Boring "labels" on your letters? .. Single use only?? Recycle them is what I do!!

It's quite difficult to find stamps that are predominently white so I've been hoarding these rather boring "labels" which the Post Office put on Special Delivery envelopes in anticipation that they might come in useful sometime ....

 "Single Use Only" is printed in the bottom right hand corner, but I've managed to recycle them effectively I hope,  into the sails of my latest boat.


Almost finished .. just a few  details  to add, including a crew and a flag to hoist!

Compton Verney, Warwickshire

Alfred Wallis

We had a great afternoon at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. They put on some wonderful exhibitions there and are currently showing Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson and Wool Work: A Sailor's Art both of which are on until 5th June. What the folk say is on until 11th December.

My particular interest was in the wool work exhibition and we were given a talk by one of the curators, Bridget Crowley, entitled "Flags and frigates: The art of the mariner, which was most interesting and covered the history of the wool work pictures. These are not often on view to the public due to their fragile nature and the risk of the colured wools fading if exposed to bright light. A few of the pieces on show were available to buy as cards, but I can't wait for a catalogue to be produced, showing more if not all of the work in this interesting and colourful exhibition.

I have always loved the naive paintings of Alfred Wallis, and to find so many on display at Compton Verney was quite a surprise. The curators have put together an exhibition filling several rooms with the work of Wallis and the artist Ben Nicholson who first discovered him at his home in St Ives. There are more of Alfred Wallis's paintings here than on permanent display in Tate St Ives, and it is well worth the journey to Compton Verney to catch this exhibition before it finishes on 5th June.

The Deal Lugger

Here's my latest stamp collage. A very kind freecycler gave me a shoe box full of old stamped envelopes from the 1960s. It had been in his loft for 40 years and he had offered them on our local freecycle site as Postmarks. I thought they might be interesting to use in some of my collages. Among the collection i found a commemmorative envelope featuring a boat know as the Deal Lugger. The Kent Philatelic Societies issued a special commemmorative envelope with postmark on 20th May 1967 showing the boat, and the envelope contained a card with its story. As well as fishing and dredging, the Deal Lugger provided an early ship to shore mail service, and was also apparently involved in some smuggling activities! I've recreated the image and have used some of the other postmarks to suggest the background of Deal, with its castle. You can read the entire story if you look carefully on the edges of the sails. Predominantly British stamps have been used but stamps of many other nations also feature. The birds are from Singapore!