Hand Carved Stamps and Letterboxing Workshop

On Saturday, April 14, we had a delightful and different workshop lead by Judy Rishel. It was actually a two for one type of workshop. We learned about "Letterboxing" and carving stamps.

We started with letterboxing. Judy brought her friend, TJ, who is a fellow letterboxing person. They told us that letterboxing is “like a treasure hunt type of game.” One does not look for general types of items but rather a letter box placed by another individual. Inside that letter box is a stamp (usually hand carved) and a log book. Judy carries her own personal log book which she uses to record what letterbox she found and uses the stamp she found to mark in her own book. She does the same thing to the log book she found. She then replaces the letterbox and moves on. 

This has become a popular activity with websites (atlasquest.com) involved that give a clue to finding your next letterbox. There are also groups who get together either in person or digitally to have fun with this. Variations are out there too. You might find a Hitchhiker box along with the regular letterbox. Take it with you to leave it at your next letterbox discovery.

Then we settled down to making our own stamps.  Some members bought materials purchased in advance by NORBAG and others brought their own.  There are two generally available types of carving blocks: Speedycut (pink) and Moo carve (grey/beige), both easily carved. Carving kits can be purchased at your local craft or fine art stores. We started with two blades, first a larger U shaped cutter for larger cuts and a small U shaped cutter for finer lines. We transferred patterns to the carving blocks using tracing paper and graphite or just drawing on our stamps. 

Most of us started out with the tools pictured above. The Speedball starter kit includes 3 cutting tips. The pink and grey squares are the carving blocks. We brought some ink pads (with a raised surface) for testing and trading stamps. You can also see a syringe needle in the picture. Judy brought large gauge needles from the vet's office that are great for very fine carving.

Judy showed the result of making a very large stamp.

 We aren't limited to just a little tiny stamp.

These items are on our Show and Tell table.
 There are four novel uses for our stamps. 

TJ made each of us an embossed image of one of her stamps. Judy also mentioned that you could use markers to color your stamps. As usual, in NORBAG, imagination will lead you to try other things... perhaps on monoprints using a gelli sheet.

The next few pictures are simply of people working on their carvings.

A little skunk. Check out the pictures toward the end and you will see it used.

A printing press. If you look at the carving tool, you can see that it has

been used in a pen base. You are able to hold it like a pen. 

When transferring your pattern onto the carving block, be sure to put letters

and numbers in reverse. This stamp made great use of the background pattern.

This is a good picture of the carving tool. This is one of the fine carving tips. 

Using one of the wide tools to make the open spaces in these windows.

This is the beginnings of a Humboldt banana slug.

A carving with initials.

Here are the finished stamps. Some of these were shown above in the process of being carved.

CARVING PRINTING BLOCKS

Have you had trouble finding just the right stamp to use for a project? If so, the April NORBAG workshop is one you won't want to miss. Judy Rishel will show us how to carve a small printing block. She will cover how to transfer a design to the printing block and carving techniques using different tools. 

Judy will also share information about her Letterboxing hobby and show us some of her many journals filled with stamps from around the country. Letterboxers often choose to carve/print an image that represents themselves...such as a flower for a gardener, a bird for a birdwatcher, a musical instrument for a musician, a camera for a photographer, etc., so keep that in mind when you're thinking up an image to carve into your own block. If you would like, bring a small booklet to the workshop so that you can stamp your block and other members' blocks to start your own collection.

