Laura Dowling, formerly of Chehalis, designed this stamp for the United States Postal Service
Former White House chief floral designer Laura Dowling created the 2019 Holiday Wreath Forever Stamps depict iconic images of holiday wreaths.
Former White House chief floral designer Laura Dowling created the 2019 Holiday Wreath Forever Stamps depict iconic images of holiday wreaths. Dowling is from Chehalis.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you use the postal service’s colorful new wreath stamps for your Christmas cards this year, you’ll be showing off the work of W.F. West and Centralia College alumna Laura Dowling.
Dowling has spent the last five years or so on the postage stamp project, which began with the wreaths she would create each year and hang on the door of her home in Alexandria, Virginia.
An art director for the U.S. Postal Service noticed the wreaths and invited her to contribute them for a stamp design.
At the time, however, Dowling was working as the official florist at the White House for Barack and Michelle Obama. Restrictions on what she could do outside her day job meant she had to turn down the opportunity.
She figured the chance had passed her by.
After leaving the White House in 2015, however, she was pleased to have the opportunity arise again.
She worked on designs in secret.
Early on in the wreath project, as she was experimenting and creating prototypes, she received a box of Northwest materials from the Seattle Grower’s Market.
“These quintessentially Northwest materials, I think, solidified the idea that these wreaths would be timeless and traditional, but still have somewhat of a modern edge with the backdrops,” Dowling told The Chronicle.
A classic Northwest plant, salal, makes up one of the four wreaths. Others include ivy, crabapples, pine cones and dried hydrangea.
Dowling said her goal was for her wreaths to embody Christmas greetings, while also having a broad feeling of the winter season with natural materials.
“All of the designs are made with the idea that people could replicate them at home,” said Dowling.
The wreaths were created over a number of seasons and photographed on different doors in Old Town Alexandria and at River Farm, President George Washington’s old farm and now headquarters of the American Horticultural Society.
The block of four stamps are at once vibrant and calming, dominated by natural hues of red, green and gold, and mounted on cleanly painted doors of white and red.
The wreaths are “forever stamps:” with no denomination, they can be used even after postal rates change. They were officially released on Oct. 25 at the flagship L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine. Dowling was joined at the ceremony by Postmaster General Megan Brennan.
“Wreaths deliver the message that the homeowner shares your same warm feelings toward the holiday season,” Brennan said. “That’s the message millions of people will convey to friends and loved ones when they use the wreath stamps.”
Brennan, the first female head of the U.S. Postal Service, got her start as a letter carrier, and during the ceremony she talked about how much she loved the feeling of warmth and welcome she’d feel from wreaths hanging on the doors of homes when she delivered the mail.
Dowling smiled when she heard that, because her own letter carrier over the past few years would comment on the various test designs that Dowling would hang up — delight with the colors and design, or sometimes concerns when they blocked the mail slot or were made of fruity materials too pungent to allow deliveries to continue.
“In a very nice but matter of fact way, she’d say ‘we’ll hold your mail until the wreath is gone,” Dowling said with a laugh. “I got the message, and you’ll notice that the final designs are timeless and postal carrier friendly. There aren’t elements that will rot or ooze or get in the way of delivering the mail.”
Dowling said she’s amazed to think that her wreaths are on stamps in post offices around the country.
The postmaster general said she hopes that Dowling’s wreath stamps — and homemade wreaths inspired by them in homes everywhere — will bring the spirit of Christmas to homes across the nation.
“Put a holiday wreath on the door and better yet put the wreath stamp on your cards and letters this holiday season,” Ms. Brennan suggests. “We hope that you use them to share the holiday spirit with family and friends.”
