stamping ahead

Spent the whole weekend carving, cutting and stamping. Filled half a drawing pad with patterns, but don't want to bog you down :). Being a weaver i tend to work with the classic repeats i.e. drop, half drop brick etc.
But i'm trying to break away and do a little experimentation. Here's a composite of the first 3 stamps alone and together with a bit of color. i'm trying to standardize the exercise by keeping it black and white and when using color using the same colors. Not very exciting, but as i see i'm still at a learning phase. The production phase will come later on.

neki desu

rubber eraser stamps

I carved these 21 stamps from erasers. (Blue block) I made some more using foam mounted onto mount board but made such a mess when I tried to print with them, I won't show you those - I will have to find some thicker foam.

I had a play overlapping some of the stamps, the white background is a bit stark, but I can see possibilities. I used chalk stamps on paper, it will be interesting to see how these work using textile paint on fabric.

Now if I could only get blogger to accept where I want the pics to go I will be happy!!

of stamps and stamping

i'm carving erasers like a maniac. Have also tried cutting a sponge mat i have, but i don't like the way the stamp behaves when covered with paint nor the resulting print. Perhaps the sponge should be denser. Will look into that. i also located rubber by the meter and i'm also trying that. But it's a royal PITA.
Being more effective at the computer than with carving tools this is some of the work i've done so far.

• Image 1 original cut out ex#1
• Image 2 area selected for pattern
• Image 3 pattern made square
  
• Image 4 defined pattern flood fill- not good
  
• Image 5 seamless pattern same image but made seamless. Note stray pixels on the left hand side and cleaned image on the right.
• Image 6 Seamless pattern flood fill, gradient background. Image rotated 90ºleft.

Not sure if this is considered cheating or not.


neki desu

Excercise 2 -- Stamp Pattern, Stamp, and Plastic Thingy

Forgot to post the picture. I think doing the stamp excercise is going to be interesting. I'm already seeing pattern possibilities to everything I look at. Cutting the stamps is another matter . . . . .

Excercise 2 -- Stamp Making

Thirty days of making stamps will either improve my ability greatly, or result in severely cut up hands and fingers. At least I'm working with a color now, if only brown!

This design was copied from a little plastic thingy that holds the legs together on rotisserie chickens. I have collected a pile of them -- finally found a use for the design at least. Even though a simple repeat, it is more pleasing to me than the black and white grid designs.

Really hope to get comments (critiques). I'm finding that having others to work with makes the doing of all this interesting. Getting (and giving) some strengthening critiques could add a whole lot more to making use of this book. TIA

Stamp Carving

I carved four stamps using two erasers, both sides. This is a combination of the four designs. I think I like best the one that looks like a ladder. I now have four carved, that means 26 more to go! Good thing I love carving stamps...I find it very relaxing (and messy).

irresistible color

No matter how you spell it, color certainly makes the exercise more fun.

I used two different stamps and overlapped - precise and careful. My usual mode. Or is it a rut? Looks like a curtain design from the late 50's, early 60's doesn't it?

The red squares are filled in with a brush and paint. They are the impressions of the clamp I used to keep the foam on while the glue dried. I left a couple of them white on the upper right. I think filling them in really improves the design.



Now this one is a mess - but it's not precise, not in my rut, is it? I like the top better than the bottom but I was getting tired of seeing the white cardstock, so I thought I would just cover it. Yuk. Better to start over on fabric and do the squiggles again. Tomorrow.

Couldn't resist colour...

The lure of colour was far too great! Spent quite some time playing with the cut stamps and above are a selection of examples. Printed within a stencil, as suggested in the book, could have gone on and on as this idea held me and plan to take it further although not entirely sure in what direction! Very useful as a layer of surface decoration to build onto further.
Have now cut reverse image of three stamps so have pairs of wings!
Also printed onto a piece of fabric, just a tiny bit(no self control).

mission impossible

When I made this stamp, I thought of it as an unfinished star. Vivian saw it as a lemon slice. Now that I've stamped it on fabric in an interlocking style, there are giant Ss!

Maybe it needs some more marks on it. I'll save it for a future exercise.

I used a Staz-on stamp pad. Then I turned it over and it says "not recommended for fabric." Hmmm, wonder if it will self-destruct in 30 seconds?

Printing Blocks

Blocks were made from childrens "funky foam" mounted onto foam core board, have always found this the easiest way to make printing blocks.
Wrestled with my fear of white paper and after printing into pre-painted sketch book I printed onto A4 sheets of paper, really to enable to reduce/enlarge and print just using black and white. Prefer the paisley shapes, definately "wings" in the making but hadn't noticed until I started printing although Wendy had. Looking forward to further development of these.

At first I thought, "drat, I'm getting an imprint of the edge of lid."









And then I thought, "wow, I'm getting an imprint of the edge of the lid!"

I used a Staz-on green stamp pad at first and then without cleaning it, added watered down Golden acrylics spread out on a nonstick craft sheet.

These are stamps made by cutting out phun foam and glueing it on plastic lids. I think the almost clear lids will make it easy to place the stamps - except of course, on black fabric.
It was just a repeat of the circle exercise - I cut out a circle and then dissected and reassembled them almost duplicating the paper circles.