Making a Hand-Carved Stamp

I've always felt a connection with American Crows.  

They're intelligent, curious, and have a magical air about them.  

This crow photo, by Brad Silberberg, inspired a rubber stamp I made recently. 

I first made some sketches of the crow, then I chose one design to become the stamp.

I used a big pink eraser chunk for my rubber stamp. 

You can create stamps out of a variety of materials -- I've used corks, erasers & the soles of blown-out tennis shoes.  You can also buy "Speedy Cut" rubber blocks from Speedball.  They're uniform in texture and easy to cut into with carving tools or an X-Acto knife.

I chose a sketch and transferred the design onto the pink eraser by coloring on a scrap piece of paper with a 4B graphite pencil, then placing that face-down onto the stamp.  I placed my sketch on top, and traced over an outline of the drawing with a pencil to transfer the design.

As I carved out the crow, I began playing with doodles in the margins. I ended up wishing I had left more material above the crow's head to carve swirls into.  Though there's no "undo" button in stamp-carving, I can easily create another stamp.  Artists often work in a series.

I inked up the stamp with Ranger permanent black ink for a first test. 

I liked the design, but decided to simplify it -- editing out the marks in the space outside the crow.

I used to be impatient to finish a project like this and put it to use, but I now realize that the therapeutic power of art lies in the tinkering process as well as in expressing my unique vision.

Here's a look at the final crow stamp.  

I'm happy with the simplified look, and stamped up a bunch of stationery.

A home-made stamp like this is wonderful for decorating journals, for adding to mixed-media projects, or simply making greeting cards.

Playing around with art supplies with no goal other than to create for your own joy helps a person to drop into timeless time, into a place of peaceful exploration, into that blissful, childlike experience of creating. All the cares of the day fall away, and a person can relax into their own world of creativity.

I hope you take time to be creative for your own delight & relaxation this week. 

Upcycled Stamps

A Sunday morning in my art studio got me inspired to create some new stamps for my journaling and collage projects.My materials were: wine corks, a gum eraser, a pink eraser too old & hard to erase pencil marks any more, an X-acto knife, a pen, a pencil and ink pads.

I began with sketches of ideas, then drew my design onto the surface of the cork or eraser with a ballpoint pen or pencil.  

With the X-acto blade, I cut away everything that wasn't the design, and left what you see above as the stamp. I tested the stamp out, made any changes I needed, and then stamped away.

It's exciting to see your new design printed on paper! I use mine in journals, on cards & letters, and to decorate my daily planner.

I've been making cork and eraser stamps for years, and have collected them into a pretty box.  The dividers inside are fashioned from cereal box cardboard.  Several of the stamps above were made from old shoe soles (see the cardboard X handle?😉).  

I love repurposing old junk into art supplies!

Many of my materials came from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.  They have erasers, a barrel of wine corks, loads of different papers, and I've found stamp pads there, too. 

I hope you'll give this art form a try!

Making an Autumn Leaf Stamp

Inspired by the beautiful autumn leaves, I wanted to create a print for some greeting cards.  I began with leaves picked up on a walk, and sketched them in my nature journal.

When I was happy with my sketch, I made a copy to play around with, adding swirls and other design elements in pen.

I transferred my design to the block I intended to carve using an old trick. I laid down several heavy layers of graphite with a 4B pencil on a separate sheet of paper, then placed the graphite transfer paper graphite down on the stamp block, and placed my design face-up on top.  I drew slowly over each line with my mechanical pencil. 

After transferring the design onto the stamp block, I carved away everything but the design I wanted to print.  I used Speedball Lino Cutting tools to carve a Speedball Speedy-Cut block.  This is the type of block that's soft as cream cheese, and super easy to carve.  You have to be careful with the edges to keep from getting broken.

Finally!  I had the stamp cut.  It's best to wash off your stamp before stamping with it the first time -- I skipped this step, and wish I hadn't!  As I inked the design onto cards, little discarded bits on the stamp made goobers on subsequent prints. 

I cleaned up the stamp and pad, and then created some exciting artworks!

One delightful discovery I made after I printed a bunch of cards was that the design worked no matter which way I turned it.  Now I have a stack of fresh cards to send to family & friends, and that makes me happy.

Welcome Autumn!