The Bike Collage Project- Midway Update

I'm about halfway through my bike collage project now.  Here are a few pictures of my progress.

Bicycle Beginnings

This is the beginning of my latest project, which is to collage my sparkly green Bianchi road bike with postage stamps from my collection.  Ever since my beloved Bianchi was stolen last year, and I picked up a similar used one on eBay to replace it, I've been a little reluctant to ride it because of the big bold name printed on it.  Something has to be done.   Given that I love postage stamps and I love my bikes, they seem like a perfect match.

Here are the 'before' shots of everything.  First, the bike:

This is a pretty good chunk of my stamp collection that has yet to be sorted. I store these in old bike baskets while they await sorting.

This is after a bit of sorting.  Once I sort the stamps, generally by color or theme, they go into old jars or into my box collection.

If I had my choice, I would do my bike in yellow stamps but there seems to be a dearth of yellow stamps in the world for some reason. They're really hard to find in any meaningful quantity.  In any case, my other bike is sunshine yellow, so I don't mind using another color.  Pinks & red it is!  I still have more sorting to do because I don't think this pile will be enough to cover the entire frame, but it's a good start. 

I'm hoping to have this project finished by January 10th so stay tuned for the 'afters'!

Postage Stamps of the Week- Tis the Season...

I couldn't let the holiday pass without throwing in a few holiday postage stamps....  I don't participate much in the holidays anymore but I do like the colorful holiday stamps.

Angus & Mathilda Mixed Media

I started a series of small mixed media collages a couple weeks back and am just now finally finishing them.  They're based on a set of old black & white photos that I found in Portland last month.

Postage Stamps of the Week- All OVER the Place!

No theme this week- just a bunch of stamps that have been piling up that I really like. 

This is in anticipation of a little project that I'm starting next week which is to cover my road bike frame with postage stamps.  I have a new (used) Bianchi to replace the Bianchi Volpe I had (that I LOVED!) that was stolen last year.  But I don't ride this one much, partially because I'm afraid it will get stolen due to the Bianchi label on it.  So it's getting a 'paint job' with postage stamps and some of these will be on it.

I have yet to determine the theme for my 'paint job' but it will likely either be all plants, all ships or all countries that I've been too.  It will partially depend on how many stamps I can cull from my collection in each group and how easy/difficult it will be to part with them.  I'd really like to cover it in yellow stamps, but sadly yellow postage stamps seem to be the most underrepresented stamp color in pretty much the entire world.  Anyway, stay tuned.  Pics of the project coming next week...

Postage Stamps of the Week- Indonesia and Other Things

Well, this post isn't really about Indonesia, but I rarely ever come across postage stamps from Indonesia- this is only the first or second one I'm gotten out of close to 50,000 stamps.  I don't know why.  But I got married there and it's an incredible country, so it's a special place to me and I love seeing a stamp from Indo.

I just love the graphics this next set. 

It would be nearly impossible for me to pick just one favorite postage stamp because there are a lot of great competitors in the pool, but this Espana stamp below would be in my top three.  In person, this stamp has incredible color- it's wildly pink!  And I find it rather hilarious with Mr.'s very non-wild expression.  I've used many of these stamps in my art as well.

Numerous Mr. Espana in this one!

Don't Underestimate the Baby

In the spring I picked up a Kodak Baby Brownie Special camera for about $2 on eBay.  The listing was about 3 words long and I had no idea if the camera would work, but for $2 it was worth the risk.

I really like these cameras because they're tiny and you can shoot square pictures on the 127 film.  I like square pictures and I like small cameras, so we were the perfect match.  When my mother saw it she said that the Baby Brownie Special was her first camera as a kid and she loved it.  So it only seems appropriate that one found it's way into my hands and now after getting my first photos back, I love it too.

Sadly I should note that while I'm excited about taking square photos on this camera, I had the setting wrong and my first rolls didn't come out square.  Doh!

This is my Baby Brownie Special.  To give you some perspective if you've never seen one, it's about 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) tall.

A Rare Gray Day in Denver

 Few weeks ago on one of the wonderful but oh-so-rare gray days in Denver, hubdude and I rode our cruisers downtown to explore and we both had new cameras to test out.  I recently got an old Italian camera, a Bencini Koroll CMF, that shoots 120.  The camera itself is incredibly beautiful and I'm really happy with these first photos from it too, though I could have used a bit more light.  And I love that I can shoot square photos with it.

This first one is an old church in our neighborhood.  Denver has dozens of really old stone and brick churches.  They're beautiful and I'm always fascinated by their proud steeples shooting into the sky.  I rarely seem to photograph any other part of the churches.

This is shot from the top deck of the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.  It's a great place to get coffee and you usually have the deck and the view to yourself.  Well worth the price of a membership.  The second photo is the roof above the deck.

Postage Stamps of the Week- Antarctica & New Zealand

Hubdude is heading back to Antarctica today where he'll spend the next couple of months hanging out with researchers and writing about them.  He gets to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand to spend a few days gearing up first, one of my favorite cities in the world, and then it's off to the ice.  So today I have a couple of Antarctica and a few New Zealand stamps from my collection for you.

It's a Mystery

Mysterious old photos always grab my attention and I couldn't resist bringing a few home when I found a full suitcase of them in a vintage shop during my trip to Portland last week. 

Who did this little boy grow up to be?  Is that old couple standing in the snow field just finishing up the burying of a body?  Did the guy who could be in Caracas have anything to do with it?  What do you think that farmer grows? Where are those girls going on that train?  And why are they wearing matching plaid dresses?  Who abandoned the boat, or is waiting to make their getaway on it?  I'd like to know the answers. Of course I'll never know the answers, but I now have a lifetime to spend pondering these photos.

West Coast Crush II

Still in Portland and still loving it.  Today I made it to the Chinese Garden and Washington Park, though did not go into the Japanese garden there because it was so close to closing.  It's really cold here right now- I think it was in the 20's today.  I wasn't expecting the weather to be this cold here so I neglected to bring enough cold weather gear. 

Nonetheless, I did brave the Chinese Garden but it was so cold that a lot of the plants were wrapped in plastic which was a little disappointing.  There were a few persimmons left (frozen solid like ice cubes!) and a handful of frozen flowers.  Thanksgiving is my last day here and we're going to see the gorge since I don't care about holidays.  Hopefully it will be a little warmer... 

Some photos from the garden...

West Coast Crush

I'm visiting Portland this week on an exploratory trip.  I was here as a youngster with my family on the road trips we made annually from San Francisco but I don't really remember Portland, I only remember the coast.

Maybe you already know but Portland is an amazing moss covered, brilliant green, bike friendly city.  A place I could easily live.  It's been a little chilly, putting a slight damper on my plans to visit all the different gardens, but perusing bookstores, drinking coffee and wandering the old neighborhoods is a perfect alternative.  It's cold today so what better day to go to the coast and walk on the beach?