settling in for a session of addressing, signing, inking, glueing, stamping and stickering these cards to prepare for a journey
Following our wedding festivities, we dutifully and cheerfully made up several batches of thank you cards to sent to folks who made the trip or sent gifts or letters/cards.
Thank you card source materials, ready for scissor, glue, ink and substratea stack all ready to go, with special stamps and stickers and sparkly envelopes
While each batch of cards was different – and some cards required boxes and packets – the general design aesthetic captured in exquisite little photo essay created by nature photographer Cheryl A. (you should check out her cards for sale) which captures the details of the envelope treatment:
What follows is a gallery (vol. 2) of received invites “in situ” wherever they end up in the world / generally unannotated to protect erstwhile privacy unless publicly shared by recipient.
PM in Winnipeg also received books from our pal Grant Lawrence on the same day
Overall, 300+ packets mailed. Some will get lost in the mail (speaking from experience) but anyone who doesn’t receive a dossier in the post can create their own as desired, plus checkout the pieces not in your packet.
Lovely Crystal in Singapore
The 6 (at least) tranches of mailouts had varied contents and packaging as the batches were sent from different countries, using different printers (pro and home) and different iterations of items, specifically a variety/sub-set of:
* Announcement storybook (4 panel, 2 iterations)
* Invite to ceremony (2 panel)
* Invite to party (2 panel)
* RSVP card (pre-stamped for folks in Japan)
* Transportation info card (for folks in Japan)
* Letter to friends (on Grand Oriental Hotel letterhead)
* Gig Poster by Joanna Pag (mini-size via various printers and substrates)
These items are easily found within this archive should you desire further inspection.
What follows are public telephones created in a time when phones did not roam freely and in pockets.
To make a call, one would either enter a specially-created booth (or box), or simply stand close by as the receivers were tethered to the phone unit by a short cord, then insert a variety of coins depending on the location called (local, domestic or international) or in some cases, use a purpose-made phone card, or even a credit card (though doing so often exposed one to fraudulent actors).
Perhaps you have already imagined the unsanitary nature of sharing a phone handset (placed next/close to ear and mouth of course) with strangers – though perhaps this increased “herd immunity” despite being rather unpleasant. Note that oftentimes the coin return slots were checked for forgotten change but the miner was surprised to find discarded chewing gum, or even-less-savoury items, instead.
This gallery is primarily Japan phone – both current working payphones, hotel house phones, house landlines, antique non-working artifacts and one from Indonesia, captured “in the wild”.
note: this one is on a Shinkansen train so one can place a call while traveling 200kmph
Of course, we’ll need a guest book and a photo album for the artifacts and sentiments from lovely attendee. In our case, we’ll combine the two (written and photo messages) into one mighty tome with the help of self-service insta-camera (we have 200+ films on the ready!) with snaps added to the book on the spot, then personalized with their written messages.
The book itself is a classic Japanese lacquered artifact, heavy and handbuilt – btw these types of scrapbook are my favourite to make (loads of them usually using recycled board game and calendar paper) – purchased from urban history explorer Jason Vanderhill with assist from Laura Bzowy and hauled over by my kinfolk.
Look forward to settling in on the following Monday to see the photo treats and scribbled missives duly noted by lovely attendees.
