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Wicked Awesome Artistamps
For this swap, you will create 2 artistamps (faux postage stamps) using whatever technique you like.
The first faux stamp will be stuck on the outside of an envelope addressed to your swap partner, alongside the real postage stamp (please ask your post office for a 'real' postage stamp for your envelope, rather than the printed labels). Part of the fun of mail art is seeing how your mail art survives and is affected by the journey, so don't be too precious about it. The second faux stamp will be inside the envelope - just in case there is any damage to the outside of the envelope, your partner will also get to see one of your stamps in its 'true colours'! This stamp can be loose or mounted/presented in some way (an ATC or inchie, perhaps?). Your stamps should be, well, postage stamp sized; as a rough guide somewhere between 2 x 2.5cm and 5 x 7cm. Stamps should be handmade (rather than produced for you by one of the online services (eg Zazzle or Royal Mail Smilers) - include a note explaining what techniques you used to make your stamps. It is up to you whether your 2 (inside & outside) stamps are a matching 'set' (far easier to achieve if you create digitally, or use some method of printmaking) or if you make 2 individual stamps that are entirely - or just slightly - different (more suited to techniques such as embroidery or collage etc).
You will have 3 swap partners, so you will make 6 stamps in total, sending 2 to each partner.
Optional
The idea of artistamps is that they look like real postage stamps, so things to think about are
- perforations – could be real (apparently an unthreaded sewing machine will work for this) or faux, like the stamps themselves! Or you could trim with postage stamp edge scissors.
- stickability – you could add lick'n'stick glue to the back, or (if working with paper) print/mount on self-adhesive label paper.
- origin & currency – all stamps (actually, with the exception of UK stamps) include wording for the country they are from, and the price of the stamp. You could make something up, or 'adopt' an existing fictional land for which to issue postage stamps, or you could just omit these details – it's up to you!
Resources
- Mirkwood Designs has a masking template for hand-decorated sheets of Faux Postage as well as a Postage Stamp Envelope for storage.
- The Olathe Post has lots of info about artistamps & also sells gummed, perforated, blank stamp paper (unfortunately, overseas shipping puts this outside of my budget :-( ).
- Nick Bantock is artist & author of a series of books about Griffin & Sabine - the books are beautifully illustrated, and include 'real' letters in 'real' envelopes, embellished with 'real' faux postage & postal marks. My favourite of his, though, is Urgent, 2nd Class where he talks about his techniques and inspiration for creating his vast collection of faux ephemera. Fascinating!
- The Local Post Collectors Society gives a rundown of various people who have gone the whole hog and actually operate their own faux postal services.
- The Cinderella Stamp Club - Cinderellas are another name for artistamps. This is the slightly scary place to be when you get really addicted - they seem to take it all very seriously...
N.B. Please note - this is an international swap as I am in the UK - sorry! But it should still be a fairly low-cost swap.
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