When I think of the American Postal Service these days, my thoughts go immediately to the wonderful Terry Pratchett film, "Going Postal". I wonder if Mr Franklin had a gold winged helmet...
In the UK, using stamps in the postal system started a few years earlier, with the Penny Black issued on the first of May, becoming valid on May 6th. of 1840. I have always been on the lookout for a penny black, being a very part time philatelist from a very early age...but without success, sadly. The postmarking of mail started much earlier, in 1661 It simply showed the day and month of mailing in order to (try) prevent the delay of the mail by carriers...it seems that is still a work in progress....
Back to the inchie...for this week at EIM I chose a 1 cent green George Washington stamp from my collection, mainly because the size and shape make it suitable to use for the purpose and I had several of these rather frail and roughly perforated stamps, but also because it so closely resembles a lovely portrait of the man painted from life in 1795 by Gilbert Stuart, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I matted the inchie onto a piece of scrap card stock depicting franking and other post marks.
I am also trying to get a writing journal assembled for my youngest granster, Spencer. While it is a very simple and plain journal internally, I have been having trouble getting the cover prepared to my satisfaction. I painted a nice bright calico cloth cover, which seemed such a good idea, but days later, once it had dried, I really hated it and so I am back to the drawing board on that one...sometimes I just need to let ideas develop for a day or so to get a good outcome...wish me luck.
We did get to Rektango last Friday evening, which is held at Salamanca Place on Fridays evenings (when the weather allows). Parking was a tad awkward at first, as there was a Gallery opening as well as the usual apres work crowd and diners, but a few rotations found us a suitable park and we enjoyed the music by the Jay Jerome Band along with a mulled wine (for him) and mulled cider and gin (for me) until things started to get a bit chilly and we headed home for supper.
Today is a bright and breezy day hereabouts, it is so nice to be able to have the doors and windows open after a few very chilly days. I am off to get these journals moving towards completion...
Bye now,
Di