I come from a long line of sign writers and am happiest with a brush and some paint! Add
paint to fabric and I get really excited!!

Monday, April 30, 2012

This morning as I hung a wash on the clothesline, I saw a scattering of hail on the ground. I had been thinking of doing some fair weather fun outdoors activity during the day, but seeing that hail sent me back indoors! I know, I know. There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing, but really, if I am honest, I have to say I was looking for an excuse to stay in and play.


Whenever I have a day off from my "working to pay bills” job, I usually feel guilty if I don’t do something conducive to keeping the house running smoothly. If it seems I am spending the majority of my time doing things I want to do, I generally panic at some point and either cook something or rush around tidying up. Today I managed to keep all those guilt feelings at bay and other than one load of wash, I seem to have spent the day doing my “stuff”! My stuff included some quilting ( I bought more finger cots and finally found the bag with my quilting needles! YES!) and some stamp carving. 




I love carving stamps, but tend to be frugal with the carving boards because they are fairly costly. I try to remind myself to balance the cost of a large sheet against the number of stamps I can make from it, but it still takes me forever it seems to commit to a design. Today I had fiddleheads and waves on my mind and the process seemed to go a bit faster than normal. So I cleaned up some quick sketches from my moleskin and put knife to block.


Carving a clean design takes me a few steps. After I lay out my design on the block, I make my initial cuts with a small speedball blade (#2), then go back with a larger blade to make deeper cuts (#3). I prefer to leave some background lines, but each time I pull a print, I go back and clean up a bit more until I have the clean edges I want. The real trick is to not take too much - you can always take more away, but you can’t get it back if you have removed too much.



16 comments:

  1. I guessed fiddleheads and I was right! LOVE the stamp -- beautiful, Jennifer! Glad to have found your blog and I'm looking forward to following along!

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  2. I love how you are able to integrate different techniques into your work! I'm curious to see how you will use those fiddleheads....

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    1. Thanks so much and keep an eye out because I can’t seem to stop integrating fiddleheads into everything lately...lol...could it be I am craving spring and summer?

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  3. Love your fiddlehead design.

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  4. I really like your blog header and title. What a great stamp!

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    1. Thanks for all your kind words! The quilt on my header remains my favorite of all my pieces and I seem to want to keep repeating the design with various twists.

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  5. I made stamps like that in school, must put them on my to-do-in-retirement list, just hope mine will turn out half as nice as yours.

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    1. Ah, nothing like a to-do list to keep you motivated! And stamp carving is very forgiving so no doubt you will create wonderful stamps when you get time. They are so fun to make - the simplest design can create the most intricate patterns.

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  6. Hello...visiting from Needle & Thread:) I love the fiddle head block and the print that you made...neat stuff.

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    1. Thanks for visiting and for the kind words! Come back anytime!

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  7. Ooooohh, you make your own stamps!! How cool! What do you carve them from?

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  8. Making your own stamps IS very cool! and very easy! I carved these from Speedball Speedy Carve because that is what is available locally. I tend to buy it when I have one of those 50% off Michael’s coupons. Keep an eye out because I am planning on posting a simple tutorial on stamp making - hopefully sooner than later!

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