Make your own 2021 diary .. and look forward to filling it next year!

Pick a note book, any notebook ... who hasn't got a spare one lying around ??

I chose the one in the centre with recycled hammock fabric!

My 2020 diary is looking very sorry for itself, with cancelled appointments no work, , family events  including a wedding no longer happening and generally a mess of crossings out , but some things are already being rescheduled  for 2021, including the wedding (Yay!!) and I found myself without a diary. Reluctant  to buy online  to save money and delivery problems, I decided it would be easy to make one myself! I wanted to make the diary pages more interesting and looked through my stamps for inspiration!

For each week, I'm choosing a stamp to head up the page and discovering more interesting stories or reviving memories through them. I felt the USA stamp issued in 1961, showing a "Nurse lighting the candle of dedication" issued in honour of Nurses was an appropriate choice in the current Coronavirus pandemic.  I wonder if countries around the world will eventually issue stamps such as this to honour so many people working to help us all.

My notebook is 21 x 16 cms and I've ruled lines across 2 pages for each week.  USA stamp issued in 1961 to honour nurses

 Making a diary could become a yearly event as there are so many stamps to choose from!  Like my collages, stamps have stories to tell  and I hope you will enjoy  reading some of them!  Why not make your own 2021 diary, choosing your own "weekly picture" to add? It could be a small photograph, a fabric swatch, magazine cutting, a drawing, inspirational quote or your own stamps... endless possibilities.   All you need is a notebook with enough pages for 52 weeks and any additional information you may want to include, some glue, a pen/pencil and a ruler.  You could even cover the notebook  if  it's a plain one.  I've used more of my recycled hammock fabric  which has already made several tote bags, and a pair of shorts!!

What are you reading? Among other things, I've been reading about stamps.

Now is a time for catching up on some reading!

This interesting little book was given to me by a friend who visited the British Library earlier this year, and I've only just got round to reading it! I was unaware that The British Library  has many important stamp collections including the entire collection  donated by Industrialist and MP Thomas Tapling (1855-91) .
Stamps have been issued to raise revenue, support disaster funds,  commemorate historic events and people, and are a great way of learning interesting facts about the world.  Included in this little book are some very old and rare examples of stamps, many of which have printing and colour errors making them extremely valuable.

Some of the stamps in this collection are the only ones in existence, but that didn't stop me looking through an old stamp album to see if I had any items which might be rare or valuable. 
No such luck - these Swan stamps issued in Western Australia are worth just a few pence, but I enjoyed perusing my own stock of beautifully designed little artworks and appreciating  the details even more.

If you have a stamp collection of your own, or have perhaps inherited one, now could be the time to  look closely at your stamps and you may  find great treasures too!

R M S Mauretania with Coquet island, Northumberland

RMS Mauretania  - Stamp Collage - by Rachel Markwick 

More time at home, due to the Coronovirus  situation requiring us to Stay Home,  means more time to complete a project which has been a long time in the making, or I should say, mullng over .Previous posts have mentioned  R M S  Mauretania, the beautiful Cunard liner, and the Puffins of Coquet island, as well as a trip to Bristol where I managed to talk my way into the now disused Mauretania pub which contains some of the fixtures and fittings of the ship. The last thing to do was to add the masts and rigging sewn into the paper. I've really enjoyed the research,  reading about the ship's various transformations over the years, in both wartime and peacetime, and have used some artist's licence with the paint colours which were the original ones when she was first launched, and of course the scale of the Puffins!

Detail : Coquet Island off the coast of Amble, Northumberland 

Hope you like it! .





I will have prints available in the near future when life gets back to normal.  Please let me know if you are interested.

Puffins on Coquet Island, on stamps and at Middlesbrough's Dorman Museum .. and in a new collage

My first sight of live puffins was  on a boat trip to Coquet Island in Northumberland from Amble. last July 

Up to 22,000 pairs  were currently on the island, although by the end of July each year they migrate to other climes.  Coquet Island is protected by the RSPB  to ensure that the puffins are relatively undisturbed and able to survive and breed, so our boat, operated by Dave Gray and family was able to get within viewing distance of the numbered nest boxes but not authorised to land.  We also saw Common Terns and the rarer Roseate Terns, of which there are more than 100 pairs on the island.. Expert eyes were able to pick out the latter.  Puffins have featured on postage stamps, including a set of British birds appropriately commemorating the centenary of the RSPB in 1989 and a Post and Go series of bird stamps from Lino Prints by artist Robert Gilmor  also included a puffin.  I'm now working on a new collage, the ship R.M.S.  Mauretania which sailed by the town on Amble, and Coquet island on her last journey and Puffins will feature!  Hoping that with more time at home, this collage will soon be finished! 

As usually happens when one becomes interested in a particular subject, we  also came across a whole room of taxidermy in the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough, where I was born.

Inspiration .. Mauretania - and the Storms of life ... work in progress

The Mauretania - work in progress

The inspiration for my latest stamp collage came when we visited Amble in Northumberland last year on Mauretania day!











 Every year in July  the people of "the friendliest port" remember  this beautiful ship when she sailed  by the town on her last voyage before being broken up. (see poster on right ).

While there I attended Cafe Church where I was welcomed in with tea and cake and some lovely chat with locals and other holiday makers.
The informal service was held under a gazebo and we  shared stories on a travel theme, and sang this hymn, "Will your anchor hold in the storms of Life?"   I hadn't heard it before, but now it seems a very good message!
 

One hundred and eighty! Dart Board .. in stamps!

Hoping to still be able to go ahead with an exhibition at the Stirrup Cup, Bisley during April and May  where this will be hanging along with other stamp collage pictures.  Will confirm details as soon as possible!