March 11, 2020 by Born To Organize

More Projects from the Couch

I have another project in the works for my sister Sharon.

I’m using my surgery recovery time to carefully remove hundreds of postage stamps from one of our dad’s stamp collections. When I’m fully mobile again, I’ll move on to phase two: a stamp-covered table.

Antigua Half Penny Postage Stamp 1916-18

Our dad had many hobbies, but the one we remember the most is stamp-collecting. Mom kept his albums for years after he died. She eventually sold a few and gave each of us the money toward college. It wasn’t much, but it was important for her to turn his collection into something more tangible for our future. Thankfully she hung on to a few albums.

Ascension Postage and Revenue 1935

Dad died when we were 8 and 9 respectively, a short time after immigrating to the United States. Dad started life in Oldham, England, moved to India, twice, immigrated to Canada where he met our mother, and then ended life in California at the age of 54 from lung cancer.

His albums took on a certain status. They were our connection to our beloved father. I don’t remember looking at them individually, but more as a collection and a representation of what to us seemed like an exotic life.

Ceylon Postage and Revenue, over-stamped with War Stamp

Assorted colors postage stamps Chamba State India

Multi-colored India Postage embossed/stamped with Chamba State, 1907

I wrote about the emotions around his stamps back in March of 2015. Here is an excerpt:

Last August, on the anniversary of my father’s death, I was finally able to re-frame my feelings about his stamp collection. I once viewed his stamp albums as life interrupted. They reminded me of my loss instead of the joyful hours he spent pursuing this hobby. The stamp albums sat in a cupboard, revered. Now I see them as a gift to be shared, and as a way to celebrate my father’s kind and curious nature. I hosted a blog giveaway and sent many of Dad’s stamps to friends and acquaintances around the world. It was an extraordinary exercise in letting go. If you would like to read the post in its entirety, you’ll find it here: Vintage Postage: A Daughter’s Love Letter and a Blogging Giveaway.

Five years ago I made a round accent table using postage from my album. I created a few cards using his stamps, and then mailed extras to bloggers around the world. Pauline King turned several of them into a wonderful piece of art. It’s a treasure!

Sharon loves my table and asked if I would make one for her using stamps from her album. So here we are.

I’ve removed about 400 stamps so far, each meticulously mounted in the album with gummed labels. If those stamps could talk. I’m sorting by color as I go, with a special pile of multi-colored stamps that I plan to use along the table’s border. I’m thinking a lot about my dad as I go and about my sister too. We’re both excited about the table.

Here are a few more pages from his album.

Trans-Tasmanian New Zealand postage stamps

India Special Issue China Expeditionary Force or C.E.F., 1882 to 1900

Here is a gallery of Pauline King’s art made incorporating some of Dad’s stamps, along with my postage stamp table, and a few greeting cards.

Alys in Wonderland: Art by Pauline King, The Contented Crafter

Mixed Media art using postage stamps by Pauline King

Postage Stamp table using my father’s collection

Postage Stamp table close-up

Postage Stamp table detail

Initial cards made with vintage postage stamps

I’ll let you know how it goes.

March 11, 2015 by Born To Organize

Postage Stamp Table Top and Day 8 of Blogging 101

Once I got past my fear of messing things up, making this postage stamp table top was great fun. Here’s how I did it:

I started with a pre-made plywood circle. While I like the idea of using power tools, I find them intimidating. When I took scenery design as one of my required theater courses, the horror stories of lost digits and visits to the ER put me off of them for good. I have ten perfectly good fingers and plan to keep it that way. I headed to our local Home Depot instead and bought a round plywood table top for about $20. I wanted a round surface to suggest stamps from around the world.

I sanded the edges to smooth out the roughness, then added a coat of paint. Taking a page from Keeping Up with Mrs. Smith, I used left over touch up paint from our living room walls. It’s great using what you have on hand, and since the finished table goes in that room, it will coordinate beautifully.

