April from Irene and May to Chuck

Irene is really talented at learning new hands - which is what some people call styles of lettering. Others would call this a font. Its name is Bones - and if I were not a lazy slug, I would go get my Jackie Svaren book and get some history for you. I can see why it got that name. 

On the insert below Irene used that technique where you drop iridescent metallic ink or gouache into walnut ink - which is a very cool technique.

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Here is our new person to send random surprise mail to. He is a clerk at our main post office. I spoke to him in January or February about the mail that was getting returned to me for no good reason. He was so nice. When I walked in on May 8th, he smiled and greeted me - and made some reference that implied he was glad I was back. We had a long conversation about my May envelopes and whether they looked like they would give the scanners any problem. He was dazzled by the envelopes and then it was clear that he had a favorite. Luckily, I have one more car stamp - so I can make one for him that is similar to Chuck's (below).

If you would like to make a postal worker very happy by sending him an envelope - write his name big - and then underneath put a line - in smaller writing - so that whoever handles the mail at the main plant will be sure to know where to find Davonte - it's a very large building.

Davonte

Clerk at the front desk

1165 2nd Ave

Des Moines, IA 50318

Here is the one he really liked.

I've been using the new tool called *Clean up* which basically erases. It does a really good job but I have mixed feelings. When I covered up the street part of the address with the city/state/zip I liked how it left an impression of what the envelope looked like. I can't find a tool in the new version of Photos that will let me pick up the city/state/zip and c&p it. (Update - I found it - you have to choose to open the photo in Preview)

In real life - the colors might have been a better match. Maybe not. 

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A few days later, I needed to avoid some chores so I found my Jackie Svaren book and I feel like a dunce because Jackie designed the Bone alphabet. I believe the book is out of print - but I could be way off on that. The entire book was handwritten by Jackie - which is an amazing feat. As I recall, Jackie has gone to that great scriptorium in the sky.