Still Stamping!

So I now have the Stamp-making bug!

Having made myself a butterfly stamp, from a lovely soft "lino" disc, I have been playing with more designs.

 

Here's my design for a little house -something traditional in style, like a lot of the houses I see in Bedforshire all the time.

I started to carve it like this.

and this is what it looked like at first.

Then I carved away the edges, to make the house stand out on its own.

My finished House! A nice clear little stamp. I like it.

I also designed a little cottage stamp. It will be lovely for "New Home" cards.

This is the first test print I made. Very flat. Rather uninspiring really.

Carved out the "garden". It looks like a snow-scene. Hmm...

So I carved away at the sky too.

This print was made with the stamp fixed to an acrylic block. I patted on the inkpad and stamped it onto the paper.

This print was made by putting the paper over the print block, using the ink left over from the previous print. I then pressed it down with my fingertips, in a circular motion. (apologies for something showing through from the back - the test paper is rather thin). 

The pressed image is rather soft, as I used "left-over" ink that was on the stamp from the previous print. Still, I do like it. I will try a few more, with some coloured inks and coloured papers, to see if I prefer to "stamp" it or "press" it. I do like the textured effects you can achieve with lino-cut printing. It's one of the qualities of hand-printed images that I have always loved. I had such fun making this little stamp.

I decided to try a slightly more complex design. Some beach huts.

I transferred the image to the lino plate.

I carved some of the lines out, and some of the "spaces in between". This time I wanted to see what it would be like to have a plate/stamp that was flat, with the image entirely made from the cut-away pieces (rather than some of it in relief).

I'm pretty pleased with the result of this test print, though I need to work on the printing itself.

I also need to put in more work on the line thickness etc.  As Louise pointed out yesterday, you can achieve thinner and thicker lines, by varying the pressure of your cutting blades.  I haven't got that lightness of touch yet and my lines are all much the same thickness.  While I wanted this effect for the beach huts, I would have liked to achieve finer lines for the sand dunes, sand ripples and seagulls.

Time to make more stamps - practice makes perfect!