Courtesy image
ART News:
A great way to individualize printed materials is by adding a personal stamp. Learn to carve rubber stamps out of erasers from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Fuller Lodge Art Center.
Else Tennessen will teach the carving techniques and students will carve one or two stamps using their own designs or clipart. Call 505.662.1635 by Friday to register.
Tennessen got inspired to make her own rubber stamps around 1995 after coming across an article explaining how to do it. She had been using commercial rubber stamps to decorate mail and cards for family and friends. She would sometimes use stamps in the background of watercolor paintings or as a motif in a multimedia project, and she couldn’t always find the design she wanted.
After reading the article, Tennessen realized how easily she could carve own designs and she was off and running. She has carved hundreds of designs and is eager to share the technique with others.
Alec Finlay rubber stamp letterbox poem: ‘There is a fork in every path’. Courtesy/wikipedia
Another reason for carving personal stamps is Letterboxing. This is similar to geocaching but without the need for GPS. There are about 90,000 active letterboxes hidden in North America alone. The website www.letterboxing.org lists letterboxes by state, and has 11 listed in Los Alamos and White Rock.
Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible places and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes contain a notebook and a rubber stamp, preferably hand carved or custom made.
Letterboxing clues may include puzzles, which must be solved, compass coordinates, directions and number of paces to take from designated spots. Once the letterbox is found, the hunter stamps their personal log with a stamp found in the letterbox, and prints their personal stamp in the log inside the letterbox container. The stamp is an essential part of the activity.
Saturday Tennessen will teach students the tricks of carving rubber erasers into personal stamps. Participants will get four erasers and the carving tool with three different tips, as well as instructions and designs to take home.
Many of Tennessen’s designs can be viewed on Flikr at https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDLG6r5. For more information about the class visit the Fuller Lodge Art Center website at fullerlodgeartcenter.com or call 505.662.1635.