Handmade: New Year mitten

     Addition to my collection of knitted goods [first and second] - new year greeting from Lera, mondschein, in a shape of a mitten [the postcard itself is quite thick - you can see it by darker than usual images by scanner]. Note the Russian New Year 2014 stamp - with three flag coloured horses.

received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

Weird postcard: Flower crossing

     There is a new awesome idea for Moscovians - flower crossing, exchange of plants, seeds and botanical [with seeds] postcards. There are several "green points" in Moscow, mostly in public libraries, where anyone can leave or take a plant. Another thing is postcards printed on ecopaper with seeds [alyssum, rudbeckia, and matthiola in this one] in it; this site tells how to plant them.

received under the flowercrossing project, from hint by silent_gluk, Russia

[for awareness, thanks to silent_gluk, and her post in Russian postcrossing LJ community, and unknown sender (i strongly suspect it's silent_gluk also xD) who sent me this card ^^]

Handmade: Favorite fragrance from zombozaets, Russia

     The search for unusual surfaces to use for handmade postcards sometimes lands you in very unusual places. The soft velvety textured paper of this fragrance box [it's dolce&gabbana's light-blue] made it perfect postcard which is nice to touch [and i love how neatly the backside is decorated, probably it's one of the main features of Irina's, zombozaets, handmade cards - thoroughly thought and accurate backside]. I love this fragrance, had to left it to my mum though, she made it her main aroma, and i retreated to other smells after xD

front and backside, received from zombozaets, Russia (direct swap)

Weird postcard: Der Schrei

     My second profile's gem again: "Der Schrei" [parody on Munch's 'The Scream'] by Gerhard Glück, famous German cartoonist, with drawing of barbarian with nice battle club on the back xD

TW-1421605 and wonderful barbarian drawing on the back, from tanyalazy518, Taiwan

Handmade: Wooden postcards

     There are store bought wooden cards [like canadian thin one, i received a while ago, or one i sent from Ireland to zombozaets], and also there are of course pure handmade ones [there were cork ones already: sent and received to/from zombozaets, or birchbark from mondschein] like those i sent and received recently.

     First sent ones. With the movie, which i haven't watched yet, i rediscovered the perfectly elegant character from Disney - Maleficent, i love her postures, outfit, mimics, animators were geniuses ^^ So i decided to make two postcards with her. I drew the outlines and my friend burned it (i'd never managed to perfectly make all those shadows).

left - sent to mondschein, Russia (direct swap); right - sent to zombozaets, Russia (direct swap)

Soviet space illustrations: Report from Oceanus Procellarum [part #1]

     Through the years of postcrossing one of my wishes were 'space' cards, so i received a lot of them [some are already in the blog under the 'space' tag, some wait in line]. One of the most loved are cards from 70-80s soviet sets of postcards, there were at least 4 of them, judging from the received amounts. One already appeared in my blog in this post, but i've received many of them since then, so i think it'll be grateful to senders and entertaining for me to make series of posts about them [last drop, when i decided i should write, was postcard from ushina again, but i received many from Dolena, demnat and other swap friends from LJ postcrossing community].

     The postcard depicts automatic lunar probe Luna-9 landed on Moon, in Oceanus Procellarum, which allowed to conduct first research on Lunar surface and make the panoramic picture of Lunar landscape. Research was continued by probe Luna-13 in December, 1966. I like this four-patels look of the probe a lot, probes confirm that Moon surface is not that dusty and can support the spacecraft after soft landing.

left - postcard, right - stamps, 'Interstellar' movie ticket decoration on the backside, received from ushina, Russia (direct swap)

     This one is 17th from some set <unknown>, by artist V. Viktorov, issued by the publishing house 'Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo' (=visual art), Moscow, in 1971. Of course i could find those sets on sale on some online auctions, but then i lose the joy of receiving them one by one from my pen pals ^^

     P.S. I liked the 'Interstellar' picture and the story which is very 60-70s sci-fi like, but disliked the soullessness and scientific inadequacies.

