Monday, December 31, 2012
New Year 2013
I want to wish you all a wonderful new year 2013!
That 2013 can bring you all Good Health, Happiness, Success and Joy.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
A Pink Charity Stamp
In many parts of the world, October is
pink.
This is the month when various organisations arrange fund-raising
activities to benefit breast cancer research and to promote awareness about the
disease. 2012 sees the first Åland charity stamp.
The Åland Cancer Society
receives part of the selling price.
The stamp is issued in connection with the
Pink Ribbon awareness campaign in October.
Åland graphic designer Carina
Sommarström, previously a breast cancer patient herself, has created the stamp.
The Åland charity stamp sells at €1.20, €0.20 of which is awarded in full to
the Åland Cancer Society.
Also available on the day of issue are other Pink
Ribbon products such as postcards, pins with the pink ribbon logo, a pink model
car and a stamp watch.
More products will appear in the Post's web shop at
www.posten.ax in October.
A specified percentage of the selling prices of these
products will be donated directly to the Åland Cancer Society.
Carina's stamp
motif holds a great deal of symbolism, featuring an Amazon, a female warrior
without her right breast.
The woman's right breast has been replaced by a
tattoo with many different symbols representing important issues to consider
when going through cancer treatment.
Technical Details
Issue Date: 01.10.2012
Designer: Carina Sommarström
Printer: Joh. Enschedé Stamps
Process: 4-colour offset
Colours: 4 Colours
Size: 31.5 x 36.25 mm
Values: €1.00, €0.20
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Sea-inspired Christmas
Finnish artist Minna L. Immonen created
this year's Christmas stamp, combining a traditional Christmas motif with
typically Åland features.
Minna L. Immonen has been drawing since childhood,
focusing on painting since her senior school days.
Having completed an
education as a graphic designer and attended various art schools, she started
her own company Minna-Kortti in the 1980s.
Minna's watercolour paintings are
today familiar to large parts of the Finnish population, her illustrations
distinguishing themselves by the individual story told by each illustration. In
addition to cards, stamps and paintings, Minna has designed China ware for
Arabia of Finland, including a children's series with teddy bears and Christmas
mugs and jars with traditional Christmas designs such as pixies, apples and
gingerbread biscuits. In 2008, she designed the cover of a Fazer's chocolate
box, and she has also illustrated a number of books. Minna describes the Åland
Christmas stamp in this way: "Inspired by the sea, the motif still has a
Christmassy accent.
The motif on the first day cover symbolizes the arrival of
Christmas mail."
Technical Details
Issue Date: 09.10.2012
Designer: Minna L. Immonen
Printer: Cartor Security Printing
Process: 4-colour offset
Colours: 4 Colours
Size: 35,4 x 26 mm
Values: €0.60
Friday, December 28, 2012
Nostalgic Architecture In Booklet
 |
| Stamps booklet |
 |
| First Day Cover with stamps |
The first stamp shows the Badhotellet
(spa hotel). Launched as a spa resort at the end of the 1800s, Mariehamn was to
become one of the most modern resorts in Europe. At the turn of the 20th
century, the establishment was at its largest with facilities for hot baths and
swimming, a restaurant with assembly room, a medical centre, a gymnasium, a
doctor's house and a spa hotel. The end of the 1914 season also saw the end of
the spa era as World War I broke out. The hotel burnt down to the ground in
February 1916, probably due to an overheated heater.
Originally, Societetshuset (a club house
generally known as Socis) was a school building that was dismantled and moved
to Mariehamn in 1870. From the start, the building served as a hotel, town hall
and restaurant. During Socis' more than 100 years of existence it had several
periods of golden days and many different owners. Regardless of many protests,
the demolition of Socis was carried through in June 1975, the then town
architect and current stamp artist Folke Wickström being one of the protesters.
Miramar was erected in 1890 as a summer
house for Nicolai Nyström, son-in-law of Nicolai Sittkoff, a well-known
tradesman in Åland. Commandeered by soldiers during both World Wars, first by
the Russians and later by the Finns, Miramar was turned into a soldiers'
gambling home. In the 1930s, the house served as a dance palace and meeting
place and was later to become a restaurant. Inspections performed by the
authorities found inadequate fire security as well as spa and sanitary defects,
and the house was demolished in October 1973.
Technical Details
Issue Date: 23.08.2012
Designer: Folke Wickström
Printer: Österreichische Staatsdruckerei
Process: 4-colour offset
Colours: 4 Colours
Size: 52 x 23,83 mm
Values: €1,00
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