Going round in circles - a recent commission for a stamp collage picture

I recently received a commission with just a few basic guidelines but leaving the final design to me! The recipient is a lady who loves designs featuring  circles and also loves bright colours including red and orange. I had fun with my compass playing around with circles of various sizes and then choosing stamps to fit my colour scheme! Remembering the Cosmati mosaic floors I'd seen in ancient churches in Rome, I found my holiday photos and printed out examples from those in San Giovanni Laterano, Santa Maria Cosmedin and Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Stamps lend themselves to this type of mosaic pattern and I was soon enjoying putting together the design using stamps from Belgium, France, Spain in various shades of red and orange, as well as British stamps for the grey marble - postal labels which I have also found to be useful in creating the sails on one of my recent ships! It's great to be able to find another use for this type of stamp which most people will just discard.  Not me of course!

No grouting required for these beautiful tiles!

 Don't even ask how many photographs I took featuring tiles, or Azulejos in Portuguese, while in Lisbon, but if you are really keen to see some of them, check out my pinterest pages for Portuguese Azulejos and also Tiles and Mosaics!Azulejos have been used to decorate the buildings of Lisbon, both inside and out,  since the Portuguese tile industry became established, influenced by the Moorish decorations of Spanish tiles and ceramics.
They had a practical as well as decorative purpose, protecting buildings against fires, after much of the city was devastated by fires during the Great earthquake in the 18th century. We visited the wonderful  Museu Nacional do Azulejo set in the church and cloisters of Madre de Deus  but soon realised that the whole of Lisbon is like  a living tile museum!

Attractive tiling adorns shops,private houses  and cafes, such as the Leiteria Anunciada in Rua de Sao  Jose, a former dairy, shown below.

A recently published specialist guide book documents some of these attractive buildings and shops. It's called Old Charm Lisbon, Retro and Vintage Establishments by Ana Da Silva.

 As a stamp collector I was pleased to discover that there are quite a lot of Portuguese stamps depicting  tiles including  these in the  Castel Sao Jorge.

 Several series of stamps were also issued in 1980s which I have now added to my collection. (top of page) .They were issued in sets of four different tiles and also sheets of six of each.
Tiles on Stamps - cheaper than the real thing, and they don't need all that grouting!