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ARTISTAMPS!

Printed From: Cinderella Stamps Forum
Category: Cinderella Stamps
Forum Name: Artistamps
Forum Description: Post your designs, announce events, or discuss artistamps here!
URL: https://www.cinderellastampsforum.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=185
Printed Date: 28 March 2024 at 08:01
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: ARTISTAMPS!
Posted By: Colin
Subject: ARTISTAMPS!
Date Posted: 29 September 2010 at 22:41
I have noticed (admittedly with a little help from Google) that we have some rather auspicious artistamps producers amongst our membership and wondered whether ther would be any value in opening up a separate area for the discussion and presentation of these tiny works of art?
 
I am a big fan of artistamps and have dabbled a  little but not yet got involved, and so I am sure I am not alone in this.  Are there other potential International Union Of Mail Artists members out there?
 
Should such a new section come under the heading of Cinderella stamps or should it have its own section? 
 
If you are an artistamps designer I would be very pleased to hear your thoughts - either by pm or on this forum thread.  PLEASE let me know what you think...
 
 


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My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - new 'stuff' coming soon...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

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Replies:
Posted By: Bill Porter
Date Posted: 14 October 2010 at 02:33
 
Hi Colin, et al...
 
While I have just a moment this moring, let me answer your basic question: Yes. You should add a
section here for artistamps, if for no other reason that to be concise in your coverage of all facets of
Cinderellas in general.
 
Have a great one!!
 
 


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Bill    

The Olathe Poste
P. O. Box 707
Olathe, CO 81425
USA


Posted By: Colin
Date Posted: 14 October 2010 at 02:50
Thanks Bill, I'll start a new section for Artistamps.
 
I know a few of us here have had pm's from some of the Artistamp designers registered here so I hope they will feel welcome to post and introduce their collections to the rest of us.  The work I have seen has been incredibly creative and contemporary and I have been introduced to a few new websites which I have found very inspiring.
 
I think Artistamps have definitely got a place here  Thumbs Up


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My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - new 'stuff' coming soon...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

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Posted By: Daniel
Date Posted: 16 January 2011 at 05:10
It's a pity that nobody has followed up on this subject. I recently acquired a collection of 100+ artistamps most of which had been cut out from envelopes which was a shame since many would have been great examples of mail art. However, it was still good to see such a great and diverse collection. They were mainly from America but there were also examples from Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Italy and Japan.
 
From the forum I found examples from Toast, Jovan (featuring his family and, by the way, have you checked out his website from his Member Profile Homepage? Very impressive work) and The Olathe Post (Bill Porter).
 
Some of them are very clever and it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the artistamps and genuine stamps at first glance. For example, Steve Smith's stamps are direct parodies of existing US stamps. Others include JBPost, avapost, ZenaZero (cleverly perforated), BoltPost (clearly an eye for the ladies), bmmpost, Doo da Post (including one for Republica De Miami), Capolan (Nick Bantock?), galoopiA (including a stamp booklet, Alison Hooper), Rakia, Menaposte, Ommpost, Cascadia Artpost, Canadada (an excellent Elvis stamp), Poca Post, Shrapmail and others that were not readily identifiable. There were some mint stamps from Pond Idia and an LBE from Toto Post.
 
I believe that most artiststamp creators only produce them for mail art exchanges so I'm lucky to have acquired these and I guess I can' t really illustrate them without permission.


Posted By: Colin
Date Posted: 16 January 2011 at 20:55
We have many members from the Artistamp community here so hopefully someone will give you their permission to reproduce their work here or will post up some of their own artwork.
 
 


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My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - new 'stuff' coming soon...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

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Posted By: Joolz
Date Posted: 16 January 2011 at 22:16
Originally posted by Colin Colin wrote:

I am a big fan of artistamps and have dabbled a  little but not yet got involved, and so I am sure I am not alone in this.
Not to date being a collector of cinderellas, artistamps, etc outside of the Discworld stamps and Colin's and Alan's various creations, I'm a little confused, an all too easily achieved state of mind I find these days.
 
Could someone more knowledgeable help me out please?
 