Plywood table top with a coat of green paint

The following day I sanded the painted surface a second time, then froze with indecision for another few weeks. Once I started applying my dad’s postage stamps with Mod Podge® there would be no turning back. Originally I planned to use sections of the pages, but I didn’t like how it looked.

My dad’s postage album

When I realized the album had four triangular-shaped stamps I knew I had a plan. It was December by now, so I put the unique stamps in a small wax envelope for safe keeping. The stamps ‘disappeared’ and I was sure I had inadvertently sent them off in the mail. It took a thorough tidying up of my crafting boxes to locate them once again.

postage stamp table top with triangle center

I had exactly four triangle stamps for the center.

Then one Saturday afternoon I just went for it. Using the surface of the kitchen counter, the only working space high enough to accommodate my Amazonian height, I got to work sorting Dad’s stamps. Page by page and stamp by stamp, I removed the postage, sorting them in piles by color.

Now I was in the zone. My back was aching from standing so long, but I didn’t want to stop.

I placed a pencil dot in the center of the circle, brushed on a layer of Mod Podge, and placed the first four stamps. From there I moved out in rainbow order.

Stamps from around the world

Once I reached the outer edges, I changed the stamp’s orientation. Brown, black and multicolored stamps circle the border, completing the table top surface.

I saved the multicolored stamps for the table border

With the drama of the table top finally behind me, I went in search of a base. I really like the way it looks on the little outdoor table we have, so searched high and low for something similar. Several visits to vintage and thrift stores turned up nothing. Then I learned that I could order the same table through Pier One Imports. It should arrive this week.

Plywood table top

Day Eight: Be a Good Neighbor via Blogging 101

Today’s assignment: leave comments on at least four blogs that you’ve never commented on before. It’s all about engagement. So once I press the publish key, I’m off in search of a few (more) good blogs. Should be fun.

In the meantime, check out these DIY blogs. They make it look easy and fun. And guess what? None of these women are afraid of power tools.

September 15, 2014 by Born To Organize

Postage Stamp Giveaway: Stamps on the Move

If you took part in my August postage-stamp giveaway, please keep an eye on your mailbox. Packets of postage are in the mail. Soon they’ll be making their way to different parts of the world.

Our neighborhood post office, though the extra spacing makes it appear to be “United Post, States Office”.

It was incredibly therapeutic going through Daddy’s stamp albums. I really took notice of the small details. He wrapped some stamps in cello paper, others not. In a few places, he added his own section for additional stamps for a particular country, something I hadn’t noticed before. My dad had a meticulous hand so it was easy to overlook. Some countries issued the same stamp in five or six colors. A few were over-stamped with the word “service” in black ink, another new discovery.

It’s fun for me to contemplate the stamp’s trajectory. Dad started his collection in England. He continued to collect while living in Darjeeling, India, then moved with his albums to Seaforth, Ontario Canada. They traveled with him one more time to Millbrae, California before he died.

Of course the original stamp traveled its own path. At some point someone in Egypt affixed a postage stamp to a letter and mailed is somewhere else. That destination remains a mystery.

The stamps are on the move again, though ironically the postage used to mail them is a computer-generated label. Times have changed.

Signed and sealed with custom forms at the ready

I never acquired Daddy’s love for collecting stamps, but I’ve always enjoyed their individual beauty. I rarely buy ordinary ‘flag’ stamps, the utilitarian postage you might receive from a place of business. I choose flowers, writers, movie stars, cartoon characters, whatever might be new and interesting.

International Postage

Packets of postage are on their way to:

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Duncan, BC, Canada

Dunedin, New Zealand

Mt. Brydges, ON, Canada

Santa Clara, California

and a few bookmarks head to:

Tasmania, Australia

Victoria, Australia

I’m happy to share them with you.

Bookmarks

A few notecards

Postage Table

I came up with one more way to honor my dad with the remaining stamps: I’m going to collage a small table top. Stay tuned for details. I have a few things to work out before I get started.

Thanks for your gracious and loving comments on my original post. My heart is full.