vintage post office dept. buttons

Pretty sweet, huh? These are circa 1940 or so, before the governmental Post Office Department became the United States Postal Service in 1971, a fiscally independent agency.

three surprising girl scout badges

Here we have the "agribusiness" badge, the "oil up" badge and the "stress less" badge.

Ode to eBay

The marvelous thing about eBay is that it is basically the biggest junk shop ever and they hand you a magical little chalkboard on your way in the door – aka a “search box” - to help you find things. Each time you scrawl a different word in chalk, all the things in the shop jump off their shelves and reorganize themselves accordingly. My eBay explorations began with concrete search terms such as “antique cast waffle iron.” Today, they continue with more generous terms like “unusual” and “wonder.”

It is a combination of science and art that can lead you to the most interesting items. I have learned the eBay search lingo. Here is one of my current favorite search phrases:

“(vintage, antique, old) (machine, dispenser) -sewing -pez -marbles -adding -popcorn -oil -answering -slot -cotton -gun -tattoo -coke -coca -cola –embroidery.”

Try it. It’s like a big rotating exhibit I just curated for you to walk through - 1428 items today, and different everyday. Can I interest you in an antique cast iron fabric-fluting machine from 1875 that you can use to crimp your collars and cuffs?














Or instead, 5 brand new bumper caps for Old Chicago pinball machines?













What about a vintage cast iron woodpecker toothpick dispenser? The little woodpecker delivers the toothpick to you in its beak.















An antique manual clothes wringer made in 1898? How else you gonna dry your clothes?














An antique match vending machine?


















A rope maker?


















I am digging into the past – through the geologic layers of eBay and the detritus of days gone by – looking for any sign that we’re going to be okay. Any thing that can guide us or inspire us to live anew.

World's Smallest Card from the Easter Bunny

The World's Smallest Postal Service (WSPS) has a special offering for Easter. A perfect addition to any child's Easter basket, each tiny card comes in a patterned plastic egg with a magnifying glass and paper crinkle grass. The tiny envelope and card are customized - you get to submit the message. $10 each. We recommend ordering early to make sure you receive it by Easter. (The WSPS also offers teeny tiny letters, birthday cards, love notes, etc.)

Order online: www.worldssmallestpostalservice.com

Clothes Tag Exchange / Care Instructions

I designed this clothes tag to honor the best of what clothing can be in this world: something that connects us to the earth and each other in positive, beautiful ways. Clothes tags are usually the only tiny snippet of information we get about an item's history: "Made in China," "100% cotton," etc. This amount of information is so small that it is almost meaningless. Furthermore, is it even noticed? I believe that our failure to create (demand?) a new clothes system that treats the earth and people well is really a failure of the imagination. Perhaps China is too far to go to find out for ourselves, but if we can tell stories - true stories - about the peoples and places wrapped up in the production of clothing, and if we can keep these stories and images in our heads, I believe our clothing will begin to speak to us in different ways and with new meanings - meanings that lead to the creation of careful relationships and healthy methods of making.

The tag exchange:

The tag above is intended as an intervention - as a way to introduce and cultivate the kind of imagination and awareness that is a prerequisite to ecologically and socially conscious shopping habits. Here's how it works: You send me one (or more) of your clothes tags and a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I send you one (or more) of these tags in exchange. Then you sew this tag into your garment, as a reminder and statement in support of healthier clothes. As your garment gets passed on to friends, little sisters, or thrift stores, the tag takes on a life of its own and becomes a surprise snippet for future readers and wearers. If you're about to give away a load of clothes, consider sewing these tags into them first. The tag can also be sewn on like a patch.

These tags were woven in the Eastern USA from synthetic fibers.

*There is a suggested donation of $1 per clothes tag to support the continuation of this project. If you can contribute, just include the donation in your envelope with the tags for exchange. If you cannot contribute, please limit your request for tags to 5. Thank you.

Send to:
Leafcutter Designs
PO Box 5358
Berkeley, CA
94705

"Care Instructions" is part of the Changing Clothes project.

"Artifact Advice" - free cootie catcher!

"Artifact Advice" is a free cootie catcher you can download here
and print, make, and share.

World's Smallest Postal Service - this Sunday