Vintage Stamps

I ran across this while cleaning out my studio last night. It was a small test for a larger series of collages I wanted to do.

Always fascinated by vintage stamps, I especially love the colors of these.

Bianchi Bike Collage Art Project- Finished!

Done and done! This little project took about 6 months when I initially thought it would only take 1-2 weeks. Approximately 3,000 postage stamps later (mostly vintage from about 30 different countries)  the great bike collage project of 2011 is finally done.  Admittedly, it's a bit overly pink, but I love it anyway.  I've been wanting to do some larger projects and this fit the bill perfectly.

I'm ready to do another bike (or a car!) except that I don't have room for any more bikes so until we live in a house with more bike or car storage this will have to be it for now unless I take on a temporary job and do one for someone else.  I'd love to do one with maps.

Last weekend I rode it to Jazz in the Park and went through a bout of heavy rain & hail.  She seemed to survive just fine and it was great to be on a faster ride than my cruiser finally.

Happy weekend riding everyone!
Andrea

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.

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!

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.

Postage Stamps of the Week- Rich Colors

I love these stamps for their bold, rich colors and the fun pictures too.

Postage Stamps of the Week- Reds & Blues

Some recent finds in reds & blues.  I'm not normally a big fan of the color red but for some reason when it's on paper, particularly old, yellowing paper, I find it really pleasing.  As I do these stamps.  Enjoy!

Postage Stamps of the Week- Let's Get Back to It!

It's been a while since I've posted stamps, but these posts are back now.  I still have several thousand posted stamps that remain unsorted so I pulled out a few random ones from the mix this afternoon that seemed quite nice.

I love the mushrooms, and the ladybug.  And I can never leave out flowers.

 A few in grays with my favorite poet, Robert Frost.  My favorite poem is Mending Wall, but sadly I couldn't find a stamp with a stone wall.

Only the Size of the Trees Have Changed....

But we're still chopping down old growth forests. I saw this old postcard at the antique book & paper fair that I went to a couple of weeks ago and couldn't leave it behind. It's a good reminder for me that sometimes we do things to the environment that simply can't be undone.

Postage Stamps of the Week- Plants & More Plants

Blogging has been a bit spotty lately as I hit the end of my most difficult semester. It's been a quest of pure mental survival the last few weeks, but now I'm on break and things are looking good to graduate next year (approximately 18 years late!!).  Life is getting back to normal and I'm back to blogging, working on some mixed media pieces and a lot more photography. I'm also in the process of getting set up to try my hand at infrared photography which I'm really excited about.  I'll be spending my summer above treeline which should make for some great IR shooting opportunities.

So, we are back to regular feature 'postage stamps of the week' and in my attempt to woo spring back to Colorado, I thought I would post some plants & flowers today. These are from my smaller, well, plants and flowers stamp collection. The weather-guessers are guessing that we may get up to a foot of snow tomorrow, but I'm not bothered by it because I'll be thinking about these little guys....

Postage Stamps of the Week!

I don't generally have much interest in U.S. postage stamps, because they tend to be less interesting to me than those from other countries, but I found these buried in my desk today and thought I would share.  Because you know I'm a bit obsessed with all flower related stamps...

Stamps of the Week: Chile!

Today's stamps are direct from Chile.  Hubdude just returned from his annual trip to Antarctica and spent a little time traveling through Chile on his way back and he brought me a packet of really great stamps.  These are some of the highlights.

I seem to be running across a lot of airplane stamps lately.  I think I'm going to pull these along with my others from my main collection and start a smaller plane collection.

 

I think I've mentioned before that I separate collection of stamps with ships, so I was really happy to see some new additions.



















I'm always a fan of the really tiny stamps that some countries have.  These are no exception:

 

All in all, a very nice haul of stamps!  Thanks Peter!

Stamps of the Week: Antarctica!

Since so much of my life over the last 8 years has been consumed and surrounded by all things Antarctica, it's only appropriate that some Antarctica stamps be included on my blog at some point.

This first set of stamps shows the dome at South Pole Station. My office was in this dome during my first year working on the ice. I used to have to wear gloves and a hat when in my office because it was so cold. But it was an amazing time to be spending my first months in Antarctica so I didn't really mind.

A new station was built by the National Science Foundation in the last few years and the dome was deconstructed this summer- right about now they're packing up the pieces and flying them back to the states. You can read more about the dome being taken down here which has some great photos.

I should state that Antarctica doesn't have 'real' postage stamps because there is no government there. These stamps are simply for show, but they're fun to put on packages and to me they're endearing.




This next set of stamps is also from Antarctica. The gray stamps show the 'new' station at South Pole, which replaced the dome. You can still see the dome on the left side in the photo used for this stamp- it was beginning to get covered up with snow. This monstrosity of a building, the new station, is where I spent 13 months straight the year that I wintered at south pole. This building houses everyone, has a dining facility, offices, gym, craft room, greenhouse, etc... It's quite a large building, but when locked up with 75 people and no way to leave, it sometimes feels pretty small.

The pink stamps are from McMurdo Station which is also a US station in Antarctica, but it's on the coast so it's kind of like being in the banana belt compared to South Pole. We never saw temps above 0 during my time at Pole and during my winter we saw it dip as low as -107 F. McMurdo on the other hand gets as high as 40 in the summer, which feels simply fabulous compared to being at Pole. McMurdo is also surrounded by mountains and this stamp really captures the feel of the place.



These stamps are from Palmer Station- the smallest and arguably the nicest of the 3 US stations in Antarctica. I've never been there, but my hubdude is there right now and has sent back some fantastic photos. Palmer is surrounded by water, glaciers and little islands. It looks beautiful. You can see photos of Palmer here on hubdude's blog. I really love these stamps- perhaps because I really really really want to go there.



I lived in Alaska for a long time, so I thought I would throw in these Alaska stamps as well in case you haven't seen them. These are only 1-2 years old. I think they're actually quite uninteresting compared to the reality of Alaska, but they have nice colors.



Some of the stamps I collect aren't really postage stamps at all- like these next two sets. I don't even know where or how they came to be in my possession but I do love yellow, so I'm sure that's why they stayed.





And last, some random plant stamps that were mixed in with these others. Being the plant geek that I am, I would love to see these plants in person and understand the plant communities that they belong to.