Custom Made Love

If you've ever visited Castle in the Air, then no doubt you have been enchanted by the simple charm of Diva Pyari's Linea Carta greeting cards and sheet paper. Diva draws, calligraphs, and silkscreens all her own designs. Tomorrow (Saturday the 6th) Diva will be at Castle in the Air from 1pm-5pm making custom Valentine cards. She let us look at one such amorous note, but we couldn't peek inside because of the wonderful twine and wax seal! (It didn't seem to be addressed to us, anyway.) Come by tomorrow afternoon if you're able, and Diva will put you well on your way to making your Valentine's Day the most romantic yet.

Custom Valentines at Castle in the Air
by Diva Pyari of Linea Carta
1805 Fourth Street
Berkeley, Calif.
Saturday, February 6
1pm-5pm

Blue Castle Badges In The Post

Noble & Noteworthy Individuals, perk up your ears!

Today we hand the postman the latest batch of Blue Castle Badges. If you have recently accomplished one of the Achievements, then you can expect your badge shortly.

(The Blue Castle Badger wishes to say that he found the scent of all the illustrated letters to be delectable. And also that he would like to have typed this post himself but, being a Badger, hasn't a clue as to how such things are done.)

The Art of Sealing a Letter

Alongside our seals and sticks of sealing wax at Castle in the Air, we offer a free little handout from the early 1900s describing how to properly seal an envelope. If you're one of our readers who hasn't yet made it into the store, this one's for you!

Do not begin by thrusting the end of the wax into the flame and conveying it in a flaming spatter to your envelope. Take plenty of time and hold the wax above the flame of the candle, but not near enough to burn (about one inch); a burnt wax makes a streaky seal and is hard to manage.

When a marble-sized amount of wax has gradually softened, but is not dripping, apply it with a circular movement upon the place to be sealed, rub it around and down until you have a circle of proper size and thickness, then pull straight up and apply the seal. The result should be a clear-cut impression.

And remember, if you're planning to send your wax-sealed envelope using the U.S. Postal Service, it will need another 20 cents of postage for hand-cancellation.

Illustrated Letters

Before there were web pages and blogs, it was more common to see people adding color to their communication by drawing and painting images on the letters they sent through the good old U.S. Mail. Tomorrow Caron Dunn and I are teaching a class on illustrated letters in the studio at Castle in the Air, so this morning I worked up some sample envelopes. What makes illustrating letters such a delight is that it really gives you more time to think about the person who will be receiving it, and making art that you think they'll really enjoy.
Of course, any letter is a joy to receive, especially if it has a beautiful stamp on it. The post-office is raising its rates on Monday to 44 cents for a first class letter, so we bought a new book of stamps for the shop. They've got some wonderful art on them!

Stamping Out the Fun

The lines are getting pretty long at the post office as people send out their holiday mailings. It's the card-sending season, and everyone wants to make sure their messages get to family and friends in time for the various celebrations marking the beginning of winter.

We love greeting cards so much at Castle in the Air that, through our publishing imprint Dromedary Press, we print many of our own styles for everyday giving as well as for the holidays. We use one of my favorite paper stocks imported from Italy so the cards are as enjoyable to hold as they are to look at.

Earlier this week, a customer told us that when she went to the post office to post her holiday cards she was told by the clerk that they required extra postage. We asked our postman that day whether this could be true, and he said that one stamp should have been enough. But when we took some cards and packages to the post office this morning, we got a different story!

Even though a Dromedary Press card in its envelope weighs less than one ounce (and therefore don't necessarily require more than one First-Class stamp), it is -- at just over 6 ⅛ inches in height -- just a tiny bit too tall to qualify for the U.S. Postal Service's "letter" rate. In order to ensure regular delivery for one of our cards, then, a sender must put 83¢ in stamps on the envelope.

Do your holiday cards qualify as "letters" or as "large envelopes" when it comes to the U.S. Mail? Letters must be no smaller than 3½ inches tall and 5 inches long. If they exceed 6⅛ in height or 11½ inches in length, then they are large envelopes and need more than just a single First-Class postage stamp. Additional postage is required for, among other things, envelopes that are square, rigid, closed with one of those darling button-and-string ties, or addressed such that the envelope must be held "tall" in order to read it (fun!). And don't forget to add 20¢ if you seal your envelope with wax, as this requires hand-cancellation of the envelope.

In short, many things that make a personal letter more interesting and fun will make it costlier to mail it. We love the postal service and we want to see them thrive, but the inconsistency of opinion as to how much postage a greeting card needs, and the arcane rules surrounding postage rates, is just discouraging to people who want to use the mail to keep in touch with loved ones.