At the risk of my presence inducing crickets in the forum....
I also enjoy putting together exhibits. An informal exhibit that I only show at a regional show in Cedar Rapids, IA intersects with what I do now (farming). I am hopeful that I can work on this exhibit on and off over time with the hope that I can educate regarding philately AND sustainable farming practices. The hardest part for me is actually finalizing a page. I can be a bit of a perfectionist and I get annoyed when things don't look the way I really want them to. I am getting over it since I always find mistakes regardless of how I want to avoid them. 🙂
Then, there is my primary exhibit. I have focused on the postal history that features a 24 cent 1861 US design stamp for some time now. I share this collection by exhibiting this at APS WSP shows (about 1, maybe 2, a year). I like including maps to help people (including myself) visualize where an item traveled and how it got where it was going.
I really used to display things this way? What was I thinking?
Actually, this one isn't all that bad, but I have old pictures showing some of my earlier attempts at exhibit pages. The biggest issue I have with it are the mounts that show up way too much. I am no longer so fond of the gray paper or the writing style I used at that time.
Here's part of the page (not mine).
Note that because top-loading mounts were used, the stamps had a tendency to move around.
I am thinking of replacing my top-loading mounts with split-back mounts, but then any boxing or matting can look unbalanced if the mount isn't the exact size needed.
Here is something else I used to do more of. I used some pastel (well sort of pastel) shaded paper to matte the covers. Of all things, I moved to a grey paper to matte my 24 cent 1861 material. In part, this color was maybe a bit much.
I matte the covers in my primary exhibit in an effort to reduce how often I have to handle the actual cover when I place it on a new page. Yes, I seem to change my exhibit that much (about once a year). I chose grey for the matte because it softens the transition between the white paper and the cover without actually making the cover look any more tatty than it is.
I beginning to become alarmed by how many changes I've made over time on these things....
Rob
And, here is another early effort at an exibit page. At the time, I did not have much for mounting materials. I had no one really mentoring me in the process and pretty much only had the budget to acquire some material. Everything else had to be done on the cheap. So, I used old cover holders, etc that held the cover, but didn't keep them in place very well. Note the high tech scotch tape approach (yes, I knew enough to be sure that tape would never contact the material. Oh... and at the time, my printer was dying and printing all pages slightly at an angle - this is made more dramatic by crooked placement on the scanner table to boot.
But, the key was this - I had things I enjoyed being the caretaker for. I wanted to do some research on them and I wanted to share with others.
Additional history - the two covers represent the beginning of my 24 cent 1861 postal history 'sickness.' I picked these two covers and one additional cover at a small, regional auction for $48 + the commission. Yes, $48. It's what I could afford at that time and I was thrilled to get them.
Why do I mention this one? It's just an encouragement to everyone to go ahead and make a page with what you have and enjoy doing it. The others at a local stamp club I showed it to thought this was absolutely wonderful. And - we all learn over time. So, the way I show items has changed.
Last one.
The event of better scanners and software to allow the inclusion of scans has been great. I can now show the reverse or the contents of items without having to refold the item or use text to describe what cannot be seen inside or on the back.
I enjoyed picking up this one because I was living in Decorah, Iowa at that time.
Rob
Rob - Thanks for your detailed responses.
I have seen an exhibit of California Express Companies 1849-1895 on gray paper and liked it. The problem the exhibitor had was that even though he purchased paper with the same serial number, he was ending up with many shades of gray, to the extent that it was a distraction.
I have had the same problem with paper here in the USA. The first ream I bought perfectly matched the goat parchment type paper Canberra exhibitors liked to use. The second is different in a "wrong" way, and the third is even worse. These last two scan poorly, turning into a dirty gray yellow.
All of these were the color "natural", Wausau #68881. The color is now discontinued and the paper firm has changed to Neenah.
I found some lovely ivory paper in an Aussie craft shop recently. My problems with it are that it is too thin and that it is A4 size, so I would lose about 1/4 inch of horizontal space.
Here is a page from the first ream. Looks great IRL but still scans poorly.
I am starting to mat covers and am considering mattinig stamps. I have never liked colored mats, so have bought light gray and dark gray paper for matting. The dark was to highlight significant items. However, for various one-page displays I find the dark gray fits well.
Rob - What is the font you use for headings in your Genuinely Farming exhibit?
Well, I say I don't like colored mats, but in my first ever exhibit of the New Hebrides at a stamp show, I was determined to have red and blue borders for British and French material respectively.
The colored paper I had bought looked too overpowering, so I colored in the borders with a pen. I thought it looked pretty good at the time but, having done it and got it out of my system, I didn't persist with it in later iterations.
Note: Original Aussie "goat parchment" paper scanned reasonably well!
Last one...
I decided to try double matting for this page, which my husband designed for his auctions.
So we have the "ivory" USA paper, a light gray mat then a dark gray mat on top.
The stamps are kept in place by clear split-back stamp mounts.
This page was shown at the Seattle show in September as part of the Oregon Stamp Society one-frame showcase exhibit.
