Postcrossing Blog

February is here… which means it’s time for another Month of Letters challenge! Are you in? :)

On September 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break. She spent the entire month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results of this personal challenge were a revelation:

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

I know a lot of postcrossers share these feelings – this is part of the reason why Postcrossing exists!

Mary’s decided to turn February into a Month of Letters, in which she challenges herself and everyone who decides to join to write and send at least a piece of postal mail every day. Here are the rules:

Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

We can’t help but feel that postcrossers have their work cut out for them in this challenge… :) Nevertheless, we wanted to dare you all to do it! Write postcards, letters or aerogrammes or surprise a friend with an unexpected package. Maybe even pick a Facebook/Twitter friend and send them an offline “hello!”.

Are you up to Mary’s challenge? Grab your stationery and stamps and start writing! :)

How do you mend a broken heart? In the midst of all the sadness and sorrow, some people turn to gloomy songs that seem to sing to the tune of a broken heart… others to ice-cream, chocolate or cheesy romantic comedies.

Some people turn to literature though, to the great romances and classical couples — and of these, Romeo and Juliet are the epitome of the star-crossed lovers. If anyone could understand them, surely it would be Juliet. If only one could write to her…

Actually you can — and many people do, sending thousands of letters every year simply addressed to “Juliet, Verona, Italy”. The missives are delivered to Il Club di Giulietta (Juliet’s Club), a group of volunteers in Verona who take the time to read and reply to all the letters, by hand. They explain:

“The story of the Juliet Letters starts in the 1930’s when Ettore Solimani, the guardian of Juliet’s Tomb, began gathering the first letters people left at the grave and, moved by this phenomenon, he started replying, thus becoming the first “Juliet’s secretary”. Today this special task is taken by the Juliet Club: each letter is read, translated, answered by the ”Juliet’s secretaries" who keep a one-of-a-kind archive that contains thousands of love stories and countless words of love."

Last month, a group of Italian postcrossers visited the club’s office, where they were treated to a guided tour by Manuela Uber, one of Juliet’s secretaries. They listened to the story of the club, looked through some letters and took a lot of nice photos to share the experience!

Afterwards, they all sat down in a pizzeria to eat… and write some postcards, naturally! :)

Thank you Kinucci for telling us about this lovely meetup, and Saintursula, Antonella-, uncoiled_tiger and Jeraldine for letting us show your photos.

PS – If you’re in the mood for a cheesy romantic comedy, there’s also a movie about Il Club di Giulietta, called Letters to Juliet! 😀

A few of you sent us the link to Dear Data this week — an intriguing project mixing information visualization with postcards and mail. We loved reading about it and thought we should share it with everyone!

Giorgia and Stefanie have a few things in common: they’re the same age, only children, love drawing and are both information designers. They live across the ocean from each other, but decided to embark on an adventure together: to send each other weekly postcards, depicting their weeks as data graphics!

Each week has a loose theme, which they turn into an infographic. For example: counting the number of times they check themselves on a mirror, how much complaining they did or how often they picked up their phone… When the postcard is done, they mail it to each other!

Each card is unique and mysterious, urging you to check the legend on the back before having a second, closer look at the front image.

The result is really fascinating, an analytical yet intimate glimpse into Giorgia and Stefanie’s lives and the way they see and measure their world.

Right now there are 10 weeks of postcards posted on the website, and we’re already eagerly anticipating the next ones! What do you think they should measure next? And how would your week look like, if you gave it a try? :)

February is just around the corner… which means it’s time for another Month of Letters challenge! Are you in? :)

On September 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break. She spent the entire month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results of this personal challenge were a revelation:

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

I know a lot of postcrossers share these feelings – this is part of the reason why Postcrossing exists!

Mary’s decided to turn February into a Month of Letters, in which she challenges herself and everyone who decides do join to write and send at least a piece of postal mail every day. Here are the rules:

• Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
• Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

We can’t help but feeling postcrossers have their work cut out for them in this challenge… :) Nevertheless, we wanted to dare you all to do it! Write postcards, letters or aerogrammes or surprise a friend with an unexpected package. Maybe even pick a Facebook/Twitter friend and send them with an offline “hello!”.

Are you up to Mary’s challenge? Grab your stationery and stamps and start writing!

Annett (aka knetty) from Germany joined Postcrossing about a year ago. A fan of crafts, she had the idea to invite members to send her pieces of fabric with their postcards, so that one day she could make a quilt with all the fabrics. Slowly, she started receiving colorful pieces of cloth from other sewing enthusiasts all over the world and putting them together on a single quilt.

Fifteen fabrics from 11 countries (and a lot of work) later and she is done… oh, it is a beauty!

The patchwork resembles postcards laid out on a blanket — and on the border, Annett stitched the names and countries of the postcrossers who contributed to her project!

When the quilt was finished, she went out to photograph it in the sun and met her postman, who agreed to let her photograph it on the bike used to bring the pieces to her!

We’re in awe of Annett’s skills and this lovely idea, which she carefully documented on her blog. And she’s already planning a second one… :)

Do you know of any other crafty projects using postcards or Postcrossing? Do share!