May 2013
1 post
Double dutch
Waht the hlel is tihs? I had read from research, from Cambridge University that it doesn’t matter what order the letters are in a word so as long as the first and last are correct. The human brain doesn’t read every letter but the word as a whole so makes it easier to decipher. Thought I’d use this to write a message on the envelope and explain where it has to be delivered....
January 2013
1 post
A letter from the Queen
Well I never! Before Christmas I received a letter from her Maj thanking me for congratulating her on sixty years on the throne and the Jubilee along with a note that says I hope I will understand that because of the enormous amount of letters she has received it has not been possible to reply to me until now. Now I had never sent any letter so this is the only explaination I can think of.
Back...
August 2012
1 post
first class bung
Celebrating the Chinese New Year. One of the Chinese traditions for the New Year is to burn money for old ancestors in the after life for good luck. I didn’t know this and guessed the majority of posties wouldn’t either… and I just thought a wad of money would look great as a mailer. Address and stamp on the money band. Would a lose bung of what could be forign currency just go...
June 2012
1 post
as nature intended
How would this stamp work with the mailer? A nice cute little vulnerable chick on a journey could either of been perhaps learning to swim posted on a rubber ring, chirping an address, growing into a fine swan or maybe just on the end of an Eagles talons for lunch!
March 2012
4 posts
QR code address
“Blip” to obtain delivery address. This was the only written instruction on the envelope under a QR code, simple enough. The QR code was generated online using my address and then just printed on the envelope and posted as normal. This took around two and a half weeks to arrive though. I’m guessing whoever it arrived at didn’t have a smart phone? Or perhaps just plopped...
once every four years III
The leap year anti-proposal kit. Another leap year mailer but playing on what is special about the day rather than the day itself, February 29th being the only day ladies are supposedly allowed to propose to men for marriage.
once every four years II
The second leap year mailer posted after the last collection on the 28th to get the 29th of February frank. This one only came through yesterday so took two weeks. No definition to explain the 11p postage of sorts just the little line ‘once in every four years’ under the stamps with the address on the back, but this got franked twice front and back missing the stamps so postie put a...
once every four years
This extra day of the year seemed to good to miss as a day to try and post something to get the 29th of February frank. Post office doesn’t do a 29p stamp so had to improvise with a 2p and a 9p, set above a dictionary definition of the leap year day. Address just scribbled on the back but did they mind it only having 11p on it… no!
February 2012
1 post
postal love
Valentine mailer. An alternative play to the traditional valentines card. Done with about 50 penny stamps, though technically half of them are not valid with not being whole stamps, but no surcharge on this one. Bit more unusual than the traditional offerings… cheaper too!
January 2012
3 posts
transporter
Just playing on the transportation of the stamps. This fella got a clean machine frank and Mr. Postie left the others alone.
let there be light
And there was light, well an address. This one was making dear old Mr. Postie work a little bit more for the address. It was an origami folded piece that I found in an old book whereby you hold it up to the light to get an illuminated heart shape from the folds of paper in between. Used this shape to put the basic destination info inside with an instruction on the front of how to get it. The two...
dot dot dash
Lets decode again! Nothing unusual about the stamp or how it is used, this one is all about the address again. The whole thing was done on a typewriter, yeh. The numerals was left in the address on the front and an A-Z decoder typed out on the back for them to work it out. It got there with just the bare amount of information decoded from Mr. Postie just scrawled in biro above the coded letters....
November 2011
6 posts
Well it's a stamp II
Every little helps. Another alternative form of ‘payment’ was a Tesco savings stamp. Went through no problem. Wonder if the barcode on the stamp had anything to do with it sneaking through? Maybe Mr. postie was just feeling sorry for someone’s mistake or just thinking what daft sod would waste £1 when a real stamp costs less!
