During 2014 I had a unique experience - taking part in the design of a new series of stamps. I received a phone call from the Israeli postal service who contacted me after reading my article about sundials in Israel. Although I am not an academic expert on the matter, I gladly agreed to help.
As it turned out, issuing stamps is a serious matter. In Israel, the process requires a government decision, and after the decision is approved a long process begins. The first phase is to decide on a concept for the series, how may stamps there will be and what will be the connection between them. There are many sundials types and my original idea was to choose a sundial which was significant to the religion and used in a synagogue, a sundial to symbolize the value of hard work ("The day is short and the work is great") and a modern sundial which is more an element of design in an urban surrounding.
There were other suggestions and there were some political issues as well and the final decision was to show the development of the sundials over different periods and do this in only three stamps.
After that it was a hard task to decide which specific sundials to present. There are wonderful sundials which are not suitable for the format of a small stamp since it is impossible to see the small details and engravings, and this is also a factor. Following this, I worked with the stamps' designer, David Ben Hador. The designer wanted to include the sun in the stamp but when looking at a sundial the sun is usually behind the watcher, so there was no attempt to have the hour in the sundial match the sun position, but still our goal was to allow some freedom to the designer and maintain the best realistic sundial as possible.
After the design of the stamps there is a need to design the envelope, the leaflet, the first day postal stamp, choose a verse, write the text in the pamphlet and so on. This is the final and in my humble opinion, great, result (the values are from the last draft and are not the actual values of the stamps)
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| Sundials in Israel -Ancient Jewish Quarter Jerusalem |
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| Sundials in Israel - Zoharei Chamma Synagogue Jerusalem |
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| Sundials in Israel - Jezzar Mosque Acre |
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| Sundials in Israel - day of issue envelope |