HUMBOLDT PARK — Long live the handwritten word.
Visitors getting ready for this neighborhood's monthly California Nights event Saturday afternoon can kick off festivities at The WasteShed, 914 N. California Ave., from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., where the Letter Writing Alliance is getting ready to crank out words via pen or typewriter.
Attendance to the Letter Writing and Mail Art Workshop requires a $10 donation with all materials provided: Old-fashioned gum stamps, typewriters, stationary with prints of ink pictures, magazine clippings, ticket stubs, envelopes; and scrapbooking materials such as printed cardstock, rubber stamps and stickers.
"We want to bring awareness to the amount of great stuff that people throw away all the time," said Eleanor Ray, WasteShed director.
Participants are encouraged to RSVP on the store's Facebook event page.
A similar event was held at the North Park Village Nature center earlier this month, facilitated by Bonnie Tawse.
The Art of the Letter and Envelope introduced the typewriter to many young people and gave them a chance to craft letters and notes by hand.
Tawse brought her four manual typewriters and talked about how a handwritten letter and envelope made with found materials can survive the automated machines used by the current postal service.
"The USPS will let you mail anything," she told participants, holding up a bag of magazine clippings and a brown envelope.
"You can make envelopes out of anything. Quirky envelopes can brighten the postal worker's day," Tawse said.
The workshop provided a table filled with old calendars, bread bags, maps, old-fashioned flash cards, postcards, decorated cardboard and puzzle pieces. Another table had gum stamps issued as far back as the 1960s. Another table held scrapbook material such as stickers, rubber stamps, and decorated paper and tape.
Tawse says she started out writing letters to her parents while living in Australia.
Zoe Barilla-Deuschle, 10, made an envelope out of a clean popcorn paper bag and a time capsule envelope of her experience for her to open when she's 20.
"I like creating my own things," Zoe said. "I didn't use all the postcards. I didn't use what was already made."
Her mom, Rosemary Barilla, made five handwritten letters and cards: One to her parents, two to friends and three new baby cards.
Zoe's sister, Eve, 8, first wrote out a letter by hand, rewrote it on a typewriter, decorated the typewritten letter with stickers and magazine pictures, and enclosed it inside a large envelope made out of a paper bag printed with two purple dogs in front. She plans to hand-deliver the letter to her schoolteacher.
Enough material remained on the tables for more letters and envelopes, but the four typewriters hardly ceased their signature sound throughout the workshop.
Eve rolled a fresh piece of paper into the nearest typewriter and started typing another letter while her sister and mother talked about their pieces at the end of the workshop.
"This one is just loving the typewriter," her mother, Rosemary, said.
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