Well, good question. There's a lot of things that I do with my artistamps. And whether you're a one-edition newcomer to this genre or an old-timer with hundreds of sheets, the question comes into play. You work hard on your stamps. You want to share your work. But how?
Here are some of the ways I use my own stamps. Obviously, you don't have to do all (or any) of these, but in case your files start bulging with work with nowhere to go, it's a good place to start.
1. EXCHANGE THEM WITH OTHER ARTISTAMPERS This probably seems like common sense to some, but sometimes people aren't sure how to connect with others. The best way to break into the community is to join up with the artistamp mailing list or AML (http://groups.yahoo.com/artistamp). On this list are hundreds of people who make editions, frequently or not. There's a list that people keep of issuing authorities (you) that like to exchange, and there's a motto: Senders receive. So if you get on the list and start mailing out your editions to folks on that list, you'll start getting artistamps in your mailbox quite frequently, which also allows you to see what other people are doing with their own work. (And, I must add, there are some amazing artists there. You'll love getting your mail every day.)
2. EXCHANGE THEM IN A ONE-TIME SWAP Other mailing lists exist that are dedicated to other types of art (paper arts mailing lists are a good bet). Lists like BellePapier and Artistsjournals hold regular art swaps, sometimes including artistamps. BellePapier, in fact, holds an actual artistamp swap a few times per year on various subjects, with as many as forty participants at one time. During this kind of exchange, you send a certain number (based on the number of participants) of singles or small sheets to a central location or host, who collates them and mails one of everyone's contribution to everyone else in the swap. You'll get an envelope back with tons of stamps from tons of artists, for just the cost of a regular SASE. Plus, since they aren't artistamp artists in specific, the diversity is greater, and the issues are highly creative.
