Here’s a couple bits of tiny art inspiration to get your creative juices flowing for this year’s Balsa Man!

World’s Smallest Postal Service

The World’s Smallest Postal Service (WSPS) is a teeny tiny transcription service and roaming post office. Artist Lea Redmond is the Postmaster, setting up her tiny mobile office in cafes and shops where passers-by can write a letter and have it turned into a “world’s smallest letter.”

Your letter is transcribed on a miniature desk in the tiniest of script, sealed with a miniscule wax seal with the sender’s initial pressed into it, packaged up with a magnifying glass in a glassine envelope, and finished off with a large wax seal. It is a double delight: for both the sender and the recipient.

When: Saturday, March 13th from 2pm to 6pm
Where: The Curiosity Shoppe – 855 Valencia Street (twn 19th & 20th) – SF
Cost: Free to watch letters being made, $8 to order your own.

(via FunCheap: World’s Smallest Postal Service)

Miniature cities on household objects

The senior thesis exhibition, at the Kyoto University of Art and Designhas some amazing small works on display which perfectly fit into this year’s theme, “The Forged Village.” I wish I could go to Kyoto myself and see these wonderfully detailed cities atop common household objects.

More info and photos at Spoon and Tomago: Student Work | Kyoto University of Art and Design.

(via Boing Boing: Miniature cities on household objects)

Alienated and isolated yet still bound to majesty of the city, we seek warmth and connection by creating smaller communities in its midst—we forge the village in the heart of the metropolis.

This year’s Balsa Man will focus on the tiny community that makes Balsa Man more than a sum of it’s tiny parts. This means more tiny art build parties and more Balsa Regionals!

For more on the theme and how you can participate to make this year’s Balsa Man the best ever please visit our revamped Balsa Man 2010 home page.

Balsa Man 2010 patches and stickers are coming soon stay tuned for announcements!

Don't Fuck with Paul Balsa Bunyan by Rubin Starset

Sunday marked the first annual Tiny Shanty’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival! It was the first Balsa Regional of 2010 and the first ever Midwest Balsa Regional. The regional balsa burn also marked the closing of the magical Tiny Shanty and which was one of the star attractions at the Art Shanty Project, an art festival on the beautiful frozen Medicine Lake.

Cali “Starfive” Mastny was the organizer and creative mastermind behind the entire Tiny Fire Arts Festival including the amazing Paul Balsa Bunyan! I was especially tickled to see that her majestic Tiny Star Tree which had been at both the Black Rock Balsa Regional and the Balsa Man main event was also in appearance in the Tiny Shanty! For her amazing dedication and hard work, I personally presented her a tiny check from the Black Pebble Arts Foundation for $20!

The Minneapolis Burn Report!

by Colin Fahrion
Near dusk, the excited participants converged for the Tiny Fire Arts Festival as snow gently drifted down. The amazingly detailed Paul Balsa Bunyan Man was raised upon a beautiful metal petal which rested—naturally—upon stack of logs. Near the foot of the Balsa Bunyan Man, small matchstick men gathered.

The murmurs in the crowd soon turned to an uproar as the tiny fire conclave sauntered forth swinging their puny fire poi and stubby fire staffs! It was an exciting performance—I must say both in numbers and skill the six member Minneapolis fire conclave bested the two member Balsa Man conclave.

After the tiny fire performance, Cali stepped forth and lit Paul Balsa Bunyan. Like the Balsa Man burn, it was a chaotic firey and explosive feast for the eyes which was both all too brief yet still rich and fulfilling. As the fireworks died down, the crowd ran forward lit their tiny sparklers and ran around the embers!

It wasn’t over though as other tiny art was on hand including:

• The magnificent Temple of Modest Ability, by possibly maybe famous David Just-Ok
• The Scornicorn, a mean balsa unicorn with a vicious red tipped horn, by Rubin Starset
• The lovely Tiny Dangles mobile by Rachel

It was a magical amazing tiny burn, everyone walked away with smiles on their faces. Personally, I was overjoyed by it all and came away brimming with fresh ideas about how to improve Balsa Man itself. I thank Cali Mansty, the Tiny Shanty crew, and all the wonderful Minneapolis Balsa Burners who I met and made me feel at home. I came home to San Francisco creatively inspired and many a friend richer.

