Monday, June 21, 2010

Stamp carving

There's a blog i fell head-over-heels in sheer love with last autumn. Genine's Art Blog. Check it out, chances are you'll be inspired and want to be just like her too, if you're anything like me.




I have Genine to thank for the desire to try carving rubber stamps. Albeit mine are with cheap rubber erasers i bought from the newsagent, as opposed to awesome palm-sized blocks of craft rubber she procured from i-couldn't-find-out-where (sad). My primitive little bird stamps feature in the pic' below, along with the lino-carving tools i used as my weapon of choice. Fantastically sharp and precise.
A few hints for beginners (i.e. note to self). Keep it simple. Detail and stamp carving aren't the best of friends. If its detail you crave, get a big piece of rubber to carve. I think a lot of other mediums could be rendered stamp-able too. Thick cardboard, soft wood (balsa), possibly even potatoes well dried (remember 1st-grade?)
The best part was getting to stamp with my stamp post-carving. Ok, I'm a kid at heart. Experimenting with multiple ink colours provides interesting effects too (e.g. i gave my bird a yellow belly, though not the one's photographed in this pic'). I used water colour paints for ink, because i haven't owned an ink pad for over a decade. Perhaps its time i invested in one?

2 comments:

Shell said...

debski! these are cute cute cute! when you recommended me this blog i too fell in love with janine's stamp carving. what a fun thing to do and i'd never heard of it before! these would make beautiful stationary, ooh, and fabulous wrapping paper. get yourself an inkpad and get stamping (and don't forget to share the pics with us?) xoxo

Anonymous said...

wow! i thought i recognised geninnes stuff - i bought a print for karl's mum for her last birthday and it was this very artist! how cool is that! didn't know she had a blog though.... will be pouring over it when i get a minute.
and trying out some carving - i think i still have some rubber from way back when i tried my hand at printing.

thanks for sharing!