Postcrossing : a wonderful way to communicate and make new friends!

I often mention  Postcrossing.com  as it's become a real interest of mine,  and if you haven't already heard of it you may like to investigate by following the links to give it a try - completely free to join - all you need is to choose a postcard to send and buy a stamp!

I first discovered Postcrossing through research I was carrying out online while making a stamp collage and wanting to find out about a certain stamp I was including. I came across a site which gave me all the information I needed, but also mentioned Postcrossing as a way of communicating with all sorts of people in practically every country in the world! It's really nice to receive mail of this sort - not just the brown envelopes, or junk mail variety!  Some people become penfriends and regularly exchange letters, cards and also become friends on facebook!!  Hello! You know who you are!!It's been quite amazing to discover that so many have similar interests and my Postcrossing friends are based in Russia, Finland, Estonia,Canada, Poland,  the Netherlands,  Kazakhstan, Ukraine, France, Japan, USA  ...and as well as stamps we have exchanged Tea Bags, sewing patterns, sugar packets, magazines,  serviettes and endless stories!! If you speak any foreign languages and want to practise, some people will definitely appreciate your attempts!   Families the world over are more or less the same, with the same concerns, happy and sad times and it's great to share stories, and at the same time learn about our different cultures, celebrations and lifestyles. You may also find that many share your interests too!  I love it!

Valentine Cards from all over the world this year!

Not only did I receive a Valentine card  from my husband this year, but also several other cards from all over the world! It seems that it is now the custom to send cards to friends as well as romantic partners and there is a huge card industry around this special day, February 14th.  Being a member of Postcrossing, where I send and receive cards from people all over the world, I was lucky to receive these lovely cards this year from  Turkey, Belgium,.Germany, Australia and Great Britain with some actually arriving on Valentine's day!  Many countries now issue stamps for Valentine's day including France - see earlier blog posts of January regarding the Designer hearts I've used in some of my recent Heart collages!  Cards will be coming soon and judging by popularity of the Heart cards I've made in the past, they are not only for Valentine's day!

Sticker on a Belgian card

This card and stamp were issued last year, but received in time for this year's Valentine's day!

Fujisan - Japan's beautiful Mount Fuji in stamps

This may be the collage which has taken the longest to complete .. I started it in March and we are now in October! The time it's taken was partly due to other more urgent projects coming along and partly due to lack of particular stamps to complete it.

There are many paintings, woodblock prints and photographs of Mount Fuji and I've been lucky to receive a lovely selection of  postcards from Japanese members of Postcrossing, since I joined last year.  These have all helped me with inspiration for this picture. 

The Haywain by John Constable - another one from my miniature art collection!

I'm a member of Postcrossing.com and today received a lovely card showing The Haywain from a student in Newcastle, who had recently visited Constable's home and the place where he painted many of his famous works. I've not been there yet but have seen  this painting on many visits over the years to London's National Gallery.  Completed in 1821, it's  one of Britain's favourite pictures and probably Constable's best known.

The 1/9 stamp is part of the British Paintings set of four stamps issued in 1968.   Coincidentally it was part of the set which included the Ruins of St Mary le Port by John Piper which I featured in my previous post earlier this week!

Other stamps in the same set are: Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence, painted in 1794 and in the Huntington Library collection, which I have used in at least one of my stamp collages as part of a crowd scene - see if you can find her near the Leaning Tower of Pisa ..and also Queen Elizabeth I by an unknown continental artist - National Portrait Gallery,London 

Postcrossing and making new friends all over the world

One of the most enjoyable hobbies I now have is Postcrossing.  www.postcrossing.com.

As a child and into my teens I had several penfriends, in France, Germany, India, Italy, USA and Brazil .. but unfortunately with time all these contacts were lost - not really sure why.   It was just last year that another online contact told me about Postcrossing and I joined up and have now received more than 100 cards from far flung places including Hong Kong, China, Japan,  Singapore ... where next?  I regularly exchange cards and/or letters  now with people in the Philippines, Belarus, USA, Kazakhstan, Germany and Portugal and  today have received some lovely cards from a lady who lives in Grasse, the City of Perfumes.  She made one of my cards - a cat stamp collage, a "Favourite",  and I contacted her to offer to send it to her .. and in exchange for this and a card showing the Eiffel Tower, I received four attractive vintage style poster cards, and also a beautiful scented card, (top left) which when rubbed smells of roses!   Certainly going through a bit of a rose theme at the moment!

The cat card (bottom right) from Germany shows a painting by Rosina Wachtsmeier.

