Whatcha Been Stamping?

Thanksgiving Reflections & Weekend Stamp Activities

First of all, I just want to take this opportunity to give thanks for TSF and for all the new friends I have made this past year.  Everyone here has treated me so well, and I truly appreciate it.  Thanks to you all!  The Forum has been one of the bright spots in a very tough year for me which began with losing my job in January and then my father in June.  I am ready for a fresh start in 2018!

My wife and I are on travel in Southern California for the holiday.  Luckily, we travel here by car, so I have the flexibility to fill a banker's box with stamp materials to bring along, and I usually plan a few philatelic projects for these occasions.  This year, I am especially thankful for:

madbaker : who has talked about his personal struggles to figure out how to organize things and made a video about opening a package from me
theamateurphilatelist : who has sent me some great modern India material this year and inspired me to finally sort through my classic India
Ryan : who is always one of the first to respond whenever I have a question about stamp identification with just the info that I need
vasia : who apparently has a postmark for every date in the year--what a collection!
Anping : who has really driven my latent special interest in Hong Kong and Aden, and sent me an incredible MIT vintage postcard "just because"
zipper : who also sent me some beautiful Great Britain Queen Victoria issues out of her own collection to complete my Jubilee set
@falshung : who has pushed me to take a closer look at my accumulation to determine genuine or counterfeit and given me the resources to do it
firstfrog2013 : who taken my classic Canada collection from spotty to excellent in one fell swoop (still sorting those!)
Londonbus1 : who has given me an interest in cinderellas and helped me to identify collectible items that I would not have imagined (wine labels!!)
tomiseksj : who always gives me helpful advice and info when I need it and has been generous to me since the day I joined the Forum
bobby1948 : who has no peer when it comes to generosity and recently sent me the huge classic stamp giveaway, which has provided me with lots of new material to sort and add to my collection....

Thanks to all of you for everything you have done for me.  I really mean it.

Thanks to your inspiration and generosity, I have spent my stamp time over these holidays with the ultimate set-up: sitting at my in-laws' kitchen table next to the window with perfect lighting, working on my stamps (sorting and soaking), while drinking my adult beverage of choice (either a Bloody Mary or glass of wine), all with a clear view of the television in the family room featuring a football game.

Now that's Thanksgiving to me.....

I concur totally.

I inventoried all my Singapore stamps into my excel file and also printed out Steiner Singapore pages.

I also went shopping for some tools to moisten hinges and was playing with these. The left one is something from a craft kit of brushes, pouncers, etc. and the other is a makeup applicator.

BG, I used my tongue too but total uncontrolled. I got the idea from another forum. The impetus was that some stamps I had applied were too hard to remove from page or from hinge so figured I am applying too much moisture. I was looking for that pop off fairly cleanly result.

I just put some water in a tray (like a watermark tray) and put the tip in the water and then dab it on the hinge using tongs to hold the hinge. The amount of water applied is related to pressure but harder with a hinge. I am still perfecting it but results seemed better. The hinge will absorb water the longer the contact so there is some art to it.

This is the method I see most but never really did.

I made some labels....

Thanks. The binders are Vario G binders The highlight is more capacity with a U shaped ring rather than D. I am not thrilled with the U shape since it is harder to turn pages but it is what it is. The intention was supposedly vario stock sheets but I use Steiner pages.

These were printed on Avery  5436 labels (removeable- from most surfaces) on a color laser printer.  These are 1x3 labels on 4x6 sheet.  I had to do a few test prints to get the color close. The laser printer gives a nice finish.

I used an Avery label template in Microsoft Word.  The numbers on the label are the RGB numbers so keep track of test prints.  I ended up using the lower background (53,12,9).

Screenshot of label in Word.

One of our cats is behind me as I type this while I am in my computer chair.

I  have been working on updated pages for my US Mystic album to add varieties not in Mystic's US album (what Andy calls Mystic hacks) and print on better paper.

I am off work until Jan 2, so I sat here in the morning searching through Ebay to find anything I needed. Just added a few to my watch list, bought nothing for once. LOL.
I received some more OSTS, Ohio Sales Tax Stamps, in the mail yesterday. So, of course I sat here last night identifying the stamps and putting them in my book. It seems that in 2 hours, I should have been able to get more than 6 stamps done, but in between getting desert, sharing my pie with my dogs, taking the dogs out,and watching Big Bang, I guess it wasn't too bad. I guess I still have 11 days to try to catch up.

I mounted some newly purchased Solomon Islands stamps in my album.

I have a special interest in the  Solomons because I am a WWII Pacific buff (read a lot about it) and a lot began with Guadalacanal.

Al

I finished reprinting my Malaya/Malaysia Steiner pages on new paper. I was not that far along and now transferring the stamps to the new pages.

Plus, I may have found something to collect as a group. I really like the King George VI era stamps. You can find them in Mint or lightly cancelled condition and most are affordable, engraved, and very attractive. Each country had their own designs except for selection common design issues and a reasonable goal.
Al

I am still on holiday travel in California, so my choices for "stamping" are limited to whatever I chose to put in the box to take with me before I left home more than a week ago.  One of my projects for this trip has been to go through my holdings of Australia, which I have been acquiring for several years, but have never sorted and identified everything to see what I really have.

So, I have been doing that on this trip, especially over the last couple of days.  Lots of time looking at watermarks for the Kangaroo & Map issues as well as the King George V portrait issues.  Shown below are some of my KGV issues with the "Wide Crown over Narrow A" watermark, being sorted by denomination and color.  After I finish the sorting on the trip, I will put the best of the bunch into my albums when I return home next week.

Yes, Frog, knowing you as a fly-specker of classic Canada, with your fine attention to detail, I am not surprised that you took an interest in Australia at one time.  I am just scratching the surface getting the watermarks, perforations, and color combinations correct.

There are also many different dies for both the Map & Kangaroo and George V Portrait issues, so there is the possibility to go much deeper into things than I have.  Perhaps one day I will do it, but now is not the moment.

As for the cats (there are two, even though only one is my primary stamp helper), they are relaxing at my in-laws house for a few days while my wife and I are in the SF Bay Area to spend New Year's Eve with friends here.  We will be reunited with them tomorrow, and I promise that more animal photos are in your future!

Happy New Year to you Frog, and everyone on TSF! 

OK, Frog (firstfrog2013), since you were asking about my new stamp helper, here she is again.  We arrived back home late yesterday, and today we are back in the stamp room, where Berta has decided to start working with the perforation gauge.  No doubt she will become more proficient with it than I ever have.....