OMG, Don't Tell Me I Have A New Art Obsession!

Yep, it's true.  I do.  At least it's not one that requires electronics, toxic chemicals or other expensive/dangerous supplies.  It's stamp carving and I AM HOOKED!

Last Saturday I went downtown for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's awesome stamp carving class, sponsored by The Ink Pad, and held in Westbeth's awesome Community Room.

You know that art friends are the best friends, so this was even more fun because I went with two of my best buds, Heidi and Pat.

Here is a photo I swiped right off of Julie's blog. (Please click on Julie's highlighted name above to visit her wonderful blog and read her take on the class). That's Pat, me, and Heidi very busy carving away:



Julie taught us a very cool three step process for producing stamped images that look very much like screen prints.  All you need is the carving material and the tools, all of them very reasonably priced.  You print with the paints and inks you already have, so no special items needed there.

Basically you draw or transfer the same exact image on three separate carving blocks, and cut away different parts on each.  I won't give any more details than that.  You really should try to take Julie's class if this interests you.  She's funny, talented, and a very thorough teacher.

I will show you one of the stamps, just so you get an idea of what it looks like.

Maybe it doesn't look like much, but when combined with the other two stamps, I think it produces a pretty neat image.

My second set of stamps were of a sort of weedy looking plant.

When I got home I printed a series and put it together to create this wall hanging.  I think repetitions like this are nice and dramatic.





And now I think I need to order some more carving blocks.  As obsessions go, this one is pretty sane.