NEW DISCOVERY!

A few weeks ago, Jane Ferguson, (yes, the infamous Jane) brought this idea to Critique group. Jane and I seem to be tuning into the same channel of creativity. Lately, our work has been eerily synchronistic! Stamping and making my own collage paper is exciting to me. We had just taken a workshop with Betsy Dillard Stroud who showed us how to carve simple stamps from this soft material commercially available through art supply stores and catalogues. It runs about $3 for a 4 x 6 piece, on up. Well, Jane showed up with some vinyl floor moulding( you know the stuff they put around the bottom of the walls so the vacuum cleaner doesn't mark up the wall)....$2.50 for a very long strip from the hardware store...and it turns out one can easily carve into it with the Speedball cutters....the upturned edge even acts as a handy handle! You can cut the strip with a scissors, easily, into what ever length you want. Naturally, I rushed to the hardware store on my way home from Critique that day but Friday was the first chance I had to actually make some stamps. The first image shows the two stamps I have carved, so far, the Speedball cutter and the stamped sheet I made. I used a wet watercolor stick from Daniel Smith to "ink" the back of the stamp. I like how it stamped in an irregular manner. I had to spray the sheet with Acrylic Spray so the color wouldn't smear when I collaged it down. The second image is a collaged sheet of watercolor paper using the new stamped paper. I haven't decided if I will cut up this sheet into smaller images or use the entire piece for a background.

A word of caution....always push the cutter AWAY from you as you carve and keep your fingers behind the cutting blade. Most of the Speedball cutter handles have a removable cap where you can store the extra cutters in the hollow handle!