Friday, July 06, 2007

Stamps!


More carved blocks
Originally uploaded by pinkbathtub
Thanks to everybody that wished me well yesterday. I had a much better night sleeping last night and feel much better this morning as a result. It is a amazing how much more rested one can end up feeling when you don't wake up to puke in the middle of the night!

Anyhow, I am inspired by this gorgeous set of stamps by pinkbathtub and the stamp making photopool on Etsy. Stamping is so similar to what I do yet so different.

The cheap Speedball stamp material I picked up at Michaels sucked just like I feared it would. I made a decent "thank you stamp" but it isn't very crisp and it really does feel like it is about to fall apart if I don't treat it very gently. A corner (that is not part of the design thankfully) already broke off. I knew the pink stuff is better but they didn't have any plus it is so much more expensive I thought I would give this stuff a go. Plus these inspiring and well carved stamps are not pink so maybe it isn't so bad. Found out they are not carved in the white (actually off white) Speedball material but a totally different brand. A brand that Dick Blick has so I picked up one small block of the pink stuff and one small block of this stuff so I can compare.

My replacement gocco supplies came in the mail yesterday so I can get back to experimenting with that. But of course my studio is too much of a mess right now for goccoing. But I will clean it and get back to messing with it because I would like to see it work! If I do ever get it to work I have this thought of combining gocco printing with stamping. I think it could be cool.

Jon is working from home today and is going to come with me to my appointment with the mid-wife. Just a standard visit. He'll get to hear the heartbeat again and that will be cool. It always is.

Yesterday I decided to raise the price of the piece I blogged about. I've never sold a piece that size for more than $15, but I have grown to love it so much that I just won't part with it for less than $20. I was rather nervous about it when I first made it, about the colors that is why I started with such a small piece. But being a bit daring with color paid off and I ended up with some really strong pieces and that is one of them. One thing I am loving about that ginkgo block is how it works so well for so many different sizes of paper. Anything up to 9"x12".

I hope everybody has a lovely weekend. I'm probably not going to post again until tomorrow. I have a lot to do and have been quite tired lately.

8 comments:

MSN said...

I think that the stuff you are wanting to try is Mastercarve. I use it and LOVE it. It is really thick and lucious and it carves like butter. It is so thick that I can sometimes carve both sides of the block depending on the design. I have some images of stuff I have done with Mastercarve, as well as pictures of a carving in progress, over at my blog (if you feel so inclined)

Glad you are feeling better!

stilettoheights said...

glad you are feeling better today MArissa!!!

xoxoxo

narchi said...

I've been using the off white speedball brand. It doesnt crumble like the pink one.

Let us know how the baby visit goes :]

gilfling said...

Oh that is a beautiful print indeed - I love the details and the colours. Glad you are feeling better and a wee bit more rested.

Marissa L. Swinghammer said...

Thats odd because the white speedball crumbles on me and the pink does not.

I also got some mastercarve stuff and am hopeful about it. I got a thinner piece that I could cut up into small stamps fairly easily. It is 4"x4" and under $2. Not bad at all.

Thanks giftling!

I will certainly check out your blog marysusan!

becca.elpy said...

Wonderful entry. Stamping interests me, but I've never thought of making my own. I'll keep following your blog to see how your experiments turn out. :)

Thought I'd let you know the pinkbathtub link is wonky.

Julie said...

My favorite stuff for carving stamps is still the good old white erasers you can get in the drafting section at any office supply store. There is a size limitation, but I tend to work smaller anyway.

Marissa L. Swinghammer said...

I've had fun playing around carving stamps today. Made a bit of a mess. Now I need to get some stamp pads because the ones I bought really stink. Dye based ink is no good. I could roll out my printmaking ink I guess but I would rather not go through such a bother for stamps.