What is the specific definition of artistamp that makes this class of fictional philately different from cinderellas? Are artistamps and cinderellas two different classes within fictional philately? And, if so, are they mutually exclusive classes or do they overlap? Or is one indeed a subset of the other? Or something else?
 
Colin, you say you have "dabbled a little but not yet got involved". Why do the Isle of Vue and Laernu creations count as cinderellas (which I presume they do) but not as artistamps (which I understand you're saying they do not)? Also, what is the correct classification for Discworld stamps?
 
Looking forward to hearing everyone's (hopefully) enlightening thoughts!


Posted By: Keith
Date Posted: 18 January 2011 at 23:40
Damn good question Joolz.  I assume that the silence means nobody knows.
 
But, helpfully, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistamp - Wikipedia is brave enough to give a definition a stab.  It decides they are cinderellas (and indeed uses the well-known Discworld stamps as an example).
 
Using the Wikipedia definition all the fantasy cinderellas we busily collect are artistamps but where is the dividing line with other types of cinderellas (exhibition stamps for example)?
 
So if a artistamp is a cinderella what's this thread trying to provoke discussion about?  Colin - you started it.  Why did you think this was a separate topic?
 
Keith


Posted By: Hilary
Date Posted: 19 January 2011 at 06:01
Surely an artistamp is a cinderella, but a cinderella is not necessarily an artistamp?  So a separate thread for Artistamps under the overall cinderella umbrella seems appropriate, just as one for revenue stamps, local post or whatever would be appropriate.

In response to this thread I had a look at the International Union Of Mail Artists website, which I found bemusing.  I may have been unlucky, but every member whose work I looked at seemed to be doing all manner of artwork, but very rarely anything that looked even remotely like a postage stamp.

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With a memory full of ships, and seas, and perilous headlands, and the shining Pharos, he must apply his long sighted eyes to the petty niceties of drawing. - Robert Louis Stevenson


Posted By: Steve
Date Posted: 19 January 2011 at 08:57
From my point of view an Artistamp is a type of Cinderella, but is perhaps one that is not a local post stamp, revenue stamp, etc etc. It is primarily to be seen as a work of art, albeit under 2 square inches in size. Some Poster stamps or advertising labels could be artistamps if they feature art, but perhaps purists would only accept that if the art bit was paramount and the advertising component incidental.
But why do we try to subdivide into different buckets when there are so many grey areas?

The IUOMA site is a bit confusing, even to how the different sections are accessed. Quite unlike this and many other forums. But don't mix up Artistamps and Mail-Art. The latter uses the postal service as a medium for art. The do however have http://iuoma-network.ning.com/group/artistampscreators - an ArtiStamp group with some very nice and creative designs.

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https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Discworld-Stamp-Collector/809424215750892" rel="nofollow - The Discworld Stamp Collector on FaceBook Have a look!


Posted By: Colin
Date Posted: 19 January 2011 at 22:55
I have sat on the fence a little on this one as I wanted to give any artistamps designers out there the opportunity to give us their opinion first.
 
My own opinion is that artistamps come under the cinderella banner, but are conceived as art - for display rather than for the practical purpose of mailing, whether the implied mailing service is fictional or not.   I have played around with ideas for artistamps but have come to the conclusion I am too much of a designer to be an artist!
 
The IUOMA site is a wonderful place and is great for clearing the mind at the end of a long day, I would thoroughly recommend a visit.
 
The reason I subdivided the forum into different categories, inlcuding artistamps, was that we were having requests at the time to create a separate space for Revenues, Trading Stamps etc, and with a sudden influx of names I recognised from other forums as being artistamps designers I though it would be a good opportunity to also give Artistamps a space of their own.
 
The more the merrier I say! Like Steve, I think exploring the grey bits is often more interesting than trying to define black or white.  We've all got Wikipedia for that. 
 
 
 
 


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My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - new 'stuff' coming soon...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 24 January 2011 at 23:01
I agree with Colin here, I don't think pigeon-holing is necessary but it is helpful for new members to see instantly that their specialised area is catered for. Of course it would be very nice if some of the Mail Art or Artistamps people would use the forum to show off their work or talk about their area of expertise, but all things in good time.
 