Homoerotic stamps [part #2]

     To finish the story about homoerotic stamps: here are postcards by the same artist, Touko Laaksonen a.k.a. Tom of Finland [funny that in Russian version of wikipedia article his drawings are called 'homopornographic' rather than 'homoerotic' xD]. The sender of first was hesitating to send it openly through Russian post, somehow it's very common opinion about prudishness of Russian post office workers (i receive erotic postcards in envelopes pretty often when from European users on official site or official forum RRs) who would 'threw away' the risque content postcard, which is not true on my opinion [and 'Stick the paper' approach will work again xD], so i specifically asked to send it openly, and it traveled totally fine. I myself find those drawings rather hilarious and not offensive or indecent at all.

left - received from zabava_zanoza, Russia (direct swap), right - received from lenicka, Finland (direct swap)

     [Note from 18.06.2023] While returning pictures for the further post, I found more Tom of Finland postcards, received from Rina_bis. Since I find it unlikely that I will write one more separate post about him, I added the pictures here (left - Untitled (Self drawing), 1958, Pen and ink on paper; right - Untitled, graphite on paper, 1956, Tom of Finland Foundation, Touko Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920-1991).

both received from Rina_bis, Russia (direct swap)

Homoerotic stamps and Finnish men [part #1]

     In November i suddenly had a 'wave' of postcards with Finnish men. First one is first from many, received in autumn-winter swap with Polina (ushina) from Murmansk [the last from that swap was the Icebreaker one] - Lappi (Sami - funny to learn that Renée Zellweger is Lappi too) man (photo by Kuvasuomi Oy, Kuultokuva series).

     Second one is from Leena, lenicka (my longest swap pal and friend ^^): advertisement of city of Seinäjoki, the guy on it is ice skater [Leena writes just 'skater' maybe because it means 'ice' skater by default, not roller skater or something else] Pekka Koskela, 2 Olympics silvers and 2 Olympics bronzes [not bad at all!].

left - received from ushina, from when she was in Finland (direct swap); right - received from lenicka, Finland (direct swap)

     And, finally, the third one: two popular Finnish actors - Samuli Edelmann and Vesa-Matti Loiri, both of them are singers too [Leena recommends to watch Loiri's 'Naurava Kulkuri' and Edelmann's 'Jos sä tahdot niin']. This is a picture from the movie Tie pohjoiseen, Road North, where both of the characters, father and son, have Diabetes [so the postcard is about this disease].

received from lenicka, Finland (direct swap)

     On the back of those postcards the scandalous Finnish stamps. One of the Russian member of Parlament (known for stupid ideas and restrictions) asked to forbid that stamp [I don't think it's really possible, the letter/postcard/parcel is paid and should be delivered according to international postal agreement, if Russian Post is not okay with that - just stick the paper on the postcard or stamp! xD].

stamps, received from ushina, Finland (direct swap) [upper one] and lenicka, Finland (direct swap) [bottom ones]

55 years anniversary of Russian Nuclear Icebreakers Fleet

     I just can't not write about this postcard right away. I didn't know that Russian Nuclear Icebreakers Fleet (only existing in the world) celebrates the 55th anniversary, but with that postcard now I remember the date. On December, 3rd 1959 the first nuclear icebreaker 'Lenin' was floated off. It is a museum now, on the Atomflot [their site] base in Murmansk [my favorite icebreaker 'Yamal' is also used as touristic attraction - taking people to cruises to North Pole].

postcard (left) and 55th anniversary and museum cancellations (right), received from ushina, Russia (direct swap)

Semi-handmade (by me) - Tin-tin

     The most satisfying thing in official postcrossing is fulfilling someone's wishlist requirements when you're given a green light to handmades and any other stuff.  Martin (user - Tintin_24) is a great fan of Tin-tin (so am I), so not having any of original cards i decided to alter one of the city views i have.

     There is actually a story about Tin-tin in USSR (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin au pays des Soviets), full of stereotypes and nasty things about the country [here is the corresponding postcard], it was the first album actually, only black-and-white one, issued in 1930. So i decided to put him rather in more nice old Moscow (Russian Empire) landscape.

RU-2888571, sent to Tintin_24, Germany

     It's really nice to see all handmades on the Martin's received gallery: Tin-tin style from Korea; drawn head of Tin-tin (by one of my swap pals, kot-paranoik xD); drawn Tin-tin from Poland; drawn Tin-tin and Milo from Russia.

Weird postcard: Wrong socks!

     In second profile i have in second to last line of wishlist this sentence: "℘please choose the most ugly, controversial, bad-taste, tacky, maybe old or damaged postcard you have, something you would never send anybody, and send it to me". So far all i received (or at least 95% of it) is solid gold ^^

     The sender says 'This card I would never send to anyone, but now you ask...', so if anything, you brought it to yourself, guuuurl xD It means 'Wrong socks', and i loved it [also if there is anything this card is asking for - it's an investigation].