Well it's a stamp I
Well it’s a stamp… just not a postage one. Green Shield stamps were also withdrawn in 1991 so it sort of doubles up as a celebration of them. But alas didn’t make it though without a charge, perhaps because they don’t have a value printed on them?
got to hand it to them
Lets decode! Nothing unusual about the stamp or how it is used, this one is all about the address. The address on the front was written in sign language, apart from numerals with an A-Z decoder on the back (I’m not that cruel). It came back with a note cello taped to the front with my address on it. Love the way they didn’t quite decode it properly and spelt my surname as FIDSON...
traveling first class
Oh the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me! (chitty chitty bang bang, guilty pleasure) Well she is the Queen and with what I’ve put her through previously thought she’d enjoy traveling in a style she’s accustomed to.
airmail
I loved these foam planes as a kid. Still do! Another form of airmail? The point of this piece was to get the franks to work in conjunction with the stamps so I would have nice roundels on the wings and body. Wings came out nice though a bit faint and planes body frank a little off. This one got a little battered must of been a lot of turbulence that day the tail wings didn’t survive the...
anyone for chess
Queen to E1! Address was set on the back, stamp obviously on the front. Corners got a little bashed and I’d lost a pawn along the way but apart from that this board went though okay and a nice frank, to boot.
October 2011
3 posts
return to sender
Not the normal way to use one but this was the only way I could think off to make my boomerang come back! I could never use it properly anyway.
the mail train
The mail train. Just a little play at joining up envelopes.
pre-paid?
Someone’s paid. This alternative form of ‘payment’ was a pre-paid bar (on white) roughly cut out and stuck on the corner of a brown paper envelope. Went through no problem. Perhaps a machine just reads it and sends it on it’s way or it was a busy day in the office and they just couldn’t be bothered!
September 2011
5 posts
double franked
A simple play on the how the stamp interacts with the image on the envelope balanced on the seals nose turned out having two franks. The obvious guess is that it went through and got the machine frank but this missed the stamp so someone else then cancelled it with a hand frank. But do like the way the hand frank is almost like a ball or hoop on the end on his nose. A little bit higher up and it...
stamp share
Splitting the postage. This sort of came from the Herny affect envelope. Just wondering could I split the postage between two envelopes posted at the same time? They were paper clipped together almost like layers in Photoshop, but unfortunately a double whammy as had to pay for both!
if first you dont succeed
The wrong stamp part two. The second attempt using the surcharge stamps which for some reason this time round worked. Nice clean and franked.
the wrong stamp
How much? The Royal Mail used to have their own ‘to pay’ stamps for when not enough postage was applied so you could see how much surcharge was needed when it got to the other end. I just wondered if I got one of these from a stamp dealer mint and un-franked and used that instead of normal stamp what would they do. Did they frank it? Yes they just cancelled it with a surcharge frank...
the henry effect
Off with her head! This is the Henry VIII stamp used from that commemorative set used in the last post. So another play on his favourite pastime.
August 2011
4 posts
off with her head
A little bit of history repeating. A stamp set to commemorate Henry VIII and his wife’s. Know from previous you can get away with slicing a stamp sometimes so with this stamp there seemed only one fitting way to do so. This DL works perfectly with a standard first class and have had a few hundred of these babies printed up!
a smile in space
Another smile. the stamp could of easily been stuck against another matching background but thought it would be more fun to use it as a reflection in the astronauts visor. Again no problem with the stamp being trimmed to fit a shape and nicely hand franked, but his leg got a little bit beaten up.
Pat's back
Another Pat postcard. Her Madge was getting a lift today she is obviously getting bored with travelling on the back all the time, so I cut her out of her perforated prison on the back to get a lift upfront! I like the way one of them seems to be staring at her wondering who the hell is in the back seat.
tracing paper post
Let me out! This little bugger went through without getting franked. The envelope’s a custom made DL out of tracing paper with the stamp inside so they can see that I have paid for the postage, but… they’re not allowed to open my mail (illegal I think) to get it out to cancel it. So how the hell would they frank this?… They didn’t.
