Just go real slow and be careful

--- Lisa M wrote:

---------------------------------
Hi All~

We just bought our first Speedy-Stamp and are ready to
carve away. I
just read all the advice you all had for transferring
images. Good
stuff to know. Does anyone have any other tips for
successful
carving?

Happy Boxing!
Lisa



=====
The Maplines

Mary & Paul

P 28 F 340 X 112 HH 31 E2 V2

It's better to cut too little and go back and shave more off, than to gouge too depp and lose material. If you cut at an angle, so that the edges look like a pyramid's slope, then the raised part is still good, and the base is more solid. After a while, when I get a good feel for the stamp being 90% done I ink it up and look at the penultimate image. That's where I see the real irregularities.
Keep your eye on the ball.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mary & Paul The Map Lines
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: [LbNA] Speedy-Stamp Tips


Just go real slow and be careful

--- Lisa M wrote:

---------------------------------
Hi All~

We just bought our first Speedy-Stamp and are ready to
carve away. I
just read all the advice you all had for transferring
images. Good
stuff to know. Does anyone have any other tips for
successful
carving?

Happy Boxing!
Lisa



=====
The Maplines

Mary & Paul

P 28 F 340 X 112 HH 31 E2 V2

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Not original to me, but someone once suggested starting your carving
with the hardest area, so if you mess it up you haven't wasted all
the time which would have beed spent on the easy part.
I've found this also is easier on the MIND, as I'd rather
have, "Say, that wasn't so bad; it's downhill from here," than the
increasing tension of, "Yeah, so far, so good, but can I do THAT
part?"
Aud

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "cahillymom"
wrote:
>someone once suggested starting your carving with the hardest area,

When I do an event stamp I try to put any text portion on one piece
of pink stuff and the ornate figural part on another. Then they can
either be separate stamps or glued onto one piece of wood as a single
stamp. I find the text portion has to be done several times, the
first time being correction of the backwards letters. Of course I
have also faced carving all the letters correctly and ending up with
the word printing backwards. Talk about left brain right brain
confusion!

Judy B
sewsowbizzy. . . thgir ot tfel gnidaer

To avoid mistakes with reversal, you could tape your drawing backwards to a bright window, or hold it against a mirror before beginning to carve. A very simple, makeshift lightbox can also be made by using a box with holes cut in the sides for ventilation, a fluorescent light strip, and a piece of Plexiglas for the top. Translucent Plexiglas is best, but clear will work too. You can also make it translucent by sanding it. Then you can work on your drawings from either direction with ease by simply flipping them and taping them to the top of the lightbox. You can write your words the usual way, then reverse the whole thing easily. It helps if the box is shallow enough that your arms aren't going to be way off the work surface. But in a pinch, a bright window will do nearly as well-- at any art school you would find many students with drawings taped to the window. I don't feel I'm explaining this very well-- if someone wants to take another shot at it, go ahead! I see a lot of people trying to actually trying to do mirror-writing because they know it will have to be reversed to come out right. The lettering ends up looking like a child wrote it. But lettering comes out so much better (unless you are Leonardo...Da Vinci, not DiCaprio!) if you simply do it left to right since that is what you're used to, and reverse the image with a method like this before applying it to the stamp. If you are one of the people who does the low-tech method of transfer (rubbing the back of the drawing to transfer the graphite to your carving medium), it sure helps to be able to reverse your drawing. Just copy it darkly onto the other side with the help of the light source behind the paper. Now use this side instead to make the transfer. Softer pencils transfer easier, but more detail can be gotten with medium ones. You could try Ebony pencils. They are very dark, but not so soft. I haven't tried them for transferring, but they're favorites for drawing. --lunaryakketyact

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

"If you are one of the people who does the low-tech method of
transfer (rubbing the back of the drawing to transfer the graphite
to your carving medium), it sure helps to be able to reverse your
drawing. Just copy it darkly onto the other side with the help of
the light source behind the paper. Now use this side instead to make
the transfer."
No, that's wrong. Since a reverse image on the stamp makes a correct
image in ink, it goes vice-versa to make the stamp. A correct image
on the paper, in graphite, prints the desired reverse image on the
stamp.
Sewsowbusy: ignore that - I'm looking forward to the pmats tneve
gnissorC s'notgnihsaW.
For my last stamp I printed a photo the size I wanted the stamp, but
on regular 8.5 x 11 paper, way off center. Scribbled all over the
back of the picture to make "carbon paper", then folded the paper.
By tracing the outlines and coloring the dark parts of the photo, I
got my B&W copy, and the fold let me peek at the results without
messing up alignment. I then added the lettering to the copy,
darkened it all and rubbed it off onto the pink stuff.
Aud

Really, really low tech. I print out the image exactly as I want it to
look. I run a pencil around the edges of the image, just as it appears. Then
I flip it onto the pink stuff and rub, so the pencil transfers to the rubber.
Carve around the design, and it will look exactly as the printed image did,
letters and all. Well, almost. My edges may be a bit more wiggly, but
that's another matter entirely.

DebBee


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Clip art!
For those of us who are somewhat drawing impaired. My favorite site
for Black and White clip art is at microsoft's website. But the trick
to finding black and white is to scroll down to their list of items
and choose black and white and THEN back up to search and choose what
you want, like a squirrel or a dog, which will now be only black and
white. It took me awhile to figure this out. After you download it
[maybe to clip organizer if your windows version is new enough], I
copy to my clipboard and put it into word and with the curser on the
clip art, left click twice, choose the size tab and make it the exact
size I want. I then print it out and take it to a copy machine and go
home to iron it on [Low heat, lots of pressure]
When I carve the stamp, I use speedball tools and do creative stuff to
the background and add a stripe or two on the squirrel and presto, it
looks like my own art not clip art!
Have fun playing..........
Nisha

A tip to add to this. If you have a program like Microsoft PictureIt!
You can take any color picture and make it into a black and white. =]

I also use pictures from PrintShop Pro and alter them as needed =]


Debbi

-----Original Message-----
From: nishakamada [mailto:nishakamada@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 11:28 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] Re: Speedy-Stamp Tips


Clip art!
For those of us who are somewhat drawing impaired. My favorite site
for Black and White clip art is at microsoft's website. But the trick
to finding black and white is to scroll down to their list of items
and choose black and white and THEN back up to search and choose what
you want, like a squirrel or a dog, which will now be only black and
white. It took me awhile to figure this out. After you download it
[maybe to clip organizer if your windows version is new enough], I
copy to my clipboard and put it into word and with the curser on the
clip art, left click twice, choose the size tab and make it the exact
size I want. I then print it out and take it to a copy machine and go
home to iron it on [Low heat, lots of pressure]
When I carve the stamp, I use speedball tools and do creative stuff to
the background and add a stripe or two on the squirrel and presto, it
looks like my own art not clip art!
Have fun playing..........
Nisha




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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]