Ria’s questions about Postal Issuing Authorities

In the Non_cents yahoo Group, host Ria asked some questions bout making artistamps. Since i feel still new, but not brand new, i thought i’d answer both sets.

If you have an issuing authority, would you take a few moments to share
how you created your world by answering the following questions:

1. What got you started making artistamps? I wanted to make a special card to celebrate some birthdays and wedding anniversaries. I had to come up with something that i could make with multiple copies easily, and soon i had the idea for a travel brochure trifold. It was clearly inspired by Nick Bantock’s Urgent Second Class.

2. How did you come up with the name for your postal authority? One of the recognizable elements on British stamps in the profile of the monarch, and one of the common elements in early US stamps were profiles of “Founding Fathers.” Profiles i had easy access to were of my cats, so the cats ended up on the stamps first. The name “Grey Cat” came without much thought as our internet domains use “Grey Cat.” I knew how some artistamp artists create whole places, but i didn’t need to do that just for this card…. Some day i may move on to creating a world, but i’ve not gotten there yet.

3. Is your postal authority run by a ficticious character? If yes, how did you come up with the idea for him/her/it?
4. Does your PIA have a catalog or a website?
5. What other things have you created as an expansion to your world? For example, passport books, catalogs, first day issues, sets, etc.

6. Some people design their artistamps starting out with pencil sketches, some draw or collage in their computers using things like Photoshop, some use photographs, some do linocut. What is your design process? The stamps i’ve designed to date have started from my photographs, and then i process in Photoshop. The one exception has been the stamp celebrating the ninth anniversary of our company. That one used a very early logo. I make my cancels with carved wine corks.

Comments are closed.