Shelby, Montana - Indian Home

I've had this piece of paper for quite awhile. I had been avoiding doing alcohol and tobacco related art, simply because I felt that neither were subjects that were popular with my patrons. I finally looked at it for more than the second time, and because of the nature of the letter, the age of the paper, (Shelby Junction predated Shelby), and the fact that establishment was created near the Great Northern boxcar which served as the station, I decided it was worth enhancing. The Shelby Junction Station was the connecting link for the Great Northern Railway and the Great Falls & Canada Railway.  Peter P. Shelby was a general manager for the Montana Central Railroad before becoming an employee of the Great Northern.

And - that's how my hometown got its name!

The text of the letter:
                                      Sirs,

                                              Please hurry up the cigars ordered
                                 from you over a month ago.         If you cannot
                                 send me the entire order,   please
                                 forward 50 on the next train
                                 and oblige.
                                                                                                  Truly,
                                                                                                Dan Sullivan

Borsalino, By George!

An over-sized stiff cardboard mailer is the foundation for this piece of NEW mail art. It came from the Borsalino office in New York, but I'm thinking perhaps that Borsalino sent out their catalogs in this mailer. I did not question the proprietor of the only real Men's (and women's) clothing store here in Helena, but I never look a gift horse in the mouth. Inside the mailer was a small advertising card which is a reprint of a poster or perhaps a window card for - Borsalino Hats.

I had to remove the three stamps that were on this mailer and replaced them with three Birds of Prey stamps. The mailer required $1.90 in postage, but I simply overfranked it so that a meter strip wouldn't be used. I like stamps. I actually wish that the Bogart stamps would have pictured him in his fedora - which was a Borsalino, but alas - The stamp salvage from the sheet does show him in his hat, but I didn't know if anyone would make the connection with the mailer.

The Borsalino lettering is embossed - quite dramatically, but it was white just as is the rest of the mailer. Rich looking by itself, but I dug out my Gold leaf supplies and spent an hour remembering how to use PVA for the gold adhesive before I touched it. I actually got the entire lettering out of three leaves of the gold. I know it doesn't look too dramatic the way it reproduces, but this was one I had to share.

The chair, hat, cane and gloves are from another old Borsalino advertising poster.

Lana from Montana

Well not really, but Lana (a good friend of ours) found this piece of paper in an Antique Mall, although I despise doing business with malls (too many ways to cut the pie to get a decent piece at a decent price). This was another over-the-phone purchase, whereby she described it and I decided if I wanted it - at any price. I think there must have been at least two if not three phone calls on this paper hunt, but I decided I had to have it because I already knew what I was going to put on it.

Closset & Devers sold Coffee and other slightly more perishable goods out of their Portland, Oregon, facility. The Kerr Glass Company (of Economy Fruit Jar fame, also of Portland) produced glass jars for Closset & Devers Golden West Coffee Brand, and I was given one of these jars by my good fruit jar collecting friend, Larry Munson. It has a lithographic label on it, and I plucked the Cowgirl off of it (figuratively speaking) and used REAL gold leaf for the Golden West lettering. I am really, really happy with the PVA I purchased as a raising compound. I can letter the whole shebang with no concern about time-to-tack because you activate the tack with your breath. It sucks up the gold and allows me to apply a good burnish no matter how much 'pillowing' I'm looking for.

I'm really happy with the results, and thank you Lana for finding this nice piece of paper.

Gold Chase for Pony #2

I finished this piece and posted it a couple of months back. I was initially happy after discovering I could still gild, but I was using size meant for imitation gold, and a metal base coat which was designed to help you see where you were putting the size. For the weekend artist I suppose the stuff is acceptable and the only reason I purchased it was because it was the only thing I could get locally. Not only that, but the base coat required a solvent cleanup, and it ruined an expensive sable sword brush of the tiny variety - about a dozen hairs - that I'd had for well over 40 years. I was disgusted. That was about the time I met up with Abraham Lincoln on the web, and I asked if he was the very same person I'd purchased a gold size product from at least twenty years ago.

My renewed interest in gilding and calligraphy to incorporate in my old paper art has also led to his revelation of past mail art which he has shared over time with me via his blog. Abe and his family had made a business of selling useful products for the calligrapher, but had moved on to other pursuits including some great photography which he now pursues with a passion.

I recently purchased a product called PVA - it is an all-in-one adhesive that accepts gild using the old method of illumination without the drawbacks of LEAD-based gesso products. Once the PVA is dry (it dries clear) you activate it by breathing on it. I use a paper straw, as the paper absorbs some of the inherent moisture that might otherwise fall on your paper (bad) if you used a plastic straw. I'm really happy with the 'pillow' I'm getting with it. I regilded the A. B. Chase portion of this, and I can tell distinctly that I'm not only getting a good raise, but luster from the burnish is also brighter.

For anyone interested in pursuing the use of REAL gold leaf in their art work, and they want a high luster and raised images, the product name is PVA, and it's sold on the web by a company called LINECO, Books By Hand You might find other useful products if you're into journalling, or scrapbooking, or anything paper related.

The Gold Chase For Pony

Pony came to be in 1869, named for its founder Tecumseh "Pony" Smith. Why Pony? He wasn't built like a Clydesdale. It was home to a $12,000 school house by 1900, and I posted a piece of paper from Sherman's Piano House in Butte a week ago indicating the purchase of a $365 piano for the school district. This piano ain't it. The invoice doesn't indicated what kind of piano C. E. Morris was purchasing a few keys at a time, so I just picked the first one on the list. This is my first go at using real gold leaf in many years. Oh yes - and I enhanced the billhead a bit as well.