QUARTER STAMP WORKSHOP

This September, Kenzie Mullen led us in a “Quarter Stamp” workshop that built upon a workshop in 2018 by Judy Rishel (letterboxing and hand-made stamps to use in letterboxing). Quarter stamps are a single square stamp that can be rotated 90° around a center point resulting in a larger design.

Kenzie brought all kinds of samples for us to try as well as suggesting other places for design inspiration such as zentangles, construction tiles, and geometric designs. The individual stamps don’t always have to be used in a set of four, but can also serve as a border using one stamp or multiples.

These examples show that the lines can be either delicate or bold.

Kenzie showed us that the tiles can be in a four group set (left top and bottom) or lined up in one layer side to side for a border or even grouped in multiples for an overall design.

On the right, is an example of how the tiles don't need to be

 used to make a square. 

Three separate petal stamps make a flower. There is no limit to

the design possibilities.

More examples. These made by Cheri Aldrich

Kenzie also brought the material that we used for carving. She brought Moo Carving blocks that were one inch square and ¾” thick. Because of the thickness, we could actually use the underside for a second carving. She explained that we have many choices for carving, but she likes the Moo because of its softness and thickness (allowing us to carve on both top and bottom surfaces). Most of us brought our own Speedball carving tools and Kenzie brought some spares to share. We used a well-inked dye based stamp pad for viewing our results.

Kenzie stressed that we should take care with the carving tools because they are extremely sharp so we should always cut away from ourselves. The sharpness enabled us to make very bold designs and also some very delicate ones too. She brought ideas about how to store our stamps. She suggested a small notebook or pamphlet stitched book and have a single example of the stamp and then the variations below. Number the page and put the same number on your stamp to facilitate finding which stamp to use.

Kenzie with her examples.

Carving the block with a design marked with a Sharpie Pen.

In this photo, one of our members is using a pen nib holder.

It works as well as the other carving nib holders. 

Workshops are an excellent time to collaborate. 

Getting first looks to see what we can do with a stamp.

Trying different ways of putting the stamp on paper.

And the results!
(Click on any of these to see them in a larger size.)