You’ve got mail – something that isn’t a dreary bill, an unsolicited flyer or a random shopping catalogue.
Instead, it might be a hand-painted postcard, a couple of stickers, a letter or miniature craft activity, tucked into an envelope and sent to your doorstep – from halfway across the world or, increasingly, from right here in Singapore.
Such is the world of snail mail clubs – a subscription-based service that delivers packages of keepsakes made by artists, creators and writers to subscribers each month via mail.
These clubs have gained traction online over the past few years before making their way to Singapore in recent months, being launched especially by artists as a means to share their art.
Their popularity comes amid the rising appetite for all things analogue. With the rise of digital cameras, growing interest in junk journaling and scrapbooking, the return of the iPod – with searches for “iPod” on global online marketplace eBay growing more than 8 per cent from 2024 to 2025, as reported by The New York Times – 2026 has been dubbed the year the internet takes “touching grass” literally.
This is especially resonant for Gen Zs – a generation that was raised on instant text messages and intangible subscriptions in the form of streaming platforms. Many are charmed by the allure of opening a letterbox in an era of digital bills and online communication to find a handpacked package full of work that someone physically created.
Ironically, many of these clubs are being discovered on social media platforms like TikTok, yet they are designed as an escape from screens.
In fact, many founders of newer snail mail clubs in Singapore first stumbled upon this format on TikTok, where overseas creators have been documenting everything from packing orders to designing the monthly themes.
Inspired, artists here have been creating their own clubs to share their art with a wider audience, yet with intentionality and control over the experience – from the unboxing process to the contents and theme for every month.
Here are four Singapore-based snail mail clubs bringing that idea to life.
The Gardeners Basket Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
For the 21-year-old nail artist known as Chloe Kurono, the snail mail club is an extension of the intricate art she was already doing by hand.
After discovering overseas snail mail creators on TikTok, Kurono launched The Gardeners Basket Club to connect with her Western audiences from the US, from whom she was getting a lot of traction for her nails-related content.
The club is themed around fruits through watercolour illustrations, handcrafted by Kurono herself. "I hand-paint every single design, and then I photograph it and digitalise it on my computer. So every single thing is hand-painted first," she shared.
The standard snail mail comes with a print and postcard, two vinyl stickers and a personal letter, while the all-inclusive pack also comes with a vinyl sticker sheet and two more exclusive stickers and/or stamps.
Past releases have centred around seasons – mangoes and rambutans for summer, pumpkins and carrots for autumn. Following a short break after her initial soft launch where she did a test run with about 30 people, Kurono is gearing up for a fresh restart. But it means more than just a potentially new look.
Kurono describes the work as "a very personal process" – one that reflects how she sees herself: "I think it defines me, more than fulfilment. I feel like I connect with my own work because I know how much effort I put into it." And as her subscribers grow their appreciation for the craft, she finds herself doing the same: "Because it's a two-way journey, people who subscribe can also see that, and that's what makes it all the more special."
Grumpy Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
Grumpy Mail Club turns cats and craft into an intentionally tactile experience every month.
Artist Pang Yu Xun, 24, came across the mail club idea on TikTok, drawn to the idea of creating something slower and more personal than social media. Writing and receiving letters was a “blast from the past” in primary school that she looked back upon with fond memories.
The name itself is a tongue-in-cheek reclamation: "As females in general, we are expected to be very cheerful and very nice, very compassionate… I wanted to name it 'grumpy' because I wanted to be a little bit more free to express my emotions."
It also reflects her return to art after years away from it. After graduating, she found herself going through interviews feeling a "dissonance": "I [didn't] feel passionately for anything, so I decided to take a gap year." In that space, she rediscovered drawing, found snail mail clubs on TikTok and launched her own.
Each month revolves around a different theme and colour scheme – from farmer’s markets to music. Every month, in her Going Analogue mail selection, she presents an analogue craft activity, sticker sheet, a postcard with an art print, stackable monthly flower calendar, stickers that come with journal prompts and a monthly playlist and a personal letter.
Pang works through roughly one to two weeks of preparation before printing and placing orders – all of which takes up to another week and a half, leaving her with a single day to pack for her 100-plus subscribers, around half of whom are based in the US.