     It's a card of www.cards.boomerang.nl's collections. It says something about cotton products [white socks, flesh-coloured bras, tight leggings], which use cotton produced not under the Fair trade conditions, so it makes them made 'wrong' [=foute]. So it's Max Haveleer's sticker (company which guarantees Fair Trade in Netherlands) which can help to mark unfair products - so another surprise (and i thought i can't love this card more) it is actually a sticker! :O that's why it looked so thin

NL-2744917, from moppedop, Netherlands

     P.S. Also my Dutch friend says that 'Foute sokken' could mean in slang - 'wrong sexual partner', but i haven't find any of justifications on internet for this claim.

     P.P.S. Full text on the back: "Witte sokken, vleeskleurige BH's, knellende leggings. Super fout allemaal, maar het kan nog veel fouter. Want er zijn teveel producten die nog steeds van foute katoen worden gemaakt. Dit is een sticker van Max Haveleer, het keurmerk voor Fairtrade dat garandeert dat katoen wordt ingekocht onder eerlijke handelsvoorwaarden. Gebruik deze sticker om ons te helpen Fairtrade katoen onder de aandacht te brengen."

Canadian soldiers stamps

     Canada issued a set of stamps dedicated to military uniforms to celebrate 150 years of military services through centuries on Oct 11, 2012. The pane I received are: The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada; The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment); and The Royal Regiment of Canada [Canada surprisingly for me has a bunch of different Regiments, each with rich history, orders etc.].

stamps and postcard - received from BrendaVR, Canada (StampsRR#238)

     Later, on April, 9, 2013 and October, 18, 2013, respectively, Canada issued Regiments stamps: Princess of Wales' Own Regiment and The Hasting and Prince Edward Regiment, i guess i have received them, but haven't found them scanned in my folder yet...

Maxicard: Wild cats - Premier Jour

     [I wonder how funny maxicard can be when it is 'wrong' (like the picture on postcard further from the stamp theme than it should be, like the squirrel with that snow leopard stamp)]. So i have two cancellations: one from Moscow Main Post Office (101000, Siberian tiger), one from Vladivostok's (690090, Snow leopard) - from two different ends of our country, both from November, 7th, 2014.

left - received from silent-gluk, Russia (direct swap); right - stamps, received from kiskanik, Russia (direct swap)

     Those new stamps (Fauna of Russia: Wild cats 1888-1890, snow leopard, Amur leopard, and Siberian tiger) are paired with previous issue: Fauna of Russia: Wild cats (1846-1849: Pallas's cat, Forest cat, swamp lynx, and Amur cat).

     The news about this stamps on rusmarka.ru has amazing description of those big cats (they all live where it's snowing so they have wonderful fluffy fur ^^), here's some excerpts: Siberia (Amur) tiger is the only one which has a 5 cm thick layer of fat under his tummy to protect from ice wind in low temperatures; Amur (Far Eastern) leopard's fur is long (up to 70 mm) and very soft; snow leopard is the only cat which lives in alpine and subalpine zones with elevations up to 4,500 m.

Weird postcard: 'Still life with Skull'

     So, the second profile stuff again: i was thinking i'll limit posts to #battlekittens, but the whole #barbarian things are awesome too! ^^ This one is a collage (acrylic colours and pencil) by Ekaterina Archangelskaya (this drawing is even a cover for her blog).

     The matched stamp (same background colour and the 'uglyness' trend) is Heroes of Russian Federation series (2012): Valeriy Zamaraev. I always view those stamps as 'ugly' ones and avoid buying them, but once i google any of the names on those stamps... This guy was one of the rescuers who died during the Beslan tradegy, he was shot when taking the male hostages bodies and wasn't taken care of while the combat assault of the school, and when were taken from the site, asked to evacuate kids first, died on the way to the hospital.

RU-3187172, received from Artmarina, Russia

Racecars from Czech Republic

     Those two are wonderful F1-themed postcards [i say '-themed' because a quick glance doesn't allow me to identify the racecars or teams or drivers, so i think it was more of artist's view on the racecars, of course i could have searched for the possible originals, but i don't think i'll be able to do that xD]. Red one is ferrari-ish, but blue one - no idea, maybe i started to watch F1 too late to remember the 'blue' team.

both received from MajkaLiki, Czech Republic (direct swap)

     Through swapping with Majka, i have been receiving all different kinds of Czech teas in form of teabags (sending ones myself in return too), and also once a Turkish tea with fruits and flowers for teapot brewing ^^ This envelope had a nice addition to 'regular' wishlist cards and teabags - awesome Krtek postcards which matched with stamp on envelope.

postcards with Krtek and an envelope with matching stamp, received from MajkaLiki, Czech Republic (direct swap)

Weird postcards: Moose and Curling Rock from Canada

     I love weird postcards [you can say by that i'm having a special tag for them], and one of my swapping friends sends me the exact weird kind of postcards i adore. Those two are by Wendy Tancock, Toronto's designer [her website]. All Canadian postcards by her design are incredibly adorable: here is the full set, and double folded and blank inside - more place to write.