More photos & video:

• Tiny Fire Arts Festival video (same video embeded above; Vimeo link)
• Rubin’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival flickr set
• Strangepuppy’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival flickr set
• Starfive’s Tiny Shanty 4th Weekend flickr set

Celebrating all that is small, the Tiny Shanty Project will be hosting the first ever Tiny Fire Arts festival in Minneapolis, MN on the beautiful frozen Medicine Lake! The Tiny Festival will mark the end of the amazing Art Shanty Projects which the Tiny Shanty was apart. The Tiny Fire Arts Festival also marks what is the first of many Balsa Regionals to happen in 2010!

Tiny Shanty’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival

Sunday February 7th, dusk

A tiny art festival dedicated to the great art of small proportions. Take a stroll through our tiny (frozen) garden of art, and then join us for the burn. We will set afire an approximately two foot tall figure of art, appropriate to Minnesota, as well as any other tiny art people would like to burn.

Tiny Shanty itself is a lovely minute mansion out on the ice. The inside of the shanty is cozy and also doubles as a gallery space for a number of tiny art pieces contained within it’s walls. It was crafted by an amazing team of artists including the fabulous Balsa Man tiny artist and tiny grant recipient Cali Mastny, aka Star5, who crafted the beautiful Tiny Star Tree!

The Tiny Star Tree is especially significant as it was the only piece of tiny art to appear at both the Black Rock Balsa Regional and the main Balsa Man event! All of us here at the Balsa Man organization are thrilled to see such a talented tiny artist go on to produce such hugely diminutive art!

I myself, Colin Fahrion, am overjoyed as I will be heading out to Minneapolis this Friday to take part in the wonder of the Tiny Shanty and the Tiny Fire Arts Festival! Stay tuned to the Balsa Blog as I will be writing about my experience and plan on interviewing Cali and the rest of the Tiny Shanty team!

Also, rumor has it that a special press conference is planned this weekend in Minneapolis where the Balsa Man 2010 theme may possibly be announced!

Written by Kristen Ankiewicz, Balsa Man Regional Lead and Czarina of Tiny Art.

Balsa Man Regional was, by all accounts, a fabulous little event. At 5pm, in front of Ardent Heavy Industries (3:50 and Adapt), a crowd grew around the collection of tiny art that had yet to be unpacked. Earlier that day one of the Giant Man KCrew delivered an actual Toe of the Man. Rumor has it that “The Toe” is a leftover piece of lumber from That Other Man.

Tiny Star Tree (photo by Kristen Ankiewicz)

The population clearly wanted to be involved, and several volunteers quickly began building the L’il Trash Fence. We assembled The Toe with the L’il Balsa Man Head, not too far from the L’il Temple. We joked about having the man “from head to toe”. Silliness abounded. Cali brought her Tiny Star Tree, which added considerable class and swank to the event. The Tiny Star Tree was an art piece with many adventures in its future, since it was the only piece to attend both the Regional and the actual Balsa Man event.

After a tiny portion of an hour, we began the arduous task of digging mini-trenches for the Tiny 2piR. However, our spoons wouldn’t make a dent in the playa, so we decided to leave the fire effects above ground. That worked fine for everyone, because mere moments later a couple of tiny drunken slugs and a l’il raver penguin were on the platform. We’re not sure where the tiny bottle of Jose Cuervo came from but it turns out everyone dances better when drunk.

BRD Balsa Regional Participants (photo by Kristen Ankiewicz)

The beauty of the Regional was the high level of participation from attendees. People started rearranging the tiny attendees (mostly slugs, penguins, and frogs). Smuckles von Smee and several of his slug friends were enjoying the event from the ground level.  A couple of Regional rangers kept order around the perimeter. Many photographers were taking photos with macro lenses. I doubled as media volunteer, and gave attendees carte blanche to document the heck out of the Regional. Of course we reminded everyone that in keeping with the spirit of the main event, BALSA MAN REGIONAL RETAINS ALL RIGHTS TO ALL THUMBNAILS OF ANY PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, OR FILM THAT IS TAKEN AT THE EVENT. Several people with bullhorns helped narrate for those who weren’t as close to the front lines.

