Stamp Out War -- formerly called Ukraine project

Linda, as I said in my Facebook groups, we should already have members from those countries.
Now, who is willing?

Ask Roman Skabara on FB about Ukraine Post, since he mails out from Ukraine frequently.

For USA, I'll try a duplex of old stamps, a yellow and a blue one, to emulate the Ukrainian flag, then affix on the postcard received from you.

I could postmark it with one of my 4 MPP cancelers, to skip frustration at the post desk.
m.facebook.com/groups/427062007360280/

Linda, try also the forum of postcrossing.

From my ~5,000 Facebook friends:
Stamps from Spain:
m.facebook.com/100032369298268/

Mauricius from Austria:
m.facebook.com/100011620662403/

Marko Hakala from Estonia:
m.facebook.com/100046951263096/

Rajko from Croatia:
m.facebook.com/100002170540704/

Ala Nicoreanu from Moldova:
m.facebook.com/100010403950234/

Julija from Lithuania:
m.facebook.com/100024705404171/

Manuel from Luxembourg:
m.facebook.com/100010125554373/

Paul from Poland:
m.facebook.com/100001829973458/

Bonus.
Juris Tarvids from Latvia:
m.facebook.com/100032194280765/

dorincard
Thank you so much! I will start contacting each of them and tell you how the project progresses.

I just found out that World Peace Day is on 21 September, which is also a Wednesday this year.

If I relocate the project's execution date to 21 September, it will give me one more month to prepare. And my looking for volunteers may turn out more successful. To date only 2 people responded to my initiative. Plus my quest for peace-related locations will be more relevant. (I just realised that I haven't set the theme of this cover creation project: Should it be 'peace' or should it be 'solidarity with Ukraine'?)

However, the tricky thing is that I plan on leaving for Japan / Taiwan on the second week of September for a bike tour of 3 months, during which internet connection will be sporadic. It will be difficult for me to coordinate everything while abroad. And there will be 2-month delay in sorting out every mail and putting everything on auction.

If the covers get created on the 24th of August, I can hope to receive everything by the time I left Canada.

Which date do you think is more relevant to my Ukraine Support Cover Creation project: Ukraine's national day (24 August) or World Peace day (21 September)?

@linda

Do what you can by August, then more by September.
Deadlines should be flexible/optional, being a global project.

Right now I lean towards organising two projects, one focuses on paying homage to Ukraine as a nation (which is to be accomplished on the 24th of August), the other focuses on the theme of peace (which is to be accomplished on the 21st of September). 

The first is not location specific, as most of the countries who have issued Ukraine support stamps this year don't have a Ukrainian-named town where a post office is located. (The only exception seems to be the culturally diverse Canada -- there is a town named 'Myrnam' ('Peace to us' in Ukrainian) in Alberta with a post office!) So my covers with Ukraine support stamps can simply be cancelled anywhere in the issuing countries on 24 August.

The second project is much more specific and requires much more research. I want to find peace-related towns / districts where at least one post office is located in those countries who had issued at least one peace-themed stamp. Obviously, I am not going to be able to search all the +300 countries in the world this year, so this is going to be a multi-year project. What I haven't decided is whether or not I should / can use the same canola field postcard (based on a photograph which I named 'War and Peace') that echoes the colour scheme of Ukrainian flag. Or should I opt for another visual to set the two projects apart?

One run-up visual candidate I have at hand is the photograph of this Peace Bell that was gifted to Montreal by Hiroshima on the occasion of the two cities' twinning.






(The inscription on the bell doesn't say 'peace' but 'future of hope' in Japanese.)

I would like to know if my fellow collectors think about the direction on which I am currently leaning. Any other suggestions?

On a side note, I want to produce the least covers the possible, to make each cover more valuable. I am aiming for 2 set of covers in each project, the second one being my backup just in case something unexpected happens.

P.S. I really hope I can create something in Myrhorod ('city of peace' in Ukrainian), but Ukraine doesn't seem to have issued a peace-themed stamp ...

Germany stamp is good.

Linda, ask also the members of the American Topical Association (Facebook group, too).
They specialize in lists, too.

Another source: 521 world stamps with Peace theme.
Search here:
www.postbeeld.com/freestampcatalogue

Theme/topic list.

But for locality names, search the country postal website, like USPS.

Or search in Google Maps.
Or just google it.

Ask postmark collectors:
m.facebook.com/740483815995096/

It works, as a duplex of the Ukrainian colors, in one stamp.
However, it's not the exact shade of yellow.
But I still want 2 rectangular stamps to emulate your postcard rectangles of blue and yellow.

Yes, Linda, I meant 2 stamps like those horizontal ones.
On a second thought, maybe the canola field of your postcard is not the exact shade of yellow from the flag.
Anyway, the gesture matters, not the strict technicalities.

I wrote up a FB event description for the Ukraine project that I will publish on Facebook later. What do you think? I am afraid that it may be too tedious, as I was told that most people on social media don't like reading blocks of text. How can I make my appeal more concise and easier to read?

