 |
Faux Postage and Mail Art sites abound, one well-established and welcoming site being http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artistamp/. You will find there many quirky, individual, invented worlds with issuing authorities from which their “officials” create and release new postage according to seasons, real and invented holidays and observances, to recognize real or imagined personalities, an alignment of real or imagined planets…you get the idea. You may jump in and register your own fantastic place and start issuing postage. Many of the artists will trade individually as well as offer more organized group trades, usually on a specific subject or theme. My own invented place is “Farcadia, Island of Palms & Pines” and incorporates all the best of the welcoming indolence and warmth of tropical zones with everything wonderful about Northern climes like New England, the Pacific Northwest and wild places like the Scottish highlands. Inhabitants live peacefully and tend to migrate seasonally to the more comfortable zone, South in the winter and North in the summer. The very laid-back issuing authority is Wyatt Herb, Chief of Plant Operations, local historian, botanical expert and only resident who bothers with anything official, though everyone else appreciates the effort. There are many forms of Faux Postage and all are acceptable, even those that aren’t intended for postal use and are more the commemorative type to be savored. Many people use perforated paper, a sewer’s tracing wheel or an unthreaded needle in the sewing machine to prepare their sheets of stamps. Some people even own real perforators. Or you can choose not to perforate. Stamps can be cut apart with stamp-style edging scissors (Fiskars has a pair in their decorative series) or a perforating rotary blade. You can print on plain paper, sticker paper, gummed paper or glossy. Red Castle, Inc. http://www.red-castle.com/index.htm, in addition to many beautiful rubber stamps, has a downloadable software, which I use. You create your own .jpg file in the image manipulation software of your choice, import it to the program that then provides a choice of “frames”, postal being one, and gives you a preview of the sheet layout of your choice. Any text-weight paper will do, appropriate to the type of print quality you seek.
|
