more candy box mail art

Last month I received a small box of leaf-shaped cakes from Yun, my etegami friend in France. The cakes themselves didn't last long enough to appear in the photo I posted on my received mailart blog, but if you click the link, you can see the empty box and Yun's corrugated cardboard etegami that shows what the cakes looked like.

Even empty, the little box charmed and intrigued me. I had opened it in such a way as to leave the cellophane wrapping mostly undisturbed. So not only did the box look unopened, the diamond-shaped hole appeared to have window glass in it.

I cut out a flat "tray" from corrugated cardboard that slid smoothly in and out of the box, and glued flowery chiyogami (washi craft paper) and my favorite etegami bee images onto the tray. The bees were glued to bits of thick corrugated cardboard to give them a pop-out look.  Finally I added words appropriate to the scene, and tucked the finished tray into the box. The part of the tray that you can see through the "window" has enough depth to make it seem like you're peeking into another world. I was planning to send the finished box to Yun, but I'm enjoying it so much that I think I'll keep it for a while. :)

illustration friday (brigade)

"The Honey Brigade."

The accompanying quote is the first line of Against Idleness and Mischief, a poem by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748), the English theologian and hymnwriter. The poem was famously parodied by Lewis Carroll in his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in the poem How Doth the Little Crocodile, which is now better known than the original.

The washi I used for this piece is less soft and less absorbent than the cards I usually use, so I had some trouble getting the effect I wanted. But not being able to control the outcome is an important part of Etegami, so I shouldn't, and I won't, grumble about it. ; )

If you haven't done so already, check out my Christmas Giveaway. Deadline to enter is December 8, 2011.

illustration friday (swell)

You may recognize this etegami from my Japanese Proverbs series. The writing translates to "a bee [sting] on a crying face," which refers to a misfortune that occurs on top of a previous misfortune (like the English saying rubbing salt in a wound).

dewdrops (misuzu kaneko series #3)

Dewdrops

I will keep it to myself

that the flowers were shedding tears

in a corner of the garden

this morning.

If the news were to spread,

and the bees were to hear of it,

they would feel so guilty,

they might return the honey.

poem by Misuzu Kaneko

my translation