Drawing and Writing My Way Home.

At home in my notebook.

It's been a while.

The creative impulse, which had felt stifled and sad for many months, seems to be flowing freely once again.

And finally I don't ask what the point is.

It brings me back to my authentic self, my truth, my heart's desire.

And that's good enough for me.

Mounting Stamps

A friend asked me to carve a stamp of a petunia, and it seemed like a great excuse to try something I've been wanting to do for a long time: mount one of my handmade stamps on a block of wood.

I purchased a wooden block from a craft store for about $2 and used this as the template for the stamp.  After the carving was complete, I used a brayer to apply acrylic paint to it and stamped the image on the top of the block.

I suppose I could have waited until after I'd cut the block to stamp it, but was impressed to find that the paint held up so well through the sawing and sanding.

I took the advice of this tutorial I found on a site about letterboxing (something I'd love to try!), and scored the back of the stamp, then used Goop Glue to adhere it to the block.

After everything was dry, I pulled out my watercolors to add some pigment.  I love that the color is a bit transparent and the grain of the wood is still visible.  The final step was coating the entire block with a clear finish.

Hopefully it holds up well.

Have I mentioned that I've been playing with my stamps in Illustrator?  It's a lot of fun!