Nonetheless, the local response has caught her off guard. "When I first started my snail mail [club], I didn't expect so much local support," she says, noting that the demand has pointed to something real: "I think there is a large demand from Singaporeans for these kind of things… because of the strong emphasis on STEM in Singapore and how you have to constantly be productive, you have to make money. And I think, like, everyone is kind of sick of it."
Meme Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
Where most snail mail clubs lean into the whimsy and nostalgia, 29-year-old artist Ren Low brings the internet to her subscribers without the screens.
Her Meme Mail Club channels internet humour into physical form with a sticker sheet, stickers, an art print, a monthly letter complete with journalling prompts and a "thank you" card. But this isn’t Low’s first shot at launching a snail mail club. She first tried running one two years ago, but put it on pause after taking on a corporate job. When she returned to full-time art last August, reviving it felt like a natural next step.
The letter, she says, is the heart of the package. "To me, that monthly letter is like my penpal to people, although they don't get to reply me." She designs and prints her own envelopes, folds every letter herself and pays close attention to the full unboxing experience – all for the roughly 200 to 300 subscribers she sends to each month.
What that looks like in practice is actually less visually pleasing than what tends to circulate online: "I never post it [on social media] because it's like a factory… I'm just stuffing [envelopes] like crazy. 'One, two, three, four'… It's not as aesthetic as it looks."
Growth has meant making peace with certain trade-offs. "At the very start, I actually wrote the names of every patron on the card… I like it when it's very personal. But when the volume went up, I was like, 'okay, maybe this is not sustainable'. It's kind of sad." Her response has been to redirect that intention elsewhere, like the letter itself, the envelope and the prompts.
The Hooman Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
For 33-year-old UI artist and freelance dog photographer Kaitlin Tai, The Hooman Mail Club is a way for her to bring together the two things she cares about most: art and dogs.
Launched last December, each month's package includes a personal letter, a postcard, sticker sheet, a hand-stamped lino cut card with journal prompts, a mini "poopy" calendar (featuring illustrations of dogs mid-business, inspired by the faces they pull as they do the deed) and an activity punch card – small tasks tied to that month's theme, like bringing your dog somewhere new or just sitting in a park and watching the world go by.
The club grew out of something Tai noticed as a dog owner herself: "Being a pet parent, I know that there's a lot of – I mean there's a lot of joy – but there's also a lot of silent struggles that I think people without dogs or without pets wouldn't really understand." Every month, she tries to meet the subscriber as they navigate those experiences.
In the face of rising volume, Tai keeps the touch of personalisation for every subscriber: "I will ask them, when they subscribe, for their birthday, so that during their birthday month, I will include a card that I designed, but I will specifically have their preferred breed [on it]… That's bringing it to another level of [that] personal feeling, because it's not just a mass-produced thing."
The club currently draws more Singapore subscribers than international ones – something Tai says surprised her. To fuel connection, subscribers are asked to share their favourite breed and birthday when they sign up, allowing Tai to send personalised birthday cards featuring their chosen dog.
Ignited by her dream "to draw all the dog [breeds] in the world", what started as a passion project for Tai has turned into something more personal with the feedback she's gotten – "I can't really tell them how much it means to me… it feels really fulfilling because I know I'm coming from a good place."
The return of the analogue has transformed how snail mail is perceived. Commenting on how most snail mail run on untracked postage, Low likens the subscription experience to that of magazines from the 90s, while Kurono compared it to online shopping today, except that it's not about instant gratification. In a world where most things can be tracked to the minute, that ambiguity appears to be part of the appeal.
But there's also a double-edged sword in growth. The more subscribers a club gains, the harder it becomes to preserve the intimacy that made it all appealing in the first place. AI-generated snail mail clubs have also begun appearing overseas – in a format built on the fact that a real person made and packed every item. It is a development the local community has been watching closely.
Despite it all, they keep going. As Tai put it: "Growing up, I've always heard, like 'Oh, you need to do this. What's your purpose in life?'" For the longest time, she says, she just didn't think about it. "But right now, I'm like, 'hey, I'm kind of checking the boxes'… I'm doing something that I love. I'm doing something I'm passionate about and I am coming from a good place."
Continue reading...
