Wednesday, January 9, 2013

guest artist - carol dubosch

carol's 2004 graceful envelope. i think the theme was weather? she wrote rain several times, in ink and then washed it off. and added some sunny orange stamps and lettering.

her website mentions that she has been promoting calligraphy for 55 years. so, there is a lot of experience behind this particular envelope. in some ways, it is very simple and straight forward. we could spend a lot of time looking at how the elements fit together.

i always like tight-fitting elements and overlapping and this carol's writing overlaps the stamp, which looks great. however, i will mention that i have had postal workers tell me that they will not accept stamps with writing on them. this one went through fine and there might be postal workers who would not object, but, be prepared if you decide to overlap the stamp with writing.

again... every postal worker will have a different opinion on what you can do and can't do. please do not quote me or consider me an authority on postal regulations.... i just pass along things that have been said to me directly. if i don't like what i hear, i just go to a different post office. with regard to putting the stamp anywhere other than the upper right corner, i have had very polite postal workers warn me that i am not in compliance with their *rules.* i put on my wide-eyed *who knew?* expression and nod my head that i understand the rules....then....as i walk away...the little devil that resides on my non-jiminy cricket shoulder says: they need your business more than they need the stamp in the upper right corner.

1 comment:

  1. I studied Calligraphy with Carol for several year when I lived in Portland. She is a fantastic teacher and often encouraged us to enter the Graceful Envelope contest. She always mentioned that she would take them to the main branch of the post office and asked to have the stamp hand cancelled because usually they are processed by machine. She is a truly inspiring teacher and I have missed taking classes with her.

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