Hello. I am carving a stamp right now of a lady with very big tight curly hair and I just can not seem to get it to look right. Has anyone tred carving this type of hair and if so could you give me some tips on how to make it look right? Thanks so much!

Like this type of hair? If so, I can give you a lot of help because I've carved this image.

If not, then please give more detail. Is it "white" (non-inked) or "black" (inked) hair? Different techniques apply. For instance, if it is "white" hair I use a blade and carve around the hair. If it is "black" hair then I use a gouge with the smallest "V" that I have. Please give us more detail.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d1/b6/ce/d1b6ce8222a77b50feb3e3fab7993d37--curl-types-curly-wurly.jpg
This is the type of hair that I am trying to carve.

Ambitious image!!

I would use my lighted magnifier, Staedtler reversed 1V gouge, deep breaths for patience, and begin to carve out the white areas around and within the black hairs, leaving the black as much as possible.

(Edited after reading Oberon_Kenobi's post): I do all my carvings using the reversed 1v and can get the level of detail you are seeking by doing so. As O_K said, make the image a size you feel comfortable carving - I would leave it the size you showed or make it 15% bigger somewhere in that range. When I carve, I hold the material in my left hand and carve with my right, allowing me to vary angle and pressure to get the blade exactly where I want it on the medium. I tend to carve the outer most areas of images then move my way into the center, this reduces risk of smearing or losing very fine details within the image (my transfer method is acetone on laser printed images which gives very crisp transfers but can smear just slightly with pressure). I will let the gouge dig into the material a bit, but I pull up slowly when ending cuts while heading toward a "v" in hair or something similar to give a fairly thin line going into that "v". Other times I will start from within the "v" very shallowly and do two passes, one for each side of the "v" but again very shallowly. When I am going toward the tips of single hairs or thin clumps of hairs, I make two passes heading toward the tip, going deep along one side, then the same along the other, making the tip a crisp point. For any area that has gray (not quite white, not quite black) I would do very thin and shallow gouge passes to give this a little feathered texture but not completely remove all the "gray" (since it is not quite white or black and can add "shadowing" if some is left).

A very neat image to work on, but would take me some time, definitely.
Good luck!

This is the type of hair that I am trying to carve.

Wow! That is a LOT of detail.

I haven't done anything nearly that detailed. You'll need some advice from someone who has.

However, I'll try, using what experience I do have.

Do your carving at that size or even larger. Take your time; it will take a long time too. Carve the narrow white lines with a gouge, but to start/end use a blade. If you want more precision (but more time) then use a blade for everything.

And for those thin (black) lines, get a small tool to hold the rubber still from the side opposite from where you're carving.

Good luck!

I'm pretty sure that if I tried that, I wouldn't even plan on it coming out looking like the original image. Rather, I'd just dive in with a miniaturized 1V and nip little slivers out wherever there's a light area among the hairdo without trying to fully clear out each one. Hence, I'd expect the hairdo to come out considerably darker than the original image, more black involved with tinier slivers of white accentuating the curls. I think it'd look great, it just wouldn't look like the original image.

That's pretty detailed. I haven't done that much detail but almost. When I'm attempting something like that I follow the advise above - magnifier, lamp, small tool. For me it helps to not think about the image as a whole, just slowly and patiently removing anything that's not the transfer.

Magnifier, tiny gouge, time and patience.

I tend to be a bit more impressionistic in my carvings, and would do enough to give the IDEA of the very curly hair, as opposed to attempting major detail work on it. (but then, my carving is more like painting, to me, and each person's carving is very unique)

Other than that, settle in with some wine, youtube for entertainment, your magnifying lamp and get to work!

Yeah I think I will have to go with that approach. I think this will be too hard to figure out.

Thanks everyone for the help.

My Edward scissorhands carve is similar. Not quite as curly, but close. It took me 9 hours to carve. Just go really slow, and i highly recommend using OZ cut instead of pink stuff to hold all those lines. If yiundo, you'll need a Staedtler miniaturized and regular Staedlter 1v, to be able to carve it. Carve extremely shallowly. Also I'm assuming you have a good image transfer technique, and not pencil.

Otherwise, pink stuff and the smallest gouge you can get. And I second the lighted magnifier. I use an OTT light with magnifiet. See if Knotty knitter dirtmonkey can make you a modified tip for a Speedball gouge.

and be sure to take breaks and don't carve when you're tired. Nothing worse than blowing a critical line due to loss of focus.

My most ambitious carves have been multi-night affairs.

If you are on FB, my name is Edlynn Trinity Bindler if your can't see this image, send me a friend request:

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20106454_674897096027224_302986814734875580_n.jpg?oh=ad0196582ff558851969804156eae985&oe=5A31D3FE

I used a miniturized Staedtler #1 gouge to carve all the hair.

Lynn

Nice!

That is awesome. Where do you get a miniturized #1 gouge?

You will need a 1v then contact Kirbert.

WELL WORTH IT!!

I am mostly an Xacto user but when called for, out come the gouges and rarely do I use the 1V anymoere and instead opt for the miniaturized 1V. Both, however, were modified by Kirbert with a reverse nib. The reverse is when the top of the V trails the bottom, allowing one to see where they are carving (that's what I believe is the reason).

Lynn