I have come back to this forum today having been told to take time off and I am amazed at the breadth of material being discussed, and not being that knowledgeable about stamps, like Joolz, I am keen to find out more about what other areas are out there beyond the Discworld stamps that I have spent so much of my time and money on.  Wikipedia is a great place to start looking but it would be  much more useful to hear about Artistamps and Mail Art from a current designer or other collectors too.
 
 


Posted By: Joolz
Date Posted: 24 January 2011 at 23:38
Very interesting and I agree that a bit of ambiguity makes for greater scope for discussion but, being terribly uptight by inclination (typically about 7 degrees off vertical), can I just press the definitions thing a bit further without causing dismay amongst the community?
 
So, what I think I'm hearing is that the superset here is "cinderellas" and within that there are whole range of different types of cinderella such as poster stamps, advertising labels, exhibition stamps, charity labels, political/propaganda stamps, unofficial (only?) local stamps, unofficial (only?) railway stamps, artistamps and so forth.
 
Some categories seem to be relatively separate. For example, I don't suppose an exhibition stamp could also be a railway stamp (even in the case of the exhibition in question being a railway exhibition).
 
However, some categories seem to overlap other categories partially or fully. For example, almost any of the categories could, it seems, be regarded as artistamps as well if there is an identifiable "art" element to the stamp.
 
The Wikipedia article has Discworld stamps as artistamps but I think I'm with Colin that their primary intention is to give the impression of being real stamps for a fictional location so not artistamps. The same would then be true of most of Colin's other creations (although perhaps not the "Be Mine" Valentine label of 2007 to pluck a counterexample at random out of the ether).
 
So, I reckon that Discworld stamps have most kinship with the subset of cinderelllas which comprises stamps issued by non-recognised countries or governments in the real world. It just happens that Discworld is an extreme case of "non-recognised" being as it is fictional.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 24 January 2011 at 23:52
Joolz, Just a thought (and please don't take this the wrong way) but why don't you try going on the Cinderella Stamps Club website and asking there for the definitive answer, they have a Q&A section and a query box and we would all be interested to know what their reply would be.
 
I may be wrong but as most of the regular contributors on this forum seem more interested in making stamps than in defining them it might be a more satisfactory means of acquiring the precise definitions you require.


Posted By: Joolz
Date Posted: 25 January 2011 at 11:17
Originally posted by brand newman brand newman wrote:

Joolz, Just a thought (and please don't take this the wrong way) but why don't you try going on the Cinderella Stamps Club website and asking there for the definitive answer, they have a Q&A section and a query box and we would all be interested to know what their reply would be.
 
I may be wrong but as most of the regular contributors on this forum seem more interested in making stamps than in defining them it might be a more satisfactory means of acquiring the precise definitions you require.
Thanks, but I'm more than happy with the amount, the content and the quality of the debate on this forum (and I'm not taking your post the wrong way). Tongue
 
Whilst I'm certainly interested in people's opinion of the answer(s) to my little poser - particularly the people on this forum - I'm tbh not so interested as to want to engage in another forum just for the purpose of possibly eliciting an answer.
 
I'm very contented with my little collection of DW stamps and of Colin's and Alan's various bits and pieces and, whilst I have recently added a collection of Summer Isles local post (which is unusually a proper real local post) stamps and covers (now nearly complete) after a glowing article in the British Philatelic Bulletin (of RM) last year, I don't think I'll be expanding beyond that.


Posted By: Admin
Date Posted: 10 July 2011 at 22:13
Here was where the origianl ARTISTAMPS thread had got to - sorry I hadn't started the thread I had considered starting - but there was a complete lack of interest from any of the artsitamps members we had back then, so nothing seems to have happened.
 
I will start an ARTISTAMPS thread immediately and look forward to the great flood of interest...
 
Keith - would you like me to move your thread here?
 
 


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I began this forum as a place to discuss and share ALL cinderella stamps. It is my first forum and is not perfect BUT I will endeavour to make it the best available.

Any positive help appreciated!


