Sunday, May 24, 2009

vintage paper fair

poland
i look forward to going to the vintage paper fair in san francisco, it comes three times a year now, for 2 days each in january, may and august.

i love digging through the $1 or less table. the typical stuff i find is usually old letters, a mishmash of old booklets, maps, and it's a place where people carefully sift though boxes and boxes of postcards in various themes. i don't collect anything that seems too precious, though i covet tiny french dictionaries and beautiful storybooks like frank baum's oz books and scrapbooks from the 1800s. there's so much eye candy but i go for the cheap stuff - the used vintage envelopes, old photos and letters, cabinet cards and cigar labels.

greekairmail

most of my 'finds' yesterday were old airmail envelopes. i love the handwriting and the dash of postmarks, the assortment of stamps and some of them came with letters. most of them didn't but the decorated envelopes were enough of a treasure.

bolivia

some of them are so lovely, i'm not sure if i can tear them apart for my art, maybe i will frame a few of my favorites.

7 comments:

wzgirl said...

These are beautiful, curbside!

TheSeaWithin said...

I love those! I have always been a fan of postmarks and great stamps!

kasia | szkieuka said...

ooo! tat first envelope is from Poland (my native country) - it says it came from the Polish Association of Stamp Collectors :)

Bri said...

SO JEALOUS! You'll have to let me know next time they have one of those and I'll fly out to San Fran for it!

Kat said...

I have been collaging since I was very young and it’s been true art therapy… I LOVE what you do and I love your work… this stuff is gorgeous and amazing! You find such amazing things to work with! I’m happy to follow your blog and I’m now a fan of your Etsy shop!

deb christensen said...

you do beautiful work! so glad i stumbled on your blog! i love SF, i lived there for a year & went to the acadamy of art - it was so long ago...but chinatown, FLAX, really good coffee, and the best tuna sandwich from a deli on sutter street all came rushing back as i read your posts!

HereBeDragons said...

Beautiful! You make me want to go. I love airmail! And stamps. Lovely!