It's easy to join postcrossing.com - just check out the website and follow the very easy instructions.   Have fun!

German flag flying high as German team beat Brazil 7-1

The result of the Germany v Brazil match last night has caused me to get a move on with completing one of my many works in progress, the German flag stamp collage ..

 I always find out interesting facts when making up the flags. Just found a nice woodcut by Gerhard Marcks (1889 - 1981 ) a German who was mainly a sculptor but also produced some very nice  woodcuts and prints, including this one on a stamp issued in 1989. . I also thought Peter Paul Rubens was Belgian, but it turns out that he was born in Siegen, Germany in 1577, so he's going in the black part of my flag too! (top right) J.S.Bach (top left) is there too (top right).A lovely German stamp issued to commemorate the Bauhaus art school appears in the central red part shows a striking image by Laszlo Moholy Nagy .. who was actually Hungarian, but was a professor there, so I've used my artistic licence with this one! Many of the predominantly yellow stamps included here were sent to me in exchange for beer labels from a contact in Germany made through Postcrossing - thanks Uwe!

Boars of Belarus

My recent blogpost about the Boar connection with the Markwick family brought a lovely card from Belarus today! (From Maria, my  friend via Postcrossing! Thanks, Maria!).  She tells me that apparently there were 81,500 wild boars in Belarus a year ago, but now there are only 13,000 as they were said to have caused an epidemic of Swine flu in 2013 and hunters were issued cheap licences, resulting in the drastic reduction of the board population.

However, you can now see wild  boars in the Beloroczskaya puscha, which is an area of protected woodland near Brest, not far from the Polish border.

Closer to home, we've recently heard about the wild boars in the Forest of Dean, which have been causing devastation to gardens in various local villages. But there is a certain fondness for these creatures in spite of their activities.

The attractive stamps on the postcard are from the series, Zoos in Belarus:

Art History through stamps .. via Postcrossing.

Postcrossing card received from Audra in  Lithuania

A card from a Postcrossing friend in Lithuania arrived today and the great thing about it is that she included information about the stamps.
On the left are "national whistles made of clay" - I  would not  have worked this out for myself!  On the right is the sacred icon  from Siluva, the place where Mary  is said to have appeared in 1608, and where a church was subsequently built, and has become a place of  annual pilgrimage. Stamp issued in 2008.
The image itself was painted at the beginning of the 17th Century in the iconic style of the "old Byzantine Hodegetria" . The figures of Mary and Jesus are covered by a casing made from a collection of votive offerings by the goldsmith Lawrence Hoffman of Koenigsberg. It was restored in 2002-3.

The 40ct stamp in the centre has lead me to the discovery of yet another great artist I'd never heard of until now -. Mikalojus Konstantinas  Ciurlionis (1875-1911), the most  famous artist  in Lithuania.There is a museum in Kaunas dedicated to his work. Educated in both music and the visual arts,  he was prolific in both fields and in his short lifetime he wrote  almost 400 musical compositions. From 1904-6 he attended the Warsaw School of Fine Arts.  He felt he was a synesthete: perceiving colours and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings have the names of musical pieces. as shown here in a set of stamps from 2005 depicting  Sonata of the sea 1908 : Allegro, Andante, Finale.

As my friend said, "Stamps talk a lot, don't they?"  She is so right!!  Thanks Audra - I've really enjoyed finding out more about the work of this wonderful artist!!

Sonata of the Sea by Mikalojus  Konstantinas Ciurlionis

Squirrels on Banknotes (or how easy it is to spend time surfing the net ..)

I've written a few items recently about my new found interest in Postcrossing: writing, receiving and sometimes establishing regular postal links with others all over the world. It's certainly a good way of broadening your knowledge of geography and history, and at the same time making new friends, and finding strange and beautiful postcards popping through your letter box  and leading you to interesting discoveries.

One of my new Postcard exchanging friends, Maria, in Belarus sends me the most beautiful cards showing the wonders of nature. She collects cards and stamps on this theme and I try to send her British stamps  and cards to add to her collection.

Postcards and stamps of Belarus

Watching   Fake or Fortune on  BBC1 on Sunday, the crew were investigating a painting signed by the famous artist Marc Chagall tryint to establish whether it was in fact a fake - which sadly it proved to be with disastrous results.  Research lead them to Vitebsk and Minsk, now in  Belarus.  Vitebsk is where Chagall was born and Minsk is where my friend lives! It certainly has some stunning architecture and beautiful countryside, and a rich artistic heritage.  I had to e mail Maria to tell her what I'd seen of her homeland and she in turn told me about her own favourite artist, who I must admit I had never heard of.  His name is Napoleon Orda .. and yes, you may have guessed, his work appears on banknotes of Belarus.

