Green & Growing

(actual size 3.25 x .25")

This one was carved just for fun while on vacation some time ago. Just killin' some time while I waited for my family to get ready to go exploring, I doodled this out just to see if I could carve it...I guess the answer was yes!

(actual size 5" x 2")

Sweet foxglove carved for the challenge of it, for a long-ago floral postal - and also carved while on vacation. I remember telling a friend that it was the hardest stamp I had done to date. I still like it; I think it was one of the first stamps where I attempted shading.

The image was drawn from a photograph. It reminded me of picking wild foxglove and wildflowers and putting them in bottles by the little kitchen window in our camper while staying at the beach when I was a child. Sweet memories.

(actual size 2.5" x 1.5")

This one was carved for no particular reason other than I liked the pomegranates. I found this image online while googling Jewish graphics. Here is some information I found about pomegranates as a prominent Jewish symbol:

Exodus 28:33–34 directed that images of pomegranates be woven onto the hem of the me'il ("robe of the ephod"), a robe worn by the Hebrew High Priest. 1 Kings 7:13–22 describes pomegranates depicted on the capitals of the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) which stood in front of the temple King Solomon built in Jerusalem. It is said that Solomon designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown".

Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah.

It is also a symbol of fruitfulness. The pomegranate is one of the few images which appear on ancient coins of Judea as a holy symbol, and today many Torah scrolls are stored while not in use with a pair of decorative hollow silver "pomegranates" placed over the two upper scroll handles. Some Jewish scholars believe that it was the pomegranate that was the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden. Pomegranate is one of the Seven Species (Hebrew: שבעת המינים, Shiv'at Ha-Minim), the types of fruits and grains enumerated in the Bible (Deuteronomy 8:8) as being special products of the Land of Israel.