Three Sheets to the Wind

 

I had a great mail-art idea.

Lately, at least for a couple years, I’ve really leaned into sending large manilla envelopes. As a rule (we all need rules, right) I like to drop in a couple handmade collages, five or six broadsides, a 4x4, and a bit of ephemera. To send these in the United States, no way could I afford to send them out of the country, it costs me almost $2.40. To make the best use of my time, I like to send out ten or so at a time. I’ve done this about every other week. In between mailing these, I send items to specific people and things to friends and family. Taking a guess, I’d say that I mail out stuff 46/52 weeks. It’s a bit of a hectic schedule I’ve created for myself but it slowly, expensively, gets rid of the clutter.

To combat the amount of stuff, and the monotony of addressing envelopes and going to the post office each week, I came up with a plan. I’d focus on sending out things in regular sized envelopes for a while. I’d put three sheets of paper in the envelope. That’s six sides for my creations. Considering the cut in cost, I didn’t have to worry about who I sent to as much. I could send out of the country without worry. It seemed like a great plan

What I ended up doing was simple, I’d work on things when I finished grading. I did this at work. Everything had a digital component to them, that way I could do them sitting at my computer without anyone asking questions. An hour here and there adds up. I’d then then print them out in editions of 30. No idea why I decided on that number. It was like a mini zine. What I included was the usual fair, minus the analogue collages. It was mainly broadsides and short writings. I worked about two weeks ahead on these, so when I printed out one thing, I already had another printed and dropped into decorated envelopes. I did this about eight times, mailing one pile out a week, every week for two months.

This was a bad idea.

Doing short runs of things meant I was spending more time putting addresses on envelopes. Of most of my mail-art related clerical work, I hate doing this. My handwriting sucks and we have computers now, so there’s no reason to handwrite anything. All day I type and I’m good and fast with that; I do it for fun even. Look at this thing, I typed it. I never handwrite things. It hurts! Also, I get bored doing it. With the short runs that were meant to save time and money, I was doing three times the amount of handwriting. Even worse, it wasn’t saving me any money. I bought three times the amount of stamps.

I got a theory for this. It’s like the mini candy bars. No one wants to quickly eat a large candy bar; that’s something psychopaths do. Anyone, however, will take down twice that amount if you have those mini ones around the house. Toss in a few of the snack size, and you’re eating just as much candy, but somehow not feeling as guilty. I was sending as much postage but in smaller amounts, more often. My postage unit price was all out of whack, and I was doing more work to send it.

So, it looks like I’m back sending the big envelopes. Big envelopes mean larger collages, which means more scanning. More scanning I have to do upstairs which means less time making collages upstairs. I need a scanner in my office.