/*----- Here starts the event description -----*/

Ukraine Cover Creation

Hello world,

I am a visual artist and a stamp collector / cover maker. Lately, to show solidarity with Ukraine, I have been producing postcards using my photographic work 'War and Peace' (2009, 2022) that shows a yellow canola field in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in a backdrop of cloudless blue sky.

-------------------------------------------
/*----- PROJECT DESCRIPTION -----*/
-------------------------------------------
This is a philately-inspired art project, the genesis of which traces back to this March, when various countries started issuing stamps to manifest their support for Ukraine. To date, these countries are:

- Latvia
- Estonia
- Poland
- Austria
- Croatia
- Moldova
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Spain
- France
- Canada

I came up with the idea of creating what in philately is called 'covers' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_(philately)) using my blue/yellow postcards and those Ukraine support stamps to pay homage to Ukraine as an independent, democratic nation. I plan on putting these covers on auction and donate all the profits to Ukraine relief funds once the project is accomplished.

To borrow the concept of a maximum card (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximaphily), I want to fix the stamps on the image side of the postcards, and have all of these stamps cancelled in their respective countries of issue exactly on a date that corresponds to the theme of the project, which I chose to be the 24th of August, Ukraine's national day.

I would like to address the people living or travelling to one of these countries: Is there anyone willing to lend me a hand of help by going to a post office on the 24th of August?

No particular knowledge is needed, but obviously the person must
- live in one of these countries or is travelling to one of these countries on the 24th of August;
- be able to make way to a post office on the 24th of August;
- be able to communicate in a language that the postal clerk can understand;
- know what a cancellation / postmark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmark) is.

I am looking for 2 people from each country to help me carry out this project.

----------------------------------------
/*----- LIST OF COUNTRIES -----*/
----------------------------------------
Here is the list of countries whose people's help I am looking for:

Latvia (0/2)
Estonia (0/2)
Poland (0/2)
Austria (0/2)
Ukraine (1/2, need one other person from Kyiv)
Croatia (0/2)
Moldova (1/2)
Lithuania (0/2)
Luxembourg (0/2)
Spain (0/2)
France (1/2)
Canada (me)

If there is a Ukraine-related location in these countries, it's preferable to create the covers there, but this is not mandatory. In the Canadian province of Alberta, there is a town named 'Myrnam' which means 'peace on us' in Ukrainian that has a post office. I will be sending my covers there for cancellation. If anyone wants a copy, please contact me.

-----------------------
/*----- COST -----*/
-----------------------
In short, it ranges from $0 to roughly $5 US dollars for sending an international letter.

I will prepare as much as possible a return envelope with pre-affixed stamps of sufficient postage for the participants to mail the covers back to me immediately at the post office. However, due to various obstacles, small odds are that I will not be able to acquire sufficient stamps before I send out the packages (which must be mailed from Canada by the first week of August the latest). Hence, in those unforeseeable circumstances, I humbly ask the participants to kindly cover for the time being the international shipping cost of a letter mail, which usually costs a few US dollars, and allow me to reimburse you later, either by PayPal or by sending you postage stamps in the future.

-------------------------------------------------------
/*----- HOW ELSE YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE -----*/
-------------------------------------------------------
Your country's official postal agency didn't issue a specific stamp to support Ukraine this year, but you know there has been a stamp of sunflower / other yellow flower or blue/yellow colour scheme that can be used to emulate the Ukrainian flag? (For example, Germany's 2006 Summer stamp showing a canola field) It works! Contact me to get a copy of the postcards!

-------------------------
/*----- IMPACT -----*/
-------------------------
I dare not say my postcards or my covers resulting from this international collaboration will have much impact on the world, but it doesn't hurt to find some creative ways to manifest our support for Ukraine and hope for peace.

Moreover, many of these Ukraine support stamps are charity stamps, with a portion of the sale being donated to Ukraine relief funds. It's a good cause.

------------------------------
/*----- EXTRA INFO -----*/
------------------------------
Like stamp, postmark is a philately element commonly collected by the collectors. It bears the information about the time/location the stamp was cancelled, so has historical significance. For example, there are special first-day cancellations that mark the date/location the stamp was issued. However, this date/location may not have much to do with the theme of the stamp. Maximum card explores this connection further, by requiring the postmark to correspond to the theme of the stamp. For example, you can fix a stamp of Mozart on a postcard of Mozart, and get the stamp cancelled on Mozart's birthday in his native city Salzburg, Austria. This way, all the philately elements are in maximum concordance, hence the name 'maximum card'.

Conventional maximum card forbids abstract concepts such as peace, and requires the postcard to be commercialised prior to the release of the stamp. For this reason, my creation in this project cannot be regarded as a maximum card by conventionalists. Hence my calling it simply 'cover'.

I made a presentation to visually explain what to do. What do you folks think?

Download the pdf (version 2) here.

Awesome !! Happy you are a member of TSF

René

Dear all, I reviewed the visual presentation based on the comments received. Please check out the newest version.

I will be translating it into 3 other languages (French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese) shortly.