Hello dear Off-Topic friends,
For reasons I now can’t really remember (apart from why on earth wouldn’t I), several years ago I started collecting quilt-related stamps. Since then my criteria has kept expanding, initially to include fabric designs, and then later, pattern. And yes, pattern is liberatingly vague. I think the appeal is that stamps feel like self-contained artworks. And also that, unlike a pile of coloured jumpers in a shop where they look delicious together but lose their magic once you pick out just one, stamps are small and inexpensive enough to not have to choose between them - I love that they can be gathered together in sets or around specific themes. And I love that they arrive in little glassine1 bags too, because there is just something delicious about sliding a stamp out from that misty paper and seeing it suddenly made bright.
And on a more general level, I love that while other utilitarian-things-made-special, like decorative drain covers2, are largely dying out, stamps are somehow surviving and retaining their currency around the world, with their creators still buying into the idea that they should be unique and lovely. It seems a bit like the universal pact around Father Christmas.
Anyway, my son is nutty about Baroque-style painting, so in anticipation of his 18th birthday, I’d long been gathering stamps with a focus on Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Frans Hals, Vermeer, and a few others to fill the gaps (like Van Gogh and Monet, which is somewhat jarring and doesn’t quite fit the theme so well, although he’s assured me it doesn’t pain him 🙈). I set them against a grey linen background, using little sticky pads to attach them. It was so satisfying trying to get them to jigsaw together without obvious gaps, that when my husband came in and saw what I was up to, he attempted to barge me out of the way claiming he’d do it much better (I let myself be briefly side-lined, but in the few minutes he was let loose, he didn’t notice he’d orientated one of the artworks upside down, so I felt justified in fending him off. He claimed it was one that could go any way up, although I think the recipient may have been extremely disturbed by that idea). But all that to say: stamps are just such good fun, and so is laying them out; it will make grown adults fight over who gets to do it. Our son was totally delighted when he unwrapped it and it won the prize for favourite birthday gift :)
If you quite like the idea of this, but don’t feel tempted by the sourcing/arranging part (one person’s idea of spouse-bargingly good fun is another’s fiddly-fingered hell), then lovely Anna Sherburn makes custom collages around any theme you can think of and her work dispels any ideas about stamps being musty - see above. It just looks so fresh and modern. She attaches her stamps with pins (like butterflies or moths) and I love how this instantly makes them feel like treasured specimens and creates lovely shadows beneath. I’ve seen them in real life on display in The Laurels and they’re absolutely beautiful. Do go and have a look at Anna’s instagram feed to see more :) The other thing about stamps is that they’re nice to swap and share3. Anna and I have a bit of a stamp exchange going on and if any pleasing ones arrive on my packages (I occasionally buy Liberty Tana lawn that’s exclusive to Japan and their stamps are especially beautiful), I cut them off and send them her way hoping they might eventually be useful for one of her collages. And Anna has sent me some lovely ones featuring kimono that she thought I might enjoy having in my collection 🥰.
I sometimes buy new sets that Royal Mail have released too, and like giving them as gifts or sending them on letters, although for the ones I’m collecting, I think it adds something for them to have been franked and not quite brand new.
Although once I’d started collecting art stamps for my son, I did accidentally fall into a hole gathering these Pierre Bonnard and Matisse ones for myself - aren’t these crazily beautiful! Eventually I’ll get around to framing them, but for now, they’re nice to take out occasionally and sort through4.
In stampish fundraising: When I was growing up, my mum always used to tear the stamps from our mail and save up an enormous A4 envelope filled with them to send off to Amnesty International, who were able to sell them as a way of fundraising. When I looked it up just now, I’ve realised all this time later, they’re still collecting recycled stamps. If you’re interested, you can send them here. Moving on from stamps…
In sheepish business: someone who lives in my street has recently acquired a sheep and the bleating noises are totally joyful, purely for how out of place it sounds in a residential road. I spend far too much time wondering if it’s a pet or perhaps a rescue sheep in temporary accommodation. Either way, it is glorious and I hope it stays. Last Sunday morning, I sat in the garden in my hanging egg chair (one of the best things in the entire world) and listened to the birds going totally nuts (some days they seem so much talkative. Or perhaps I just notice it more), bees swarming the Pieris just behind me, the sheep occasionally bleating, along with half an hour of church bells. The bell ringing ranges from full-on wild clanging to discernible songs and I can almost picture the people swinging on the ends of the ropes - I imagine it’s impossible not to emerge from that bell tower full of glee (I’m also thinking it must be good for arm muscles, and that it may be an activity in danger of being overtaken by the gym bros5 if they find out about it).
