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Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153296 by knit wit
Nov 14, 2007 6:50pm
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don't draw on the eraser because it's hard to get rid of any mistakes


I love being in a place where a statement like this makes sense.
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153270 by Jman
Nov 14, 2007 7:05pm
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Quote What are you guys\girls carving tips for makeing a really good stamp...


http://www.nettally.com/palmk/Rubber_Stamp_Carving_Tips.html
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153342 by sunnyside seeker
Nov 14, 2007 7:11pm
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don't draw on the eraser because it's hard to get rid of any mistakes

I love being in a place where a statement like this makes sense.


I had to chuckle at this. How true - that it's hard to erase mistakes on an ERASER! Who knew? Of course the original comment did come from Knit Wit!

Paula Ü
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153296 by knit wit
Nov 14, 2007 7:27pm
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I find an image I like, print it out, hand shade it with a pencil, turn the image over on the material, rub the back with a pencil to transfer, and carve away.


I use a very similar method as you, Knit Wit, though mine looks more like this:
I find an image I like, print it out, cover with wax paper, hand shade it with a pencil, turn the image over on the material, rub the back with a pencil to transfer, and carve away.

I found that the image transfered better when shaded on wax paper instead of regular paper.

I'm still looking for the idea methods when I the image has too much detail for tracing. I just discovered that we still have an "old monster" copier at work, so I am going to try the iron transfer method with that toner. The newer copier and my desktop printer don't work very well.

Happy Carving! :o)
HPL
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153270 by Jman
Nov 15, 2007 2:43am
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Quote What are you guys\girls carving tips for makeing a really good stamp

PS every time I think of a great idea i cant draw it on the eraser so i cant carv it -Jman


For carving a good stamp, I usually need a subject picture....lets me see how far the lines go...

"Oh, it gets kind of shallow, there, and slants up, then over...and it's an inch, there..."

Sometimes, I need several pictures, for a composite image.

I can occasionally make the picture through trial and error, or I may use a picture I see. Paper is cheap, so jotting on it is safer.

As far as what constitutes a "cool" picture, something that hasn't been done before is generally cool. If it relates to the area, that's also cool. If it's part of your interests, cool. If it's neat imagery or symbology, cool. Lots of things are cool.
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153397 by pika rampant sinister
Nov 15, 2007 8:39am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote Paper is cheap, so jotting on it is safer.


An image on a computer screen is cheaper yet, and easier to erase on. So while I use many different methods to derive an image to start with, they nearly always end up as a black-and-white compressed TIF image that I can open in MS Paint and fiddle with. By using the magnification feature, you can focus on one tiny area and change individual pixels from black to white and back to black until the image looks exactly the way you want it to look.

Once you get the hang of it, it works remarkably well. You don't even need to be all that good about figuring out what you want. You can just look at the image and think, "Well, it's good, but somehow it just doesn't look right" and then go in and start meddling in this particular area or that and see if you can make it look better. If you can't, just revert back to the image before you started meddling.

If there happens to be a distinctive building or rock outcropping or something like that, I can take a photo of it. I have a digital camera, but it can be done with a film camera -- it just costs more. When you get the pic developed, just scan it into the computer. You'll probably end up with a JPG file, but re-save the image as a full color BMP. Then open the picture in MS Paint, choose a color from the palette that doesn't appear in the photo, and manually draw the outline of the building or rocks or whatever right over the image. Takes a while for complicated images, but worthwhile. After all the outlining, I save the BMP, close Paint, and open the image in Irfanview. I reduce the color depth to 16 colors. Then I edit the palette of 16 colors, manually changing 15 of them to white and the one that I used to make all those outlines to black. Re-save as a black-and-white compressed TIF file. I may re-open the TIF file in Paint and fiddle with it, but usually it's not even necessary. Print, transfer, carve.

Note that what I print is an outline view. When carving, this shows where the cuts go -- not where the ink goes. I have to mentally keep in mind which areas of rubber get cut away and which remain. Doesn't have to be mental, I can just mark it, but usually it's pretty easy to do it mentally.
Re: SOO MAD
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #153597 by Mas
Nov 15, 2007 12:12pm
Thread (disabled) Board
how do you do this same transfer onto the orange stuff?


My best carve (imho) was a pencil transfer on orange stuff. It works as well as on any other carving block I have used. However I am hoping to try heat transfer over the next week. From what I have seen that gives better detail.