What to bring:

• A few or a set of carving blades
• A small block of carving material (2 1/2" x 2 1/2" or a size of your choice) pink Speedball or the softer white MOO Carve
• A simple image you'd like to carve that will fit on your block, best if this is drawn ahead of time in soft pencil on tracing paper. Any text will appear reversed on a block; but that problem is solved when you rub your drawing onto the block, at which time it will automatically reverse. If you're uncertain, Judy can assess your image in advance of carving to make sure it's not too difficult.
• An inked stamp pad with a raised pad for rubbing onto the carved block
• Soft lead pencil
• Eraser
• Scrap paper for practice stamping
• Optional: a small empty booklet to stamp each others' blocks into

Judy will provide:

• Handouts on stamp carving and Letterboxing
• Small leftover pink carving pieces for practice
• Veterinarian needles for intricate carving (to try and/or purchase at $1 each)
• Large sheets of construction paper to lay over your work area
• Letterboxing examples

When:   Saturday, April 14 at 12 noon
Where:  Eureka Methodist Church at Del Norte and F Streets
Bring:    See above list
Cost:     $.50
RSVP:    YES, by April 13 to Judy (contact information in the newsletter)

NORBAG September Workshop - Judy Rishel - WORD BOOKS

In September, 2017, Judy Rishel presented a workshop demonstrating Word Books. These are books whose pages spell a whole word or name when the book is closed. Judy presented two methods of making this book: 1) using a fold over technique that has a piece of paper folded and 2) cut pages (non-fold) method where each page is separate. Judy brought some delightful samples.

Judy is talking about the Word Book "Travel" that she made

These are some samples that Judy brought. The top one is DOG complete with a dog bone for the hole in the O. Then DECLAN, LOVE, and BOOK.  BOOK was made and painted by Judy's 11 year old granddaughter.

This is a a close up picture of her TRAVEL book. If you notice, each letter is the same color but there is an outline around each letter to make the word visible

 We started with deciding on a word, cutting out the alphabet letters needed and taping them to the end of plain text weight paper. This would give us a template to put on the poster board for the final book.

Judy had a visual sample of how the first step of the template would look. 

We then took the strips and put them together so that you could easily see each letter. With a few cuts and a bit of adhesive tape, we put them together and had our template.

Taping the letters to the text weight paper and laying them out in order to have a nice layout

Once the pages are laid out, they are clipped together and cut.  Note: if we were making the folded card, we would proceed to the next step. If we were using the cut page (non-fold) method, skip the next step and go to putting the template directly on the poster board.

Once cut, we tape the strips together so that when we fold them, they will nest in the proper order

 The next thing we do is to use these as templates and transfer to the poster board we brought. This being NORBAG, some of our members made the templates first and then moved to poster board while others went directly to poster board without the all white template.

At this point, the pages are folded, nested together and bound.  The pamphlet stitch works nicely with the folded version and both versions can use punched holes, staples (covered with washi tape) or even stab binding. The pages can be decorated with almost anything. Some used decorative papers or simply different colors of poster board (or card stock). For the letters to stand out, it is best to have some kind of contrast between letters. For example, use different colors, or patterns. Another way to make the letters show up well is by having an outline of the letter.

SAMPLES WE MADE

Polka Dot?!

 Judy didn't stop there. She provided an excellent set of instructions for our workshop and then lined a table with letters for other words.

Don't forget, we have pictures of the exchange books themed as "Second Chance" on Flickr. They will be up by September 25. Have a look, they are great in color. You can find them by going to NORBAG.blogspot.com then tapping on the link in the left hand column that says "Guild Flickr Gallery."

LET'S MAKE A WORD BOOK

Judy Rishel will lead the September workshop where we will create a book that spells out a single word. In these books, the edge of the page is the next letter of a word. Each letter sticks out farther than the letter/page before so the whole word can be seen at once. That means that each page is a different length. Judy will have the following word patterns available: LOVE, TEAM, SMILE, DAD, MOM, TRAVEL, BABY, DOG, plus a pattern for all 26 letters. The advantage to these books is that you can make up any word you want to personalize a book for a special person or event. Judy will also demonstrate several different ways to finish off the spine of the book.

