100 Days of Hand-Carved Stamps: Week 3 Update


It's hard to believe I am already finishing my third week of 100 Days of Hand-Carved Stamps! Week 3 yielded 11 hand-carved stamps...

and lots of stamped patterns which you can view below to learn more about the inspiration and process. 

15/100: Skinny/Rectangle + Artist's Choice


"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
-Mark Twain, American Writer
Today's carving started with a leftover scrap of soft carving block. Once I got started it was hard to stop printing! Many of the stamped patterns were heavily influenced by traditional quilt blocks: pinwheels, rail fence, and chinese coins.

16/100: Square + Lines

"Someday all you will have to light your way will be a single ray of hope and that will be enough."
-Kobi Yamada, New York Times best-selling author

Channeling hope for a better tomorrow...

17/100: Leaf/Orange Peel + Nature

"Being a fish out of water is tough, but that's how you evolve."
-Kumail Nanjiani, Pakistani Comedian

Lots of evolution going on at the present. I've been wanting to add some fish to the mix so a leaf shape made for the perfect fish body and a small scrap was used for the fin. I did a practice stamp on a practice wave of blue arches which I just loved. I hope to add some more fish friends in the future...

18/100: Artist's Choice + Repeat Patterns


Why won’t triangles go on dates with circles?
They’re pointless.

This carved stamp required a bit of engineering and planning to get all the wedges to create a secondary triangle design. I did a quick sketch to ensure it could work and was pleasantly surprised when it actually did work!!


19/100: Triangle + Nature


Changing it up with not one but 4 carved stamps today in honor of the changing seasons. To honor the triangle roll, I carved a triangular tree trunk and branches that would fit with triangle top. But I couldn't resist adding a more rectangular and circular tree tops!

I had fun mixing up the orientation, layering, and color of the various stamps to create my various orchards. Thankfully I had recently ordered brown ink pads, which was surprising as I don't use a lot of brown in my art. But they came in handy for stamping out these tree trunks and branches. At first I stamped the tree trunk/branches and layered the tops on top with ghost prints included (top two photos below). And then I stamped the tree tops first followed by the trunk/branches (bottom two photos below). Both yield a slightly different look. 

"Embrace the seasons and cycles of your life. There is magic in change."
-Bronnie Ware, Australian Author and Songwriter

And then it was fun to use different ink pads to create the changing seasons. 


And while I designed the stamps with one orietnation in mind, it was fun to rotate them for all new tree designs!

20/100: Square + Artist's Choice

When I first rolled the dice, I kept getting 3 for triangle. But since I've done several triangle designs this week, I opted to reroll and got another 3, and another 3. Finally I rolled a 4 for square but still honored the original triangle roll with today's carved design.

Tonight's carved stamp is fairly simple in shape and design. 

Yet it's super versatile when used in a standard grid layout and then layered with orientation changes, a second color, and overlapped stamps. My pattern play got more and more exciting with these layered designs!!
"It's always interesting exploring something that has dimensions and layers to it."
-Tahir Raj Bhasin, Indian Actor

21/100: Skinny/Rectangle + Text

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some, but for everyone"
-Lyrics by David Hal / Bacharach Burt F

Sending some love out into the world with a hand carved Love Letter. It was fun to stamp out with just the text or mix with a previously carved heart stamp.

Time sure flies when you are having fun! Here are the first 21 days of Hand-Carved Stamps. It's fun to see them grow in quantity and complexity! Can't wait to see what designs emerge over the next 79 days!




Comments