Envelop your mail in summer fruits

Dear Everyone ~

Today is the summer solstice, the official start of summer. Farmer’s markets are in full swing, brimming with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and beautiful bouquets of flowers. In honour of the season, we have refreshed our Summer Fruit Sampler. We added a row of the 10¢ pears by John Burgoyne—making our suite of fruit complete. And two rows (!) of Rigel Stuhmiller’s Butterfly Garden Flowers. Though Rigel’s stamps are officially for non-profit use, they definitely add a dash of panache and cheer to your envelope flaps, gift wraps, jam labels, picnic tables, &c.

For an artist, having your work on a US postage stamp is quite the plum! John Burgoyne’s series of low-denomination, high-charm fruit stamps now includes 1¢ apples, 2¢ Meyer lemons, 3¢ strawberries, 4¢ blueberries, 5¢ grapes, and 10¢ pears (a pair of pears, in fact). We love Rigel Stuhmiller’s Butterfly Garden Flowers, even though we cannot use them as postage ourselves.

We had an e-xchange with Rigel about her stamps—which we hope she will soon be able to refer to as her first stamps for the USPS. Here are some highlights:

“I handcarved the original images into linoleum blocks many times the size of the final stamps, about 6" across. I scanned them into the computer and reduced them for testing at stamp size.” 
 
“I’ve received so many letters with the stamps on them, and friends have collected their nonprofit envelopes and sent me photos. The stamps are only for official use by nonprofits, so all the letters received have been from various organizations. I’m really happy to see my artwork on the letters of nonprofits I know—and even one or two I’ve worked with—and also to see that all kinds of organizations have used them.” 

“Every organization can use these stamps, everyone can receive them… isn’t that cool? I know that every single stamp works this way, but I’ve never thought about the equality of stamps before this project. In a very (very!) (very!) small way, it makes the country seem a little more like a community.” 
 
“I had a great time working on this project. (I’m about to use a lot of loves but the sentiment is honest.) As a kid I used to dream about making stamps and so this opportunity was incredible. I love the postal service, I love our mailman, I love getting letters, and I’ve always loved the idea that everyone who mails a stamped letter is by default required to send someone a piece of artwork. I very much loved the process of working with Antonio [Alcalá]. I’ve worked with a number of art directors but he stands out as my favorite.” 

Alyson, a.k.a. my postal muse, has corresponded for years with Antonio Alcalá, who is an art director for the USPS stamp design program. (He has also designed many US stamps, which Alyson likes to use on her mail to him. We showcased several of those envelopes here.)  We were able to ask him what about Rigel’s style led him to commission her beautiful blooms, and to ask him about nonprofit stamps as a category. He replied:
 
 “I think I first saw Rigel’s work back in 2012 on an artist’s rep website. I liked the ‘less-polished,’ more natural tone to her artwork, and I was attracted to the grace and simplicity of her flower images. The two she created for these stamps complement one another.” 
 
“Nonprofit Org can be a challenging category to design for because the mailers cover such a wide spectrum. They want to have stamps with appeal to the broadest market segment possible. Flowers can be a good solution, because they generate an optimistic and positive impression on the envelope.”

Speaking of sending mail, we’ve added a baker’s dozen of Hahnemühle Bugra (HB) A7 envelopes to the Summer Fruit Sampler. They are assorted in four delicious shades: iced coffee, French vanilla, crème brûlée, and fresh toast. These envelopes are a very limited edition, freshly converted from parent sheets of HB by my dear paper-purveyor pal Pavel. If you have any other Hahnemühle items on hand (such as HB Ultimate Palette Housemade Pad or the HB envelopes & notesheets), you know that the paper’s texture is part of its distinctive charm.