Posted By: Keith
Date Posted: 10 July 2011 at 23:01

I had wanted to add it to the Artistamp section in order that there wouldn't be confusion about whether they were going to be issued in print or not.  But then I couldn't find the section.  So yes, is you set up an artistamp section I'd be more than happy for the thread to be moved there.

Keith


Posted By: Admin
Date Posted: 11 July 2011 at 02:15
As requested Keith I have moved your thread into a NEW Artistamps section of the Forum.
 
Congratulations on being the first poster!


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I began this forum as a place to discuss and share ALL cinderella stamps. It is my first forum and is not perfect BUT I will endeavour to make it the best available.

Any positive help appreciated!


Posted By: Daniel
Date Posted: 28 August 2011 at 10:03
I thought that I would pursue the definition of an artistamp a little, perhaps for the purpose of discussion. I agree that there is a certain amount of overlap between artistamps and the fantasy stamps that many of us collect but I think that there is a distinction in so far as artistamps are primarily produced for art's sake and fantasy stamps are designed (and 'designed' is perhaps the operative word here) using traditional stamp designing principles.

Also, I don't think that one should dismiss the strong link between artistamps and Mail Art whereby stamp artists acquire validation of their art and stamps by passing them through the post either with or without valid postage stamps. As I mentioned above, most of the artistamps that I acquired came from Mail Art.

I think that the definition of an artistamp given in Wikipedia is inadequate and appears to be based on a very narrow knowledge of the subject. Indeed, I would suggest that the author of the article has simply based his definition on the stamps of Michael Thompson and Michael Hernandez de Luna. Their book, which I had previously recommended, 'The Stamp Art and Postal History of...' actually gives a better definition:

'They are made by artists to express their creativity, to decorate their mail and to exchange with other artists. They are not designed or meant to be sold as prepayment for mail delivery. Like any work of art, they carry a messge - one the artist has chosen to communicate.'

This messge can, as in the case of the two Michaels, be a political one or it can be less controversial and more artistic. See also the book,edited by Michael Hernandez de Luna; 'Axis of Evil' which is even more political and shows examples of other stamp artists. In the previous incarnation of this forum, I also mentioned 'The Book of Stamps' from Cabinet Books which actually contains examples of the artistamps from the 15 contributors. I recently acquired a large format limited edition (300) book of stamps by the German artist Jan Voss. Consisting of various squiggles (okay, I'm not an art critic) this A4 booklet contains perforated sheets of stamps varying in size from 1 stamp per sheet to 560 stamps per sheet!

Also check out Jean Baches and his book 'Mail-Art; 350 Faux-Timbres Obliteres'. He draws his own, very realistic stamps, and posts through the mail.


Posted By: Steve
Date Posted: 30 August 2011 at 08:23

Interesting contribution to the thread, and I would agrre with what you said, but could add that artistamps could be purely vanity projects; they serve no function as you say beyond the artist's expression.

However, I always have concerns about categorising things. A pure artistamp is easy but there must be grey areas when the artistamp gets closer to a political label and that message becomes more significant than the artwork. When do you draw such lines?

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https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Discworld-Stamp-Collector/809424215750892" rel="nofollow - The Discworld Stamp Collector on FaceBook Have a look!


Posted By: Daniel
Date Posted: 26 February 2012 at 06:43
I have a program on my computer that ranks any website that I visit in order of general popularity. Thus, this forum is number 7,064,324, a certain DW forum is 2,338,782 and Wikipedia is no.6. However despite our, perhaps understandably, high ranking I think that we are not without influence. I believe that at least a couple of stamp magazine articles have been suggested  by this forum and the Golden Horizon Labels thread has a disproportionately high number of views. Further, following my poor review of the Wikipedia article on Artistamps I see that it has had a major rewrite and update and now offers a much better definition. Of course, this may just be wishful thinking on my part but I feel that there is some truth in my claims.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 27 February 2012 at 02:25
Well done!  What were the stamp magazine articles Daniel?


Posted By: Bradford
Date Posted: 19 December 2012 at 09:07
Here's a couple of mine:
 
 
 


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 11 March 2013 at 23:00
Nice, Bradford!


