100 Days of Hand-Carved Stamps: Week 4 Update

 

Time for Week 4's Carving and Stamping update with 11 newly carved stamps...

and new technical challenges, which hold lots of pattern potential as you'll see below...

22/100: Square + Lines

"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

-Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born inventor, scientist, and engineer

I rarely listen to tv or background music during my evening carving/stamping sessions. Being totally focused and in the moment allows me the opportunity to consider new pattern possibilities such as carving textures into the alternating rays, different pattern layouts, and playing with ghost prints and overlapped colors (which you can see in-progress below).

23/100:Triangle + Artist's Choice

"The creative process is not like a situation where you get struck by a single lightning bolt. You have ongoing discoveries, and there's ongoing creative revelations. Yes, it's really helpful to be marching toward a specific destination, but, along the way, you must allow yourself room for your ideas to blossom, take root, and grow."

-Carlton Cuse, American Screenwriter, Producer, and Director

Design ideas continue to blossom, grow root, and grow with each day. I especially enjoy studying mexican tile work for design inspiration. It's fun to deconstruct the tile designs into quadrants for carving and stamping!

24:100: Circle + Nature

“There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist/Poet

Many thanks to my college advisor for identifying Charles Rennie Mackintosh as the architect/designer that originated the Mackintosh Rose aka Glasgow Rose. These Art Nouveau roses were so much fun to carve that I created a smaller version to create a pair of perfect roses, which were complemented with a few leaf stamps.

25/100: Triangle + Repeat Patterns

Drawing inspiration from ancient Mesopatamia for tonight's stamp thanks to the book: Pattern Motifs by Graham Leslie McCallum. It's packed with hundreds of copyright-free motifs inspired by cultures and historical periods: Plenty of design inspiration for future carving sessions...

Psst...Graham Leslie McCallum has published several motif books including flowers/plants, alphabet/letters, and animal/bird/fish...many of which may be found at your local library! 

26/100: Circles/Arcs + Pattern/Repetition

"The rhythm of relations of color and size makes the absolute appear in the relativity of time and space."

-Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter

Carving 3 stamps out from 1 circle + 3 primary colors = lots of pattern potential!! I am sure there are lots more patterns to be printed with these 3 stamps, but my allergies were in overdrive and I could barely keep my eyes open. 

27/100: Triangle(?) + Nature

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do."

-Helen Keller, American Author, Disability Rights Advocate, and Political Activist

Each morning I am excited to roll the dice so I have the day to dream up designs. Despite rolling a three for triangle in the morning, somehow by dinnertime, I had it in my head that I was carving a square. So yeah, sometimes I inadvertently ignore my own dice rolls! 

Building off of yesterday's success, I cut out the center quarter circle for a two-part stamp. This allowed me to play with different colors to create a sunflowers in honor of Ukraine...

28/100: Leaf/Pumpkin Seed + Pattern/Repetition

This leafy shape was super easy to carve using two different textures which could nestle inside or outside to form Xs (aka Kisses) and Os (Hugs)...

And lots of other pattern layouts...

"We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth."

-Virginia Satir, American Author and Pychotherapist

And the collection of stamp prints continues to grow with some complexity being added to the mix!