Tear off a sheet of aluminum foil, write a letter on it, and mail it to a friend. Use a Sharpie for this one. A ballpoint pen would poke right through, but the soft tip of a Sharpie glides across the foil with lots of ink coming out, and that ink dries well enough to survive a trip through the postal system.
About four words in, you’ll notice something paper doesn’t do. The foil is reflective, so your own hand is writing on the surface from INSIDE the foil, right there alongside the words it’s making. You get the sensation of words flowing straight out of your hand. Your face drifts up behind a sentence every so often too, which is a surreal little moment, and the whole thing kinda feels like a selfie made out of handwriting.
Then comes folding it, and that almost feels like a shame after all that work. But being folded is the entire intent, because this was built to be mailed. The reflection changes owners the moment it leaves your hands: your friend will never see your face in that foil, only her own, sitting behind your words the whole time she’s reading them. You supply the letter and she supplies the picture.
Hot tip. Put a sticky note in the envelope so the recipient doesn’t think somebody mailed them a piece of garbage. Something short works, like “Hey, there’s a letter written on this aluminum foil.” Then they go ooooh, OK, so I’m supposed to read the… aluminum foil. Write on the shinier side if you want the most reflection, though the dull side takes Sharpie ink just fine.
Can you imagine getting a letter like THIS in your mailbox? So who are you mailing yours to, and how many aluminum foil letters can we get into the mail on September 1?