In what I’ve been reading: This week seems to be more about being in the middle of things than finishing anything:
As my physical book, I’m halfway through a short story collection, which I’ll tell you more about once I’m finished, but it’s been really thought-provoking and I think my husband may feel like he’s reading it too as I’ve discussed so much of it with him (the author’s note says many of the stories aren’t entirely comfortable and I’m finding that to be true).
As an audiobook, I’m a third of the way through listening to the Marian Keyes’ novel, Grown Ups. I’ve never read anything by her before but love her so much as a person that I felt I needed to put that right. I think I was hoping to find Marian herself poured onto the page, while in reality it’s probably not actually possible for her to remake every character in her own image. But sometimes little bits of her do peep through and that’s a delight. So far though, I think I possibly prefer her warmth and humour as a person (that’s a link to the most wonderful interview with her).
On Kindle, I’ve been reading Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead (written in 2014, well before the wonderful Great Circle), which I’m really enjoying, but am making very slow progress on due to a welcome lack of insomnia this week. Every time I get a spare five minutes, I read a few more pages and, as I’m not good at this kind of stop-start reading, it’s testament to how much I like it that I’m persevering and can actually remember what’s going on. It’s set around ballet, and goes into quite a lot of technical detail and I love that.
In television: It’s several years old now, but we recently watched Whiplash, set around the jazz orchestra of a fictional music school, that may or may not be based on New York’s Juilliard. It’s about a young boy and his relationship with his abusive music tutor as he pushes him through physical and mental pain barriers in his quest to create a world-great jazz drummer. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a film where every scene is filled with such tension and brutality - it’s one of the least relaxing experiences imaginable. But the acting is incredible and the drumming scenes are technically thrilling. And the final scene is really worth waiting for. I never knew your hands could actually bleed from playing the drums so hard.
In random things I’ve found interesting: I came across a tweet about a system called Bionic Reading last week, which aims to help the brain process text more easily. Compare these two samples and see which you find easiest to read - for me, it was very definitely the one on the right (I don’t understand if it can integrate with websites or Kindle in any way yet, but I thought it was interesting all the same).
Anyway, my little mandala horses, I think it’s now time for me to wrap up this bundle of stamps, books and other random things and post it off to you. I hope it finds you well and full of bounce for the weekend. Or woozy lethargy that can be rewarded with lots of time to sleep and read. There’s definitely a place for both :).
With love, and thanks for reading,
Florence x
That’s a nice word.
I don’t love that decorative drain covers are dying out; just that stamps are surviving. I’d really like both.
Anyone who had the Panini Neighbours sticker book when they were growing up will already know the joy in this.
Or would be if I could find them. When I recently repurposed the box I’d been storing them in for several years, I remember thinking, ‘I’ll put them in a safe place, and then I won't lose them’. I think we’ve all probably experienced the downside of a ‘safe place’. I keep turning my sewing room upside-down looking for them, but to date, they remain hidden from me 😱.
I’ve borrowed that expression from the young people in my life, just in case you were wondering ;)
A neighbourhood SHEEP!? I am so envious! We've lately had a howling husky 2 doors down which has not been enjoyable in any way (apart from one very brief hilarious moment when another dog joined in and I thought a chorus of howling was going to erupt across the whole postcode).
Ooh stamps - I think you mentioned Anna Sherburn on Instagram or somewhere before and since then I've been meaning to dig out my childhood stamp album and do some framing. Yours look so lovely! I collected flowers and my sister had animals, and we both started with a very cheat-y pack of stamps bought from a stamp shop in central London; your Amnesty link might have finally solved the puzzle of what to do with some stamps in that pack from apartheid South Africa...
More things should come in glassine bags.
x