Instead, it might be a hand-painted postcard, a couple of stickers, a letter or miniature craft activity, tucked into an envelope and sent to your doorstep – from halfway across the world or, increasingly, from right here in Singapore.
Such is the world of snail mail clubs – a subscription-based service that delivers packages of keepsakes made by artists, creators and writers to subscribers each month via mail.
These clubs have gained traction online over the past few years before making their way to Singapore in recent months, being launched especially by artists as a means to share their art.
Their popularity comes amid the rising appetite for all things analogue. With the rise of digital cameras, growing interest in junk journaling and scrapbooking, the return of the iPod – with searches for “iPod” on global online marketplace eBay growing more than 8 per cent from 2024 to 2025, as reported by The New York Times – 2026 has been dubbed the year the internet takes “touching grass” literally.
This is especially resonant for Gen Zs – a generation that was raised on instant text messages and intangible subscriptions in the form of streaming platforms. Many are charmed by the allure of opening a letterbox in an era of digital bills and online communication to find a handpacked package full of work that someone physically created.
Ironically, many of these clubs are being discovered on social media platforms like TikTok, yet they are designed as an escape from screens.
In fact, many founders of newer snail mail clubs in Singapore first stumbled upon this format on TikTok, where overseas creators have been documenting everything from packing orders to designing the monthly themes.
Inspired, artists here have been creating their own clubs to share their art with a wider audience, yet with intentionality and control over the experience – from the unboxing process to the contents and theme for every month.
Here are four Singapore-based snail mail clubs bringing that idea to life.
1. THE GARDENERS BASKET CLUB
The Gardeners Basket Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
For the 21-year-old nail artist known as Chloe Kurono, the snail mail club is an extension of the intricate art she was already doing by hand.
After discovering overseas snail mail creators on TikTok, Kurono launched The Gardeners Basket Club to connect with her Western audiences from the US, from whom she was getting a lot of traction for her nails-related content.
The club is themed around fruits through watercolour illustrations, handcrafted by Kurono herself. "I hand-paint every single design, and then I photograph it and digitalise it on my computer. So every single thing is hand-painted first," she shared.
The standard snail mail comes with a print and postcard, two vinyl stickers and a personal letter, while the all-inclusive pack also comes with a vinyl sticker sheet and two more exclusive stickers and/or stamps.
Past releases have centred around seasons – mangoes and rambutans for summer, pumpkins and carrots for autumn. Following a short break after her initial soft launch where she did a test run with about 30 people, Kurono is gearing up for a fresh restart. But it means more than just a potentially new look.
Kurono describes the work as "a very personal process" – one that reflects how she sees herself: "I think it defines me, more than fulfilment. I feel like I connect with my own work because I know how much effort I put into it." And as her subscribers grow their appreciation for the craft, she finds herself doing the same: "Because it's a two-way journey, people who subscribe can also see that, and that's what makes it all the more special."
2. GRUMPY MAIL CLUB
Grumpy Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
Grumpy Mail Club turns cats and craft into an intentionally tactile experience every month.
Artist Pang Yu Xun, 24, came across the mail club idea on TikTok, drawn to the idea of creating something slower and more personal than social media. Writing and receiving letters was a “blast from the past” in primary school that she looked back upon with fond memories.
The name itself is a tongue-in-cheek reclamation: "As females in general, we are expected to be very cheerful and very nice, very compassionate… I wanted to name it 'grumpy' because I wanted to be a little bit more free to express my emotions."
It also reflects her return to art after years away from it. After graduating, she found herself going through interviews feeling a "dissonance": "I [didn't] feel passionately for anything, so I decided to take a gap year." In that space, she rediscovered drawing, found snail mail clubs on TikTok and launched her own.
Each month revolves around a different theme and colour scheme – from farmer’s markets to music. Every month, in her Going Analogue mail selection, she presents an analogue craft activity, sticker sheet, a postcard with an art print, stackable monthly flower calendar, stickers that come with journal prompts and a monthly playlist and a personal letter.
Pang works through roughly one to two weeks of preparation before printing and placing orders – all of which takes up to another week and a half, leaving her with a single day to pack for her 100-plus subscribers, around half of whom are based in the US.
