Hand Carved Stamps

I tried something new today and I'm verrry excited!!! HANDMADE RUBBER STAMPS!!! These will eventually find its way into the shop once i have ironed out all the kinks. They are to be used either as regular stamps or to create textures in polymer clay.

I didn't really follow the "formal" steps of drawing a design, tracing and transferring...but instead picked up my carving tool and cut right into rubber without a design or drawing in mind. I had a general idea but i left it up to the "canvas" to reveal itself...and here goes....

How totally fun!!!! And so I was addicted... so i made another....this time I drew a bit onto the rubber itself to see if that would make it easier...

I do like how it came out...i made the cuts a bit deeper so the impressions on the clay would look better. This last one I made was actually a "mistake"..its one of the first i cut into and just played around with. It was starting to look like scribbles on paper but I didn't want to waste the rubber sheet so, i kept carving into it until all the spaces were filled out...it still came out "acceptable" i think...

Can you tell there's a little "slip up" in the center of the flower? Hehe..technique definitely needs fine tuning. I was thinking of holding a giveaway at the shop and maybe giving these away as a prize? But would someone still want these 'experiments'????

Anyway, practice makes perfect...and tomorrow is a great day for practice!