About half an hour into the event, it could only be described as wonderful, beautiful chaos. The Garden of Tiny Delights evolved (as it should) beyond my initial designs. The attendees of the Regional moved the little frogs and penguins out to the trash fence; the zombie penguin was poised to attack the Temple; the Obelisk was placed out by L’il Mural. The S&M penguins embodied radical self-expression, and were causing quite a stir with their public flogging—scandalous! Tiny parachuters landed onto the playa, dust storms started kicking up thanks to Rubin’s can of compressed air, and people started clamoring to burn things. Alas, one of the little parachuters landed funny, but after some quick thinking by Eddie (a Regional burner), a tiny helicopter came to medi-vac the injured little parachuter guy out of there.

Balsa Man Regional - Head to Toe (photo by Neil Girling)

At 5:45 the event culminated with the burning of the L’il Man + Toe. Although he’s made of balsa and kitchen matches, we decided to douse him in fuel just to make sure he’d really burn. All it took was a carefully aimed magnifying glass to set the thing ablaze. For a few minutes it was calm enough for one of the attendees to toast a marshmallow. Pretty soon a raucous group of people started chanting and dancing in a circle around the L’il Man, and one or two people even jumped over him.

Finally, at nearly 6, we burned the L’il Temple. The crowd grew solemn, with various people hushing and shushing and yelling DOWN IN FRONT. I believe a few tears were shed. We doused the structure in fuel, and used Edrabbit’s flame effect/flame thrower to light it on fire. Laughter erupted as the flaming ball of temple flew ten feet off the platform onto the playa. I doubled as DPW and cleaned up all the ashes.

Lots of people exchanged hugs and vowed to come back next year, with more art, and more ideas. Perhaps we’ll recruit a pyrotechnics expert to strap down the burning items.

Balsa Man (photo by shorelinesue)

I’m sure you all know by now what an amazing success Balsa Man was. The Balsa Man himself may have arrived a tad late—due to amalgam of minor impediments so typical of art projects large and small—but once he arrived the small crowd of early arrivals cheered and the preparations began in earnest.

Ian, head of DTW, set up the Esplanade and directed others to install the tiny trash fence, Port-o-potties were installed, and Bryan generously jumped in last minute to help with artist placement. And boy was he needed as by this point, tiny artists were streaming in by the dozens: Puny Pants camp set themselves up next to the Balsa Center Cafe with Polar on the other side selling ice cubes for 15 2/3¢ a piece. The 1/16th Indian Taco stand set up shop over by the gate and the sound camps began to arrive. And in the center of this chaos, the Balsa Man KCrew got to work raising the Balsa Man.

When the Balsa Man was in position and lanterns on the base were light, the Balsa Man event was officially open. Tiny artists were still arriving, but now the crush of magnificently dressed participants began to arrive along the path set by the Burma Shave signs.

Deep-False Illumi-Opulent Cowboys (photo by mikest)

With hundreds of participants, the event was radiating with a spectacular energy. The place was teeming with creativity; everywhere you looked was a another small artistic gem waiting to be discovered. In fact, even though we started the event an hour earlier than last year, it was still nearly impossible to see all the art on display. We counted over fifty sculptures, a half dozen tiny art cars, and numerous other artists doing whatever it is that they do: just to pick one example, Josh & Naomi’s cell tower was sanctioned by the UN.

Pom Petite (photo by kitsunecaligari)

As the sun set and darkness settled on the beach, fires popped up sporadically across la playa as artists torched their work. Paul Addis burnt early as did Domokun. Soon the time came for the Balsa Man himself to be lit. Søren, the Lead Balsa Ranger and his crew set to work clearing the perimeter so that tiny artists could light their art and the Balsa Man KCrew could install the pyrotechnics as the tiny poi dancers entertained the crowd.

Of course not everything could be perfect, there was a little trouble raising the arms but once raised it was time for the main attraction.

With little ceremony, the Balsa Man was ignited and quickly turned to burning embers—and boy do I mean quick.

Seriously, you need to watch the burn in slow motion to really catch it in all it’s flammable glory.

After the man was finished, everyone headed to the back of la playa near the trash fence to see their minor imperfect woes and pet peeves burn away into nothing. Then feeling a slight weight removed from their shoulders, the participants, with smiles on their faces, slowly dispersed into the foggy night…

I too couldn’t help but smile. What an amazing year! Thank you all for making it the best Balsa Man yet!