Posta Verdura (Postcard Book)

Helen Buttfield has observed that all her life has seemed to be a preparation for stamp making. Trained as a painter in Florence in the technique of egg tempera, a fifteenthcentury medium that requires meticulous attention to detail, she remained a realist in a world of Abstract Expressionism. Taking up the camera, she traveled the world, photographing its natural glory. Four books of her photographs led her to a career in book design and an enduring passion for letterpress printing and elegant typography, one which has served her well in her stamp making. Buttfield began making stamps in 1990, inspired by the story of Tannu Tuva, a country in Asia that had completely disappeared from the map. All that remained were its stamps. Her first designs were created for the Hudson River Estuary, a nonprofit environmental organization. Then, in need of a country that would issue her stamps, she created 'L'Etat de Fourire,' a state of happy, delirious laughter. This fictional island nation now boasts twelve special stamp issues, which are sold as limited editions. The Fourire stamps led to commissions from the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific and the Turks and Caicos Islands of the Caribbean.Posta Verdura is one of her newest collections of postcards. Thirty easily removable vegetable collage postcards come bound in a paperback format.