Sunday Stamps 014: Falcons on UAE stamps

From the arid desert of the United Arab Emirates come these two beautiful stamps which feature the falcon:

Falcons are featured on many stamp issues of the UAE Postal Office.

The falcon is used for hunting in Arab lands, and remain an important cultural symbol in the country. The stamps used in this cover feature a stylised illustration of a falcon (left) that was issued in 2007 valued at 5dirhams, and the 6dirham definitive (right) which I believe was a 2007 re-issue of the 1990 falcon series of the same design.

If you notice the cancellation mark is upside-down. Actually the stamps were glued to the cover upside-down so I scanned it the other way around so the stamps are in the correct position (at least for one of the stamps)  :)

Sunday Stamps 013: My Brazilian stamps

This week I'm featuring my favourite stamps from Brazil. These stamps are original artworks of one of Brazil's prolific artists, Hector Consani.

I just love the illustrations on the stamps. The drawings represent professions of the common tao (man, or woman) - costureira (dressmaker), sapateiro (shoe repairman), and manicure.  Don't you just love the artistic figures? The costureira's hair reminds me of my aunt's hair in massive hair rollers/curlers! lol.

Included in this definitive series are drawings of a barber, a baker, a carpenter, and a shoeshine. Found this in the translated version of Hector Consani's blog:

"The design is simple: the head is round, the hair look like the sun's rays from a child's drawing, eyes and mouth are represented by a single black circle, the overalls with the switches hit the barber each provider uses a T-shirt (shirt, Brazil), arms and fingers seem a fork, there are three to four well-defined color. But this minimalism trace contains all the information, and the date and the price of the stamp.

If convene the history of art, find elements of expressionism, pop art and comics. Consani One vignette tells a story of life, a state of mind, a profession and their local designation (or national), the relationship with his professional activity: a bench, chair, tools, sometimes the client, shown on the side or back.

In addition, the seal is a small piece that reaches other parts of the world and takes the art and information of the issuing country. The seal is an outstanding ambassador of modern culture."

I hope the Brazilian Postal Office invites him again and again to make more stamps. I really love his artwork.

Sunday Stamps 012: Of bugs and celebrations

I have a postcard from Mexico, unfortunately, it did not have Mexican stamps as it was sent from Venezuela and in an envelope. So I am sharing stamps from Canada instead.

The stamp shown on the left is a 3-cent green lacewing from the Beneficial Insects definitive series issued in 2007 by Post Canada. Green lacewing is commonly used in biological pest control. On the right is a "celebration-in-the-mail" themed domestic stamp designed with traditional celebration symbols - swirls of ribbons, burst of fireworks, and cluster of confetti exploding from an envelope. All these make a fun, vibrant stamp. (Source)