I don't really have a system. But then I don't receive mountains of mail. One thing I always do is record the date of my reply on the back of the envelope of received mail. "Replied on ----"
Works for me.
BTW, great topic!
I dont' really have a system - incoming mail goes into one pile to be answered and into another when it's been answered. Eventually all my lovely letters end up in a three ring binder tucked safely away in a plastic sheet.
meliburg (February 26th, 2014)
Hi,
I average about a letter a day outgoing and my 'system' has, shall we say devolved. Initially I kept all my letters. After a while it became just too voluminous. Now I have a "pen scrapbook," in which I keep things like illuminated letters, home made envelopes, people who's handrwiting takes my breath away, interesting stamps from lands far away, wax seals.... whatever I feel like goes in there. It's a black 'n red spiral notebook.
So I don't save all the letters now. I made my own cards, very simple cards with a photo on each one... usually of something like a flower or a sunset or my cat (she signed a permission slip) or something pretty that I saw on vacation. I used to get stressed about what if I send the same picture to someone again? So I kept a log of each person and what I'd sent to them. Now if a person gets the same picture twice, well I guess they'll just have to live with it.
FINALLY, very early on I decided not to make a record or notes of what I'd said in a letter. I look on these letters as chit chat with an old friend sitting around the kitchen table or over the back fence. If you and a friend are sitting around, sometimes it just happens that you tell the same story again. That's the way we are. If I get a letter from a friend and he tells me the same story he told me last year, does it upset me? Not a bit. So if I repeat myself, very well, I repeat myself.
PLUS, for example, I went to the LA pen show last month and of course told people all about it in my snails. Now I wouldn't like to repeat that whole story in the very next letter but almost always when I get a reply the correspondent will say "Sounds like you had a great time in LA!" and that lets me know that I already told them about that. sooo somehow things sort themselves out.
Finally (applause), I KNOW I'm a lazy man and the more prep work I have to do prior to sending a letter, the less likely I'll want to do it. So I just sit down, open the letter from a friend, strike while the irons hot, pull out a card and let the words flow... whatever's happening in my life, whatever caught my attention in the news, movies I've seen, tv, books, meals, gardening, pens, inks, paper.... I'm reminded of John Denver's song with the words "there's all the things to tell him, how ya spend your time... and what the neighbor's say..."
cheers
skyppere
meliburg (February 26th, 2014)
I love your idea of a pen scrapbook, since you make cards have you considered acid-free/lignin-free paper so they don't discolour/fade/etc over time? Putting it a more traditional scrapbook would be awesome too. I like that idea. I may have to borrow it.
If I send someone the same thing twice, i just think of it as they now have an extra to share with someone else.
And I'm with you re: prep work and treat it like a conversation with an old friend.
I'm with you, I stick to spontanious responces even if it means the occasional rambling essay..
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Three letters have arrived while I am away. Hubs scanned and emailed so I could at least enjoy from here (part of managing my correspondence). His email says "Wait till you feel the paper that I. Romero used. It feels wet!!! Wierdest thing I've ever felt." I have heard of the stone paper but have never experienced it so looking forward to it!
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Stone paper is amazing but horrible for fountain pen inks. Bleeds like crazy but doesn't show through. I have my notebook away.. It feels almost sensual though..
I have been fortunate that the Oxford stone paper does not feather or bleed. It is the weirdest stuff I have ever used. As Eric calls it, very Teflon tape like.
Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot
I'll do my best to source it
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Bog I think I've busted my simple box system by filing things three different ways.
sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
"Nothing means less than zero"
Can't be all bad - it might just mean you end up writing three times as many letters.
... Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working [Pablo Picasso] ...
It is freaking out my neatness side and making the penguins (or even worse the Penquin) grumpy.
NotAPenguinPal.jpg
Last edited by Bogon07; April 12th, 2013 at 03:43 PM.
sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
"Nothing means less than zero"
A letter is on the way, Bogon, with compliments on your art and related stories. :-)
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