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 12 March 2013 at 21:02
Cool!   I particularly like that you have used such a minsicule amount of the yellow on the Dakota stamp just to define the figure.  Go Bradford  Thumbs Up


Posted By: chasenfratz
Date Posted: 31 March 2015 at 02:39
I was very active in Mail Art in the 1990s and I've been making artistamps for awhile. Here are some of mine:

http://www.limegreennews.com/faux.html

I've written a couple of tutorials about it:
http://carolynsstampstore.com/catalog/spring_faux_postage.php

http://carolynsstampstore.com/catalog/faux_postage_extravaganza.php


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 31 March 2015 at 04:06
Welcome Chasenfratz!

But please do not just link us to your content, tell us all about it!  Otherwise the forum ends up looking like Facebook and we don't get to find out any more.

There are lots of people here who would like to learn and any details gleaned from our experts are greedily received  :-)  Even the experts like to swap the technical stuff so please tell us more.

Did you know there is an annual competition to design the Forum Anniversary stamp?  Take a look at the members bit of the forum.

This year its our 5 Years Anniversary so plenty to be inspired by.



Posted By: Colin
Date Posted: 31 March 2015 at 21:16
Originally posted by marathon marathon wrote:

Welcome Chasenfratz!

Did you know there is an annual competition to design the Forum Anniversary stamp?  Take a look at the members bit of the forum.


I Second that!

I hope we have a huge response to this year's competition, ALL members are welcome to submit entries.

Don't forget you can collaborate - and if like last year you have a winning idea that you can't put into artwork yourself Alan and I will do our best to get the idea put into production by creating the artwork for you.

It couldn't be easier  Wink


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My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - new 'stuff' coming soon...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

.


Posted By: chasenfratz
Date Posted: 02 April 2015 at 02:57
Thanks for the welcome!

I've been interested in postage stamps since I was young and I think they are a great way to learn history and geography. When I got involved in Mail Art in 1989, of course I was intrigued by artistamps and I started to make them as part of my Mail Art output. I stayed in Mail Art for about 10 years and have a pretty good collection of artistamps I traded with other people. I'm interested in handmade journals and albums now as part of of my craft output and I'm planning to experiment with ways to put my collections of real stamps and cinderella stamps into albums. I also like to collect trading stamps and other types of small paper ephemera such as postcards, stationery, etc.

I've made artistamps with a photocopy/collage method and a computer graphics method but my favorite way to make them is with rubber stamps. As part of an art show in 2000, I had a series of graphics that portrayed the fronts and backs of fantasy postcards. I made faux postmarks and stamps as part of the graphic statement and that inspired me to start a small rubber stamp company for which I design stamps. Some of my first designs were these faux postmarks and some stamps designed to make faux postage easier to make.

Over the years I make new faux postage designs from time to time along with other stamp designs to use in crafts. In 2004 it was a big thrill for me to design two special cancellation marks for a Route 66 Festival in Tulsa to be used by the Tulsa Post office to cancel souvenir postcards and envelopes.

Even though I haven't done Mail Art in a long time I still like to make the stamps and use them in cards and things like that. I may start doing Mail Art again on a small scale, who knows.

I just completed an article for RubberStampMadness magazine on the theme of Halloween Faux Postage, so if you get that magazine look for it this coming fall!


Posted By: hills collectables
Date Posted: 05 October 2015 at 01:34
It would be wonderful to see some examples of your work here chasenfratz.

Links are great but photos better  Big smile


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Very probably the worst ever.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 05 October 2015 at 22:32
Originally posted by hills collectables hills collectables wrote:

It would be wonderful to see some examples of your work here chasenfratz.

Links are great but photos better  Big smile



Photos of stamps make the forum come to life, however there are various pages here where people have removed their pictures for whatever reason and we just have a big empty box (or worse a holding frame with a photo of a kitten!) in their place. 

This is such a shame as it makes it look firstly as if members couldn't care less about how the forum looks, and secondly it is so frustrating for genuine collectors to think they have discovered a goldmine of reference material only to find it had been removed.

Whether pictures have been removed for copyright reasons or because they have been uploaded in an incompetent way, or the member has left the forum and taken their 'toys' with them so none of us can play with them anymore; I would rather have no pictures than a forum littered with these eyesores.





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