Artist's stamps tribute to Di

A talented artist from Hednesford has unveiled a picture of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, made out of thousands of stamps.

Pete Mason is known around the region for the unusual pieces of art he has created from stamps but his latest creation is one of the fastest he has produced. He put the final touches to on Monday and worked around the clock to ensure it would be finished in time for today – the 10th anniversary of her death.

A total of 12,000 stamps were used to create the seven sq ft image which only took a month to complete.

Mr Mason, aged 64, said: "I really was working on it night and day to get it finished. It is a commemorative piece as she was the people's princess. To the general public she really was the princess of hearts and I wanted it to reflect that."

A blown-out candle on the picture, to symbolise a candle in the wind, features around 50 stamps bearing Princess Diana's face which were produced by Royal Mail. Mr Mason purposefully designed the earrings on the picture to be triangles to represent triangles of Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles or Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Dodi Al Fayed. He said they can also be interpreted to relate to her roles as mother, wife and icon.

Other stamp creations crafted by Mr Mason, of Green Heath Road, included Wolverhampton's female cricket legend Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, footballer David Beckham and TV's Richard and Judy.

Mr Mason, an art teacher at Kingsmead Technology College in Hednesford where pupils collect stamps for him, also created a 12ft by 7ft picture of singer Madonna as the Virgin Mary with Live Aid child Birham Woldu as Baby Jesus.

His pictures each contain between 18,000 and 24,000 stamps.