Painted airmail chevrons

[FinnBadger]

Earlier in the year I sent a few 'chevron' envelopes I printed. They were inspired by designs that Alan B made. Fortunately for me he sent me one of them... and turns out he hand painted them using a stencil. Really cool. And Alan included a fantastic printed note.

And an incredible diamond-shaped Flatby stamp.

You may/may not have noticed that there is something odd about the way the stamps are affixed. That's because this envelope had a misadventure where USPS decided I didn't live here any more.

 

[FinnBadger]

I would agree with all that has been written:

yes, USPS does generally do a very good job of getting mail delivered, even when it is mail art and sometimes hard to decipher the address.

yes, sometimes they seem to 'screw up' something obvious, like saying that 877 is 'no such number' (remember, a person will have viewed Alan's envelope to me and decided to code it this way).

Certainly, the zip or post code helps - the sorting machines are designed to recognize those numbers and direct the mail accordingly.

Bradford, I have had some mail be misdirected - a postcard to me was delivered to someone in Texas, who very kindly forwarded it to me in  another envelope.

I think that the postal services around the world are under intense pressure to provide service with fewer resources as the volume of letters decreases year by year as a result of electronic communication. It doesn't surprise me when  a few mistakes are made.

In this case I am just very grateful that Alan paid to send it to me again - I think this is a very special envelope given the care taken to hand paint it.

[Alan Brignull]

If they are refusing to deliver handwritten mail or something like that, then the reason for non-delivery should be correctly given. The Royal Mail here will deliver anything if they can, they just won't guarantee quick delivery if you choose to be 'artistic'. Here's an official exhibition on just that:

https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/pushing-the-envelop...

[Bradford]

43206-2009

If you send something to the correct 9-digit zip in the USA and it gets returned, THEN I'm surprised.  I have had something come back even though I used the 9-digit Zip Code™ as recent as this year, though.

[Thom Courcelle]

Always frustrating... but on the bright side, lookit all the extra beautiful postage stamps you got to admire when it finally arrived! Those're all great!

[William M]

oh, interesting. it seemed odd to me since i'd never had this happen before. and as far as i recall it was addressed no different than anything else i'd mailed.

[Toni Hanner -- tonipoet]

On the other hand I'm constantly amazed at the things the PO DOES manage to deliver, with beautifully artistic but virtually illegible addresses. Calligraphy, fine print integrated into a doodle on an envelope, etc. I get more of these than I do "nixies". Yea for the postal service people! One time, though, I put "Because Richard Canard" as the first line of Richard's address, and that got nixied!

[Richard Canard]

02.10.16 Dare Phillip Lerche,  ... yes, it does appear that the USPS has in recent years become more critical & or particular about standardization in their procedures. I find all this "Nixie" business amusing--in the past however,  delays & or disruptions of delivery such as this didn't appear to happen as often as they seem to presently ( i.e. at least so far ["amusing"], I certainly hope that the officialdom at the P. O. doesn't become totally obsessed with their own pre-occupations of their own convenience, procedure, & mechanization). We mail artists seem to always be" pushing the envelope" & "testing the waters"  [it's what we do best] ....& by  the way, Mr. Alan Brignull is a very fine & noble example. In my own experience, I've had to double-down on postage a few times  & repeated & crowded the envelope with the very same repeated address just to get it going again & tossing it right back into the flow only as an attempt to prove of course, that I can be "just as stubborn". I still admire the guys & gals at the post office. Sincelery, Richard Canard

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

NIXIE...(the postal machine)...will return "unable to forward" or "no such address"

even if it is the correct address to the USA, 

BUT if it is not in the proper place: must be centered, up from the lower edge, etc.

I had many a mail art returned because the address was "artistic"

and along the side, or too low :-(

[Debra Mulnick]

Love the painted chevrons/airmail stripes.

Totally great idea to make a stencil.

A rainy day project for sure........

[William M]

is this a common occurrence now? i mean, the post office thinking an address doesn't exist when it does and so sends it back? awhile back the same thing happened to a package i sent to a friend in CT and it got returned. i had to pay to send it again(to her po box) and have been paranoid about sending anything to her home address after that.