Have you tried stamp carving yet?

 

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.

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…….

 

 

 

…..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.

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.