Ed Varney has been making Artistamps since the mid-1970s, when he got his hands on a rare 1895 pin-holed stamp perforator. Since then, Ed has produced roughly 150 sheets of Artistamps. He makes anything from commemoratives to anthologies to his own imaginative designs.

His tiny, hand-perforated works of art that commemorate what official stamps never would. Subversive and often playful, they celebrate artists, ideas and cultural moments overlooked by mainstream culture.

Ed’s professional background in printmaking gives him the technical skill to craft intricate sheets, but it’s his mischievous nature that makes them unique.

Every one of Ed’s stamp tells a story or flips the familiar on its head. Proof that even the tiniest piece of paper can carry big ideas.

Read Ed’s Essay on Artistamps.

“One of the things I like to do, is to fool the public. It’s part of my methodology. They aren’t counterfeit, but they are kind of parallel. My stamps sometimes even fool the postal workers. ”