July 2011
9 posts
multi-coloured
Six complete stamps… just not quite in their own right. Cut out the Queens and swapped them around with the other backgrounds. No problems with this one, went straight through and delivered the next day, and a nice clean frank…yeh
childs play
This was one of those slide puzzles with a standard stamp on it but what is fun about this is that I did muddle it up before posting it (like the circled detail) but when it arrived it was solved! And who ever solved it did so before franking it as the frank is complete when the picture is whole. Perhaps it was solved first just to check it was a complete stamp?
Brewster's millions
It’s just a movie but would it happen for real? This envelope has a One cent 1856 black on magenta British Guiana stamp on it, apparently the rarest stamp in the world (well a facsimile of it anyway). I could only dream of guessing how much this is worth and rare because only one specimen is known to exist. The story on the back details the life of this unique stamp from seller to seller,...
postage as address
How far can you strip an address back? The door number combined with the postcode is enough for 99% of mail to find its way home. Just taking this a little further by replacing the numbers in the postcode with matching stamps of the relevant value.
thinker
Just another novel way of interacting with the stamp. He got hand franked and the thinker somehow managed to avoid going through the franking machine. No problem with the stamp being cut into.
the whole sheet
A complete sheet of penny stamps, 200 in all. Was just curious to see how this would be franked. I like it as a sheet, great wallpaper but the added franks have only added to the pattern as they have quite accurately used one frank to cover 4 stamps leaving a nice pattern of fifty all over the sheet.
franked a day too late
A twist on remembrance day. My version of a commemorative envelope to celebrate ‘poppy day’ was made from stamps to resemble the poppies. This was cancelled just a day to late though being franked the 12th rather then the 11th.
race to get home
A little bit of a game? This was simply a posted Ludo board using the coloured stamps as appropriate counters in the midst of a game. The board folded nicely into 3 making it almost DL shape.
red herring
Posted on April 1st this red herring had two address’s, both paid for. One was a standard first class stamp and the other was a red 25p. Which one would they go for, who would they deliver it to? They opted for the address with the red stamp crossing out the other in biro and adding ‘To’ to the other side.
June 2011
9 posts
here i come to save the day
My postman was anything but this when delivering the mail. What better personal protection for the Queen than the mighty Captain America himself. Just a novel way of interacting with the stamp. A theme that can be pushed far… Many more of these to come.
the queen of hearts
Another smile. the Queen of hearts posted on a playing card of the Queen of hearts. The frank still missed the stamp and hit the card randomly.
a letter knife
Watch out for paper cuts! This was a play on the form of the mail going through the post, an obviously dangerous object but duly wrapped and paid for. The knife was made out of dense mounting board and wrapped in parcel paper so was rigid and had some weight to it. Went through without a hitch.
mona lisa
The last post touched on camouflage, well this one sorts of tries by getting the stamp to blend in with its background. The set was from a series of ten called smilers so there’s a possibility of another nine mailers out there. Did it get franked? Well yes the machine got it, but didn’t find the stamp.
Airmail
Now let’s have a play on the form (and maybe name) of what goes through the post. This paper plane mailer was made out of exactly one complete sheet of 1p stamps, with a little help from an origami book. Love the way some one has done their best to ‘pattern’ the plane with a range of franks to eliminate any of them being used again (almost gives it a camo feel), but then...
pick a colour
By a weird coincidence a stamp is almost the same size as a chip. This little fella isn’t really trying to fool anyone just a nice play on the post also showing what colour the Queen is. Interesting that the frank has missed her madge and opted for Pantone® Orange 021c, so I take this a a good bet that’s probably the colour used.
Pre-paid scribble
Perhaps they let me get away with this one? This was just a bit of fun to see what would happen if I drew some pre-paid bars on an envelope to see if it would slip through. It did!
which one is real?
A bit of target practice for the Post Office. An envelope hand made from scanning in a load of old stamps and placing on a DL template, printed off on a colour laser. The whole surface was wallpapered apart from one space which was left blank allocated for the real McCoy. Did they find and frank it? Yes.
and his black & white cat
Early in the morning, just as day is dawning, he picks up all the letters in his sack. The only difference today was that Pat had an extra passenger. HRH was obviously getting bored with travelling on the back all the time, so I cut her out of her perforated prison to get a lift upfront!
