Artist puts his stamp on Royal wedding anniversary

Artist Pete Mason has painstakingly compiled the picture made of recycled postage stamps to mark the Royal couple's 70th wedding anniversary later this month.

It is the latest unique masterpiece by the retired art teacher from Staffordshire.

Earlier this year, Mr Mason complete a 9ft square portrait of the Queen.

Realising Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh were due to bring up seven decades of married life, saw him set to work on his latest piece.

Mr Mason, 74, from Hednesford, said: "I thought 'it's the 70th wedding anniversary, I need to do something about that'.

"So more or less straight away after finishing my previous piece I started working on this.

"It probably took me just over three weeks of hard graft ­— doing four hours a day every day.

"I would think there's probably around 5,000 stamps on this one and there were a lot of fiddly bits.

"It was a pleasure to do from beginning to end, except for the Duke – his face has been a bit awkward!

"He vexed me two or three times but it's all okay now."

For Her Majesty's 90th birthday, Mr Mason depicted the royal on a Queen of Hearts playing card.

He has been making his giant pictures, with each stamp representing a pixel, for around 20 years.

Thousands of stamps are soaked, sorted and cut to shape before being pieced together to make each pixelated image.

World leaders Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, entertainers Bruce Forsyth, Bob Dylan Michael Jackson, Cilla Black and local heroes such as the late Wolves vice-president Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint are among the unique portraits he has created.