maandag 18 januari 2016

Sunday stamps: Water birds

This time the Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Water Birds'.
As I love birds this is an other favourite subject of mine!

The first two stamps I love to share with you I've published before, be it not for Sunday Stamps. Thanks to FinnBadger I received these two wonderful sea birds: a Frigatebird and a Tufted Puffin. Both on an awesome envelope, made out of a calendar page showing birds by Charley Harper. The Flamingo of course is a water bird, too.
And - thank you FinnBadger for correcting me - I first thought the Frigatebird had been created by this famous artist, too, but it appears to have been designed by Tyler Lang, who has created many more animals illustrations, which at first sight remind me of Charley Harper's birds, but when you look close their style is so different!



The puffin has been designed by Robert Giusti.

And as puffins belong to my most favourite birds and Harper to one of my favourite artists (he has created a lot of bird pictures) and Tyler Lang's artwork I think inspiring, too, no need to say that FinnBadger's mail made my day :-)

In the Netherlands also various birds have been imaged on stamps.
These two stamp sheets have been issued in 2003 as a tribute to the Dutch wad in the Wadden area. The images have been designed by Eke van Mansvelt.



You can see the 'Scholekster'(Eurasian Oystercatcher), the 'Lepelaar' (Spoonbill), two kinds of Geese, the 'Grote Mantelmeeuw' (Great black-backed gull, I guess - there are a lot of kinds of sea gulls), the 'Wulp' (Eurasian curlew), some non-bird animals
and on the sheet itself the 'Visdief' (Common Tern), 'Plevieren' (Plovers).



The Wadden is a part of the north Sea, south of the so-called Wadden Islands. Since 2009 it is a UNESCO world heritage site, nevertheless the area is threatened, by pollution, by business plans etcetera, so I hope (and in fact expect) the area will continue to be protected.

By the way, the postage has increased a lot since 2003. In that year we had to pay € 0,39 for national mail and € 0.59 for international mail (all up to 20 grams). Anno 2016 it is € 0.73 for national mail and € 1.25 for international mail..

See more Sea Birds - and Charley Harper stamps! - at and via the links under this Sunday's Sunday Stamps blog!

8 opmerkingen:

  1. Wow, those Wad stamp sheets are gorgeous.

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    1. So are your bird stamps, thanks again, FinnBadger!

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    2. You are welcome! A small correction - the postcard coastal bird stamps are designed by Greg Breeding. Charley Harper died in 2007.

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    3. Ah, thank you! I really thought it Harper's art! However: I looked it up. You're almost right: the art director is Greg Breeding, the designer is Tyler Lang. I'll change the text and add the link :-)

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    4. Thanks for the correction of the correction - one place I looked on the USPS site said Greg was the director and designer - good to credit the right person for such a nice design. I am sure that every graphic designer in the US knows Harper's work, so it is not surprising the birds could be his designs.

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  2. You are right, USPS isn't clear about it. I read they mentioned Greg as the designer, too, but when I googled his name I didn't see any illustration, so just when I clicked on the 'read more' link on the USPS site it became clear that Tyler Lang has created this stamp serie.

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    1. I had the same "problem" looking for the designer, but I gave up. So thanks! (I added the link too).
      It's clear that these designs have impressed all of us! :)

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  3. The Wad sheets are a nice way to portray the islands and their feathery inhabitants. Must be a great place for bird watching.
    (I'm envious of your journey to work with cormorants drying their wings, only herring gulls here).

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