...so this week the 'some-artform-a-day' medium was stamp making.
So much to do, so little time! Am I the only one with this problem? It seems like creatives around the world are producing artistic wonders 24/7, but that's of course an illusion created so easily on social media...and I comfort myself that we all have the same 24 hours at our disposal. Life in general just seems to short for all the things I still want to do. And the only solution: better get going!
I have a whole list of these daily mini-arts series I'd love to do, and love the bit of variety and energy it brings into the day. I saw a pic of someone who had a whole arsenal of stamps made from wine corks, and decided to give it a go, since the other half and I do enjoy the more-than-occasional bottle of vineyard wonder. And surprise surprise, it works much better than I anticipated. The natural graininess of the cork, which I thought would render it useless for carving and stamp making, actually lends quite well to the resulting print. Since the corks are relatively small, the designs need to be simple, which makes them very suitable for pattern making or simple images that can produce a lovely card, like my symbolically appropriate wine glass, Day 5.
Day 3 was produced from a piece cut off a thick felt place mat I bought in South Africa on our visit last year, specifically for using as a stencil or a stamp. It worked really well, especially since the felt is porous and holds lots of ink. It's a little like printing with a stamp pad that has the design already cut out!
Birdcage on Day 4 is the product of a piece of flooring rubber, which I often substitute for lino. It carves easily and comes in at a fraction of the cost of art-shop lino.
The mushroom-trio on Day 6 springs of course from my fascination with wild fungi. These delicate wonders would be the fairy-bonnet Mycena species, that would appear like miniature little parasols on the lawn before dawn and reward the early riser, to literally dissolve in the first heat of the sun.
The curly ' Waterfall' stamp on Day 7 was needed for a mixed media commission I'm working on. Often the textures of the cut stamp are prettier to me than the print itself, and this is a good example.
I'm a bit sad to move on to something else next week, I love printmaking and there are so many ideas burning in my head for a chance to see the light. Maybe I should extend Stamp-a day with another week...and who said I couldn't?
So much to do, so little time! Am I the only one with this problem? It seems like creatives around the world are producing artistic wonders 24/7, but that's of course an illusion created so easily on social media...and I comfort myself that we all have the same 24 hours at our disposal. Life in general just seems to short for all the things I still want to do. And the only solution: better get going!
I have a whole list of these daily mini-arts series I'd love to do, and love the bit of variety and energy it brings into the day. I saw a pic of someone who had a whole arsenal of stamps made from wine corks, and decided to give it a go, since the other half and I do enjoy the more-than-occasional bottle of vineyard wonder. And surprise surprise, it works much better than I anticipated. The natural graininess of the cork, which I thought would render it useless for carving and stamp making, actually lends quite well to the resulting print. Since the corks are relatively small, the designs need to be simple, which makes them very suitable for pattern making or simple images that can produce a lovely card, like my symbolically appropriate wine glass, Day 5.
Day 3 was produced from a piece cut off a thick felt place mat I bought in South Africa on our visit last year, specifically for using as a stencil or a stamp. It worked really well, especially since the felt is porous and holds lots of ink. It's a little like printing with a stamp pad that has the design already cut out!
Birdcage on Day 4 is the product of a piece of flooring rubber, which I often substitute for lino. It carves easily and comes in at a fraction of the cost of art-shop lino.
The mushroom-trio on Day 6 springs of course from my fascination with wild fungi. These delicate wonders would be the fairy-bonnet Mycena species, that would appear like miniature little parasols on the lawn before dawn and reward the early riser, to literally dissolve in the first heat of the sun.
The curly ' Waterfall' stamp on Day 7 was needed for a mixed media commission I'm working on. Often the textures of the cut stamp are prettier to me than the print itself, and this is a good example.
I'm a bit sad to move on to something else next week, I love printmaking and there are so many ideas burning in my head for a chance to see the light. Maybe I should extend Stamp-a day with another week...and who said I couldn't?
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