Nonetheless, the local response has caught her off guard. "When I first started my snail mail [club], I didn't expect so much local support," she says, noting that the demand has pointed to something real: "I think there is a large demand from Singaporeans for these kind of things… because of the strong emphasis on STEM in Singapore and how you have to constantly be productive, you have to make money. And I think, like, everyone is kind of sick of it."
3. MEME MAIL CLUB
Meme Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
Where most snail mail clubs lean into the whimsy and nostalgia, 29-year-old artist Ren Low brings the internet to her subscribers without the screens.
Her Meme Mail Club channels internet humour into physical form with a sticker sheet, stickers, an art print, a monthly letter complete with journalling prompts and a "thank you" card. But this isn’t Low’s first shot at launching a snail mail club. She first tried running one two years ago, but put it on pause after taking on a corporate job. When she returned to full-time art last August, reviving it felt like a natural next step.
The letter, she says, is the heart of the package. "To me, that monthly letter is like my penpal to people, although they don't get to reply me." She designs and prints her own envelopes, folds every letter herself and pays close attention to the full unboxing experience – all for the roughly 200 to 300 subscribers she sends to each month.
What that looks like in practice is actually less visually pleasing than what tends to circulate online: "I never post it [on social media] because it's like a factory… I'm just stuffing [envelopes] like crazy. 'One, two, three, four'… It's not as aesthetic as it looks."
Growth has meant making peace with certain trade-offs. "At the very start, I actually wrote the names of every patron on the card… I like it when it's very personal. But when the volume went up, I was like, 'okay, maybe this is not sustainable'. It's kind of sad." Her response has been to redirect that intention elsewhere, like the letter itself, the envelope and the prompts.
4. THE HOOMAN MAIL CLUB
The Hooman Mail Club. (Photo: CNA/Baani Kaur)
For 33-year-old UI artist and freelance dog photographer Kaitlin Tai, The Hooman Mail Club is a way for her to bring together the two things she cares about most: art and dogs.
Launched last December, each month's package includes a personal letter, a postcard, sticker sheet, a hand-stamped lino cut card with journal prompts, a mini "poopy" calendar (featuring illustrations of dogs mid-business, inspired by the faces they pull as they do the deed) and an activity punch card – small tasks tied to that month's theme, like bringing your dog somewhere new or just sitting in a park and watching the world go by.
The club grew out of something Tai noticed as a dog owner herself: "Being a pet parent, I know that there's a lot of – I mean there's a lot of joy – but there's also a lot of silent struggles that I think people without dogs or without pets wouldn't really understand." Every month, she tries to meet the subscriber as they navigate those experiences.
In the face of rising volume, Tai keeps the touch of personalisation for every subscriber: "I will ask them, when they subscribe, for their birthday, so that during their birthday month, I will include a card that I designed, but I will specifically have their preferred breed [on it]… That's bringing it to another level of [that] personal feeling, because it's not just a mass-produced thing."
The club currently draws more Singapore subscribers than international ones – something Tai says surprised her. To fuel connection, subscribers are asked to share their favourite breed and birthday when they sign up, allowing Tai to send personalised birthday cards featuring their chosen dog.
Ignited by her dream "to draw all the dog [breeds] in the world", what started as a passion project for Tai has turned into something more personal with the feedback she's gotten – "I can't really tell them how much it means to me… it feels really fulfilling because I know I'm coming from a good place."
THE CHALLENGES OF SNAIL MAIL CLUBS
The return of the analogue has transformed how snail mail is perceived. Commenting on how most snail mail run on untracked postage, Low likens the subscription experience to that of magazines from the 90s, while Kurono compared it to online shopping today, except that it's not about instant gratification. In a world where most things can be tracked to the minute, that ambiguity appears to be part of the appeal.
But there's also a double-edged sword in growth. The more subscribers a club gains, the harder it becomes to preserve the intimacy that made it all appealing in the first place. AI-generated snail mail clubs have also begun appearing overseas – in a format built on the fact that a real person made and packed every item. It is a development the local community has been watching closely.
Despite it all, they keep going. As Tai put it: "Growing up, I've always heard, like 'Oh, you need to do this. What's your purpose in life?'" For the longest time, she says, she just didn't think about it. "But right now, I'm like, 'hey, I'm kind of checking the boxes'… I'm doing something that I love. I'm doing something I'm passionate about and I am coming from a good place."
Continue reading...