AAPA Goes Green

Happy February Everyone,

We were supposed to be covered in snow, but are once again only covered in rain here in Portland. I saw a daffodil yesterday. Spring comes so early here. And so did all this green.

A month before St. Paddy's, everything showed up green, making a very attractive bundle. June Bassemir's piece was delayed in the mail and was meant to have been in January's bundle. Danny Kelly's too, I presume. I made the envelope (at the IPRC because my garage was too cold), with cuts given to me by the Letterpress Santa, Ivan D. Snyder, who also faithfully helps me go around the table 140 times every month. He's off to Idaho this morning, where he may see some actual snow.

If you have any concerns about whether we are really green here, have no fear. I recycle everything that can be recycled. All the nice hard pieces of cardboard you all use to protect your work go into the art cupboard or to my son's preschool. I take some of the leftover bundles to the IPRC in hopes of hooking new members (if you ever want me to send a sample to someone, just send me an address). I make cards out of some of the leftover work (I'm looking at you John Carvalho. Your address pine cone print became all my Christmas labels!), and the kids do lots of strange work with other pieces. I reuse the padded envelopes when I need to send things. The only tips I have for you are as follows: you are all using too much tape! I can hardly get your packages open. A little-known fact shared with me by a postal worker is that when the post offices stopped putting out tape, they collectively saved $6 million dollars in the first year. Think of how much you could be saving!  Also, there is nothing I can do with foam peanuts besides throw them away. It's okay, you probably got them in the mail from someone else and are just reusing them.  If they are the biodegradeable kind, the kids build sculptures out of them by sticking them together with water, and then we watch them melt, like our spirits, in this never ending rain.

Another tip: use media mail! It takes a little longer but costs about a third or fourth of what you would otherwise pay. And if you have a bunch of work ready, do what the Millers do and send it all at once in one package. It's way cheaper, just make sure and label what month each piece goes in.  Padded envelopes seem to cost a lot less than boxes, and if you wrap the papers up in other paper, they don't seem to suffer much damage.

That's all for now, I'll get my picks of the month out when I can sit down with the bundle, and after you all have a chance to get a look at your own.

Thanks for reading and writing, Heather