Queens Group To Make Stamp Set From Locals' Drawings

REGO PARK, QUEENS -- A group of locals sipped bubble tea and chatted away inside Chatime Station as they sketched out designs for what what will soon be the area's own custom stamp collection.

The Rego Park tea shop was the first to host one of many stamp-making workshops local nonprofit RPGA Studio has planned for the months ahead. Participants are given paper, iPads and drawing tools, then told to draw something meaningful to them.

The final products will show up on the community's own ink stamp collection this spring to decorate "Open When" notes for a letter-exchange program spanning Rego Park, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. Both the stamps and notes are part of a plan to promote local businesses, RPGA Studio Founder Yvonne Shortt told Patch.

"I really see some of our businesses struggling, so I wanted to help promote the businesses, but in a way that was more about the community coming together," she said.

Shortt came up with a two-part project: Host events to make the ink stamps at local businesses. Then, use them to decorate letters that residents can write one another to "Open When" they want something - such as a quiet garden, a good tea or great book - with notes inside on the best local place(s) to find it.

"I love to draw, so the idea just sprang naturally from that," said Shortt, whose nonprofit uses art, design and technology to tackle community issues.

She's funding the project, along with a few others, with a grant from Queens Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) awarded to initiatives that promote placemaking in the community.

Shortt hopes to host one stamp-crafting session per week at various local businesses over the next two months before sending the sketches off to become ink stamps.

"We want to bring people to these businesses but we want to think creatively," she said.

She bought a round of tea for those who showed up to the first stamp session at Chatime Station on Thursday, and the event was a hit.

"By the end, everybody in that store was talking," she said. "It was just really quite beautiful."

Come April, Shortt's nonprofit team will take to the streets with a suitcase of the stamps and set up stands for locals to make and take the "Open When" cards.

"You decorate a card with the stamps and leave it there," Shortt said. "You get to take a card when you come in to make one."

The letter stands will be up through April and May on Austin Street, Kew Gardens Road, Lefferts Boulevard, Queens Boulevard and 63rd Drive, Shortt said. She's also asking people at the stamp events to make an "Open When" card, in hopes of having 150 letters on hand to start with.

Shortt also noted the stamps made this year wouldn't be sold, just used to decorate the letters. Next year, she said, the nonprofit will find another way to use them.

"The goal of this is to promote businesses, beautify our community and get people to engage with each other," Shortt said.

The nonprofit is still looking for businesses to host its stamp-making parties, she said. The next one is planned at Kew and Willow Books in Kew Gardens on Feb. 25 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Lead photo courtesy of Yvonne Shortt/RPGA Studio.

Caption: Participants hard at work drawing stamps for RPGA Studio's community-wide collection.