Birth bi-centenery of Napoleon Orda 1807-1883

Looking him up, and in turn trying to find the banknotes which carry his designs, I came across the squirrel banknote .. got to be one of my favourite banknotes of all time. So that's how you go on a voyage of discovery on the internet!

Who says nobody writes letters any more?

Postcrossing card  received from Germany

Beautiful hand made card received from the Netherlands - thanks to Helma!

More about postcrossing - and I'm so pleased I joined and now receive interesting things in the mail instead of just brown envelopes and junk mail - although this can also have its uses, as some very creative people  turn it into works of art!  I send and receive postcards to people all over the world and also exchange stamps with other collectors. It's not restricted to stamps either as people often request other items they like to collect, such as beer labels, fridge magnets, and I've just been asked if I have any bow ties I could exchange for stamps! Hoping I can oblige!

My postbox yesterday contained letters from Russia and the Philippines, and also this week I've had mail from the Netherlands and Belarus!

Cards and beautifully decorated envelope received from Jose in the Philippines

English/Philippino dictionary

A little late, but also have to include this beautifully hand made card from Ada in the Netherlands - note the hand sewn Christmas tree!

Not only do we receive cards, letters and stamps and make friends with other postcrossers, we even learn a few words in other languages such as Philippino!    I will have to find the word to say , "Thanks" when I send my reply along with my postcards and stamps!

Postcrossing - I love it!

I've been a member of Postcrossing.com for just a few months but already I've made some great friends in all corners of the world.  We may never meet but it's really nice to exchange news and information and also swap postcards, stamps and .. er, beer labels! It's so lovely to receive interesting post and if you send postcards to others, you will receive cards back too and you can specify what you would prefer to receive.
Take a look at the website for further details.  It costs nothing to join, just the price of a stamp and the postcard of course, but if you are anything like me, you probably have some you've gathered on your travels and you can sometimes find something that someone else will really appreciate. Currently it's  88p to post a card to most parts of the world for a postcard - but do check first, and be sure to attach an air mail label or it may take some time to arrive!

I received this card from Berlin, which gave me the final push to create my own version of the Brandenberg gate (see previous post - work in progress).                I've been hard at work trying to finish my stamp collage, and trying to track down the horses to make my own version of the Quadriga on the top of the gate.  Also searching for suitable stamps to make up the visitors - still lots to do, and I still haven't found a suitable sized John F Kennedy stamp!

Images of horses on stamps - JS Bach and JF Kennedy - all with a connection to the Brandenburg gate

Crowd of visitors to the Brandenburg gate - not sure if Sir Rowland Hill ever visited!

Back to Postcrossing - since receiving the cards from Berlin, I've exchanged some cards with the sender, and have received many more from countries including Russia, Belarus, New Zealand, Lithuania, Ukraine, Singapore,  China, Taiwan, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA.  Some of the cards I've received have been beautifully hand crafted and I will post separately about this!

Happy New Year .. new work in progress: the Brandenburg Gate stamp collage

After a short break over the Christmas period, I have now spent three days, so far, on my latest stamp collage, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. One of my FAQs (frequently asked questions) is "How long does it take you to do a picture?" and the answer is never the same! This is my fourth landmark subject and the first one, the Colosseum took about a month  although I wasn't working on it 24/7!
I've never visited Berlin, but recently have felt a great interest in doing so as I've received correspondence and German stamps from a couple of Berliners via Postcrossing, of which more in another post! Postcards showing the Brandenburg gate gave me added inspiration!
 Making one of these landmarks is quite complicated, from choosing the image to  finding all the suitable stamps to use and my filing system doesn't always work!  I'm using  German stamps for the main structure of the gate - pre and post unification as I felt that was the right thing to do. The wall was once a symbol of division between the two states but now it has become a symbol of peace.I'm still trying to work out how to do the Quadriga (bronze statue on the top). I've found a few possible horse candidates but others may be more suitable if I can find them .. this is the time consuming bit!
Like other well known tourist sites, there is always a huge crowd around  and many famous people including President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. Size also matters in this case too, as within reason the figures need to be in some sort of acceptable proportion! (artist's licence does come into play here up to a point though).    So, on with the job! Scissors and glue at the ready to deal with crowd control!