Turning a Hobby into Art

 We have hobbies for many reasons. Sometimes we are seeking to relax after a hard day of work. Other times we are pursuing an interest that brings joy and learning. Finally, it is a way to spend time with the ones we love. My hobby is stamp collecting and my reasons span all three I mentioned above. My dad was a stamp collector and much of my time collecting stamps as a child was also time with him. I am also an avid student of geopolitics and history; which makes stamp collecting an amazing classroom. Also I love that it is all tactile and doesn't require screens. Since I spend all day scanning screens, hoping from one Zoom box to another and working with digital documents, stamps are a wonderful retreat. 

So for my annual Winter Experiment, I picked something to do with my stamp collection. For those of you who don't know, I started a tradition after the Pandemic when we moved to Southern Wisconsin. I decided to model what I teach about innovation by running a series of experiments each winter as a project. The first year I experimented with ways to clear a driveway of snow. The second year I experimented with how to make the yummiest, cheapest and most affordable granola. And now we have arrived to year three. Drum roll please . . . 

My experiment was to find the most attractive and practical ways of displaying my stamp collection in my office. The problem I was solving was that I love all my stamps but never get to enjoy them unless I pull my books out. I wanted a way to enjoy the stamps more often and in a way that I could share with others who came to my office. 

I focused on ways of hanging stamps. I assumed that I would be able to find good groupings of stamps that would look good together and that they would be colorful enough to look good on a wall. I also assumed that I would find effective ways to secure the stamps without damaging them. 

The biggest risk was that I might ruin some stamps that I really loved. I wasn't concerned about finding the right groupings because I have been curating stamps into groups for some time and looking for patterns that apply across cultures. 

For my first experiment I decided to play it safe and use a nice new frame with a mat that was sized to fit stamps well. I didn't have to learn to cut my own mats or anything. I simply had to find stamps that fit well. The biggest challenge with this experiment is the mat. Because the stamp is on the paper behind the mat, no matter how careful you are in measuring and putting the stamp in the middle of the area cut for display, when you close it up and hang it, the mat settles and can hurt the stamps. 

I decided mats aren't a great fit. For this first experiment, I picked a set of stamps that feature maps from around the world. They come from (listed bottom to top): Canada, Ghana, Venezuela, UK, Argentina, Congo, Western Sahara, Japan, Ethiopia, Tadjikistan, USA, Czechoslovakia and Ajman (part of the UAE).

My second experiment was more creative and less structured. I wondered if I could use a background that would bring the stamps together in a creative way. For my second round of experiments I did two groupings of airplane stamps. But instead of a mat, I took a picture of an airplane stamp and then modified the image to be a background to sit behind the stamps themselves. The goal was to tie it together better and solve for the difficulty of using a mat. The bottom one has a background of an Ecuador stamp with a set of stamps from Central and South America including Honduras, the Canal Zone, Panama, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador (also the background), Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Argentina.

The top one has a background of an Indonesia stamp picked because it looked like a cool background but not because the stamp is in the frame. This frame has 6 stamps that are part of a set. I’m not sure if there are more or if this is the whole thing. These stamps are from a city in the UAE called Umm Al Quwain which is northeast of Dubai.

For my third experiment I wanted to move beyond frames. So I headed to the thrift store to look for what other types of hangings might work with stamps. The first one had nothing and I left discouraged. But I hit the jackpot with my next thrift store. I found the raw material for my last two experiments. First I decided to take a piece of abstract artwork and turn it into a canvas for stamps. I took the art out of the frame washed the surfaces and then used each square in the art piece as a place to put a stamp. The theme for this experiment was Works of Art. I ended up having 70 pieces from over 30 countries. For this one, I'm going to challenge you to see if you can recognize any of the countries. The challenge with this one was to match the colors in the stamps with the colors on each block of the artwork. It took some trial and error to find the right ones for each spot. This experiment also moved to another form of adhesive. In the first two I used the traditional stamp hinges like you use to put a stamp in a stamp book. But they were not very hardy and only work well on certain surfaces. So my wife and brainstorming partner found self adhesive corner mounts; which work amazingly well. 

Finally I wanted to try an approach that was very different than any of the ones I had done before. So I found a piece of wall art made of metal. This had the benefit of also using squares as the basic shape in the artwork. I found that the same corner mounts worked well on this surface. For this experiment I used a curation of horse stamps. There are 20 countries represented including: Japan, Canada, Cuba, Hungary, Rwanda, Mongolia, USA and many others. One thing I noticed about this approach is that there is no protection for the stamps. This means that you have to be very careful when you move it and hang it. At the same time, it allows you to look at the stamps with no glare. What I loved about this one is that it is visually very surprising and interesting. What it is missing is a tie between the material and the subject. There is no tie in the art itself to horses. That would have made it even more compelling. 

Reviewing the risks and the assumptions, I avoided ruining any stamps. I also was able to find compelling groupings. The 70 stamp experiment was a challenge but I was able to find enough. I loved the materials I got to work with. I could have done more work finding more interesting frames but for the first two I was really focused on making the stamps look good in their presentation. If I do more, I will invest more in finding just the right frames. I really fell in love with mixing stamps with abstract art. I think there is a lot of potential to do more like that. 

Finally, did I solve the problem? Yes! I have already had guests over and the hung stamps have been a really fun new way to engage my visitors with a really important part of who I am. It opens up opportunities to talk about countries and cultures as well as the themes of the stamps in the various curations. Overall I call it a win! 

I hope that reading about my experiment process is helpful to you as you seek to try new things. What are you wanting to experiment about and how could you take this simple process and apply it to your problem?