When our friend (and former interviewee, Maria, from port2port press) sent us an email letting us know about this new audio-visual postcard project, we were pretty darn excited. Read on to find out what this project entails, and how you can participate! There is currently an open call for submissions with information regarding what to send, and where to send it below.

From the Great Isle of Imaginaire
Your grandmother's kitchen when you were ten years old. The magical fortress of couch cushions that you made with your best friend. The idea you had of India before you visited. The aquatic world you visit in your dreams…

There are places that we remember and places we imagine that don't really exist in our day-to-day world. They can't be photographed or documented and yet they have tangible physical qualities. They smell like something, they taste like something. And they definitely look and sound like something.

Send us a postcard from that place. A two-dimensional visual representation of the place you remember or the place you imagine—a landscape, a map, an object, a chart--depicted through pencil, paint, print, photo... Then record the sounds of that place, or sounds about that place. Use professional recording equipment or your dad's old dictaphone and give us a soundscape, a song, a dialogue, or a journalistic piece of your memory and imagination. An audio postcard and a visual postcard from a place no one else can visit.

We will collect these visual and audio postcards and post them together on a website, initially. Eventually, we hope to publish some of the entries in a book and/or display them in an exhibit.

Postcards must be 4.25X6 inches on heavy card stock and able to be used as an actual postcard (blank on the back side, or only containing a description of the place, and room for writing and a stamp, like a real postcard). They can be mailed in an envelope to:

From the Great Isle of Imaginare
c/o Emily Hilliard
24 ½ St. Louis St.
Burlington, VT 05401

Audio files must be a wav or mp3, no longer than 3 minutes and can be
e-mailed to isleofimaginare@gmail.com.

We would like to have the first round of entries by April 1st, with hopes of posting a group of entries on the website by June. After that, submissions can be rolling.

You can contact us at isleofimaginare@gmail.com if you have any questions.

To the Great Isle of Imaginare, Bon Voyage!

We've taken off our socks, put on our Spring coats, and are ready for a new season of stationery and letter paper. Some of our favorite picks this season come from And Spring, a Korean retailer of stationery, little objects for fine living, and accessories.

See more here (including their lovely photography).

The Academy of Art in San Francisco, CA, states the statistic: "100 million trees are expired for junk mail in the United States every year." The Academy is paying homage to the environment and trying to raise awareness about the amount of paper invested in mail that just ends up in the garbage again as a resource for making beautiful things. BFA and MFA students in sculpture at The Academy held Junk Mail: From Debris to Design featuring structures --including fashion pieces --utilizing junk mail with the hopes of exhibiting how mail can be re-utilized for a positive purpose.
The Academy has been a ring leader in San Francisco’s commitment to the environment and sustainability, actively incorporating green concepts into their curriculum. The show is being displayed at 79 Gallery (79 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA)

For tips on how to reduce junk mail, please click here.

We have discovered a lot of great paper goods, writing tools, and paraphernalia through the Modern Letter Project, but sometimes revelations in products related to the postal service do run a bit dry. Not so with these envelopes, letter-writing kits, mail bags, and small books made by Brooklyn-founded, but now Tokyo-based POSTALCO. Check here for a store near you.

The idea of France naturally evokes thoughts of flaky croissants, petite promenades, strong coffee, big wooden family tables full of food from the countryside. For us, we also imagine sitting in a country house in the south of France, writing long letters to old friends while light streams in the window. Carol B. Neiley opened Basic French, a shop in Red Hook dedicated to all the small and special parts about France--the language, the aesthetic, the warmth selling goods for the home and the heart. We love these postcards--the artful collages and bold fluorescent messages--available at her store.

Basic French is located at 5 East Market Street, Red Hook, NY, everyday from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

This new HBO special series, which kicked off last night, is directed by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman zooms in on John Adams, and his prolific life of letters. Power of the Letter, a new seven-part Sunday night series based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, uses John Adams correspondence as the basis for a first-person account of the founding of our nation as well as a telling window into his personal life and relationships.

Read more about Power of the Letter here and find out details about each episode here.

Kiosk, the Soho shop full of "interesting things from interesting countries" puts their attention towards Hong Kong for their latest exhibit-cum-store. A curated selection of goods from Hong Kong--everything from green nylon twine to egg noodles--is available for purchase. Kiosk is a statement against over-design, offering simple and straightforwards goods meant to be appreciated for exactly what they are.

We found a few good picks in the letter-writing department here as well, so stop by, pick up some airmail envelopes, paper and plastic plain envelopes, or these great tiny stencils to use with your next letter.

Kiosk is located at 95 Spring Street, 2nd Floor, NYC.

Smoothfluid on Flickr has a great set of scanned blank postcard backs. We love 'em.

Dear Letter-writers and potential letter-writers,

The Modern Letter Project is on an indefinite hiatus. We've decided to take some time off so we can take a breather, and perhaps rebuild the project in ways we've long been wanting to.

What will happen to my address?
We'll have cleaned out our entire database of addresses but will hold onto your emails so we can notify you when we are ready to relaunch.

How and when can I rejoin?
When the project reopens, we will let you know via email and also announce the reopening via the project website. At that point, everyone will need to rejoin the project if you want to continue participating.

What next?
Sit tight! And please do not send us your address until the project is up and running again.

The two of us can't thank all of you who have participated up to this point enough for being part of this project. We know some of you have written and received dozens of letters, others of you only a handful – and always with good ones and disappointing ones mixed into the bag. If anything, we've learned immense amounts about what it is to be a letter-writer amidst extremely busy lives, hope you've met made interesting connections along the way, and hope you'll keep with us as we take a step forward to the next version of this project.

All best,
Corie and Youngna

Design*Sponge has a great tutorial today from crafters Derek & Lauren on how to make inside-out security envelopes. Turn those boring whites inside out and take advantage of the beautiful gridding and patterns inside.

See the full instructions HERE.