Montana, has stained glass windows that are well over a hundred years old and which came originally from a church in North Dakota. They are beautiful, and have been beautifully restored and cared for. My art is not EXACTLY what is depicted in the glass, but because I needed to fit the art work on a number six envelope, I had to move the Christ Child up a bit further. The text is my own.

Be sure to stop by Marie Reed's The French Factrice blog for more Yule memories!

Drummer Boy PFF #16

2009-12-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

Marie is going with a Christmas theme this week, so I'm throwing this one in. I have another saved up for Christmas, but I finished this as a subscription issue a year ago and thought that I'd get everyone into the spirit by drumming up one from Christmas Past.

I'm busy working on Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I simply can't post any images or I'd be spoiling the surprise of it all for the recipients!

I thought I might add a little to what I already said about this image after seeing the first couple of comments: I did this one especially for my younger brother Dan. He was (and still is) a drummer. He and his wife collect Drummer Boys. When the USPS announced what the subject was going to be for the Contemporary Christmas issue, I simply couldn't pass up doing this issue.

Everlasting - In A Jar

2009-12-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

I discovered that if I post an image that I get a much better feel for how the piece is going to look, and so I put this one up for my own perusal on Saturday. Not a lot of history to relate because I haven't completed the research on the Illinois Pacific Glass Company, but I know they made some fabulous canning jars, and this is one of them. I took photographs of two Everlasting jars while I was at Larry Munson's home, and this one appealed to me for some obvious reasons. The other smooth sided jar had many more bubbles in the glass, but this many-sided piece was simply more appealing to me. I have two more pieces of this letterhead, and I'll do the other as well.

Butterflies are Free

2009-12-04T04:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a BLOCK of butterflies (sort of) which is the theme for Marie's Postcard Friendly Friday theme this week. Well, her theme is WRITER'S block, but I've just picked up my pc after having a tune-up done, and I'm not really prepared for putting up a story to go with this one.

I do remember deciding to try using something other than peace symbols as part of the envelope design and lettering.

And where was I? About fifteen miles North of Danang, in what was then South Vietnam. It was raining today (when I wrote the letter that was inside the envelope), and I wasn't getting a lot of sleep. The only thing that was free for me was the butterflies.

Snappy Tune! PFF #15

2009-11-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

Well, no crocs for me, but since Marie likes snappy things, I thought an old cover (1989) with Duke Ellington for the stamps would be appropriate. Besides, there's a story to go with this one.

I began following the Postmark Pursuit column in Linn's Stamp News shortly after I discovered there was a market for my smallish art. I found this Event Cancel for a Jazz Festival in Gresham, Oregon, called the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz. I purchased the stamps which were long since off sale from a Stamp Store in Seattle, used the image of the cancel as a starting point, and prepared four covers with Gold Leaf and piano keys in front of an outline of Mt. Hood, just like in the cancel. Being a believer in the Postal Service being able to process my art on envelopes, I sent them off to get canceled.

I waited. Matter of fact, I waited three weeks after the covers should have been returned to me before becoming concerned. I called the postmaster in Gresham. He was sure that they'd processed all of the covers that they had requesting the cancel, but he said he'd check. I called three days later, and he said he was positive they'd processed them all, but that he would once again check with the employee who had processed the requests.

He finally returned my call to inform me that he'd checked with the employee, and indeed, all of the covers had been processed. I was furious. They had all been labeled with removable labels, and I'd seen none of them return. Until two days later, when the first one showed up. The next day, the other three showed up. All of them canceled with a MACHINE cancel from the Portland Post Office, but different machines.

I called the Gresham Post Office, and let the postmaster know they'd been returned with machine cancels. He was apologetic, but told me that the postal employee would be losing his job, and suspected that when he had been confronted with the case of the missing covers, he panicked and made the drive to Portland to drop them in drop boxes.

So - I ended up with four covers that pretty much look just like this one. There's some wear on the gold leaf in several pieces, but I hold on to them as a reminder not to trust my art to the vagaries of the mail any more.

Mail Me Art!

2009-11-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

A great idea passed on to me by either a follower, or someone whose blog I follow. I've had this idea bouncing around since June or July, and finally decided to do something about it.

Anybody interested in the particulars, simply go to MAIL ME ART. It's in there. I like the idea of going postal with my art work, and I'm certain there are others of a similar mind.

THANKS for being my friend PFF #14

2009-11-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

My wife just recently went through my 'box', and pulled another twenty or so covers out that hadn't seen the light of day for a number of years. This one has no date written on the back, which is usually a sign that I didn't include a letter with this one. She didn't care. The envelope was enough, although I often felt badly that I didn't write at least something. She's still my best friend.

Join Marie on her French Fractrice blog for some more Friendly Mail!

The Monkees, The Boxtops & The Animals

2009-11-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

I remember them all. I thought about the Circus a few times when I was doing this piece, but The Monkees didn't jump rope, Eric Burdon & The Animals didn't cut their hair, and The Boxtops - well, I'll never forget The Letter.

There are a couple of other products that the National Biscuit Company produced, but for the moment - I have no more Nabisco paper.