Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Have you tried stamp carving yet?

 

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Spring means an abundance of fresh veggies, in my case our garden is providing a bounty of crisp radishes!  Not only tasty….but photogenic.  Intrigued I was inspired to play with my food…..so I took photos of bunches of radishes and small bouquets of radishes.

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I shared some of these photos on Face book and my friend, Thea, suggested that these photos might translate well into a multi-plate stamp.  That inspired me to…….

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…..draw a sketch with a #2 pencil.  Then, I transferred the drawing onto the “Speedycut” (a pink rubber material). 

To transfer, placed the drawing face down onto the rubber substrate and rub the back of the drawing to transfer the graphite from the pencil sketch onto the pink rubber.

 

 

 

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Now, take out your handy, dandy carving tool and spend a relaxing hour, or less, removing the part of the stamp where you do not want the ink to print

 

 

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I always stamp one or two proof stamps, then, make any needed adjustments to the stamp.

For this step, I use a stamping pad that has water soluble ink, that is easily washed off the stamp. Then I stamp onto a piece of scrap paper.

I like the lines in the background, you may not….so you can carve them off, if you like.  You could, also, carve more detail on the leaves….so many decisions!

 

 

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I stamped this using ink pads meant for rubber stamping, not printing ink.

I am going to carve another plate to print the radish (red part)….I tried to mask it and print from this one plate.  That doesn’t work very well, as you can tell from the red ink bleed.

But, that’s O.K., I’ve just made another proof!!  I’ll share the finished piece with you, later.

 

 

Next, I’m going to challenge myself with this project…..I’ll carve three, maybe, four plates.  That should be interesting, since I’ve not tried that before.

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If, you haven’t tried stamp carving and have always wanted to…..just do it!  It is very easy and fun.  On top of which, you’ll have some very cool and original stamps to use in your artwork.

Let me know what you carve, I’d love to see it. 

8 comments:

elle said...

wow, I'm not sure which is more impressive- real raishes or stamped radishes. Very neat idea.

Sheila said...

I can't wait to try this out Thursday! Yay, see you then!

Sheila

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I have enough trouble trying to carve ONE stamp. I am very impressed that you intend to make TWO. This seems like such a time consuming task. I love what you are doing, but I fear it is not something I'll be trying any time soon.

Wildflowerhouse said...

I bought the materials to try this now I just need to DO IT. Yours turned out great.

Grandma Yellow Hair said...

Wow I can't believe how well these turned out.
Glad you shared this with us.
Hope your doing well
Maggie

Halle said...

Oh yum! I love readishes...esp. with potato chips. Seriously...if you haven't tried the combo, you are seriously missing out.
Anyway...I've never tried stamp carving. It seems so cool and I think I'd love ti but I CAN NOT add anymore things to my crazy collection.
So glad that you did though...

Julie said...

These radishes (al of them),are so pretty....love the ones you used as models...and the stamps are gorgeous!!!

nancy said...

I haven't tried that since high school. I remember how fun. I also remember how sharp the blades get. be careful, or maybe they changed a lot since then. have fun with it. I love art! Nancy