Heartfelt thanks for stamps!

A surprise parcel arrived containing many thousands of stamps sent by a friend who was having a clear-out! The majority were red 1st and blue 2nd class stamps,  1st class gold stamps, and  hundreds of Christmas issues from recent years.  All of these will come in useful in stamp collage pictures including some I am currently working on.  But there are also several little treasures  amongst the hoard, and here are just a few rather special stamps which may be part of something in future.
I have mentioned the Resplendent Quetzal in a blog of 27th July 2019,    and so I was thrilled to uncover an old Guatemalan stamp issued  in aid of the Red Cross, featuring a nurse flanked by two of these wonderful long tailed birds. There is no value on this stamp and I haven't yet been able to find out exactly when it was issued or if indeed it has any current value, but will keep if in  my/my father's collection of very old Guatemalan stamps!

I always love to find a heart!  And there were a few among this enormous pile of stamps, so that made me very happy!  I have a growing collection of pretty heart stamps from several countries, and any duplicates can of course go into a Love themed collage at some point!

The Shard - 3 years to build - 18 months for me to make a collage!

Sometimes things don't come together as quickly as I'd like, and I knew making this stamp collage picture of The Shard was going to be quite a challenge.

Stamp collage of the Shard

 I didn't think it would take more than a year to complete though! I was making good progress initially, having accurately traced and enlarged one of my photos, and enjoyed the absorbing placement of the stamps as they climbed steadily up the steep sides of the tower, but then enthusiasm waned, and other interests took over, so this ambitious project was abandoned in favour of ships, cats and numerous other projects, and other trips which provided further inspiration!!

In March 2018  we enjoyed our  "View from the Shard" experience, on a clear day, with  great panoramic views  London and beyond from the 72nd   floor. I took many photos from this vantage point and one of my favourites was  the shadow of the Shard cast on the land below, with its  top just reaching the Thames!

My interpretation of  the Shard is a stamp collage using British definitives to make the numerous panes of glass in this iconic modern London building, designed  by Italian architect Renzo Piano  and completed in 2012.
London landmarks, ancient and modern appear on many British commemorative stamps and we could see the Tower of London, St Paul's cathedral, the Gerkin, the GPO Tower ,once the tallest London buildinh, but now dwarfed by later additions to the skyline, and many of the bridges over the River Thames.

Detail showing some of the landmarks on stamps

I've allowed myself a bit of artist's licence in their placement  around the Shard, including a few which can not easily be seen from here.  

An alternative to Stamp collage

I  only  work from my studio at home on stamp collages,  as storage and use of materials isn't great outdoors (they blow away!), and transporting supplies is difficult.  I  always  enjoy doing some form of  artwork though, and find sitting for a while and really looking closely at the subject is far more memorable than merely taking a photo! While away I try to do odd sketches or collages using leaflets etc which I can't resist picking up at every opportunity, so only need to take glue stick, notebook  and some pens or pencils and small scissors. This time, I also bought a
Children's paint box for 3 Euros!

In the hilly  Alfama area of Lisbon, I could have spent the whole time sitting on the third floor  balcony trying to draw, paint and collage this panoramic view, if it wasn't for the endless sightseeing opportunities. 

 Due to a  lack of Portuguese stamps, chances are I won't be making any collages of the various places of interest we visited in Lisbon, as  I like to use the nation's stamps when creating landmarks:  Italian stamps for the Colosseum, French for the Eiffel Tower and for my latest picture of Ayers Rock, Australian stamps.  See Landmark pages for all these collages, available as originals in some cases, and prints in various sizes.