Quite some time ago I got involved in "mail art". This form of expression can take almost any form, unlimited save in that it must make use of the global postal system in some way. Mail artists collage, paint, assemble, record, copy, collect, document and distribute material on most any theme or none across the world. Some of the best friends I've ever had (and still have) I met through this medium.

I did lots of different things, but two things I liked making best were postcards and homemade rubber stamps. The easiest way to do the latter is carve an eraser with an X-acto knife - I used a lot of different materials and found Staedtler white erasers were the best: they took ink easily and carved well. The only drawback is that they are only so big, as you will see below. The carvings below were made 1986-88, but I stamped them in 2001 and they're still pretty clear.

And here are a couple I made in 2002:

Mail Art/Eraser Carving Links

I haven't done as many carvings or as good work as some: my eyes are not very good for detailed work and I never had enough patience to do a really good job. I did find a few folks on the Internet who still do mail art and/or carve erasers, check them out:

• Bananaland Anna Banana's web site: a long-standing mail artist and a great friend.
• Zetetics Homepage This guy is into eraser carving and he's good; some mail-art links here as well. Site has not been touched in a long while.