Snow Art

Four-stamp booklet

On 22 September 2006 Finland Post issued seven new stamps. All the face values and selling prices of the stamps are the equivalent of an ordinary letter's 1st class postage up to 50 grams.
One of the new publications is a four-stamp booklet depicting ice and snow art. The other new stamps are about newspaper journalism, a mountain flower, and Ritva Puotila's textile art. The new personalized stamp frame coming out the same day is used for the art stamp.

Snow Art stamps with heat-sensitive ink

The illustration on the first stamp in the wintertime self-adhesive stamp booklet is an equine ice sculpture, sculpted by a team comprised of Steve Brice, Charles Dash, Carl Eady and Michael Gresham for the Blue Ice Art event in Pello in 1999. The second stamp in the booklet shows a picture of the high wall of Kemi Snow Castle. The third stamp shows a wall built by Kimmo Frosti, the bricks of which are made of ice from Lake Saimaa. The fourth stamp depicts a snow lantern made of snowballs.

Heat-sensitive ink

The SnowArt stamps have a property never before seen on Finnish stamps: the blue ink of the face values turns white when touched. The heat-sensitive ink on the stamps will keep for roughly 1.5 years, after which the face values will stay white.
Ari Lakanlemi and Susanna Rumpu designed the stamp booklet. Photos by Lehtikuva Oy (snow lantern on cover), Arto Liiti (ice horse), Kemi SnowCastle (snow castle), Ari Lakaniemi (ice wall), Luonnonkuva-arkisto (snow lantern), Luonnonkuva-arkisto (frostwork in background).

More information

Postage Stamps 2006
Stamps Finland
Journalism and flower
Finnish stamps of May 2006
Sveaborg Seas Fortress