A sample of an undecorated word book

Materials and Tools to bring:

• Bone folder
• Glue
• Ruler
• Awl
• Scotch tape
• Pencil
• Good scissors for curved cutting
• Thread and needle
• Hole punch (if you have one)
• Paper: 10 sheets of text weight paper
• White poster board: purchase this at the Dollar Store (2 for $1.00). This product is a lighter weight that Judy prefers for this project.
• Paper cutter

What will be provided:

• Word book patterns and individual letters
• Directions to make word books with spine variations
• "O" rings
• Judy's thread box
• Scrapbook color paper
• Paper cutter

WHEN:   Saturday September 9 at 12 noon
WHERE:  Eureka Methodist Church at Del Norte & F Streets
BRING:   See above list
RSVP:    YES, by September 8 to Judy (contact information is in the newsletter).
COST:    $1.00

October 2015 NORBAG workshop - Zentangle

Judy Rishel lead us in the exploration of Zentangle. Judy's first exposure to Zentangle was at a 2013 NORBAG Zentangle workshop by Peggy Marrs. Later, Judy saw a Zentangle event at a conference she attended and was so interested that she took several classes. She feels it is "an art form that has exploded because you don't have to be an artist to do it! And there are no mistakes when doing Zentangle." No erasers, no rulers. Just a pen, a small 3.5-inch square of paper and and a pencil for shading.

Zentangle is different from doodling. Doodling is random. It can be almost anything. Zentangle is abstract and uses repetitive patterns made up of one or more of the following strokes: a circle, a curved line (like a C), a reversed curse (like an S) a straight line or a dot. A pattern is formed and then repeated. The object is to lose yourself in the drawing (Zen) without concern for the outcome.

Judy provided us with a delightful materials kit. We had an instruction sheet with patterns to use, white and black tiles to draw on, pre-drawn shapes to fill in with Zentangle patterns and even a template for a box that we could decorate and use to store our tiles.

For reference, Judy brought commercial instruction books, and a number of her own notebooks demonstrating ways to keep your own finished pieces, works in progress and pattern samples and practice.

Judy started the day with a white board. She drew three wavy lines (called a string) that we used to divide the Zentangle tile. Then she suggested four different patterns to use within those lines.

 And look at the variety of tiles that resulted.

Color, black and white and pencil. And each one is unique. 

 Judy's last words to us: "Remember, there are no mistakes, and don't forget to breathe." And then we did what we always do. We laughed and played and made tiles.

Black paper using white jelly roll pen

Using a pre-drawn shape

Using one of the commercial Zentangle books as inspiration

Using a gold metallic gel pen on both white and black surfaces

 

Creating letters with one of the commercial books as inspiration

Our October Book Exchange theme was "Falling Leaves" or "Autumn Colors." You can tap the Flickr Photos button on the left to see them in color.

Watch for the next workshop that will be shown here around the beginning of the month.

ZENTANGLE FUN at the October Workshop!

Judy Rishel invites everyone to join her for an afternoon of Zen calm while learning the art of tangling. She explains her workshop as an "art form that has exploded because you don't have to be an artist to do it! I will share the classic form on a tile showing some designs that you build up one line at a time. You will receive some handouts with more in-depth information about this method along with forms to build your own Zentangle pattern. In your kit will be other materials to tangle on like bookmarks, flowers, mandalas, a ready-made picture, and cards to make. After some practice patterns you can explore on your own and 'play' with the many materials available like Zentangle pattern books, finished samples, string suggestions, letters, and stencils to use to draw your own Zentangle. Come and enjoy!"

Samples of Judy's fun Zentangles

What to bring:

• Micron pens in various sizes - thin .02, medium .05, thick .08
• Small sharp scissors
• White gel pens

What will be provided:

• Handouts with in-depth information
• Materials for making bookmarks, flowers, cards and more

When:  Saturday October 10 at 12 noon
Where: Eureka Methodist Church at Del Norte & F Streets
Cost:    A Smile!
RSVP    YES! by Oct. 8. 
             See Judy's contact information in the newsletter