It’s been 3 years since I started using stamps for printmaking, and over the years I’ve come to love them for their versatility. I led a workshop this weekend at Peregrine Press in Portland, Maine to share some of the techniques and applications of the hand carved stamp that I have picked up over the years. To me, to carve a stamp is not only to reproduce a drawing but it also to create a drawing tool. They can be used very organically to build up marks on a surface, especially when using multiple colors of ink and ghosting techniques in combination with one and other. They can be used as instigators for collaboration, whether through printing a collection of multiple artist’s stamps on a sheet of paper at the same time or through inviting someone else to print a stamp that was not carved by them. I prefer to use them as tools for building up marks or for printing a larger image area through printing a collection of stamps that work well together on the same page. In my workshop, I created exercises that encouraged participants to discover the possibilities that stamp based printmaking allows for, and the result was quite fun! Lots of stamping on top of others work and talks of the liberating idea of using stamps in accompaniment with other printing processes to build larger images. Here are the exercises I included in my workshop:
Exercises:
create a stamp that you want to use as a repeatable pattern
create a stamp that is a component of a landscape
Tree, plant, rock, grass, etc
Once we have all created our own components, we will work collaboratively to build up a landscape together using stamps.
Create a texture that can be used to build up a large area of marks
Lines, waves, crosshatching, stipling, etc. Digging into your stamp mindlessly and then printing the result can even produce interesting textures and visuals once stamped multiple times.
Stamps can be drawing tools as much as they can be a way to reproduce an image.
Using this texture, build up layers of colors
Create a small seal for use in signing prints
Remember, this is relief printmaking, so any words or letters will have to be carved backwards.
Optional: create a few separate carvings that will work together in some way. I.e. a flower vase and multiple kinds of flowers, a couple of birds to create a diversified flock, etc.
Surface Experimentation
Try printing your stamp on paper, gessoed wood, and rocks!
Fun fact, every single monoprint I have uploaded on this website uses some kind of stamping. Take a look at the gallery here: https://www.jamesylvester.com/monoprints
