ERASER CARVING

 

Carving blocks now available. Size - 12cm x 6cm (0.5cm thick) - $8 each, 12cm x 12cm (0.5cm thick) - $15 each

Rubber carving (known as eraser carving in the United States) has been popular in the United States for many years. It is almost unheard of here in Australia, however people have used linoleum as a medium to carve on. The disadvantage with linoleum is that you cannot use your stamp pad to print the image. You would want to stamp your image on envelopes, letters, cards, etc. and using the stamp pad is an easy way to go.

The advantage of doing your own rubber carving is that you can do your own design, carve and stamp the image upon completion of the carving.

Equipment

To get started, all you need is:



Carving Techniques

You can either draw directly onto the rubber or draw on a piece of paper and transfer onto the rubber with the image facing down on the rubber and rub with your fingers. Please be aware that the image will be reversed on the rubber. You can use a photocopy of images such as designs or photographs. Turn the photocopy face down on the rubber and put a bit of nail polish remover on a cotton ball and rub it gently on the paper to transfer the image.

To Carve

With your speedball cutter, use one of the fine-tipped blades (I use #1 blade). You may prefer to use the X-Acto knife. Make sure your tools are sharp so you can get a clear image. You begin by cutting away areas that are not part of the image (i.e. the area you don't want to print). The larger blades are good for digging out large areas such as around the outside of the design.

Carve carefully by doing it like a valley-shaped cut.       

Do not undercut the print surface.       

It is necessary to have a good light source so you can see what you are doing. It may be necessary to use a magnifying glass.

When you have finished carving out the image, blow off the loose carved-off bits of the rubber. Ink the rubber on a stamp pad and print it on to paper. Take a look at the printed image and examine to see if you need to do some more carving. Remember, be careful where you carve as once it's carved out, you can't replace that section!

When you have finished, start stamping away to show off your image. And do another carving!! It's very therapeutic!

To see some rubber carving images, click here.


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