I spent yesterday at the Pasadena Arroyo carving stamps.
Did you know you can make your own stamps out of things like potatoes? That's a little messy so here are stamps I made out of erasers and eraser-like carving material. If you start at the beginning, I have a build-along so you can see just how to do it yourself. All blog photos and content Copyright Fayme Harper 2014
Monday, January 21, 2008
Kokopelli Name Stamps
I carved four new stamps today. I gave one away. I took photos but it's too late to be digging around for my camera, so hopefully tomorrow I will remember to post them. They are of Kokopelli.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
New stamps I carved
Three of the four stamps I carved yesterday. I've learned to leave on extra stamp material until the carving is finished. Yesterday I was carving an address stamp and I made the '9' and forgot to carve it backwards, but because I had a lot of eraser left under my address I was able to add a new zip code below my address, and cut off the one that I had botched. There is no photo of the address stamp because I don't feel like sharing my address with the whole world.
But here are 3 other stamps I carved. The branchlike one was inspired by a sculpture at the mall. I'm sure it will come in handy at some point even if it isn't a popular and easy to label image. That's the beauty of carving your own stamps...you can make designs that you'll never find in a stamp store because they aren't commercial enough for the masses.
Hand stamps
Yesterday I carved some new stamps while waiting in the Harry Potter line. When I was cleaning up today I found these two life sized hand stamps I carved years ago for a poetry booklet. Both of the thumbs had broken off. So I laid them out carefully and phototgraphed them.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Go see more stamped art.
There are some cool hand carving galleries over on Flickr. This is just one of them. http://flickr.com/groups/28928217@N00/
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Tips and Techniques
I feel like I get the strongest images when I use a Sharpie Marker to draw directly on the eraser. Bold images are the easiest to carve. The way you improve your drawing skills is to use them.
When I start carving, I may correct less than perfect lines as I cut. I may choose to cut a little inside or outside of a line to make it better. You can also draw in pencil first, and then go over it with the Sharpie. Or, if you really don't trust yourself, you can use carbon paper or graphite paper to put the design on the eraser. Remember the print will be reversed, so you have to write letters, names and numbers backwards. If you draw a dog facing left it will print facing right. Usually it doesn't matter which way animals face, but for your finished piece of art, you may need it facing a specific way. If you want two dogs ...one facing right, one facing left, then carve the first dog. Ink it well and stamp it onto a blank eraser. Then use that stamping as the carving lines for dog #2. And viola, you end up with two dogs that look pretty similiar but not exactly the same. This is also a way to save a design you loved that went wrong somewhere. And a good way to improve.
When I start carving, I may correct less than perfect lines as I cut. I may choose to cut a little inside or outside of a line to make it better. You can also draw in pencil first, and then go over it with the Sharpie. Or, if you really don't trust yourself, you can use carbon paper or graphite paper to put the design on the eraser. Remember the print will be reversed, so you have to write letters, names and numbers backwards. If you draw a dog facing left it will print facing right. Usually it doesn't matter which way animals face, but for your finished piece of art, you may need it facing a specific way. If you want two dogs ...one facing right, one facing left, then carve the first dog. Ink it well and stamp it onto a blank eraser. Then use that stamping as the carving lines for dog #2. And viola, you end up with two dogs that look pretty similiar but not exactly the same. This is also a way to save a design you loved that went wrong somewhere. And a good way to improve.
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