received from AmarantaBird, Canada (direct swap)

     I wonder whether mooses are really: powerful swimmers, divers, practically blind, music listeners [little drawn girl on the backside says: "All this is true, i'm not making it up" xD]. And Canada does certainly rock in Curling.

also received from AmarantaBird, Canada (direct swap)

Handmade postcards (by me) - December, 2013

     Those paired handmades [paired because almost the same set of materials were used] were made for Handmade Alphabetical tag and for direct handmade swap [we swapped first time in the framework of that alphabetical tag too] with taxcha.

     I chose Queens for letter 'Q', the composition demanded four queens and i searched for same names in different countries, after Elizabeths being obvious, i found Denmark queens - Margarets [and country flags look very alike]. So on the postcard i drew with white correcting fluid, white paint and white gel pen - Margaret I and Margrethe II of Denmark, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II of England. Letter Q is cut from aluminum foil from chocolate bar and has soft mount.

     For direct swap i chose to make a portrait loosely based on taxcha's avatar on official site. Same base - black matte water colour paper, same contour white tools, foil and orange thick felt for decoration.

left - sent to rosefamily, Canada (letter 'Q', Alphabet handmade tag), right - sent to taxcha, Indonesia (direct swap)

     Also made in December, 2013: (1) photo camera handmade (with a transparent membrane); (2) 'You are the best' giraffe pimped with yellow mouline threads; (3, 4) mock orange herbarium and wrapping paper postcard pimped with textured painters for drawing on glass.

1.                                         2.

3.                                         4.

handmades, all sent to penpals and through tags

Self-portrait by Serebryakova [mondschein, Russia]

     I had this postcard marked in favorites more than once. It's a Self Portrait: At Dressing-Table (1909) by Zinaida Serebriakova, one of the first distinctive Russian female painters. My grandpa used to tell me i look a lot like her in this painting [whereas i do not look alike at all xD], and it burned into my memory. So all thanks to Lera, mondschein, i finally got it! [and with matching stamp - 125 years from birth]

postcard and stamps - received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

Maxicards: Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix [Yay!]

     Happy day for any Russian postcrosser/F1-fan (i.e. me, 11 posts with F1 tag in my blog by now =^___^=): by virtue of first Russian Grand Prix the stamp dedicated to this event was issued [F1 stamp in the rusmarka catalog; news on rusmarka about issuing the F1 stamp].

front side, received from silent_gluk, Russia (direct swap)

     The backside of the postcard features Sochi Autodrom configuration; frontside shows one of the McLaren cars MP4-29 (drivers: Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, Jenson is on picture so far i can say from helmet; as you can see the photo from the wikipedia page was printed for maxicard).

backside, received from silent_gluk, Russia (direct swap)

     I received so many maxicards from silent_gluk (almost with every issued stamp from the time we began swapping), so i had to create separate picasa album for them. Along with F1 maxicard i received other two awesome maxicards with stamps issued the same date, October, 12th: dedicated to Russian hockey team victory in 2014 IIHF World Championship [received hockey maxicard; hockey stamp on rusmarka] and joint Russian-North Korean issue with birds [received eagle maxicard; eagle stamp on rusmarka].

Post office's care: Stick the paper!

     Once in Russian LJ postcrossing community we were discussing Stamp Ripper cases and methods of passive-aggressive resistance to it. And conversation went to how my local post office are overcautious when i receive any of the unusual handmade postcards - they stick little pieces of paper to postcards to stamp them and not to damage a postcard.

cases of how my post workers handle anything unusual/potentially 'dangerous' [in terms of me filing a complaint on them]: left - the stamp (old one used for decoration) were ripped off the postcard, and an paper were glued on the spot as if it was a resend to different zip-code, subtle traces of the missing stamp are there though [received from na_talie, Russia (direct swap)]; center - crotchet postcard, paper sticked to the front not to damage it with stamping [received from looklikemerel, Netherlands (Assignment: Handmade tag)]; right - resend paper again, was easily glued off [received from kiskanik, Russia (direct swap)]

     Though I'm happy i have such care [even if it's partly inspired by me being capricious and complaining] at my post office. One of my penpals, intoleranz, phrased this quality as: 'If something inapprehensible is happening - stick a paper' [periphrasis of 'jewish wisdom' joke: 'If something inapprehensible is happening - go to sleep']. So i didn't hesitate a chance to send her a modified postcard with this saying.

sent to intoleranz, Russia (direct swap)