Craftside: Mail Art inspired by Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

Mail Art inspired by Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

Today I have a fun project that gets its inspiration from something that some of you may know about and some of you "young'uns" might not know about featured in the book Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail. Back in the day Deadheads sent (by mail) their money and requests for tickets. They would create art on the envelopes in hopes of enticing the ticket people to open theirs first thus insuring themselves tickets. Well, my spin on this is below. I have been going to on-line bill paying but I still get the envelopes. I do tend to still mail some stuff so I thought I would dress up these plain envelopes with my new Suzi Blu rubber stamps from Stampavie.

I had so much fun I can't tell you!

All I did was gather up the stamps, the recycled envelopes, the ink pads in a variety of colors, and the colored pencils...oh, and a copy of Suzi Blue's book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

Then all I did was stamp away on the fronts and backs of the envelopes.

Then I colored in the girls as pictured in the book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

I still have more to do but I can't wait to get back to them and make more!

If you appreciate envelope art or the Grateful Dead I bet you will love this book:

Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

Paul Grushkin

Foreword by:

Bill Walton

Whether or not you've heard every song in their catalog, spent countless hours learning the chords to "Casey Jones," or were one of millions lucky enough to have seen them live, odds are the Grateful Dead are not complete strangers to your world. Since the band's earliest days, Grateful Dead staff saved tens of thousands of decorated ticket-request envelopes sent to them by Dead Heads hoping to capture the ticketing staff’s attention with their mind-bending designs. These envelopes are inspirational and hugely insightful, not to mention brilliantly illustrated and unique within the world of rock. Now, for the first time in print, these unique pieces of art have found a home.

This book collects more than 300 of these mind-blowing envelope masterpieces, all presented in 14 thematic chapters. Fully authorized by the Grateful Dead, Dead Letters also includes, for further historical context, many rare historical photos and memorabilia, all creating a trip, as it were, down memory lane.

Paul Grushkin is one of America’s top rock & roll historian. For more than 25 years Grushkin has been at the forefront of rock merchandising. As VP/Sales and Marketing for Signatures Network, Sony Signatures, and Winterland Productions, he designed and led the retail merchandising campaigns for nearly every top rock, pop, and country music band, including the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Ozzy Osbourne, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, New Kids on the Block, John Lennon, Madonna, N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, and hundreds of others. Visit him online at http://www.paulgrushkin.com/.