Go with the flow – ready, set, send

The postal address list email has been sent out earlier this week to all participants in the DIY Postcard Swap spring 2024. If you signed up I hope you have gotten your list of 10 (or 20) addresses and started sorting through your postal stamps to send them out.

If you signed up for the spring postcard swap and you haven’t found any email from me this week – then check your spam folder and make sure that you are in the right email inbox, the one you signed up with! And yes, all of the lists have been sent out – even if you haven’t found yours. If you can not find it, just let me know and we will fix it. One person who contacted me had not been checking the email account that she had signed up with, so when I reminded her of what email she signed up with, she immediately found the list from me.

• Always sign up with your main email, it should be the one you check daily.

Another participant found the email from me, containing the list of addresses, in their spam folder, which was good.

Although sometimes the address list can not to be found anywhere and I do need to resend the list, because it was stopped on server level. Then I do that, of course.

I email every participant

I have replied to all requests I have gotten in the past couple of days, be it via email, private instagram messages, or via my contact page. I am a lot quicker on email this week than I normally am, because I really want everyone to be happy with the swap.

If you feel unheard or have not gotten a reply, my email has been rejected by your email provider at server level and there’s not much I can do about that. It is up to you to let me know that your list is missing, and contact me via a source that I can reach. I am not alerted to emails getting lost, so I have no idea about you waiting in silence for your mail.

You can write me and I’ll reply again, but it might not go through then either. Let your email service provider know about the issue with my domain, and maybe look into finding a new/better service provider if this keeps happening. If you write me again from the same address though, the same thing might happen again and that makes me feel helpless. I am so sad that you’d think I did not reply to your question or get back to you. These days nothing with email surprises me, but I always reply anyway.

Today someone that this has happened to even emailed me about not wanting to be in the swap anymore, since I did not reply. Their name is on 10 other people’s list, but I can’t get in touch with them. I will try to figure it out for sure. But all this takes a lot of time and energy away from my own creativity, and it’s not fun.

The consequences of just one lost email is massive. We want to trust that the mail we send arrive, and we take it for granted, really. We expect it. It’s the same with sending out handmade mail art and postcards. We want to be able to send something out and trust that the process of postal mail means that it is being delivered. Commit, send, trust the process – and have faith that the system will work its magic. Right?

I mean, we all do our absolut best to make sure the postcards are delivered. I send the lists, you do the rest, but we do not hand-deliver each postcards because we can’t. We double check that we have put the correct digits in the postal address and that we’ve added enough stamps. Then try to trust the system to do its thing.

It’s about sharing and giving

Someone else who has was in the swap suggested that I would provide the names of the 10 people they’d be getting postcards from, in case they don’t receive them. They wanted to, in that case, “contact them to see if they have mailed their postcards”… In theory a good idea maybe, but not so in reality to me. Everyone needs to be accountable for sending their postcards out, yes, but for how long? So this is what I wrote back:

“Thanks for your suggestion, I appreciate it. I will however not provide a list of addresses or give out others email addresses. This is because you are getting postcards from ten others that you are not sending yours to, and to make that other list would be really difficult and time consuming for me.

Of course I could work it out, but my main concern would be the tone of those “inquires” and how quickly they would be sent out. Some participants feel that they did not get their 10 postcards after a week or two, and international mail can sometimes be two months, at no fault of the sender.

Postcards also do get lost, of course, but that is not the fault of the sender either. Should they, because the postal system lost their card, be forced to send another one and pay for new stamps?

I don’t like that idea really. This could create a potentially really difficult requirement when the swap is for our enjoyment – and create unnecessary stress in our inboxes I think, since we are all different.

I hope you will understand my point of view, and that I could explain my thinking well enough.

Cheers,
/Hanna”

To me being in a swap and sharing any mail art or postcards is all about the giving, not the receiving. The giving is actually all you can be sure of, the only guarantee is your own generosity. The rest you have to trust will happen on its own. Trust that everyone else does their part, both artist participants and mail “men” around the globe. Just because there’s a service fee to be in the swap that doesn’t mean that you “buy” ten handmade postcards. You pay to participate, then try to go with the flow!

This is something to lean into, that you can learn from, that you get to be a part of. A chance to share your art and be inspired by what you receive. I hope that is what you were looking for.

Video: Creating a Collage Postcard

To end on a creative, more energetic and personal note, all my postcards are ready to be sent. Here’s the process of me creating a first DIY Postcard this year, using an old thrifted planner: Go with the flow!

I thought I could make 10 such postcard videos, but alas that did not happen. I always overestimate my ability and energy while I also underestimate the time it all takes. LOL. I finished and uploaded two DIY Postcard videos this time, and I am happy with that. I hope you find it inspiring.

I know some folks are already finding that handmade postcards are arriving at their door! I haven’t seen any here yet, but then again, I got happy mail recently from the U.S that took over two months to arrive, so I am not holding my breath just yet.

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